Enough Is Enough

V

A couple of days later due to the fact nobody had heard from Lindsey, Christine decided to pay Stevie a visit and ask what was going on between them. They bickered all the time, but they managed to put it aside in a professional environment, in the more recent years that is. It had to be serious this time.

When Christine arrived and took one look at her friend, she knew this wasn't the usual stupid argument. Stevie wasn't very talkative, she seemed tired and entirely somewhere else, lost in her thoughts. 

"It's nice to see you, Chris, it is and please don't get me wrong, but why are you here?" Stevie asked, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"Straight to the point, I see. Well." Christine leaned slightly forward in her seat, clasping her hands. "A few days ago, Lindsey completely blew up in the studio. He made some comments and it wasn't very hard to figure it out that it was something that involved you. We shrugged it off, but we haven't seen or heard from Lindsey since when he stormed out that day."

"And? What do you want me to say? I don't know where he is." Stevie shrugged, although inside it mattered a lot. Where the hell had he disappeared to?

"What happened between you two?" Christine asked, genuinely concerned.

"Same old shit." Stevie answered honestly. "I just got tired of it and I told him."

"Really?" Chris seemed surprised, yet kind of proud Stevie finally stood up for herself. "He didn't take it very well then, did he?"

"To be honest with you, I didn't even really let him speak. I expressed my feelings and I told him to man up or he will never see me again."

Christine was slightly shocked. For years she had been watching the two play their sick and twisted game of who would hurt the other worse and who will be the one to apologize, then they would do it all over again. Yet, she knew they also loved each other madly. Christine had told Stevie more than once that this was exactly what she should have done a long time ago.

"That certainly explains Lindsey's behavior."

"I just-" Stevie began, but her sentence was cut short by Karen. "What is it?"

"Uh, you have another visitor."

Frowning, Stevie asked. "Who is it? I'm not expecting anyone."

"It's me." Kristen came into the view, Christine's eyes growing wide, while Stevie sighed. Lindsey's wife was the last person she wanted to deal with. "I'd like to talk to you." Kristen said, not acknowledging Christine.

"I think I'll be going then." Christine got up on her feet, glancing at Stevie. "Should I go?"

"Yes, Chris. I'll be fine." Giving a weak smile, Stevie accompanied Christine to the door, then returned to Kristen, who was standing by herself, awkwardly staring at the floor. "Take a seat. I'm all ears." Stevie sat opposite the other woman.

"I'm sure you know already that I told Lindsey to make a decision. I don't want to be a part of this fucked up three way we have. I asked him to leave and to come back once he's chosen only one of us."

Stevie didn't reply right away, but when she did, Kristen didn't expect it. "Why is he the one choosing? You know, I actually told him pretty much the same thing a few days ago. I told him, he either divorces you or he and I are done for good. But now... Lindsey has been with both of us for nearly twenty years, he's been telling us both that he loves us, he's been sleeping with both of us and we should be fine with that? It was never a secret, the fact that I love him and I love with with all of my heart, but... he's done both of us wrong, yet we give him the choice?"

Kristen shifted in her seat uncomfortably, looking down at her hands. "Coming here today, I was going to say that it's okay, that I'd rather he was happy with you than miserable with me, but you seem like you don't want to be with him at all anymore."

"What I am is deeply hurt and I've been feeling this way for many years, yet I kept those emotions bottled up, put a smile on my face and told the whole world how freaking happy I was. And it's bullshit!" Stevie was getting frustrated, not at Kristen, just at the situation in general. "You're wrong, because I do want to be with Lindsey, that's all I've ever wanted in my life, but I don't think I could be with him." Angry tears filled her eyes. "It's fucked up that we're even having this conversation. You should love and dedicate yourself to one person. Lindsey was allowed to choose when he cheated on me and got your pregnant. Then, I would have accepted it. But playing both of us for years and years, hurting both of us... He doesn't have the right to say anything at all."

"I agree with you, but I want to give that right to him, because I don't want to force him to be with me any longer. I guess, I realized that I deserve so much better. There has to be a person out there who will want me and only me. I've dedicated years of my life to a man, who's in love with another woman. Truthfully, looking at him twice was the biggest mistake of my life."

Stevie didn't really have anything to say to that. After a moment of silence between them, she spoke up. "Honestly, Kristen, there's nothing I have to say to you. There's no way of making this situation better by just talking. I should be glad to have your permission to be with Lindsey, but..." Emphasizing permission with air quotes, Stevie trailed off. "I do believe that you deserve better than him."

Getting the feeling that it was time for her to go, Kristen stood up and made her way to the front door. Coming here she didn't achieve a thing. "What you said, it doesn't change how I feel. I will not play the children card, I will not make the divorce ugly if Lindsey decides that separation is what he wants."

Stevie nodded her understanding, holding onto the door handle, waiting for Kristen to leave.

While Kristen didn't get much out of this, Stevie on the other hand, was glad. Now she knew that Kristen wasn't in their way anymore. Her heart will always win when it comes to Lindsey and despite saying this was not his decision to make, she'll forget all about it if he comes back to her, saying he wants her. And if he doesn't, she'll know that more than the past ten years of hope were for nothing, that he never actually loved her like he said he did, that he only must have gotten some kind of kick out of having them both.