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exes & ohs

—

THAT MOMENT WOULD be missed dearly. Because only minutes after, when we had finished eating, did we both get a text from Theo in the group chat telling us about a code red. Which could've had many meanings to Teddy such as Feldman catching on to our ruses, or his mother needing a ride home. But to me it meant one thing and one thing only: Violet Rady was in the building.

I had initially thought that Theo and I would be helping each other to help avoid her, but I guess that plan was as good as canceled. I looked at Teddy to see how he was feeling, but he didn't even flinch. I mean, there was no way that he would've without knowing, but it was still painful to see. Because I knew I still wouldn't be prepared to see his expression change, even if it was moments away from happening.

"Hey," Teddy said. "Lets go check out this code red thing. Mother better not be drinking peach schnapps again, I told her they make her stomach hurt twice tonight."

With that he walked off and I was thankful he didn't ask me if I knew anything about it. Because I was terribly sure it'd be hard to lie to him about.

—

IF VIOLET KNEW one thing, it was how to command attention. While the show was going on seamlessly around her, the people in her general vicinity couldn't even be helped from looking at her. Her dress was amazing, making her look so intimidating but also very sexy and I couldn't help but stare at her in awe like everyone else when we finally made it to the center of the ballroom.

Violet looked me over quick before focusing her attention on Teddy who seemed to be frozen, but for a different reason. I could just see the rage boiling in him underneath the surface, the concentration of it too powerful to be contained. He was mad, or rather he was absolutely livid to see her here. But he couldn't do anything about that, not in public with everyone watching. Or at least I hoped he wouldn't.

But of course, he wasn't who he was if he was t unpredictably predictable. Teddy made his way to his ex-wife in quick strides, leaving Theo and I struggling to keep our pace with him in case he did something rash and requiring manpower to stop.

"Edward," she said with a nod towards him and it was like she was wearing karma all over her. She was the spitting image of glory and vengeance and you would've thought that Teddy was the one who screwed her over and not the other way around. "Theodore, Marilyn," she acknowledged the rest of us.

"Violet," Teddy nodded, keeping his cool unlike he did when I saw him and her go at it in the office. "You're looking very... less like the devil incarnate and more like a decent person."

"Aw, you're sweet, Teddy," she grinned as she ran a hand through her hair. "Still have that attitude, don't you?"

"You mean the one you gave me?" Teddy snarled, taking a step closer to her. "Yeah, I think I still need it considering we work only like twenty feet apart from each other. If I use anything else against you, I could get into some very big legal trouble."

"Well you're not going to be using it against me for any longer," she said. "In fact, I actually have a story to tell you. One that'll have you back to me in no time, darling."

"It's Teddy," he said. "To you, to everyone except my parents. No Edward and definitely not darling. You lost your right to call me that when you cheated on me and had someone else's baby."

Violet just smirked, way too confident for her own good with the way Teddy was talking about her. Personally, I wouldn't be able to own up to the things I had done so easily. "We'll see about that, then."

—

BOY DID WE see alright.

Violet led Teddy, Theo, Elise, and I to a back room where she told us the story of her separation with Teddy — one that was rather different than the one I was originally told by Teddy back at the office.

The beginning from her perspective lined up with Teddy's though, the two of them had went to the same university, and they met through a mutual friend named Adam Lorry in their pre-law class where they became good friends for a month or so until Teddy decided to ask her out on a date. And from there it was smooth sailing. They dated for a year and a half, he proposed to her at his family graduation dinner, they had their wedding on the S.S. Justice six months later because they were busy trying to sort out their career lives at his father's firm, their honeymoon in Puerto Rico, and they even had talks of children and buying a house coming up.

But later, when they were coming back from Puerto Rico, she got a call from the mutual friend, Adam who had set them up with each other. It was a happy but urgent call, a very time sensitive request that she had to answer with a yes or no to in a week or the offer would pass. That offer was to be the surrogate mother of his future child. He had fallen in love with a man named Theodore Burke and they were wanting a child together, even if Theodore wasn't ready to be out to the world — or even his twin brother — just yet. So the baby had to have been a secret, one which Violet planned to keep even from her husband who would be he baby's uncle. She had spent months and months out of the country on business trips in order to keep her secret under wraps as best as possible. But Teddy was worried about her and he flew to Barcelona to surprise her which was when he discovered it.

They had fought all the way home as he brought her back from Spain that very night. Unable to tell him why she was carrying a baby for the sake of Theo's discretion, she just accepted all of the things he had railed against her, signing the divorce papers and moving out to live with Adam.

Everyone in the room was experiencing some form of shock or despair but none more than Teddy. He had discovered that his wife hadn't been cheating on him and that he had thrown her out of his house and ruined their marriage for something that wasn't even wrong plus the fact that his own brother had been hiding something so important from him.

Violet seemed to be exhausted from telling that tale, but the look in her eyes was more hopeful than hopeless like everyone else was. "So, Teddy," she said, "I think we can all agree that this was a big misunderstanding and we can pick things up where we left them off. Because I still love you, even after everything you said, especially because I completely understood where you were coming from. I'm sorry for lying to you, but I had to protect your brother and Adam. You understand that, right?"

I looked from Violet to Theo, seeing how distraught he was. The secret was out there now, all the facades and the girls, they were gone and it was just him having to face the reality of who he was. But I had no idea how hard or easy that would be, for Teddy was looking straight at the floor and not at anyone else.

When Teddy instead turned on his heel and headed out of the door, I should've seen it coming, but I hadn't. I was thrown for a loop by the misplaced plethora of emotions coursing through him, ones that couldn't be determined and his actions told of nothing but how hurt he was.

I huffed to myself as I watched him go. Love took a bit of trial and error, huh?

—

HE WAS FOUND at the mini bar, his arms folded and his head planted in them, a half-empty glass of scotch beside him. That was the obvious answer to the obvious question, but now that I found him, I had so many more. But when I pulled out the seat beside him, there was only one important question worth asking.

"How are you doing, Teddy?" I asked, reaching out and touching him lightly, my fingers rubbing comfortable circles into his warm skin.

He cocked his head a bit so that it was still rested but one of his eyes was at least peeking out so he could see it was me. "I'm miserable."

Getting that answer out of him was easier than I expected it to be. I expected someone like Teddy Burke to put up more of a fight than that. But what if Violet was his fight, what if the anger and heartbreak he felt from her supposed cheating gave him the energy he exhibited every single day? What if she had taken that from him the moment she told him it was never worth anything? What if the justice he so vigorously fought for deep down was his own justice? Now he was standing in the war zone from a battle he had already won a long time ago without even knowing it.

"I know that," I said simply. "I know it all too well. But you can't be mad at them. At Violet or Theo, at least not forever."

Teddy just sighed, rearing his head up so he was looking at me full-on this time. "I'm not, actually. I mean, yeah, I am upset that they kept that a secret from me when I would've been okay with it anyway. Makes me realize those girls Theo was always with were just part of a ruse and he wasn't some kind of sleaze-bag and that's a relief. I don't care about gay or straight or anything, he could be whoever the hell he wants to be as long as he is my brother. And I'm glad that Violet had never done wrong by me."

"So what's the problem, then?" The words came out gingerly, but I could tell from experience that even the softest words could break the hardest of hearts.

"It's just that I had thought for so long that she had cheated on me with Adam," he said. "I had been angry at her for so long over it and those types of feelings don't ever go away. Even if Violet hadn't done anything to cause me to feel those things. No, they just redirect to myself. I'm so angry at myself now for being someone they wanted to hide from."

In that moment, Teddy was tender in a way I had never seen him before. While I appreciated seeing him like this — deep down, it made me feel less alone for being there at many points in my life — he was not the Teddy I needed. Nor the one he needed.

"There are other things out there," I said, leaning in closer to him. "Like criminals who thrive off stripping power from those who need it the most. Like Martin Feldman, and maybe the Gates but we're not entirely sure of that yet. Sure, you could take some time to grieve, but that's not like you, not at all. You don't need to feel victimized by Violet to know that there's still a fight in you, Teddy Burke. Because you and I still have work to do."

Teddy looked at me long and hard, his eyes glazed with fervor and I couldn't tell if he wanted to kiss me or punch me. Thankfully, he did neither and reached for the scotch and brought it to his lips, quickly downing the rest of the glass' contents before forcefully resting it down on the wooden countertop.

"Damn right we do," he said, back to himself again. "Drinks on me, Marilyn."

As he turned to the bartender to order drinks for the two of us, I felt myself grin like a fool at the sight of seeing him that way, seeing the Teddy who loved his job and what he stood for, who loved sticking his neck out for the underdogs and fighting off the wicked and corrupt. It had been merely an hour or so since I had been without him but I still wanted him back, badly.