Chapter 15
"Are you serious, Jen? You think you still love me?"
Jenna nodded slowly, sitting down on the edge of the bed while Cody knelt in front of her.
"Please tell me you're not just messing around with me again?" he pleaded softly, his blue eyes searching hers for the truth.
"Cody. I don't know. I think I do, but you have to understand that I've been away from you for a long time. Almost eight years. A lot had changed since then. We aren't the naive teenagers we were back then. I made a life for myself thousands of miles away, and it looks like you did the same for yourself."
"I had to Jenna, I didn't know what else to do without you. I waited for you to come home for three weeks before I finally started thinking that maybe you weren't coming back. I didn't do anything but go to work, come home, wait by the phone for you and sleep. Finally, I had to snap out of it. I knew I must have done something so wrong that made you up and leave, but to this day, I still don't know what it was. What did I do so wrong, Jenna, that made you leave me? Was I really that hard to live with? Was it because of that last fight we had?" Jenna had never seen Cody cry and right now it looked like he might start now. It pained her to see him in such agony.
Jenna couldn't say anything. She didn't want to tell Cody why she left him; she wanted him to keep thinking that she left just because they weren't getting along anymore. "We just...we just couldn't get along anymore...you know that...," she trailed off, thinking of that last fight in the kitchen.
Flashback
Jenna dragged herself up the stairs to their second floor apartment. She was dead tired. Glancing at her watch before she unlocked the door, she sighed. She was late. Again. She had just finished up her shift at the bar and it had taken longer than usual to get out of there tonight. She knew Cody was going to be upset. He expected her home right away after her shift.
She opened the door and shut it quietly behind her, slipping off her shoes and intended on heading for the shower when someone grabbed her arm in the dark. She let out of a squeak of surprise as the light turned on and saw that it was her husband. "Damn it, Cody, you scared me half to death!"
"Why are you so late?" he asked as he sat down in a chair.
"Shift ran late, that's all," she mumbled as she headed into the kitchen for something to drink. Cody sighed, got off the chair and headed into the kitchen.
"Why?"
"What do you mean 'why?', we just didn't get done on time. No big deal."
"It is a big deal. You're supposed to be home by 1:30. I can't stay up half the night waiting for you to get home. Some of us have to work in the morning," his said with his voice thick with contempt. He hated working first shift at that damn warehouse. It was boring and meaningless work and hardly paid anything, but it was the only thing he could find right now.
"No it's not a big deal. You could have gone to bed a long time ago. I'm a big girl, I know how to unlock the front door." she shot back. "You're only up right now to make sure that I'm not sneaking someone in through the window. Even though I've told you again and again that I am not cheating on you-:
"Why am I doubting that, Jenna? Why do I really doubt that right now? Look at how you're dressed! You look like a damn whore-" Slap! Jenna had slapped him hard across the face. Cody's hand went to his cheek where she had slapped him.
"Don't you ever call me a whore!"
"Well quit dressing like one!"
"I have to dress like this if you expect me to make any tips! Someone has to bring money home! Maybe you like living in this shithole, Cody, but I don't!"
