Where We Are

I hate you, but thank you, I love you.

(Jays POV)
I can't entirely blame Evelyn for the hell and hurt. To be honest, I wasn't exactly a saint either.

That night I found Evelyn in Zak's arms, I went to Beth's house after I took off.  And I had secretly been smitten since.
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I ran into her a few weeks earlier on my solo projects. I ran into her at a coffee shop that was at the same location I was shooting at.

The thing about Beth was that she was a childhood friend. The kind where you two are basically "betrothed" from birth? Yeah, like that.

Our families were extremely close my entire childhood. We dated through high school but broke it off after graduation because she was going to study abroad for 2 years in Italy and I didn't want to go with her.

Gosh, Beth. I thought of her every now and then. She's the type of girl you keep in "recently searched" on Instagram just to sneak a peek at her life when you're lonely.

We hadn't spoken in years so you can imagine the surprise when we saw each other.

"Jay? Jay Wasley? Oh my word, it's been so long!" She said coming in for a hug.

"Beth! How are you? You look great! How have you been?" I asked her.

We spent 4 hours at that coffee shop. I briefly spoke of Evelyn and showed her photos of Dallas.

We ended the coffee shop conversation by her slipping me a business card with her number.

"Call if you're in the area again or if you'd like to grab a bite to eat before you wrap up filming." She said with a wink as she gathered her things.

Twitter pated. Butterflies. Warm cheeks as a I blushed.

I called her later that night and every night after that while I was filming. With a week left, we had plenty of time to catch up.
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We met for dinner the last night I was there.

After eating, we walked around the park. We spent the night laughing and talking like no time had passed.

Once I took her home, we kissed in my car. The weirdest thing was that I didn't feel like it was wrong.

Looking back, I realize now that that's probably how Zak and Evelyn felt when they'd sneak around.
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I left Evelyn in a puddle on Zak's driveway that night and didn't look back.

It was as if Evelyn had a double edged sword and stabbed me in the heart with one end but cut the ties and set me free to be with Beth with the other side.

In the same sentence, I could've told Evelyn I hate you, but thank you, I love you.