Prelude to kisses

Chapter 54

"I'm going out for a jog, want to join me?" She asked Laura who sat at the couch with Chloe watching television.

"No thank you. Hey, don't be late, we leave in an hour".

"I'm only going to be thirty minutes.

Jackie kissed Chloe's cheek before she was out the door. The air was cool on her skin. This would be her second outdoor run, and she was still a nervous wreck about being seen. She just hoped that it would go as smoothly as last time. That she wouldn't run into someone she knew or worse trip on her feet and fall.

The park was quiet for a Saturday morning. She tied her shoelaces and from the park bench, she began her jog around the park. When she had made the round, she sat on the park bench, taking a gulp of water. She stared out into space, watching, feeling the wind on her skin, hearing the soft whisper it made. But she couldn't have imagined it, couldn't have mistaken him for someone else because she knew him. She knew him to a default.

She watched him run past a few joggers and had a longing to call out to him. She felt an ache to reach for him. She hadn't seen him since they broke up even though they lived only fifteen minutes from each other. When in the past, they would run into each other at the mall, now it was as though they were living in two different parts of the country.

Jackie looked at her watch, she got up to go, Laura would be waiting. They had a wedding dress fitting appointment and Laura's wedding was only two months away. It had already been a crazy few months since Chloe's father proposed. Jackie was prepared for more madness the closer the wedding date came. Up until a couple of months ago, Jackie had been hostile towards Chloe's dad. In a normal family dynamic, he would have come and asked for Laura's hand in marriage from their father, but with the way things were, he had asked Jackie instead. It warmed her heart. It was that step he had been willing to take that broke the ice, throwing Jackie into tears instantly.

The dress fitting went well. There was no doubt in both their minds that Laura made the most beautiful bride. She shone brighter that the chandlers overhead, Jackie couldn't help crying her eyes out. "If you're crying right now, imagine on the wedding day".

"You're just so beautiful".

It was probably the first time in their lives when the sisters were not throwing banter at each other and being so affectionate.

Everything with the wedding was going smoothly. She'd been invited to a friend's engagement party when she ran into him again. In a span of a week, they had run into each other twice already. She watched for a while, remembering how she watched him just like this the first time they met. He was still so beautiful. I always fall for the pretty boys, she thought.

She knew she'd never get back with him, but as she watched him speak to their mutual friends at the party, she could see why she had been with him in the first place. As she watched on, a woman came up to him and touched his arm. He looked down, and his eyes smiled. Jackie's heart fell right to her feet.

Still, she watched on.

The woman was small and petite. She was unbelievably beautiful, in a beautifully tailored red gown. She whispered something in his ear, and he nodded, his lips stretching into a wide grin. As they exchanged words together, it was as though they were the only two in the room.

Jackie took her eyes away, and emptied the glass of wine in her hand, setting it back on the table before making an exit. It was as though the universe was dangling him in front of her. Wanting her to remember the person she so desperately wanted to forget. It was all so unfair, because the past months just after their breakup she had wanted to see him. To run into him and now that she had decided she didn't want that anymore, the universe was putting him in front of her.

She sat at her desk, in her office later that night. Thinking about everything but nothing at all. Somewhere along the thoughts she opened her computer, and building found herself building a publishing powerhouse.