Dinner Disasters: Gideon and Lyra

Chapter 6 (Lyra): Take The Lessons

Gideon sounded sincere, but it was hard to get past the fact that he'd tossed me under the bus to make someone lose a bet. Even if that someone was an asshole, it still didn't make what Gideon had done right. It still didn't take away the stinging hurt.

But those eyes of his were imploring me to not throw all of our years together away -- even if he had made such a stupid mistake. He'd made a heartfelt plea to me and he'd said he was basically willing to do whatever it took to make us right again. To give him a chance. To let him show me he'd always have my back going forward.

I loved him. I did. There was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Even after peeling back the layers of hurt and betrayal I felt, there was pure love at the center.

I thought of all the ways he'd shown me his love over the years, the ways both large and small that he'd shown me he'd cared. Maybe that's why his actions had been doubly hard for me to understand. In all of our years together, he'd never let another woman touch him the way he'd let Carine touch him that night. He'd never flirted with another woman or let her think she even stood a chance. He'd made it clear I was his girl and introduced me proudly as his girlfriend and future wife.

His mother had always cautioned him against marrying young, and when she'd overheard him say "future wife" about me one time at our joint college graduation party, she'd jumped all over him.

"I hope that's a future many years from now," she'd said. "Because you're way too young to be considering a serious step like that at this point in your lives."

"Mom, I love you. You know how much I love you," he'd said, putting his arm around my waist. "But if I could get Lyra to marry me tomorrow, I'd marry her in a heartbeat and you'd have two choices: either accept it and support our decision or expect a card at Christmas until you could be fully supportive."

I'd been shocked at Gideon standing up to his mother. She'd raised him as a single mother -- his father was pretty much out of the picture except for an occasional phone call -- and Gideon had the utmost respect for her...unless she tried to come between us or try to impose her will on our relationship. Then he let her know in no uncertain terms that I was his line in the sand she better respect and never cross.

Her face had registered her shock. "Well, of course it's up to you, but --"

"But nothing, Mom. We'll make our own decisions about when we're ready to get married. Lyra isn't in any hurry, so it's not going to be anytime soon. But the minute she gives me the green light, I'm going to be there on my knee with a ring."

She'd pursed her lips but had nodded. "As long as I get to pick the mother-son song that we dance to, I'll be fine with it."

Which was her way of assuring her son that she'd back off. Surprisingly, she'd never been anything but loving and kind to me, despite worrying that I might give her son the green light at any given moment.

So to hear a man who had stood up to his mother saying terrible things about me...it was wrong and it was hurtful but it wasn't Gideon. It wasn't who he'd shown himself to be all of those years. I should have questioned him about it. The reason he'd done it had been lame and inexcusable, but I didn't think it made him unforgiveable.

Just as I was about to open my mouth, the doorbell rang. A look of irritation crossed his face like I'd never seen before.

"Hold that thought, Lyra. I'll get rid of whoever this is so we can finish talking."

Gideon walked to the door and opened it and then went rigid.

"Finally! What the hell, Gid? You aren't answering anyone's calls or texts since the dinner party? What's your problem? Did you seriously block all of us?"

Carine.

"Not sure why that's a surprise," he said. "Told you after Lyra left that night I was done with all of you. There's not too many ways to interpret Go the fuck away. Lyra and I don't exist for you anymore."

"You can't be serious, Gid. You're just going to let years of friendship end because your former girlfriend is insecure and clingy?"

Oh, well, this was getting interesting. She clearly had no idea I was here because both of our cars were in the garage.

"She's neither insecure nor clingy, so just fuck off, Carine." 

He tried to slam the door in her face but that bold troll-bitch popped up her hand and stopped it from closing.

"She's not coming back, Gid. I meant what I said. Maybe it's our time now. I have so much more to offer that she did."

"Like lopsided implants?" I asked sweetly, coming up beside Gideon as he slid an arm around my waist. "Cheap extensions? And being a two-faced bitch?"

Her face couldn't have been more surprised or unhappy to see me.

"Take your hand off the door, Carine, or it's going to hurt when I slam it this time," Gideon said before Carine could respond to my sudden appearance. "Don't show up here again. And lose our numbers."

"You're just a habit for him, Lyra," she snapped at me. "Otherwise, Gid and I --"

"It's a real cliche to say this," Gideon cut her off, his voice implying he was not only done but very done, "but believe me when I tell you that even if you were the last woman on earth, and the whole future of the human race depended on us getting together, you and I still wouldn't be happening, Carine. Take off," he warned her, right before he slammed the door in her face.

"Well, that was fun," I said. "Has she been stopping by often while I've been away?"

"Not once," Gideon said without hesitation. "Otherwise, she wouldn't have shown up tonight because I would have set her straight the minute she showed up the first time."

I thought about that for a minute, thought about his recent behavior with our former friends and the way he'd been all the years we were together.

"You've got some rebuilding to do, Gideon. I can understand why you felt goaded, but I didn't like that you were weak enough to be goaded. Before that night, you'd always shown me strength, and I need assurance that will never happen again. I need a strong man, not a middle-schooler in a man's body."

"I'll tell you that I'll never let you down again, but that's not enough so I'll also prove it to you, Lyra. That's going to take time, but you'll see you can trust me to have your back."

"I hope so, Gideon. And to give us that time, I'm going to stay at mom and dad's for the next month and a half until they get back from Florida."

"Lyra, no --"

"Just until they get back," I interrupted him, "as long as everything goes well between us. We can go out, talk, maybe make some new friends since our old ones are now in short supply."

"I don't like you living at your parents' house."

"Just for six weeks. What do you think about the new friends bit?"

"Definitely needed," he said. "But about you living at your parents' --"

"Gideon," I said, rolling my eyes at him. "It's for a limited time. We can talk about things, process this bump in our road some more, let it settle and take the lessons from it. Then I'll be back and we can move forward and put this behind us once and for all."

"And then we can talk about rings," he said with that stubborn glint in his eye.

I shook my head. This man.

"That will depend on me and when I'm ready to give you the green light."

"Of course," he said. "It's always been up to you."

"But?" I asked.

"But in the meantime, while I'm doing my damnedest to prove you can trust me again, I'll be shopping for a ring so I'm ready for that green light."