לא היה מובן מאליו

[dukaine]

I'm not sure what this means in the context that I'm reading. A woman is looking for someone and she is withholding information from the guy who she wants help from to find him. She promises to tell him everything later if he will just help her out. She later lies to him to pursue a lead on her own. After the matter is resolved, she remembers that she promised to give her helper information, and she feels that she now needs to make good on her promise and apologize for lying.

אני חייבת לו התנצלות... הטרטור אתמול לא היה מובן מאליו

I believe the literal meaning of לא היה מובן מאליו is like "not obvious" or something like that, but I don't get it in this sentence. Is she saying like she made him believe she was serious when she wasn't? Is referring to the fact that she went behind his back? I'm I totally wrong about what the phrase means?

Thanks for the help!

 

[elroy]

What happened yesterday? Did all of the things you described happen yesterday? If so, then my guess would be that she means "This whole rigmarole wasn't something I could just take for granted." As in, she was asking for a lot and she should appreciate the fact that he went along with it.

 

[dukaine]

What happened yesterday? Did all of the things you described happen yesterday? If so, then my guess would be that she means "This whole rigmarole wasn't something I could just take for granted." As in, she was asking for a lot and she should appreciate the fact that he went along with it.

Yes, it all happened the night before. That makes sense, thanks for the response.