Chapter 5 has been written and sent to my beta and pre-reader to check out before I post. While we are waiting a few days, here is a little teaser for what's coming up...
As we sat around the table drinking, talking and stuffing ourselves on the Chinese food I had brought, I watched the interaction between Jasper and Bella. I could tell that they were very fond of each other; both comfortable with showing affection for each other and talking animatedly of their time at school. Bella recounted how Jasper had listened to her for hours gushing about her first boyfriend, some guy called Mike Newton, even though she was pretty sure that Jasper had a crush on him too.
Jasper had looked at her in shock at her words, startled enough to blurt out, “I never had a crush on that weasel, Mike Newton. Seriously, Swan. You are delusional.” He rolled his eyes at her and shook his head.
Bella blushed beautifully, “Jasper Whitlock, don’t you lie to me. You spent hours talking about Mike with me. You so too had a crush.”
“Bella, sometimes you are so clueless. I talked to you about Mike Newton because that’s who you wanted to talk about and that’s what friends do! Mike fucking lame ass Newton was not the person I had a crush on in senior year!”
Bella looked crestfallen for a minute, “Oh…of course…Lauren.”
Hang on a second. Lauren is not a fucking boy’s name!
Bella looked down at her hands clasped on the table top and hid behind her curtain of hair for a minute, completely missing Jasper rolling his eyes at her again. But I did not. I suddenly knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jasper had meant Bella.
Ohhhh...Jasper swung both ways. Bella conveniently left out that little nugget of information!
This was not good news.
Bella finally looked up and glared at Jasper, before snarling at him. “Jasper, I’ve never understood what you saw in the skank. That Bitch hated my guts and made my life miserable. I’m still a little pissed at you.”
Jasper reached out his hand and gripped Bella’s fingers which were clenched into a fist. “Okay, okay, I admit that hooking up with Lauren was probably a big mistake. Are you happy now?”
“Probably a big mistake, Jasper?” Bella questioned.
I burst into laughter as Jasper fluttered his eyelashes at Bella, which was completely at odds with his very masculine presence. “Are you two seriously still arguing about a hook-up that happened ten years ago?”
Bella and Jasper turned towards me at my words, both looking at me rather sheepishly. Jasper shrugged. “It’s what we do; we reminisce about the good ole days.” He said in his deep southern drawl as he drew Bella into his arms for a hug.
I was almost certain by the end of that first night that Jasper still did, in fact, continue to have that crush on Bella. She, I was certain, had absolutely no idea. I comforted myself with the knowledge that if Jasper hadn’t told Bella by now of his feelings, then he was never going to, for whatever reason. I briefly wondered why he never had.
I don’t mind telling you that I was hesitant about leaving them alone at Bella’s apartment the next morning, but I had to head off to work and the thought that Bella was oblivious to Jasper’s feelings, made it marginally easier to leave them. I made it through the few days Jasper was in town by becoming quite good friends with the guy. What is that saying again? Keep your friends close and people who fancy your fiancé closer.
So that’s what I did. I planned ways to get closer to Jasper, to get to know him and reassure myself that he had no designs on my fiancé. In following this plan though, I found that we had quite a bit in common, and it turned out that I actually liked spending time with him. Bella was so happy that we got on so well. She didn’t say anything, but I could see her sitting there in the chair watching us joke around and getting lost in long involved conversations about books, classic boys’ movies and favorite bands. Her shining eyes and the little smile hovering around her mouth was enough to tell me how she felt about her two favorite men hitting it off.
Suzanne
No comments:
Post a Comment