Loyalty

Chapter 46: Irrational.

A/N: I'm really for taking so long to upload a new chapter. School and work were taking up all my time. But now that the semester is over, I should be back on a regular schedule. I appreciate your patience with me! And thanks to @writterforquinn for helping me out with this chapter!

Brian's POV

Once Thanksgiving passed, Jess went into full Christmas mode. She had actually started getting into the Christmas spirit November 1st. To be fair, I start getting excited about Halloween months in advance too. We always said that Halloween was my holiday, and Christmas was hers. Once Halloween was over, Christmas was in full swing. I used to hate Christmas time until I met Jess. But I learned to love the holidays because Jess loved it so much. She got so much joy out of the little things during the holidays. It wasn't about gifts for her. She loved baking cookies, decorating the house, and listening to Christmas music. I loved how much she smiled during Christmas time, and I would do anything to keep that smile on her face.

One night I came home from filming to find Jess in the kitchen, cooking and listening to her Christmas music. When I walked in, a particular favorite song of hers was playing. It was Mariah Carey's version of "All I Want for Christmas is You." While the song was playing, she immediately grabbed me, trying to get me to dance with her as she lip-synched the words to me.

"Sorry, was that too cheesy?" she laughed, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Absolutely not. You don't have to apologize. I thought it was adorable," I insisted.

"Well, good. That song might be cheesy, but it's true. As long as I have you for Christmas, I'll be happy. Nothing else matters to me."

"Is there anything I can help you with?" I asked. It looked like she had most of the house decorated.

"I thought we could decorate the tree together. Plus, I'm too short to put the star on top of the tree," she laughed.

"Oh good, I'm glad I could be useful for something," I laughed.

"I'm glad you're home. I missed you," she said, pulling me in for a hug and squeezing me tight.

Unfortunately, Jess and I haven't had the chance to spend a lot of time together since we got engaged. The guys and I were just wrapping up filming season 6 of IJ, while constantly touring as the Tenderloins. Luckily, we always get two weeks off during Christmas time, so we would finally be getting a little bit of a break soon. Although Jess was generally in a good mood during Christmas time, I could tell that there was still something bothering her. I suspected that the time apart was starting to get to her. Although Jess always missed me, she always tried to convince me that she was used to it by now. She said that she knew what she was getting herself into before we started dating. But I think she just tells me those things to make me feel better, so I don't worry about her as much.

Since she's been missing me so much, lately Jess has been very affectionate with me, especially in public. Normally that's not something that I would complain about, because I don't mind having Jess all over me. But recently I've felt like it has turned into more of a jealousy thing. It's almost like she's marking her territory, but I'm not exactly sure where this is coming from all of a sudden. Jess isn't usually the jealous type. But maybe now she's feeling more protective over me and our relationship since we got engaged. Or she's just starting to miss me more now that the holidays are coming up.

Her jealousy got slightly out of hand when Jess and I encountered a female fan recently while on a date night. The fan was young, probably a teenager or early 20s. The fan wanted a picture with me. I was only slightly annoyed that she had interrupted our date night, but I still obliged to taking the picture. The girl spent a little too long hugging and touching me. Normally Jess would brush that kind of thing off. It comes with the territory, I guess. But something must have set Jess off. For the rest of the night, Jess was upset, making comments about how fans should keep their hands to themselves. And I agreed with her, for the most part. But sometimes I get put in an awkward situation, and I don't know how to say no to people. I don't ever want the fans to think that I'm ungrateful. But sometimes they need to respect my boundaries. The only thing I can do is try to make Jess feel more secure. She didn't have to worry about any of the fans, because I only had eyes for her.