After a messy divorce, Joe Jonas finds himself lost within the inability to move on with his life. That is, until he unexpectedly starts to feel a love he never thought he'd experience again, let alone with a stranger.
I never felt threatened by my best friend until last night, watching how they interacted the whole time. The small touches. The banter. The inside jokes. Sneaking off together.
It made my sleep all the more awful. I tossed and turned, every now and then tempting to wake Joe up, even though I turned him down numerous times before we officially went into a slumber. Why was I so awful at admitting my feelings with him?
"Merry Christmas," Joe's morning voice interrupted my therapy session with myself, "How'd you sleep?"
"Good," I lied, taking a sip of hot cocoa as I leaned against the kitchen counter.
He leaned in to give me a kiss, which I returned half-assed, "What was that?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry. Did I do something so wrong that I can't even get a proper kiss?" he remarked, starting the process of brewing a cup of coffee sloppily, clearly unhappy with how this Christmas morning was going, "Is it because of my dream? Because I can keep on reassuring you if that's what you need."
"It's because of yesterday," I quipped up, "All your time was consumed by Liv. Literally all of it. I don't think I spent a single moment with just you!"
"I didn't spend a single moment with anyone!" he pronounced, pressing down on the plunger on his Aeropress in a slow and steady motion.
"So what do you call being in a bedroom alone with Liv then?" I argued, "With the door closed, mind you!"
He set his finished cup of coffee down and looked at me, "Do you trust me?"
I hesitated, "Yes."
"No you don't," he contested, taking his cup to the living room and setting it down on the coffee table before kneeling down to start the fireplace.
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Following him, I sat on the couch, "I do trust you. I just... don't completely trust her."
Once the fire lit up, he sat next to me with the many questions my statement created, "If you trust me though, regardless of whoever tries anything with me, you should have that faith in me that I wouldn't reciprocate it. I wouldn't do that to you."
He got me there, "Okay. Maybe your dream had a little bit of an influence, but yesterday definitely didn't help."
"Why don't you trust her?"
I sat back, thinking of a way to word it without throwing her under the bus with me.
"Just say it," he kept a straight face, "Please don't dance around it or sugarcoat it."
He knew me too well.
"Your dream may have happened before," I uttered, "A few times."
Tilting his head, confusion showed right in between his eyebrows, "I honestly never would have guessed that."
"Liv and I shared... basically everything together since we've known each other," I confided, "I didn't care if they chose her because, in all honesty, I didn't even like them. So when you told me you dreamt that, it brought me back to all those times they realized she was so much better than me, and that scared me. It does scare me. I don't want you to realize you'd rather be with her than me."
"Taylor, Taylor, Taylor," he whispered, grabbing my face with his hands and putting his forehead against mine, "You are what I want. Nothing would change me to think—"
An unexpected knock disrupted our moment. We looked at each other, asking with our facial expressions if either one of us was expecting someone, to which neither one of us were.
"Coming!" Joe called out as more knocking continued.
I walked to the door behind him. If it weren't for his high security, I would've been on high alert for our safety.
He looked through the peephole as he didn't have his phone on him to look at the Ring camera, "Oh my god!" Unlocked the door in a hurry, three familiar faces appeared once the door opened.
"Surprise!" Liv exclaimed, handing Delphine to Joe as she and Willa threw themselves onto him.
Joe fell to the floor on his knees, clinging onto his daughters as if they would disappear if he let them go. "How?" he managed to speak as his chest heaved, unable to fathom a world where this was real. I never saw him cry this heavy before.
"Don't cry, Daddy!" Willa pouted, wiping her tiny hands on Joe's cheeks.
"They're happy tears, baby girl," he caressed her face and kissed the side of her head.
"You know when you gave me Sophie's number?" Liv spoke, leaning down and placing a hand onto Joe's back, "I may have used the cancer card to my advantage. I knew how down you were about not able to celebrate Christmas with them, and I wanted to do something to hopefully pay you back with how much you've done for me."
Joe gave Liv Sophie's number? Hell, Joe never even introduced me to Sophie before. Were you sure, Joe? Were you sure nothing would change you to think Liv would've been a better person to be with? She gave him his holiday dream that I never could.
