13

Lexi's POV:

I walk into my apartment after being gone for several hours, expecting to find my girlfriend waiting on me since we planned to go to lunch.

To my surprise, she is no where to be found. "Mia?" I call out. Still no answer.

I check her location on her phone and see that she's at her father's house, so I call her.

"Hello?"

"Hey, you at your dad's?" I question, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, I came by to say hello. You make it home from Evan's?" She asks, her voice not as peppy as usual.

I pause, "I did... are you okay? You sound off."

She sighs, "I'm fine, Lexi. I'll be home in a few hours. Dad and I are going to grab lunch." She explains.

"Oh, alright. I guess we'll take a rain check on our lunch then." I groan, hungry and slightly annoyed.

"Mmhm. I love you." She says.

I end the call and sigh, now thinking about ordering take-out or something. I can't stand when people don't follow through with plans. That's one of my biggest pet peeves.

In the midst of my food-search, I get a text from Evan. I open it and see a picture of coffee flavored ice-cream and all three smiling kids behind it.

"You're missing out."

I smile slightly at the message. I should've gone.

"I believe it." I reply.

That message is followed up by another photo, this one I'm quite positive wasn't meant for my eyes.

The same ice cream cone, but held strategically in front of her v-neck shirt with cleavage on display.

"Soon, I'll call you next week."

Seconds later, I'm hit with another message.

"Oh my god, that was NOT for you. Disregard please."

I snicker at the message and her mistake. "Meant for Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome?"

She responds with an eye-roll emoji, "shut up, Lex. Delete it!"

"Yes ma'am."

"Stop!" Evan responds, hating it when I call her ma'am.

I giggle at the message and leave her with no reply.

* * *

Evan's POV:

"Mama?" Grace mutters, licking her ice cream before it drips.

"Yes?"

She glances at me, "do we have to go back to daddy's? I don't want to go. I just want to stay with you."

Hearing my kids constantly express their dread and sadness about going back to their father's house makes me feel all sorts of emotions. Sometimes I feel guilty for ever divorcing Scott, sometimes I feel angry for him being such a self-centered asshole, and sometimes I feel helpless because I know there is only so much I can do.

"Baby..." I sigh, looking at my daughter intently. "I know you don't want to go back tomorrow, but you have to so that you can go to school. I live too far away to get you to your school on time, so daddy has to take you." I explain.

She frowns, "but why can't you move closer? Or why can't go to a different school?"

Because your father is a jackass who purposely enrolled you in an expensive private school so that I couldn't afford it. "Maybe we can fix that soon, kiddo. Me and your daddy have to talk and work things out, but I'm going to do everything I can to see you more, okay?" I get a slow nod and I kiss her head, "I love you, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know mom." Her answer makes me grin.

"I love all three of you... more than you'll ever be able to understand." I smile, looking around at my three not-so-little babies.

I solicit three smiles from the youngsters and we finish up our ice cream and head home for the day.

My meeting with Richard was informative, to say the least. I vaguely explained that Scott is the type of man to try and use something that may not be morally correct from my past to sway a judge his way, but I also made sure to explain that I never did anything that was illegal.

Of course, he pressed for more information and I had to provide it since he is my attorney. I told him I slept with someone who was eighteen, and they just so happened to be a student at the school I was teaching at. Richard didn't seem too thrown by the admittance, so I'm hopeful he'll be able to wiggle around it.

The most concerning part for me is the 'what if.' What if he gets them? What if I really won't ever have my kids back?

I was warned that this whole ordeal would be taxing, mentally and physically, by multiple people. I'm just worried that having to go through this alone is going to take a bigger toll on me that I realized.

My divorce was hard, but I had my kids through the first part of that. Having my kids taken away from me was awful, I barely got through that. I don't know how much more I can bare by myself.

* * *

Lexi's POV:

"Hey, wake up. I'm home." A soft voice pulls me out of my nap.

My eyes flutter and I see Mia sitting beside my on the bed, face blank. "Oh, hi."

She gives a half-hearted smile. "Wanna go get a coffee or something?" She asks.

If there is anything I know about Mia, it is when she wants to "talk." Every time she wants to talk about something she takes me to get coffee, or a bakery, or something.

"I- I guess? What's up?" I groan, sitting up and shoving my hair around.

She shakes her head, "nothing. Just craving it."

I nod slowly, "I'll get my shoes."

The drive to the shop is quiet, almost tense. I have no idea what is about to be unloaded on me, and that part petrifies me.

I order both our drinks and pay while Mia finds a table. From a distance I watch her mind turn, thinking hard about something.

"For you..." I say, slouching into the chair across from Mia. "Now what's on your mind?"

"Lexi.." she starts off. Great. Anytime a sentence starts with my name it isn't a good thing. "I- are we okay?"

I furrow my brows. "What do you mean? Of course we are, Mia. Why wouldn't we-"

"I just- things have felt really off since you got this job and started hanging around Evan again." She shrugs.

I get a bit annoyed with her statement, "you say that like it's Evan's fault. Mia, you didn't even know I knew her until recently. Don't try and-"

"Look me in the face and tell me there is nothing romantic going on with you two." She growls, clearly having some underlying anger about the topic.

I pause and lick my lips, "there is no current romantic relationship between Evan and I, Mia. I wouldn't cheat on you and you know that. How could you even suggest that?!" I snap, angry with her assumptions.

"Because most people I know wouldn't drop nearly four grand on an attorney for someone who they aren't romantically involved with." She blurts.

Woah. How the hell did she find out about that?

My face drops instantly and a long silence comes between us. "Your dad told you?" I ask, my voice calm.

She shakes her head, "I found it in his mail and I opened it. Why the hell are you paying for her attorney fees, Lexi? You swear you aren't sleeping with her?" She asks me again.

I laugh, "no. I am not sleeping with her. I haven't slept with her in years, Mia." I reiterate.

She bites her lip, staring at me. "Where did you even get that money?"

I sip my drink and avoid eye contact. "That doesn't matter. I'm helping out a friend."

"Bullshit, Alexis. You're helping out the woman you used to fuck with money that I didn't know existed. We struggle to make rent sometimes and you can drop thousands on a bitch you just reconnected with?!" She hisses, getting more angry as she speaks.

"Why are you being like this?! You're never this insecure about our relationship, Mia! The money is from a savings account that my dead dad left me. There, is that what you wanted to hear?" My voice raises and catches the attention of more than a few people in the shop.

Mia looks at me and swallows hard, feeling a bit bad. I've never gone into details about my father with her, mainly because I don't like to talk about it. All it does is make it worse.

"Funny how you hate Evan so much now when you were trying to have a threesome with her just the other week." I snarl. Mia glances at me. She knows there is nothing she can say back to that. It's true. She crossed the only line I ask her not to cross in our relationship. "I do what you want, Mia. I do your stupid threesome fantasy bullshit because it makes you happy, but you can't respect the one boundary I set?"

"I'm sorry." She whispers.

I shake my head slowly, "you made me take you here so you could accuse me of sleeping with Evan. I got that part... is there anything else?" I ask, wishing she would try another angle. I am not in the mood for it.

"I- no. Lexi, I'm-"

"I'm done talking. I'll see you later." I hiss, tossing my keys across the table so that she has a way home.

I walk out of the shop by myself and my head begins to spin. I'm not even having a relationship that goes beyond a friendship with Evan and yet I still get accused of it by my (suddenly) insecure girlfriend? Incredible, really.