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I never gave Jack the note she left him, not that it said anything, just her name and a phone number. It’s still folded up in the back pocket of my jean shorts waiting for me to be honest with him and hand it over.
“You okay?” Jack questions, his hand sliding over my bare stomach as he rolls toward me. “I know you’re not so don’t tell me you are.”
I shift away from him and climb out of bed. Grabbing for my shorts that are lying on the floor next to the bed, I pull the note from my pocket and hand it to Jack.
I can’t look at him while he reads it over, but I hear him crumple it up and toss it over to the small wastepaper basket. It lands with a soft thud and my eyes are drawn to it.
“That note is no use to me,” Jack announces, his tone now harsh. “I have no interest in what she has to say.”
“But she wants to talk to you.”
“I don’t care.”
Jack is now sitting next to me on the bed, his arm slipped around my waist and my head falling softly against his chest.
“I’ve told you everything,” he whispers into my hair. “I wouldn’t lie to you. You’re all I’ve ever wanted, and it doesn’t matter if she comes back a million times, the answer will always be the same.”
I nod slightly and Jack shifts, his fingers under my chin as he lifts my face so I’m looking at him.
“You have my heart, Lu. It’s been yours for fourteen years. She can’t take what was never hers to begin with.”
Again I nod, remembering what it’s like to lose something even when it was never yours. But this time, I’m certain this loss would destroy me.
The morning passes slowly and at our regularly scheduled time, Jack appears in the doorway to my office wearing his cheeky smile and holding two takeaway containers.
“You free for lunch?” he asks, teasingly holding up the containers.
“For you, I guess,” I reply back shrugging my shoulders and giving him a hard time, but making his smile grow. Any visitors?” I ask as Jack sits down.
“Nope and hopefully there won’t be.”
“I agree,” I say, this time adding a firmness to my voice that is my attempt at convincing myself to move on. Dwelling on this is getting me nowhere and Jack has never once shown me that he isn’t fully committed to what we have together.
I’m done being stupid.
Jack and I chat while we eat with Jack filling me in on how things are going with the crusher and his attempts at dragging out his time here. He’s still eluding at some big plan, but won’t give me all the details.
“Well, I gotta get back to work,” Jack says, collecting up our garbage as he leans over and kisses me.
“We should go out to dinner tonight,” I say, smiling at him and getting in another kiss before he walks away.
“Yes, let’s.”
Just as Jack is walking out Tommy is walking in. He greets Jack with a curt nod of his head but neither of them says anything.
If Jack’s going to stick around, this shit has got to end.
“Lauren, you got a minute?” Tommy asks, glancing over his shoulder to see if Jack has walked away.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“You know we’re like family, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So last night when Jack and I got back from picking up the tools a girl was waiting for him out front.”
“Yeah, I know,” I reply, trying ease Tommy’s mind that something isn’t going on behind my back.
