Almost Perfect

“So you’re going to Vegas for the weekend for Jesse’s birthday?” Stacy asked as she watched Adam pack his bag. It had been a month since Sam’s wedding and Stacy had gone back to work, leaving less time for her and Adam to have together with Evelyn. On the days that both Stacy and Adam worked Evelyn went to daycare. This was Stacy’s weekend off so she was disappointed to learn that Adam would be gone for the majority of it.

“Yeah, I thought I told you that last week. He decided last minute that he wanted to go big for his 30th, hence guy’s weekend in Vegas!” Adam explained, smiling. He hadn’t had a weekend away in a while, although he would miss Stacy and the baby, he was excited about the prospects of getting drunk with his closest friends.

“Oh, I must have forgotten.” Stacy was glad that Adam could have a weekend away; she just missed spending time with him. “Well that will be fun! I hope you enjoy yourselves.” She was remaining upbeat and supportive of Adam’s weekend away, he couldn’t always be a boyfriend and father, he was very busy with his music career as well so he deserved time off.

“Thanks baby, I’ll call you when we land.” He kissed her deeply before picking up his bag and walking towards the door. “I love you,” he smiled. “Give Evelyn and kiss for me when she wakes up!”

“I love you too Adam,” Stacy watched him go before lying back on the bed, thinking about what she could do with her weekend. She would take Evelyn to see her parents maybe, do a little shopping, catch up on Grey’s Anatomy. She just wanted a relaxing weekend.

Adam had let her know that they landed but she hadn’t heard much else from him the rest of weekend while he was away with his friends. She had just put Evelyn down for a nap Sunday morning around 10 a.m. when her phone rang.

“You need to get on your computer and look at the most recent post on TMZ.” It was Mike, her best male friend.

“What?” Stacy laughed.

“I’m not kidding,” Mike urged her. Curious, Stacy grabbed her laptop and opened it, typing in tmz.com, watching as it loaded quickly.

The first headline read “Front man Adam Levine leaves behind dirty diapers in exchange for dirty hookers.” Stacy’s heart began to race and she scrolled down, there were pictures.

There on the screen was a photo of Adam pressed up against the wall of a Vegas club, a scantily dressed woman pressed against him with her lips attached to his neck.

“I’m so sorry Stacy, I just came across it and I had to tell you.” Mike explained. “I know we haven’t talked much lately but I love you too much to ignore this and not let you know what I found.”

“Thanks Mike….” She trailed off as she continued to scroll down. There were multiple pictures, Adam and the female kissing, his hands groping at her body, another one of them walking into what looked like a hotel, the female looking over her shoulder with a devious look.

“Do you need me to come over? Are you going to be okay?” Mike asked, concerned.

“Can I call you back? I need to figure out what I’m going to do about this.” Stacy’s head was all over the place, she couldn’t even cry. She was too angry, too confused. Was Adam actually capable of cheating on her? She never thought so in the past.

“Sure, let me know if you need something.” Mike said before hanging up.

Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Adam was waking up in a hotel room, a horrible headache pounding throughout his skull.

“What the fuck did you do last night?” Mickey’s voice caused Adam to jump.

“Fuck dude!” He growled. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around; his room was completely torn apart. “Whoa, what the hell happened in here?”

He was completely confused.

“We were at the club last night when you all of the sudden disappeared. This explains a few things though,” Mickey held his phone out towards Adam which he squinted at to see. There was the headline on TMZ with photos of himself with a female that most definitely was not his girlfriend.

“What the fuck?” Adam couldn’t remember a thing, he didn’t remember leaving the club, he couldn’t remember who that girl was, and he definitely didn’t remember how he got back to his hotel room.

“Did you cheat on Stacy last night?” Mickey asked.

Adam shook his head, “I don’t think so! I wouldn’t do that!” He looked down and realized he was only in his boxers.

Mickey gave his friend a knowing look, “Adam, seriously! These pictures tell a different story.”

“I don’t even know who the hell that chick is! I don’t know how I got here last night!” Adam exclaimed. He was in a panic, what was he going to tell Stacy?

Adam tried to wrack his brain; he sat up and looked through his wallet and around his room for signs or clues about what could have happened last night. He remembered having three drinks at the bar and then during his fourth drink things started to get fuzzy. He couldn’t remember anything after going up to the bar and getting that fourth drink.

While he was going through his things he realized that all of his cash was missing and his iPad along with his phone were all missing.

“I think I was robbed.” He looked up at Mickey, “All my electronics are missing and my cash is too.”

“Were you roofied last night?” Mickey asked. It was definitely a possibility in this town and the guys were getting drinks bought for them all night, someone could have slipped something in Adam’s drink.

“I sure as shit didn’t do all of this on my own! That bitch from the pictures had to have done something to me!” Adam was pissed. He looked around the room again, he didn’t leave it this messy when they left last night so someone had to have gone through all of his stuff while he was delirious or passed out.

“Get your stuff together, our flight leaves in two hours. We can get you a new phone on the way and you can call to cancel your plan for your iPad.” Mickey was always pretty level headed so Adam did as he said. He quickly got his act together, still trying to figure out what the hell happened last night.

The group of friends gathered in the lobby of the hotel and climbed into the limo that was supposed to take them to the airport. The short trip was elongated by the few stops that Adam had to make. He stopped at Verizon first to fix the mess with his phone, getting a completely new number and cancelling his old phone so that the person that took it couldn’t use it anymore also cancelling his wireless plan for his iPad. Then he made a few calls to the banks that he had his credit cards through to alert them that there may be a chance someone had his credit card numbers so they also stopped access to those and issued him new cards that would be sent through the mail. Adam felt like he had everything pieced back together by the time they arrived at the airport, he just had one more major thing to take care of. He had to figure out how to explain all of this to Stacy……which would be the hardest task of all.

Adam got to their home around 6 p.m. and when he walked in the front door he saw a suitcase packed next to it with the diaper bag sitting on top of it. His heart went frantic and started beating rapidly in his chest, Stacy knew.

Adam dropped his bag on the ground and sprinted into the living room, he was about to run up the stairs when he spotted her sitting in the rocking chair they bought for Evelyn in the corner of the living room.

Stacy was sitting there, Evelyn resting on her chest fast asleep, rocking her back and forth. Adam could tell she had been crying and it pained him to know that once again he had caused those tears.

“Hey,” He said quietly.

Stacy just looked up at him, hurt in her eyes.

“I can explain,” Adam started but Stacy held up a hand.

“I do not want our baby daughter to hear this.” She stood up and headed up the stairs, she knew that Evelyn wouldn’t understand what was going on but she was not about to let her hear them fighting.

She kissed Evelyn’s forehead, praying that Adam had a good explanation for his actions. She didn’t want to take Evelyn and leave; she wanted her baby to grow up in a solid, loving home. She put her baby in the crib and then slowly walked down the stairs, shocked to see Adam sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. When he heard her come into the room he sat up, his eyes were blood shot and his face had worry written all over it.

Stacy sat back down in the rocking chair and looked at him expectantly, “Explain yourself Adam.” Her voice was void of all emotion.

He nodded, looking deep into her eyes. “Stacy you know me, I would never cheat on you.”

“That’s all you’ve got? Those pictures are pretty condemning Adam!” He almost winced at how sharp she said his name.

“I don’t know what the fuck happened last night!” His voice rose at this point, “I remember having a few drinks with the guys and then the night goes completely fuzzy! I woke up this morning in my own hotel room alone, but all of my shit was stolen.”

“What?” Stacy questioned.

“All of my cash, my phone, my iPad, everything was gone!” He shook his head, “I wasn’t in my right mind last night, and I never would have let that girl into my hotel room if I was! I don’t even know if it was her! I can’t even remember meeting her or seeing her, those pictures are the only thing I have to prove that I was even near her last night. All I know is that when I woke up this morning Mickey had that article shoved in my face as well as accusations that I would do something that terrible as to cheat on you, the love of my life.” His voice was strained by the end and it almost made Stacy cave.

“So you don’t remember a thing from last night?” She asked again, still unsure if she believed him. "You think you were drugged?"

Adam stood from the couch and knelt down in front of his girlfriend. “Stacy, I swear to you, nothing happened with that woman. I don’t remember anything from last night but I know that even in a drugged state, I would never cheat on you. I love you and Evelyn far too much for me to just go and throw that away on a one night stand.”

Stacy looked at him, contemplating what to say in her head. She wanted to believe him and the look in his eyes made her believe that he was being truthful. She internally fought with herself, she had no reason not to believe him but she hated that there was photographic proof that he had his hands on another woman the way that he touched Stacy.

“Please don’t leave, I know it’s hard for you to trust me right now but I promise I will do all I can to change that and to prove to you that I’m committed to us and I’m committed to our daughter. I want us to be a family and to raise her right.” Adam was saying all the right things.

Stacy took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. It was so hard for her to stay mad at him when all she wanted to do was forgive him and fix things between them. She looked at him, contemplating what to say before she softly said, “Okay.”

“Okay? You won’t leave?” Adam was hopeful.

“I won’t leave,” Stacy said quietly. “But you have a lot to prove Adam, seeing that picture made it feel like my whole world was crashing down around me.”

“I know baby, I felt the same way.” He stood and pulled her up with him. “I’m so sorry we have to go through this.” He hugged her tightly, kissing her lips. “But I promise you, I’ll do better. I won’t put myself in a situation like that ever again. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’ve said that before but yet here we are again.” She whispered. The words stung and Adam felt his heart break a little, she was right, he had hurt her before and that was something he vowed never to do. He always told her he would protect her and he wasn’t living up to that.

“Sweetheart I can’t apologize enough, I’m not being the man I need to be.” Adam shook his head. “I’m going to try harder, I’m going to protect you and Evie, I won’t let anything come between us.”

Stacy listened to his words and knew that Adam would try harder this time so she nodded, kissing him softly. “I know you will.”

After talking this over a bit more, the couple was satisfied where they left things and decided they would spend a cozy night in because Stacy had to work the following morning.