All That It Seems

40. Ex and the New Boyfriend

Sharynn POV

A weekend away with Trenton, at Richard's lake house, should be interesting.

When Richard called Sharynn to invite her down to the lake house she asked if it was okay if she brought her boyfriend. He said yes. Still, this would be awkward.

"Tell me more about your relationship with this Richie Rich guy?"

She could not believe Trenton asked that while they were on the way to the lake house. Richard invited her Sunday after church, she told Trenton about it at work on Monday. He agreed and they took Friday and Monday off from work. Trenton would get to know Richard Richardson, her ex, a lot better in the next four days. Not only that, she would be in the middle of two men vying for her attention.

She had to tell Trenton all the details of their relationship. It was only right.

"I grew up with Rich. Our mothers are best friends. We went through everything together. Started walking together, running together, school together, and church together. I didn't even have girl friends, just him till about middle school."

"Just friends?"

"No, I told you we dated. It was more of our mothers pushing us to date but I did start to like him that way. It was weird because we were good at being best friends."

"Not so good as boyfriend and girlfriend?"

She gazed out the window as Trenton drove out of St. Louis County, across the Missouri River, and into St. Charles County down Highway 70. Lake of the Ozarks was somewhere right in the smack middle of Missouri, between St. Louis and Kansas City, not far from Jefferson City, the state's capital.

They had so much driving to go, she might as well get everything out in the open. At first, she was not going to tell him that things were really good until they went bad. But telling him would help him have a clearer picture, and maybe help her.

"We were fourteen when we decided to be more than just friends, so young."

He was the first boy she ever went on a date with. The first boy she ever kissed. The first boy she was ever intimate with. Those were some of the things she did not have to get into.

"And our parents...hell, I think they picked out our wedding date when we were born. They pushed for us to be together. They were in our relationship more than we were."

Either of the two chaperoned their dates, drove them to their dates, or even sat with them while on their first few dates when they were younger. At the time, to her, it was pretty normal. Now she saw where it was a little too much.

"Things were good, at first. Richard, was this super smarty pants, ahead of all the other kids our age, so he graduated early and went off to college at only sixteen."

Before he left that summer, that was when they had their first time, and declared their love for each other, and that they would always be together. Young love was silly love to her, now that she thought about it.

"So he went off to Howard University and I stayed in high school. It's like we were on two different paths then. Grew apart. He met...some friends..."

The twins. Two girls that she knew were the reason Richard broke up with her. He was involved with one or both of them. When she went to visit him at Howard during her first year of college at eighteen, they were freshmen as well, and he was a junior. The way they clung to him was sickening.

He said they were just friends, but she was no fool.

"You know, looking back, it was all meant to be. We were not a fit for each other. We're trying out this friends thing."