𝔪𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔪𝔢

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔱𝔶-𝔬𝔫𝔢

you took me by surprise.

"Good night, Daddy," Jimmy said as Tyler closed his bedroom door and headed downstairs. He and Jacey hadn't said much to each other since he got her to stay a few hours ago. She kept to herself, mostly lying on the couch in her thoughts or napping, as he did other things to keep Jimmy occupied and away from Jacey. He walked down the stairs and noticed she had moved from the couch to the loveseat. He had ordered Chinese for them both, which had arrived not too long ago, to hold them over for the night if it took that long for them both to get out what they needed to say.

He took a seat on the couch and looked over at her. "Whenever you're ready, I'll be listening."

"Can we set some rules first?" She asked as she sat up and folded her legs.

"Like what, my love?" He questioned, making himself comfortable.

"No arguing. No judging. No yelling. Listening. Let the other finish a thought before the other speaks..." She trailed off, not knowing what other rules needed to be set for this night of talking.

"Whatever you want, babe."

"I don't know where to start." She admitted, pushing a stray hair from her face.

"You can start with those pictures; you're so insecure about them," Tyler suggested, leaning forward, his voice hinting at annoyance.

"I just said no judging." Jacey reminded.

"I'm not. I was just giving you a place to start, but you're judging me," he retorted as he scratched the back of his head.

"It was the way you said it," she told him, defending her comment.

"Okay, well, you mentioned pictures and being insecure. Let's talk about that." Jacey rolled her eyes. "New rule, no eye rolling."

"This is arguing." She ran her hand over her face, causing Tyler to chuckle, which caused her to laugh.

"So about those pictures." He mentioned again, getting them back on task.

"Lucas posted pictures of you out in some club, and you had girls all over you. At first, I wasn't that bothered, but then there were a bunch of pictures of you and this one girl." Jacey paused as she looked down at her hands.

"Can I explain?" He asked, noting the look on her face.

"Not yet, I'm not done," she said before continuing. You two were dancing, sitting together, and she was whispering in your ear. And it didn't seem like you really cared who saw or how things looked." She wiped a tear from her eye before it could fall.

"I was dancing with multiple people, but it didn't mean anything. I was just dancing, then I stopped. The girl that you saw in the pictures asked me why. I started telling her about you and everything that was going on between us. The reason she was in my ear was because it was loud. We were in a club. Things would have looked even worse if we would have left." Tyler didn't take his eyes off of her the whole time he spoke, waiting for her to lift her head and look at him. He was telling her the truth, and he hoped to God she knew he was.

"You promise that's all that happened?" she asked, her voice low, as she lifted her head. Their eyes met for the first time since they started having this conversation.