Falling in love with another woman's husband (BWWM)

You Jumped the Gun

Chapter 4: You Jumped the Gun

*Monday Morning*

I sat in my office still disturbed by last weekends event's with Parker, it kept flooding my mind because I knew today I would have to face him again. This time of sober mind and strictly for business, and what I said last weekend needs to be corrected. Eva peeked her head in my office and asked me "How are you doing girl?" I slapped my forehand and motioned for her to come and sit down with me, I looked at her with all seriousness and questioned "Why on earth would you let my drunk self go see Parker?" Her big round eyes widened in a way i have never seen before and she yelled "You saw Parker?" I shushed her because I didn't want people in the offices to hear and start office rumors, I looked at her and asked "You didn't know that?" Eva shook her head no really quickly and said "You told me you were going to see Marcus. I saw you texting him on your phone earlier that night so I assumed that you were going where you said you were going to go." I bit my lip and said to myself "Avery you fucked up." 

Marcus is a guy I see off and on sometimes, he's a poet I met in Art school back in the day and we have just always hit it off. But with my life being the way my life is and him traveling all the time doing poetry slams we are nothing more than just an occasional hook up.  I thought to myself why wouldn't I go to Marcus's place, how the hell did I end up at Parkers? 

Speaking of the devil, as if he just knows when I am thinking about him he appeared. Parker knocked on my office door and Eva opened it, she awkwardly said "Parkerrr.... Hey how are you buddy?"  Parker rolled his hazel green eyes at her and said "I would be better if I didn't have to deal with crazy drunk art gallery owners knocking on my door late at night. You would think some people have consideration of others and self awareness, but you know some people just don't. It's kind of sad isn't it Eva?" 

Eva looked up at the handsome man in front of her and tried her hardest not to gawk at him, instead she simply giggled awkwardly, turn to me and mouthed "You fucked up." I nodded my head in complete embarrassment and Eva turned back to Parker and said "Sorry, some people just can't hold their liquor, but I can if you ever want to go out for drinks sometime?" He shined her his bright white smile and said "Oh yeah drinks with you and Raymond sound good, I haven't seen that buddy in a while." Eva slumped her shoulders and quickly exited my office in embarrassment. Maybe Parker picked up on her hint and didn't want to mess with his buddy's girl even though everyone knows about their open relationship. 

Parker shut the door behind her and sat down in a chair scolding me, I looked down at my black pumps avoiding complete eye contact with him, he scoffed and broke the awkward silence. He raised an eyebrow at me and said "Can you explain to me why the weekend events happened? Because if you don't want to have a professional exchange between us we can run everything through my manager, I chose not to involve her because I thought I could trust you, and you seemed serious but I am not getting that vibe after you barged into my house drunk and called me the Spawn of Satan." I shrunk into my chair and said quietly "You still aren't over that?" He stood up quickly, and I quickly push my arm out to stop him from standing completely, I sighed and said "Listen i'm  sorry, to be honest I was really stressed about the contract deal and how you kept sending me revisions after revisions." Parker interrupted me "I sent you revisions after revisions because I wanted protect us both and make sure we both got the best from this deal, I didn't let you use me and I didn't use  you." My eyes widen and I simply asked "why?" He rolled his eyes and said "because I believe in this art gallery, I believe my art belongs here. You were the first gallery owner to truly understand my art and look past the obvious and find the deeper meaning inside my paintings, and I wanted to protect that. I could have went with some big gallery name, I could have gotten a deal that solely benefited me but I didn't. I chose to work with you, but this bickering makes me think I might have trusted the wrong person. Even when you were drunk, I didn't send you away, I didn't take advantage of you like most guys would. But that's the first thing you assumed once you woke up." 

I felt like shit. He really just made me feel like the biggest asshole, I never even took the time to think he might not have been selfish like I assumed, maybe he wasn't pretentious, maybe I was the pretentious one. I jumped the gun and assumed he was someone he wasn't based off of what? Looks? Past experiences? Parker didn't deserve that, and I wasn't doing right by my artist so I had to make it right. I looked at Parker and softly said "I apologize, I was completely wrong about you. But I think Eva should handle all the business things between this gallery and your work." 

Parker look dissatisfied and he quickly objected "No, that is not in the contract. I am going to work with you, and your going to come over Thursday and we are going to do our first paint session. If we can't make it work and get along, then i'll except Eva taking over this deal." I sighed deeply and agreed, "Ok... This Thursday it is."