A Little Big Crush

Jazmin

But even the next day, when Lizzie sat on the kitchen table, forcing herself to write at least one hundred words for her article due the next morning, nothing came out. She couldn't get the message from Jazmin out of her head. Even though she had erased her message and promised David she wouldn't answer, it was hard to forget the nasty things she said to her. Lizzie knew it came from anger but she couldn't help herself from wondering more about David's ex.

Before she thought better of it, she pulled up google on her browser and minimized her word document.  She clicked on Facebook and typed in the name Jazmin. Not surprising to her, there were many Jazmins and they ranged from living in New York City all the way to San Antonio, Texas. She scrolled down the list, trying to see if any of the profile pictures were the same from the one last night. After ten names' worth of Jazmins, she landed on one that she thought was a winner.

Jazmin Oakley.

Once she clicked on her name, she immediately knew that it was the same person who messaged her the previous night. Her profile picture was the same one. But this time, since she was looking at her profile and it was on her laptop this time, she got a better view of Jazmin. Her profile picture was a selfie, her arms were stretched out as if she was holding the phone above herself to get the best angle and her lips were pouted in a "duckface" pose. Jazmin had dark, straight hair which was draped in front of her, a visible mole between her nose and right cheek, and a low-cut top that showed the crests of her breasts.

Lizzie scrolled down to the woman's photo section. She went through her photos- mostly they were of her friends, family, and some of her teenaged son with the caption- luv of my life. But no photos of her and David.

She then scrolled through her wall, trying to see if she mentioned anything about David or her. Most of her posts were bars she went to, random places she checked in to, political posts, and more selfies with the same duckface and low cut tops where the captions were always "Feeling myself today" with a happy emoji.

Her fingers stopped moving over the keyboard when she saw a couple of posts from three years ago where she talked about and tagged David. One was talking about how she came back from a trip to find David and her son waiting for her in the airport, and how David was a great "step-father" and role model for her son. Another picture and post was David's birthday party where there was a clear 80's theme- everyone was dressed up and the caption read "Had sooo much fun preparing my luv's b-day party."

Lizzie saw in the comments that David responded four years ago saying "Love you babe' with Jazmin responding "luv u more" and ending with a heart emoji. Though this was many years ago and before Lizzie came into the picture, it still twisted at her heart to see him, in writing, express love and affection for her. Of course, Lizzie knew this had to have happened, but seeing written evidence of it still hurt.

Besides that, there was no mention of her or their current situation at all in her posts. Jazmin was probably smart enough to not air her dirty laundry. Sighing, she disconnected her internet and continued writing her article on her word document.

After about thirty minutes of pure writer's block, she picked up her phone that laid right beside the laptop and called Andrea. For things like this that were troubling her, text wouldn't work. She needed to hear her voice.

"Hey," Andrea said, sounding a bit surprised. "How are you, girl?"

"I'm...okay. You won't believe what happened last night."

"Ooh, you had hot and steamy sex with your man?" she asked.

"Yes, but not in the way I wanted," Lizzie said, automatically standing up to pace around the room.

" Why?"

"I got a facebook message from David's ex."

"What?!"

Lizzie pulled the phone away from her ear, face scrunched at Andrea's screech.

"Yeah, I was about to take a shower and got the message. She basically told me that I was a snake for taking him away from her and that he's going to leave me and come back to her anyway. Overall, she threatened me to stay away from him."

"Why would she send that now? You've been dating him for a year."

Lizzie sighed, shaking her head as she covered her eyes with her free hand in frustration. "Gia posted an Instagram video of David proposing to me from yesterday and she probably saw it."

"Hmm...and she sent you a Facebook message instead of Instagram, where she saw the video? Sounds dumb," Andrea said.

"Yeah, really dumb." Recalling it now and saying what happened out loud caused a whole new wave of anger to course through Lizzie. She clenched her fist tightly as she remembered that woman's words. What a psycho and how uncalled for.

"Did you tell David?"

"Yes, I dropped my phone after reading it and he immediately came into the bathroom, read it, and blocked her from contacting me on Instagram. He said she wants to get back at him and he blocked her from his accounts before but he believed she created a new one to keep tabs on him."

"Wow, what a nutjob. That's Glenn Close Fatal Attraction right there. Normally, I wouldn't agree with a guy just taking a girl's phone and blocking people from it, but in this case, I'm with David. I know my gut would be to respond back to her but it's good he didn't let you. I wouldn't want you to do that either. No point," Andrea said.

Lizzie nodded even though she knew her friend couldn't see. Andrea was very similar to David- both are level-headed and cool under pressure. "Yeah, but...right now I looked her up on Facebook."

"Lizzie! That doesn't make anything better."

"I know, I know," She continued to pace again, wandering aimlessly to the kitchen and opening and closing drawers. " I couldn't help myself. I can't concentrate on work now so i just looked her up. I wanted to see if she wrote anything about me and David on Facebook. Nothing. But now, I feel like I want to explore more. I want to answer back."

"I get it. You got blindsided by her and now know that she is following your online movements so you want to find out more about her. I get it. Did David say he would handle it?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah," Lizzie said, taking out a plate from one of the cupboards for no particular reason before placing it back where it belongs.

"Okay, so you have to let him handle it. David adores you. I know everything will be okay. Don't give in to answering her. That's what this woman wants."

"I know, I know," Lizzie said, nodding her head again. " It's just... Work can't distract me this time and I'm alone here and lost in my thoughts..." she trailed off, hating herself for feeling a wet tear slip down her cheeks. God, what a baby she was. Letting random words on the internet affect her. In her mind, she understood that Jazmin was hurting and was just lashing out at her because of jealousy. But in her heart, the emotional part, she felt hurt. It was unexplainable and irrational, but she couldn't stop herself from feeling it, especially when all of this just happened last night.

Lizzie heard Andrea tsk tsk. She finally said, " I know what you're doing now. I'm your best friend and you are trying to rationalize, which makes you think about it even more. Today's slow so I can leave the office early and head over to your place. We can have lunch and try not to think about this, alright?"

Her heart lifted and she smiled, feeling a giddiness she hadn't felt since she was a girl bubbling within her. "Yes, perfect. I'll meet you in half an hour at our coffee shop."

"Great. See you there."

Once Lizzie disconnected the call, there was a quickness to her step as she walked to the bathroom to put on her makeup. She vowed to herself that she wouldn't even look at any of her social media apps as she got her car keys and drove to meet Andrea.

She was proud of herself when she kept that promise.