Episode 1071: For Her

Ava hadn’t exactly been broken up about him leaving. If anything she’d seemed eager for it. Maybe she hadn’t been that overt about it though and he’d just read into it, read into his own eagerness to go. He hated that. He hated that neither of them wanted to be around the other.

She was still his favorite person in the world, he couldn’t imagine that ever changing. It was just that the tension was so unbelievably thick between them.

Well, it wasn’t that unbelievable. It wasn’t like this was the first time she had doubts about being with him.

Trust had been an issue for a really long time. His actions had made it an issue. But not this time. This he hadn’t done and he couldn’t seem to convince her of that. His mother, the actual one to blame wasn’t helping the matter either, suggesting they solve the problem with another scheme.

It was no wonder that Ava didn’t believe a word out of his mouth. His family was steeped in this behavior. He wasn’t entirely innocent but he was innocent of this charge. He had been scheming, he had been pretending to be cool with Xavier, to be fine with the guy hanging around because it meant Xavier would see him with Ava, he’d have their relationship rubbed in his nose and maybe that would be enough for him to take a hike.

So maybe this was karma. He hadn’t participated in his mother’s scheme but he’d run a scheme of his own. He hadn’t had any more faith in Ava than she had in him right now. If he’d just trusted that their marriage meant as much to his wife as it did to him, that she wouldn’t just throw it away because her ex came back to town. If he’d just trusted Avalon, she’d trust him now, their relationship would still be solid.

So yeah, while his mother’s meddling was mostly to blame, he guessed he was kind of at fault, too. He had to find a way to fix things, to earn back his wife.

He walked into the garage not exactly brimming with confidence that this was the right move given that everything in his lineage told him that lying, cheating, and manipulating was almost always the solution. But maybe there was another way to be.

“Something wrong with your car?” his brother-in-law Quentin asked, clearly surprised to see him. It had been awhile.

“Is Xavier working today? I need to talk to him about something.”

Quentin frowned. “I know he has history with your wife and it can’t be fun having her ex around. But whatever you’re here to do, think twice about it. Getting into a fight with him, that’s not going to help your marriage any more than plotting against him or paying him off did. I’m saying this as a kindness Sebastian. Do yourself a favor and don’t make a bad situation worse.”

Episode 1072: It's Nice To Have A Friend