Over the Fence

Chapter 3

Corinna)

Again, my mirror told no lies. A puffy face to fit a puffy body was all that I saw. No amount of makeup would fix this. Jesse would have told my I was still beautiful in moments like this.

"You were such a bad liar, baby." I grabbed his photo off the wall and stared at it for a while, smiling as I ran my fingers over his dimples. "I wouldn't cry so much if you weren't gone. We could have been old and wrinkly and happy together."

I sank to the floor and hugged the photo. I thought of the first time I had cried in front of him. We were talking about my parents and how I wished they could just understand why I chose Becky over them. He had lost his parents before I met him. Never once did he try to make me feel bad about not having a relationship with my own when his were taken from him. Instead he told me they were the ones who didn't know how much they were missing out by not seeing me for me. Then he kissed my tears and held me while I cried.

Not long after that, we had our first fight. Well at least I had my first fight with him. He was usually too calm to fight about anything. I was exhaused from working four doubles in one week to help Becky pay for Chelsea's dentist appointment. That week I was supposed to start planning our full sized wedding to make up for eloping. I was also moving into his tiny aparment which was more frustrating than I had ever guessed it would be. We both put things into storage but it was mostly mine since his place was already furnished to match the things he already owned. He had tried to remind me that it would only be temporary until we found a house. He honestly didn't say anything wrong. But I snapped. I said things about his "man cave crap" that I didn't mean. He begged me to calm down as I started tossing stuff that I insisted was "stupid" into the trash. Sighing, he would pull them back out and continue to try to calm me down while I tossed more in. Finally, when tears started streaming down my face, I picked up a box of my own things and headed out the door back to my car. I heard his footsteps behind me when I got to the exit. When I turned, he was carrying the small trashcan with the things I had thrown away and one of my bags.

"What are you doing?" I scowled at him.

"Helping." He smiled back at me.

I dropped the box I was holding and put my hands on my hips. "Is this your way of saying you don't want to live with me?" I couldn't help the tears that kept flowing.

Jesse put the stuff he was holding on top of my box and started to push the box towards the exit. "No, this is my way of saying I won't force to you to live with me."

 I sniffled. "So why is your stuff with it?"

"So when it grows on you, you can change your mind and come live with me. Leave this here. I'll go get more." He turned and walked back into the elevator, winking at me as the doors closed.

I stood in shock. There was no way he was going to just let me leave was there? Furious with him, I pushed the box back to the elevator and pushed the button. When the doors opened, he was still standing there, arms folded across his chest, smirking with one eyebrow raised. "Change your mind?"

"Why aren't you mad I'm leaving?" The water works started up again.

 Jesse wrapped his arms around me and pulled me as close to his body as he could get. "Because I know you well enough to know you're not going anywhere. This is a good day. We're going to live together. Stop crying, baby."

 I covered my face. "I probably look like shit."

 He pulled my hands from my face and put his eyes level with mine. "Never. You're always beautiful. Did you know your eyes change to a darker color when you cry? I can't help it, it's sexy." We kissed the whole six floor ride back up to his apartment.