Bad Desire: New Beginnings - Fast Forward

Chapter 95

"Why are you crying Jess?" Jay pulled back and ran his thumbs under her eyes.

She could see he was trying so hard to hold back from teasing her as it was one of his natural traits to be incapable of taking things like this seriously. It wasn't that he hadn't seen Jess cry before but it was rare and especially due to it being over him.

"Shut up." She chuckled, watching a smile creep up onto his face before the ringing of his phone caught his attention.

He looked down at Jess apologetically for the interruption, realising whoever it was couldn't have picked a worse time.

"You can answer it." Jess urged when she realised he was going to ignore it for her sake.

Digging into his pocket, Jay then pulled it out to see Cole's name across the screen.

"Hello?" His previous soft voice was back to being harsh and abrupt.

Jess couldn't hear much of what was being said but she could make out Cole asking where Jay was and insisting he needed to hurry up. It was obvious they must have had plans that Jay being here was getting in the way of.

"I can't. You all need to go without me." He insisted causing a string of frustrated curse words to leave his brothers mouth.

"You'll live a few hours without me. I'll see you later tonight."

Jay didn't give Cole much to argue with after that as he quickly brought the call to an end. He wasn't up for negotiating, what he said, went and he clearly planned on staying with Jess that little bit longer.

"Jay, if you have somewhere to be-" Jess began but he just shook his head.

"We're not done here, they can wait."

She could have argued more and insisted he went but why would she? Having Jay with her for the first time in so long, sharing a genuine conversation was a rare occurrence nowadays, she didn't want to let go of it.

"Was it gang related?" She asked, deciding to take this opportunity to direct something that had continued to bother her.

"Yeah."

When Jess fell silent and just nodded her head, Jay looked at her questioningly. He knew that face.

"What?"

Sitting back against the sofa where Jay's arm was rested, Jess found herself not wanting to back away just yet. She finally felt a sense of calm through her and as though this exchange between them was one of the best they had experienced in a long time.

"When are you going to stop?"

"Stop what?"

Jess let out an aggravated sigh because she knew that he knew exactly what she was talking about. He was just trying to avoid it as he usually did, wanting to shut out any opinions from anyone else regarding this matter.

"The gang. All of this shit that's going to come around and bite you in the arse one day."

"You think I'm going to stop?" Jay began to chuckle. "Jess, come on..."

He didn't just look shocked that she thought he would ever stop but a little sad that she thought it too. He could never provide her with that reassurance.

"You're thirty years old; you've been doing this your whole life and achieved so much in this shitty world. Surely you can give it up now and do something more with yourself?" Jess stressed, the thought of the whole Buddy situation making her nervous.