Just Play Along

Chapter 2 - Thirty-Three & Thirty-Four

Chapter Two

*Jess’ POV*

PART THIRTY THREE

I woke up to my blaring alarm clock, my dream cut short. It was that dream again. The one where I relived every second of every moment when everything had happened with Aston. I don’t know why I always had that dream, but I did. And then I would be annoyed with myself for even thinking about it. We had sex once, and it most definitely was not happening again.

Pushing my bed covers off I swung my legs out of bed and dragged myself to the kitchen, filling up the kettle and grabbing down my favorite mug. While I waited for the water to boil I turned the television on in the lounge, flicking through the news channels to see if anything had happened while I’d been asleep.

“Morning,” Marnie called through to me.

“You’re up early!”

“Job interview today,” Marnie replied. Marnie was probably the least likely person in the world to be my closest friend and flatmate. We had almost nothing in common, and our personalities were complete opposites. While I was hardworking, driven and focused, she was a total flake who had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. She couldn’t keep a job, and she bounced around from industry to industry on an almost weekly basis.

“With who?”

“Don’t laugh!” Marnie replied, “To be a nanny.”

I had to hide a smirk, “Sounds fitting.” That’s how Marnie and I knew each other. Her mum had been my nanny from the day I was born. She’d bring Marnie, her only child, around all the time because her husband had left her before Marnie was even born. Marnie had grown up practically as my sister, minus the whole having an Earl for a dad thing.

“I don’t know if they’ll want me,” she sighed, “My CV isn’t really that glowing.”

“Just be fun, smile a lot! Its more about personality,” I shrugged, wandering into the kitchen to fix my cup of coffee.

“I guess,” she said, “You busy today.”

“Meetings till eight,” I replied.

“Wow, I don’t get how you do it!”

“Do what? Work?” I asked, sipping my hot coffee.

“Well yeah. And for like twelve hours a day.”

“I don’t mind it,” I shrugged, “I like my job.”

“It’s just crazy how you juggle work with your family life, and now with having Aston around too.”

“Yeah…” I sighed. Aston. That taboo word.

After everything had happened things had gone a little bit weird between us. I guess it was inevitable, but it was still kind of annoying. I really didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about us. It was just for show, that was it. I was seriously too busy with work and my family to be able to fully commit to a relationship, and I’d told myself from a young age that the best way to get around being such a disappointment was to block out any sort of feelings. I’d watched my parents go through such a rollercoaster of emotions over their own marriage. I didn’t want that. So I put up a front.

As it was I’d only seen Aston three times the month of November. He was busy traveling the country promoting a new album and single, and I was in the midst of some very important meetings at work surrounding a new national healthcare law. The three times Aston and I did meet up were awkward, and we didn’t talk a lot. Luckily they were all appearances at events where we didn’t really get a chance to speak anyways. Either way, we hadn’t said anything more about that night.