5. The First Lie

I knew he had lied to me, but was it important enough for me to be mad? I had to be angry with him. We had an honest and open relationship and it was unacceptable for even the smallest, dumbest lie.

In between my seat was a receipt. When I looked at it, it was for a store inside the mall. Dawson drove my car twenty minutes to the mall and lied directly to my face the day before. He never mentioned going to the mall. He told me he didn't find a thing, meanwhile this receipt showed he had found $40 worth of clothing.
I was more confused than anything. Our relationship was amazing. Why would he need to lie about this? Not to mention he didn't even ask me if he could take my car the whole way to the mall. Normally I would not care where he went but because he didn't have a license it was kind of a big deal.
I played out in my head what I was going to say when I got to work. I came up with several scenarios because what else was there to do in the twenty-five minute drive from my house to work?

When I got to work, I walked into the kitchen and there was Dawson standing there with a huge smile, excited to see me. I just threw the receipt down in front of him and stared him in the face. He looked at me with disappointed and walked away into the back room.
I had to follow him, I was waiting for an explanation. I looked at him and asked why he lied to me. He just stood there looking scared and sad and just said "I don't know"
But how could he not know? There had to be a reason he didn't want to tell me.
We just stared in silence as he continued to walk away from me. I was angry with him.

I was just thinking to myself...wait a second..why are you walking away from me and why am I chasing you waiting for an apology? This is unfair..I didn't do anything wrong here.

So I decided to walk away. I went back towards the kitchen. I gave it about five minutes and Dawson still hadn't come back.

    I thought about it and I made an excuse for him. I decided to myself that Dawson was probably too scared to tell me he went to the mall because it wasn't what we had previously discussed. And knowing how his ex was, he had every reason to be scared to tell me.

I went back to see Dawson and I just took him by the hand and told him that I loved him very much but lying in our relationship is something I would not stand for. I also told him that it was okay and I understood why he didn't tell me but from that day on he needed to be completely honest with me.
He hugged me and promised he would never lie to me again.

I didn't know it then, but that was the day, the minute, the very second I let him walk all over me. I broke and made excuses for him. When I thought it would be the only time, it turned out to be the first of many times.

In retrospect that should have told me something very important. But as we all know, LOVE IS BLIND.