Chapter 3
When Michael got back from Marcie's, he went straight to John's. He'd seen John's car, but not Evangeline's. He wanted to know how things had gone. If Evangeline was there, he wouldn't even go in, but he needed to know something and he wasn't waiting until morning.
"Hey John, open up," Michael said after he'd knocked more than once and gotten no answer.
John opened the door and stepped back to allow Michael to pass without saying a word.
"Well, what happened?"
"Nothing."
"What do you mean nothing? You promised me you were going to fix this."
"Michael, don't you think that I want to fix it? Evangeline listened then she left."
"What do you mean she left?"
"She has to decide if she can live with the fact that I'm not always open."
"Oh. Are you just going to leave it like that?"
"No, but I'm giving her time. I need her to trust me and I need it to be her decision. I don't want her regretting anything."
"Well, you better do something, because whether you admit it or not, you do love her. I know you do."
"Michael, you know how I feel about having these kinds of conversations."
"Yes, I do and I also know that you need to get over it; at least with the people that are closest to you."
"Thanks, Michael. I'll keep that in mind."
Evangeline had been working with Jeff Braden, Cristian's attorney, to develop the new evidence to hopefully get him released from jail; and she was working from home on his case. As soon as she pulled the file open, she thought back to the night before and John. She'd listened to him and, oddly enough, she understood where he was coming from.
Now that she'd actually listened to John, she understood where Antonio had been coming from when he'd come to her a week prior. He was her client and her friend, but she hadn't wanted to listen to him defend John.
"Evangeline, give John a chance."
"Antonio, I can't believe that you of all people are coming to me on John's behalf."
"That's why you should listen to me. I know I'm a hot head and I'm quick to jump to conclusions, but when I calm down I try to take a step back. That's what you need to do. I've talked to Cristian and I can see that he really pressured John to keep his secret. You know John better than anyone and you know if he made a promise he was going to keep it."
"Antonio, don't defend him to me. I don't want to hear it."
"You know you are the one to always calm me down and make me see reason when I'm going off the deep end. Well, I consider it my job to do the same for you."
"Antonio, thanks for caring, but I can't deal with this right now."
Evangeline appreciated that John wanted to protect her from having to keep a promise she hadn't made, but he should have told her; not just for her sake, but for his. John still didn't understand that he could lean on someone else for support; that he didn't have to be the strong one all the time. Could she live with that? Rather the question should be, did she love him enough to accept that part of him? Yeah, she did, but she wasn't ready to let him off the hook yet.
John had taken the day off, after having a heated discussion with Bo about Cris. John was tired of paying for not telling anyone about Cris; first Antonio, Evangeline, Natalie and now Bo. Natalie had given him a piece of her mind the previous week and John could really care less. Bo had come at him because his niece was upset. John was tired of people telling him to be careful of Natalie. It wasn't his fault that her husband had lied to her, nor was it his responsibility to take care of her. John had much bigger fish to fry. He had to get Evangeline back.
