Keep It Kasual

Nov. 2, 2013

Kris and the boys were at Columbus for a game tonight. This after the game last night here. Alex wasn't feeling too good so he was napping. I had taken the monitor downstairs with me so I could get some editing freelance work done that I needed. It was for the Holiday cards for the girls so I knew I needed to get it done.

That's how I came to be behind my desk, working when my Skype chimed that I had a call. It wasn't from Kris as I hoped but rather from Ciera. I clicked answer and up she popped. "Hi Ers, aren't you supposed to...:" I got cut off.

"Have you spoken to Celeste lately?" She asked, in a huffed tone. Something was up, this wasn't how Ciera acted.

I thought for a moment. "Uh, not since calling her to let her know she better be nice to Kris a week or so ago. Why do you ask?" I was wary and for my own safety I closed the project file I was working on. Something told me it was a smart thing to do.

She growled. "What about Kris? Has he been home since then?" Yep, something was up. I leaned back on the ball I used as my chair and sighed.

"What's going on Ciera? Of course Kris has been home. In fact they left last night after the game to go to Columbus for tonight's game." I was getting exasperated by the secrecy she was playing with.

She sighed heavily, as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. "I found something in my Facebook feed you need to look at. Login and go look at Celeste's page." Worry lines were forming on her face, oh this wasn't good.

I logged in and went to our college friend's page and gasped in shock. There she was déshabillé in lingerie and unmistakably for me Kris' blue-grey dress shirt. I knew it was Kris' room as I could see the picture he packed of Alex and I on the nightstand behind her. I couldn't believe that he would do such a thing. Not my Kris, not the man I loved and was going to marry! As I looked in growing horror there were several, more and more provocative shots of her. The caption on the last one sent me over the edge. 'Love taking pictures with my bae, hope his wifey doesn't mind.'

I closed the window, but not the program, and drew in a ragged breath. "I can't believe he'd do this to me."

"Say the word and I'm there. Say it and we'll get you out of there." Ciera was fuming, she wanted to hurt someone.

I couldn't leave though. It wasn't fair to Alex for one. He needed his papa. "No, I can't do that to Alex. He's mine too now. I'll sleep in another bedroom though. He'll be back late tonight." My heart ached, the man I loved, the man I wanted to have children with and for was cheating on me, with an old friend of mine.

It felt like I slept walked through the rest of the day. I didn't even watch the game I was so heartsore. Once Alex was in bed I brought some of my things into the guest bedroom and ended up laying down and crying until I fell asleep. I didn't know what I was going to do.

2 am, or at least the clock said it was 2 am, I found myself being tugged into Kris' arms. "Hey." He said gently when he saw I was awake. "What are you doing in here?" I wasn't sure what to say. Fortunately Kris took me saying nothing in stride and just curled up with me.

The next morning I found Kris let me sleep in and got up with Alex himself. Then I remembered sending him a text that told him Alex wasn't feeling well. I went downstairs and heard happier sounds coming from Alex than I'd heard in a couple days. "Morning maman. Looks who's feeling better."

I went over and kissed Alex's head, he felt cooler. "Good, sick Alex's aren't much fun." My tone belied the hurt I was feeling. The little boy looked up at me and smiled around his banana. "Eat the fruit, do not show it off." Alex turned back to his breakfast and ignored us in favor of feeding himself. I watched as Kris cooked eggs for himself and I, unsure as to how to bring up what I saw.

After eating in relative silence, Kris cleaned up Alex and took him upstairs to go through the rest of their morning routine. That left me to clean up the dishes, also normal. I decided that until Alex was asleep I wouldn't talk to him about this.

Once I was done I went upstairs to get dressed. I pulled on my gear for the walk that Vero, Estelle, Alex and I would take rain or shine. I checked that my camera was ready as well. Something told me I'd need it today. I checked the stroller for any damage, there was none. I did everything I could too _not_ be in the same room as Kris until he was ready to leave for the morning.

"You wan' to go to lunch after practice? Flower was t'inking t'at all of us could go The Cheesecake Factory. Maybe even Duper and his girls if we can talk t'em into it." He was pulling his gym bag together as he asked, completely normal.

"Um, yeah. It'd be nice to get out of the house besides our walk today. I'm sure Carole-Lynn and Lola would love to join us too, maybe asking _them_ would be a good idea." I was trying to sound normal, I hoped I was succeeding.

He leaned in and kissed my cheek. "Bon, if you are there by 11:30 you will for sure be there before we are done." Just then the doorbell rang and opening it I found the entire Fleury family. They came in with their normal smiles and Kris just shook his head. "Come on, we don't want to be late." Flower rolled his eyes and off they went.

Once Vero and Estelle were in and ready for our morning chat, I sat down and sighed. "Do you think Kris really loves me?" I was starting to fall into a funk about this whole disaster.

A look of complete shock crossed her face. "What? Where do you come up with this? T'e man is 'ead over heels for you. Marc told me t'at Kris was 'it on many times when t'ey were out and always brushed it off with a no t'ank you I am married. You are 'is wife is all but name." Her outrage just made me more upset. Could he be putting on a show for everyone?

I took her downstairs and showed her the pictures. The gape of her mouth told me that I was not alone in my shock and horror over this possibility. "I do no' believe it and you should no' eit'er. The guys are making jokes about Kris and how you have him whipped, w'ich is their way of approving of you. You need to talk to Kris about t'is and get to the bottom of it for sure." She turned off my computer, took me by the wrist and all but pushed us all out the door. "We will go to t'e park, calling Carole-Lynn on t'e way. T'en we will all go to lunch wit' our kids and our loves and after the kids will nap and _you_ will speak to Kris."

That was how the morning went, all according to Vero's plan. She didn't mention again what she had seen, didn't even give an indication she knew anything about it. After lunch, while the boys were buckling in the kids, she came over to me. "Remember you need to talk to 'im and find out t'e truth. Don't wait, ask today. Do it downstairs to give Alex some peace from hearing it. Show 'im what you showed me and start."

On the way home I agonized over what I knew was right, doing as Vero said and talking to him about what I'd seen. I couldn't believe it, but I had known Celeste for so long I couldn't _not_ believe it too. While Kris claimed putting Alex down for his afternoon nap, another normal thing, I waited tensely in the living room I had designed for us as a family.

By the time he came back downstairs I'd figured out how to start the conversation and took a leap of faith that it would go well. "Come downstairs I need to show you something." I said carefully.

He grinned. "Did you take anot'er too cute picture you need to show me? I'd done that a lot, using nature and all of the kids around us as my subjects." He put his hands on my waist as we walked down the stairs.

"Um, not exactly. It does have to do with why I was in the guest room though." Getting into my office I turned the computer on and let it load up. I got to the page again and stood up. "I'd like an explanation for these." Celeste was on the screen in his shirt just as I saw her yesterday. "There's more in the album, pay attention to the captions." I moved so he could get closer and see for sure that I knew about his betrayal.

Kris sat down on the ball and looked carefully at the pictures, clicking through them. I was listening not looking. I didn't need to see him enjoying that I knew about his dalliance. I could tell when he got to the last shot by what he said. "Merde!" It was said in a the soft tone of disbelief, that made me look up.

"The wifey minds." I said in an acidic tone that I would use on someone I didn't like, which truly I didn't like him very much right now. I still loved him but I didn't like his actions. I saw him turn and saw that he was pale. Good, he knows he's been caught.

He stood and moved in front of me. "You t'ink." He rubbed a hand over his face and started again. "Vous pensez que je ferais quelque chose comme ça? (You think I would do something like that?)" Oh good, this was going to be a bi-lingual fight, I thought as I straightened up off the wall behind me.

"It's pretty clear you did. That's _your_ shirt, in _your_ room, with the picture of Alex and I behind her that I _know_ you travel with on the road." I was all but daring him to tell me the truth.

"Je t'aime, je ne ferais jamais quelque chose avec quelqu'un d'autre. Vous êtes la lumière de ma vie, la femme que je serai avec toujours. Pourquoi le ferais-je faire quelque chose pour nous faire du mal? (I love you, I would never do something with someone else. You are the light of my life, the woman I will be with forever. Why would I do something to harm us?)" I couldn't get feelings confused with the facts right now. He was trying that.

"You at least took pictures of your side piece, and did it have to be her? I've known Celeste for years, why my friend?" I was getting to the point of being truly upset again. He claimed to love me but there was proof that I wasn't enough on my monitor behind him.

He turned back to my computer to look and then back at me. "Je ne la connais pas. Je ne l'ai jamais vu dans ma vie. Je vous jure sur la vie d'Alex, je ne connais pas cette personne! (I don't know her. I have never seen her before in my life. I swear to you on Alex's life, I do not know that person!)" I stared at him in blyth disbelief. "Those haven't been retouched, those are the originals. Don't take me for a fool Kristopher. I know what digital photography is capable of. You _do_ know her. You spoke with her on the phone before your trip to Toronto. She was teasing you about how I stole you from all the women of the world..." It dawned on me then what _might_ be truly happening.

Kris was now angry and raised his voice as he spoke again. "Je n'ai jamais triché sur vous en aucune façon. Je ne ferais jamais rien de vous blesser. Vous avez la clé de mon coeur, mais si vous ne voulez pas me croire, c'est très bien. Je vais trouver quelqu'un que vous croirez. (I have never cheated on you in any way. I would never do anything to hurt you. You have the key to my heart, but if you don't want to believe me, that is fine. I will find someone you will believe.)" With that he stormed out of the room and stomped up the stairs. I heard the front door slam as he left.

My back hit the wall and I slid down it. Oh god what had I done? I loved him, he was my heart. I sat there and began crying all over again, this time because I was so stupid. I had accused him of doing something I'd known in my heart he would never, could never do. How could I ever make this right? Would he ever trust me again?

I was ever so grateful Alex took a long afternoon nap. I had no idea how long I was sitting there, tears streaking down my face trying to figure out how and why Celeste would do something like this to me. In fact it wasn't until Vero came in with a sleeping Estelle and put her arms around me that I even noticed someone else was in the house. "Marc is driving him to find someone you will believe. We would not let him drive so angry."

I sniffled and nodded. "Could you bring me my phone. I need to call someone." She grabbed is easily and brought it to me. I dialed Ciera and waited for her to pick up. "Hey Ers."

"You sound like someone just broke your heart love. Do I need to come break his face?" I had put her on speaker so I only had to say what I had to once.

I sniffled again and rubbed my tear stained face. "No, in fact you can help me by not telling anyone else about this and helping me find a way to fix it. It wasn't Kris who did something unforgivable, it was Celeste." The gasps of both Ciera and Vero were enough to tell me that I might be on the right track. "When I called her, Kris was home and she teased me about having stolen him away from all the women of the world. We laughed about it then but what if she was really saying I stole him from her? How far would she go to hurt me and ruin our relationship?"

Vero sat down on the carpet in front of me. "Mon dieu, d'être jaloux du bonheur d'une personne que vous vous apprêtez à le ruiner. Qui ferait une chose pareille? (My god, to be so jealous of one person's happiness you set out to ruin it. Who would do such a thing?) Estelle had found the mat Alex used to tumble about on and was putting herself back into her nap. Her maman hadn't noticed due to her shock.

I shrugged. "I wouldn't have thought she would have. We met her in college and became good friends, or so I thought." My friend had tried to take away one of the best things in my life, this was not something I could let go. "Ers, do you remember her doing anything this heinous before?"

Ciera sighed. "There was that one time, I think you were gone on a project so you might not know. She did something similar to the captain of the Lacrosse team. Adam reminded me of it when I called Paula to warn her things might be going south. In that case she left pics of herself and notes on his door. His girlfriend was _not_ amused and dumped him, right before finals."

I could hear her as I struggled to remember that. We were freshmen if I remembered right. "That was right after we met her right? It ruined the Lacrosse's team run at the finals _and_ the capitan's relationship." The only thing I really remembered was a scandal over the Lacrosse team and hearing second hand what had happened.

"It could be a pattern for her. She gets jealous of someone who's in a better relationship than she is so she ruins it." Ciera was making sense now. Celeste always did have to have the best boyfriend, job or newest gadget.

Vero shook her head. "Now she 'as targeted you and Kris. You do not need t'is, t'is enemy as your friend."

"The word you're looking for is frenemy V and no she doesn't." Vero and I gasped as we looked up to find Sid, Marc-Andre and Kris in the doorway, it was Sid who spoke. "So I take it you believe him now?" I hung my head with the shame I felt and nodded. "Good, glad to see I'm not needed after all."

Kris made his way into the room and sat down by me. "I could never hurt you t'at way bien-aimé (beloved). If t'is person did t'is to hurt us, we can not let her do it." He opened his arms and I tumbled into them weeping. I had almost ruined something so precious.

Ciera spoke up from the phone. "I'll tell Adam and Paula what's really happened. Sounds like Kals has some other thinking to do, like how to make sure that person can never be trusted again." She said her goodbyes and hung up.

Marc picked up his sleeping child. "We will leave you two to patch t'ings up. Let us know if you need help getting this person out of your life." He took V's hand to help her up and away they went.

Sid stood there awkwardly for a second. "Bring Alex over to our place and we'll watch him while you two go out for a nice dinner. You deserve it." I felt Kris nod and heard Sid leave.

Kris held me while I cried myself out fully. When I was done and ready to face what needed to be done he smiled at me. "You are so beautiful, why would I want anyone else?" I blushed, not a good look when I was already a hot mess. "How do you want to let her know she was found out? How do we want to deal wit' this?"

I looked at him for a while before deciding. "She always had to have the best everything. I know she is working at the hotel you guys stayed at. I wonder what her boss would say if he found out about what she did. Using a key to get into a patron's room when said patron wasn't there and with the pictures as proof." Kris chuckled and shook his head. "It's a start at least."

He sighed. "Then get those pictures and I will look for the name and call them. It will sound better from me than from you." We got up and made our way to our room. Once there he tackled me into the bed and held me there. "That hurt my love, that you could think so badly of me. It will take me some time to get fully past this. However, _never_ again do I want you to sleep in another room." He wrapped me in his arms and we drifted on the calm after the storm.

Weeks later Alex and I found ourselves in Toronto ahead of going to Montreal to celebrate his birthday with the family. We had already said hello to Adam, Paula and Ava and were now heading to Ciera's Toronto place. When we got there I was shocked to find Celeste there. "Celeste! What are you doing here?"

"Kallie! Did Ciera not tell you I moved in with her? Come on in." She moved and let us in, noticing Alex. "Who is this little cutie?"

Alex hid behind me as he had taken to do in the last week. "Oh, this is my son Alex. We're visiting friends here before joining the family in Montreal for someone's second birthday. We'll try hard to stay up and watch daddy play the Habs in Bell Centre. Won't we little man?"

"Papa play now?" Alex asked. His favorite thing to do was watch Kris play. We wouldn't be getting to too many away games this year but the ones we did get to were going to prove fun.

"Not yet mon loutre (my otter). We need to talk to Ciera first and watch Oncle Frankie play remember?" His face lit up. We would be watching Frankie and his team take on another team tonight before going to Montreal afterward. We'd stay in our house and after we'd fly with the team to Boston before heading back to Pittsburgh, unless the team decided we needed to stay with them.

Ciera came home a bit later happy to see us. She pulled me into the kitchen under the pretense of getting snacks for us. "I know you're mad at her and won't be friends with her ever again but she needed somewhere to go after the debacle with her job and apartment. Forgive me?" She then got some healthy snacks for us to munch on as I answered.

"Do you trust her?" Ers shook her head. "Ok, are you keeping her here long?" Again she shook her head. "She's here so I can tell her off in person isn't she."

Ers handed me the drinks she found us. "Both of us actually. I warned the gang what she'd pulled too so they are aware. She's got a new boyfriend so she has somewhere to go." I giggled as we came back into her living room.

Alex took the cheese stick happily and munched away. That seemed to be Celeste's point to pounce. "So, how is your relationship going?" I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes at her.

I smiled and knew I had her where I wanted her, even if it was by Ciera's design. "Well we hit a bump in the road a few weeks ago but we're mostly past it now. There was an issue of trust that came up. It turns out that it had nothing to do with Kris at all."

The sad look on Celeste's face told me that she was sorry about something. Then she spoke and made me angry. "Poor Kallie, just can't seem to keep a man can you?"

I took a deep breath and looked at Alex. "Mon loutre, tu te souviens quand papa dit que je pouvais me mettre en colère et crier? (My otter, do you remember when papa said I might get angry and yell?)" Alex looked at me and nodded. Kris had told him about this just last night and told him not to be afraid that I was making our family happier. "Maintenant, c'est le temps, mais ce n'est pas à vous, à tous. (Now is that time but it is not at you at all.)" Alex smiled at me and then got into his bag for his book. He had been warned that maman was going to get angry but not at him, his world was good. I had switched to French to use it more with Alex and so that Celeste wouldn't know what I was saying. "Actually Celeste I know all about your pictures and what you made it look like was going on. I will say that at first I fell for it and even got very upset with Kris about it. Then it hit me, as he left to find proof I _would_ believe that he would never, could never hurt me like that. Who could do such a thing. _You_ could do such a thing, in fact you have before at least once."

Celeste blanched and while it seemed like she was about to deny it, I kept going. "Don't bother telling me you've never done it. I remember freshman year. Then I started looking at how you have treated myself and other people you call friends and came to a conclusion. I don't need your type of friendship in my life." I stood up and a little over her. "You're a user Celeste. A user and a jealous one at that. You never could stand anyone doing better than you, or having someone better in their lives. Your trick with Kris' shirt and such, backfired on you when he called your employer and filed a complaint. Yeah, I know all about that. I didn't know you'd lost your apartment until today but somehow I'm not surprised."

I had said my peace. I no longer needed or wanted her in my life. Ciera hadn't yet though. "She's right Celeste, in fact all of our old friends are also aware of what happened. We've decided that we don't need you and your using ways in our lives anymore."

The doorbell rang and I answered it. "Theo!" I said as I opened the door. He grinned at me and threw his arms around me.

"I'm so happy for you. Not only a hockey player but one who puts you ahead of almost anything." He walked in and shoulder bumped Ciera. "She been told yet?" His voice was colder.

"I was just about to. Celeste you have until I get back to get your shit out of my home. Theo will be here to make sure you don't fu... screw with any of my stuff. He will _not_ tote and carry for you. You've burned your bridges with all of us. Kallie is happy and with a wonderful guy. We, her _true_ friends, are standing by her and dumping the person responsible for the short term misery she had." She hugged Theo and I heard her thanking him.

Soon enough we were boarding our flight to Quebec City, Via Ottawa, to surprise Frankie by showing up to support him en masse, dad was already there covering the game for Le Droit. In Ottawa the rest of my family joined us. As we boarded our flight to Quebec City maman claimed the seat by Alex and before I moved she brought out a special jersey for Alex. It was a child size Remparts jersey with Oncle Francois on the back and his number. Alex clamored into it and grin like his life depended on it while I took a few pictures. I sent the best one to Kris with the caption of 'On our way, Go Oncle Frankie!'

A little over an hour later we were finding Dad at baggage claim and going to the hotel they were staying at. Alex hadn't taken his new jersey off, a few people had noticed and given us lots of ok signs. Once they were settled, dad called Pierre Sévigny and let him know that we were here. I heard the laugh and the assurance that we would stay a surprise until after the game.

The game was a great one. I hadn't seen Frankie play in a few years and to be able to do it with the rest of my family around, it was grand. The entire building booed when Victoriaville scored in the waning minutes of the third. We figured out why shortly after when the announcer spoke. "Votre attention s'il vous plaît avec ce but Victoriaville, série sans but de François Brassard se termine à 212 minutes et dix secondes. C'est un nouveau record! (Your attention please with that Victoriaville goal, François Brassard's scoreless streak ends at 212 minutes and 10 seconds. It's a new record!)" That sent the roof off of Colisée Pepsi. Shortly after the Remparts won 4-1. Now it was time to find Frankie and celebrate.

Alex had stayed awake through the entire game, thanks to his shorter naps on the planes. When I got us into the house in Montreal he was dead to the world on my shoulder. I locked up and took him upstairs to his room. I texted Kris once I was sliding into our bed. 'At the Montreal house, Frankie won his game and set a new LHJMQ record. Wish you were here.' Before I slid into the dream that was calling, I got a reply. 'Flower says he can't wear that jersey to the Bell Centre, he's also jealous of Frankie. I wish I was there too. See you Saturday.'