It seemed as long as she was in the dark and didn’t know about another woman she was okay to continue the charade she had already agreed to. But now that Savannah knew she was forced to make a decision, forced to take action. Her happiness was paramount, and she had been happy with the illusion. This she was not! Had there been signs before? Had she just chose not to see and wait to be blatantly slapped in the face with it? Apparently so!
He could not see why she was acting this way, why now was she to leave? They had been doing this for two years, what had changed? Her answer to this was, Mark never told her about other women, he talked about friends, a woman that helped him with his business, not the very same woman he was also sleeping with! This person had been talked about as his business partner and every time she had come over Mark had been half honest and said they were to do some work, but how about the other half of that coin, we are also lovers? Not at any time did he delve into this tidbit of information. Savannah felt she had been duped. Being again a word monger, if Mark had said, ‘I sleep with other women’ Savannah would have understood and made a decision accordingly. But saying to her, ‘I have other commitments’ didn’t tell her or prepared her for this. Other commitments might have meant: your mother is having surgery; your sister is having problems in her marriage, my brother has two left feet and I must teach him to dance! These were what constituted other commitments! Not: I sleep with other women and you are only in line!
Savannah felt their entire friendship had been a lie. Savannah was from the old school, relationship, no relationship. There was no in between, and she had been playing along because she had wanted to be with him, in no uncertain terms. This was in no way Marks fault, he thought he had been up front, but had he been? Had she been? There was room for a debate about that one. Was this a good enough reason to stay? Could they work out their differences of opinion now that it was on the table? All Savannah could see before her was torture. To envision a woman in the same bed as she slept in? No that wasn’t going to happen!
She left in a flourish, when she got home she flung herself on her bed and cried her heart out. Savannah never wanted to talk to him again! Shadow pawed at her, trying to comfort her to no avail. This time her attentions went unheeded. Savannah was beside herself; she hated him at that moment. She would never deal with men again!
Several days went by, she worked and came home. She was depressed, and she wanted to hear his voice, he was a drug, she needed him to talk to. After all they had a bond of friendship like no other. They opened up to one another without judgment, without fear of repercussions. Savannah was a good friend, she listened and gave advice, and he did the same. No matter what she told him about her past, he was supportive and gentle with her. He understood her pain, her fears, her dreams, and her joys. Where would she find another male friend like that? She had female friends that she could go to, that gave her the same thing, but he was something special, a rare gem amongst the rubble of men.
Savannah couldn’t talk to her girlfriends about this, it would paint him in a bad light, this was not something that could be understood by women. It was very rare that a woman would get involved in something like this. And the main reason she had was because he was such a great confidante, with such a dear, wonderful heart.
Mark called, she let it ring. Mark called back and Savannah answered. He was beside himself too, he was sorry this had happened, the misunderstanding. Could they get together and talk? After much deliberation she consented, they could talk, she would meet him for coffee, she was not ready to go back to his place. She was comforted by the fact that maybe he did love her and would give up his associations. Be exclusive, wasn’t this why he was calling?
