Ashley took some great photos of Emily and we were only there for about an hour. Jared was on his phone texting most of the time and I knew that he was pissed off at me. He tried to hide it, but it showed in the way he carried himself. I walked over to stand next to him only to let him know my plans. "I'm going to take Emily to the park before I drop her off. We're all done here." I watched him get up with the most annoyed look on his face.
"Yeah, that's sweet that you want to spend time with Emily before your date. However, we are still married and that sweetheart, makes you a cheater too." He let me know exactly how he felt about my decision to move on.
Ashley realized things were getting tense and ran over to break up any potential arguing. She stood between us, clearly trying to defuse an impending fight. She turned toward him, "Jared, as always it was so great to see you. How's that handsome brother of yours?" She smiled sweetly and put her hands on her hips.
She was such a good friend and was there for me, helping out with Emily and just like my mother, even after everything happened with Jared, she was still nice to him.
"Oh, you know Shannon, he's doing good. I'll tell him that you said hi." He teased her as he walked to the door. "See you Ash, later Em." Without saying another word to me, he left.
I sighed loudly, watching her, "I'm sorry, but he is such an asshole sometimes. He wants to call me a cheater, but at least I didn't lie and go to a hotel with a guy behind his back!" I let out a deep breath and walked over to take Emily's hand.
"Oh honey, he is just jealous and that's not going to change. His little ego is hurt, but he will get over it, you'll see. I just hope that your date goes well and I expect a phone call with all of the details tomorrow." She reminded me. I hugged her and watched her lean down to kiss Emily on the cheek before we walked to the door.
"I will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the photos. I'll see you later Ash."
I took Emily to lunch and then the park before dropping her off at mom's. I went home to do a few things around the house. I was so nervous about this date even though I had known Matt for a while. He was also a musician and knew Jared. I wouldn't say that they were friends, but they definitely knew each other. I was really dreading the day that he found out it was Matt I was dating.
After cleaning, I took a shower and straightened my hair. I got dressed and was applying my makeup when I heard the knock at the front door. "Shit!" He was early. I opened the door to see Matt standing there, grinning like crazy. He looked really nice even though he was the exact opposite of Jared, very tall and very blonde. There were few similarities which as they were both singers in a band and had blue eyes. Matt stood there towering over me, the few tattoos on his arms were well hidden underneath his sleeves. He looked me up and down. "You look beautiful Kristen."
"Thank you. You look very handsome tonight Matt." He told me that he made reservations at a nice restaurant. My only hope was that I didn't feel so awkward going out on a date with another man.
