Lethal Lust

28 | tell the truth

It would be the last time.

Before Elijah had departed, they'd both agreed. It'd be the last time they'd be close in a way that two friends shouldn't be.

They'd not been intimate per se, but that didn't matter. He was to be a married man in five short days and she was not the woman who he'd swear to love 'til death do them part.

But why when he slipped into his own home in the early hours of the morning and was welcomed with Jess who had waited up for him did he feel not only a sense of despair and emptiness but a sense of sorrow as though something that could've been had been lost.

"Hey." The voice rang from within her softly, for she'd been crying only hours before. Not because she was a weak woman who needed a man to love and hold her but because for the second time in the past six months, she felt she was losing someone that had become a part of her very being.

Eight years, nearly a decade. If something that had lasted that long could be destroyed so easily, what did that say about love?

"Hey." He responded, not quite meeting her tired gaze. He felt the guilt course through his veins at the fact that he'd come from another woman's bed, even if they hadn't engaged in intercourse this time. But guilt isn't the same as regret.

"We're supposed to be getting married in five days."

"I know."

"When did things turn so sour? When did we become so wrong?" She whispered, every ounce of strain present in her voice as she uttered the words.

"I wish I could answer that without upsetting you," Elijah answered honestly. The truth was had things ever been sweet when Pattie had always been there, lurking in the shadows waiting to tell Elijah off as though he were a child every single time Jess was upset.

"Maybe that's the problem. Maybe we should both stop treading on eggshells around each other, and be honest? How can we promise to love and cherish each other on Friday when we can't even do that now?"

He half wanted to laugh at her statement. Did Jess really believe she was treading on eggshells around him, she spoke her mind and did as she pleased regardless of how he felt.

And maybe just maybe, if she hadn't made that decision to bring Kylie over for six fucking months, nothing would've changed. He'd have continued being controlled by Pattie and Jess and would never have recognised that a better life could've existed for him.

"You want me to be honest with you?" He spat out. "You really want me to be honest with you?"

"Yes, that's what I'm asking you for!"

"I never wanted Kylie here, not for a week and certainly not for six fucking months. I never wanted to be celibate, I only agreed to that for you. And the way you announced the pregnancy...why was I told with everyone else, why didn't you think highly enough of me to tell me first? It was my baby too. After the miscarriage, Pattie came to live with us and yeah, I get it. She's your mother, of course, you'd want her there. But why is she still living with us now? Nearly three months later. Why didn't I get a say in that?" He rambled continuously, letting all the built-up frustration leave his body.

Jess blinked once and then twice confused at the response she'd received, "is that it? If you had a problem, why didn't you just come and speak to me about it?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? I did tell you! I told you every single time that it wasn't what I wanted. You just never heard me, or you never wanted to hear me."

Jess wanted to yell at him to stop being so petty. That everything he'd just complaint about was minute in the grand scheme of things. Of course, she'd want her best friend at her wedding and as soon as she'd realised it'd been a problem, she'd made her leave. Although of course, Elijah had a problem with that too.