| All About Eve |
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Written by Kit Sheppard “Oh,” said Nik, like he just realized exactly why E= MC2, “so that’s what she can’t keep a man. Well, I thought it was that hairweave. I mean it’s so obvious!” He rolled his eyes, and took a sip of his appletini. Late, as I often was, to our Thursday night get-together, I often came in on the tail-end of a conversation that I refuse to ask questions about. Nik and Julie lived for celebrity gossip, and could spend the entire night gossiping about what Hollywood’s ‘finest’ were up to, if you’d let them. I often tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. “So,” I asked, after the waiter had taken everyone’s order, “what’s been going on?” Once everyone else mentioned what had been going on in their lives, since our last dinner, Eve, after taking a sip of her peach martini, told us what had been going on with her, and this time, it didn’t revolve around her children. It turns out that what’s been going on was that our newly divorced Eve was in crisis. She hadn’t dated or anything, since the divorce from Jin, her college sweetheart. After 8 years, three kids, and 2 dogs, Jin decided that he wasn’t connecting with Eve. He told her that he needed to be with someone that shared his Asian background. Jin, it seems, hadn’t even realized that he was missing out culturally until Christy, a 22 year old who, Eve would later find out, was only half Asian (hey, apparently half is better than none!), had started working at his firm. First, Eve had tried to be understanding. It was, she reasoned, just a phase. Next, she was hurt and angry, followed by desperate and pleading. She couldn’t believe that he was breaking up their very young family; they had a 7 year old and 4 year old twins(and, she had admitted to me in a drunken slur, her main concern was the dogs, they’d be lost without him!) After a short-lived attempt at marriage counseling, Eve found herself a lawyer, and they tried to have an amicable divorce (they would’ve had one, too, if Jin hadn’t been dead set on ‘his’ kids getting to know his new fiancé. That was the straw that broke Eve’s back. Anyway, since all of this was months ago, you’re probably wondering what has her in crisis… “You slept with him?!” Erin burst out. Out of all of us, she was the one least likely to piss on Jin if he were on fire. “I’m sorry. Let me calm down. I’m sure there’s a great explanation for why you would do that,” she said this in her most lawyerly voice, as she put down her fork and reached in purse for her cell phone. “Who are you calling?” Eve was almost afraid to get the answer. “Oh, I was calling the news station. I’m sure they’ll want to break the story that hell has officially frozen over, right?” It turns out that (big surprise) Eve was still in love with Jin, despite everything that had happened. He was the man that she had started her life with; the man that had handed her each of her children, moments after they were out of her body. He was the man that had helped her see the potential she didn’t even know she had. He had stood up for her when his mother was outraged that he was going to marry, not just a white woman, but an inbred, redneck, southern white woman (it only took the birth of her first grandchild for Jin's mom to stop calling Eve 'Becky Sue' and warm up to her). When she called him a couple of weekends ago to let him know that the kids were all sick with chicken pox and he wouldn’t be able have them for the weekend, he told her he’d come and help her look after them. After much protesting, she agreed and he showed up with some movies (both for the kids and the two of them), pizza, and a bottle of wine. After the kids were asleep, he told her how much he hated missing the day-to-day activities with them. How he wished he could be more a part of things, and if he cold go back he would do things differently. Eve wasn’t sure if it was the wine or the fact that she had been cooped up with the kids for so long (or, I reminded her, that she hadn’t had sex in months?), but she kissed him. Timidly, at first, then forcefully. She let out everything she had always wanted to tell him, express to him, but never had. She was always afraid that if she were truly herself, passionate, aggressive, unashamed of her sexuality, he would be turned off. Eve was, inwardly, always comparing herself to what she thought Asian women were like, demure and shy, quiet and reserved (clearly she has never seen any film featuring Lucy Liu). Now that she had lost him to an Asian woman anyway, there was no point in keeping herself contained any longer. She was wild, fiery, everything she had never been with him. They made love this way all weekend. On Sunday, the kids weren’t just better, she was better. She no longer felt bottled up or imprisoned. She felt like a new woman, better still, she felt like the woman she was before Jin, before the kids. For the first time in over a decade, Eve felt like Eve. And she liked it. She needed it. After Jin left, she soaked in the tub and promised herself that she would never compromise her true self (particularly her sexuality) for a man again. “Wow,” Nik sighed, “so what, are you guys getting back together now?” “I don’t think so. Honestly, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m done trying to fight for him. If he wants this family back, no, if he wants me back, he’s gonna have to start fighting for it. And it’s not going to be as simple as him just waltzing back into our lives; I won’t put the kids through a maybe; if he wants back in, it had better be a sure thing.” “I will tell you one thing, though,” she said, satisfied to finally have a story that had us on the edges of our seats, “he’s been calling me all week!” I can’t wait to see how this unfolds. We all let Eve know that she had our support if she was going to put her family back together (and Erin, being the cynic that she was, let Eve know that she also had our shoulders as soon as Jin broke her heart again). Later, I called Eve and let her know that ultimately, the decision would be hers and Jin’s, but to keep herself in mind, not just the kids. Too many times women let their own feelings get sacrificed for the sake of someone else’s. I know those kids need there dad, but I reminded her that the also need their mom, and they need her to be happy and healthy. It’s a sad, but true fact that too many kids come from split up families. No on e wants to see a kid’s family torn apart, but sometimes keeping an unhealthy family together can be just as bad. I also let her know that by the looks of things, little 22 year old Christy might just have to find her another man. Maybe this time she would find one of her own, not someone else’s. ---------------------------
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