PATIENT LOVE

Chapter thirty-four

"W-what are you doing here?" I'm embarrassed as my voice noticeably falters.

Instead of responding, her tall frame strides right past me, entering my home, looking around as if she's inspecting it all.

"Jessica I said, what are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?" my voice is less frightened and my arms cross over my chest.

"I saw him come to you, you know? After the Halloween party. Followed the car and here you both were, fighting and then kissing. I saw it all!" her voice is harsh, glare almost deadening.

"This thing going on with you and Harry is over," she seethes.

"You don't decide that."

"Excuse me? "

"I don't know what you expect me to say-" I start.

"How about why you're sleeping with my fiancé?"

"There's nothing I can say to justify what I did other than the fact that it happened, it wasn't like we planned it, it just happened." The words come out with every ounce of truth.

"You think you know everything, that you've got it all figured out. News flash, you don't know shit. I've been with him through his darkest days. He was just a lost cause before I fixed him. But now he's bored with me. What's to stop him from cheating on you with the next girl who comes around?"

"He wouldn't do that."

"I used to be so sure of the same thing. If he could do this to me, what makes you think he wouldn't do the same to you?" she repeats.

"He loves me."

I watch in a second how Jess' face molds into one of disgust. "You bitch," she spits right before her hand connects with my cheek. The sting happens almost immediately and the involuntary tears form at the corner of my eyes.

"Oh he loves you, doesn't he?" she snickers.

"Get out," I say through clenched teeth, not retaliating since I understand her anger, how I wronged her.

"You don't know him at all. He's mine."

"You and I both know he hasn't been yours for a while."

"Oh yeah? Why don't you ask him where he was this morning, what we were doing?"

"He was working on an assignment." I say and she laughs. The longer I stand there in front of her boasting expression I can't help the enormous wave of doubt that strikes through me.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" her voice is a deathly whisper. "Hurts to be lied to, let down." With a final glance at me she strides over to the front door, stopping to say one more thing.

"Make sure to ask him."

And then she's gone. And I'm left here to dwindle into broken pieces, to convince myself that she's lying about them together, that whatever it is, is just a misunderstanding; something Jessica wants me to believe but somehow I know it's not.