3. Respect

GIANNA

~•~

His day off finally made sense. When he came back yesterday, all did was wash up and go straight to work without even having breakfast. He couldn’t even look me in the eye.

He felt guilty and was trying to make it up to me by spending the day with me, as if that would solve anything.

I should have expected this. Brandon and Bailey had always been close and he was pressured into marrying me. Why did I think he would be loyal to me? I tried to be the best wife anyone could have, but… fuck.

I didn’t want to cry. I knew he was going to come in soon and I didn’t want him to see me crying. He was an asshole. He always told me not to worry about Bailey but he didn’t just fuck her once.

As expected, the door to our room opened and he walked towards me. “They’re gone.”

I laughed bitterly. “Is their absence supposed to change the fact that you left my party, making me cover up for you, only to go and spend the night at your supposed best friend’s house? And your sister, who absolutely hates my guts, knows about it, but I don’t?”

“I didn’t tell my sister. I didn’t even think she knew.”

“How does that make anything better, Brandon?” Tears gathered in my eyes. “Even if you don’t love me, I expect you to have the littlest bit of respect for me as your wife! Do you know how fucking embarrassing it is for you to sleep with her and have her rub it in my face?”

In my matrimonial home at that. Bailey knew exactly what she was doing when she blurted it out. She did it to hurt me and it worked. Brandon allowed that. He couldn’t even have his affair in private.

“I was going to tell you about it, but she beat me to it. I’m sorry. I had no intention of embarrassing you.” I despised how calm he was about the whole thing. It made me feel like he didn’t think it was a big deal for him to cheat on me. He was apologizing for everything but that. It made my chest hurt.

“Oh, but you are not sorry for sleeping with her?”

His eyes went wide at my words. “Of course, I am. I didn’t do it on purpose, G.”

“How do you have sex with someone unintentionally?” Men came up with a different excuse every day.

“Gianna…” he reached forward to hold my hands but I slapped it away. “I promised you honesty and loyalty during our vows. I wouldn’t go against that on purpose. Just hear me out, please.”

I stared at him warily. I was weak for him and he knew that. I didn’t want him to use that to manipulate me into thinking he didn’t do anything wrong. However, it would be wrong to conclude without hearing what he had to say. I looked away from him. His eyes were shining with sincerity and I didn’t want that to draw me in. “Go on.”

“When I got a call from Bailey that night, she sounded sad and broken. She made a comment about how tired she was of living and that alarmed me.” I held back a scoff. We all knew how dramatic Bailey was. I didn’t know why he still took her words seriously. “When I got there, she was drinking. I took a few glasses and blacked out. When I woke up, we were both naked on the bed. I didn’t plan to sleep with her, G. It just happened and I hate myself for it.”

I folded my arms across my chest. It was quite embarrassing but if what he was saying was true, I was glad he didn’t have sex with her while he was sober, but then again, “Bernice said it’s not the first time.”

He inhaled deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. “That was before we got married when we were still in college. It’s the same situation. We blacked out and found ourselves naked.”

My mouth fell open. That was even worse. I shook my head and stood up from the bed, walking away from him and pacing around the room. I was so stupid. The attraction was clearly there if they had slept with each other twice. “Why didn’t you just marry her? Why did you marry me when you’re so clearly attracted to each other? Was it to make a fool of me?”

“What? No, of course not. I don’t like her.”

“But you like fucking her? Make it make sense.” I wiped away angry tears that were threatening to fall. This was so messed up. Was this explanation supposed to salvage our marriage? Despite how much I liked him, I still had a pride to protect. I couldn’t be in a marriage where my husband was secretly in love with his best friend.

He shook his head. “I don’t like fucking her. It just happened. I have no memories of them either. I promise, Gianna. I’m not trying to toy with you. Agreeing to our wedding meant agreeing to make you my wife and I’ll always treat my wife with respect.” As though it was a manipulation tactic, he tried to hold me again.

“Don’t fucking touch me, Brandon.” I spat out. “I promise this. I promise that. You keep making promises you can’t keep. You promised she wasn’t a threat to our marriage yet here we are.”

“Gianna–“

I didn’t let him explain. “What I’m hearing right now is that you two can’t be trusted around alcohol. Whenever you’re both drunk, your clothes come off? Is that what is going to happen every time you drink together?”

“I don’t know how I can get you to forgive me, but I’m sorry. I’m never going to touch alcohol around her anymore if that’s what it takes. It’s never going to happen again, I swear on my life.”

I glared at him.

“You’re my wife, Gianna.” He added. “You’re the only one I want. Not Bailey. Not anyone else.”

Hesitantly, he reached out to hold my hand again. When I allowed him, he pulled me forward and wrapped his hands around me.

“I’m sorry, babe. I’ll prove myself to you and spend the rest of my life making it up to you.” He pulled back slightly and leaned in to kiss me, reassuring me that he would never cheat on me again.

Maybe I was stupid. Maybe I was weak, but I thought it was better to end it there than to escalate it and separate. At least, I thought that was where it was going to end.