When I See You Again

XXXIII. Believing

"You heard me," Lindsey rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah and I think I misheard," she slipped out of bed to meet his level. He was pacing and turning. She thought his head was going to fall off if he didn't calm down.

He turned quickly to look at her.

"Lindsey, I didn't sleep with Mick---" she shook her head as she crossed her arms.

"Why are you lying?" he asked her. "Mick told me."

"Are you calling me a liar?" she asked. She was more offended by the fact that he was accusing her right of the bat. She knew she didn't sleep with him and she was being honest. She didn't know what Mick could have told him for insinuating such a thing.

He looked at her and saw the expression on her face. He sighed. "I don't know, Stevie---I don't know what I'm doing, right now---" he gestured his hands violently.

"What happened to your hand?" Stevie asked as his arm was landing at his side. His knuckle was thrashed and bleeding. There was slight bruising on part of it.

"I beat the fuck out of Mick," he stated bluntly as he fell to the foot of the bed.

Stevie rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe her husband would stoop that low. "Did he freak out and call the police?" she asked as she went to the bathroom to the pull the first aid from under the sink.

"He called them---I dunno if he really did," he shrugged. "I left before I could find out."

She re-entered---holding the plastic box in her hand. Opening it, she pulled an alcohol wipe, Neosporin, guaze and tape.

As Stevie cleaned his hand off of the blood and stung him several times, he yelled out of pain and shifted a few times. It was painful. After the terror was over for him, she lathered the Neosporin all over the cuts and binded it for him.

Soon after, he pulled his hand away and flexed his hand; shutting it and opening it---wiggling his fingers. He let out a sigh when she re-entered. "Did you sleep with him?" he asked her, calmly. More in his own mind, could he talk to her calmly.

"No---I didn't," she assured. She was standing, arms crossed as she watched him. He was sitting at the foot of the bed, facing the bedroom door.

"I love you and I can't deny that---but how do I know you aren't lying?" he said quietly as he looked down at the floor. This wouldn't be the first time either of them cheated, so he was speaking from experience. He hated accusing, asking even but he had to.

"Because, I'm not," she stated.

"Yeah and how do I know that?" he stood and flinged his arms out. The answers she was giving him were too blunt for him to believe. "He said you were there with him last night," he explained.

"I wasn--" she stopped and thought about it. She knew she was over there---but they definitely didn't have sex. They almost did, but Stevie snapped herself back into her senses before she did something regretful. The kiss was enough for her to feel remorse. "I was over there..." she mumbled.

"Oh no, Stevie, you couldn't have possibly been over there..." he stated sarcastically. "You were with Sharon and Lori. Don't you remember? That's what you told me on the phone and you said Karen went with you..." He was really yelling---he was so angry with her.

"I did go to Sharon and Lori's---" she told him. "Then I came home... but before that, I seen Mick."

"That's all I needed to know---you were over there, not home where you needed to be."

"I would have never gone there for that," she argued. "Stop telling me what I did because you don't know what happened."

"How do I know you're not gonna bullshit? How do I know---if I call Sharon or Lori, that they won't cover for you?"