"Are you guys back? You both look so sleepy"
Lizzy welcomed them home. Jewel checked her watch and dropped her jaw when she realized that it was 6 a.m already.
"I gotta run. My professor will kill me if I don't hand over the pending reports."
She didn't have much time. There was a lot of work pending to be done at the hospital though it was saturday.
She jerked off her shoe and ran to get ready. Jackson arranged the shoe in a straight line, while still holding onto her bag with one hand and found that his mother was grinning at him and her eyes looked moist.
"What, mom?"
"You know, this is the first time that you both actually spend quality time together, isn't it? Kind of like a date?"
"Date? It was something that happened out of impulse, mom. There was no prior plan. She showed me this amazing place. Actually a cafe and I just came to know that we knew so little about Iris Vallis. Let us go there some other time. Its quite healing. Do you know why this place is called as Iris Vallis?"
"How come I didn't know this!"
Lizzy exclaimed.
"About the cafe? Its not in the main city,mom. There was almost a 1 hour drive from her hospital. Also there is actually a whole story to this town."
"I am not talking about the cafe or this place, son. I am talking about Jewel and you. How dumb was I! I didn't know!"
"Know what?" Jackson was confused. Lizzy patted his head and said
"My dear son, being in love looks so good on you. You are glowing even though you didn't sleep the whole night. I should have known that you married out of genuine love"
Jackson rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and said:
"To be in love feels like magic but not being loved is not that fun, mom."
He smiled and there was a man who looked lost. The more time he was spending with her, the more he was opening up to her, he was falling harder. Since the age of 19,it has been this one woman in his mind. She motivated him, helped him become a better person, saved him mentally....all by just existing. Jewel didn't have to do anything to make him fall in love with her. It scared him to acknowledge that in maybe a month, this woman will leave him.
If only he was braver, she would have known earlier! If only she was attentive, she would have realised.
Who could understand the pain of being the one to love and not loved, better than Lizzy. She once shed tears for and believed a life like hell was perfect for her, just for a man who was her children's father, but never a man for her.
"I know. It hurts, son"
She hugged him and said "I am sorry for messing this up"
"No, mom. Its on me and Jewel. We married each other and failed as spouses" He smiled again and that mother saw pain on her son's face.
*************************************
"Hey, Mira? What are you thinking?"
Tisha tapped Mira's shoulder. She was not paying attention to the virtual seminar that just got concluded and everyone had started leaving.
"Ah, nothing much....just"
"Tell me....What happened?"
Mira sighed with effort and said
"I saw Jackson in the parking lot last night"
"Jackson? What was he doing here? Ah, let me guess....."
YOU ARE READING
Jewel and Jackson
Romance"I don't want a divorce" His declaration that changed her life. Jewel was 29 years old when Jackson came into her life. By that time, she was already a leftover in the arranged marriage market, while he had been in demand. She knew he was way beyond...
