Our Little Love Story *NOW PUBLISHED ON AMAZON KINDLE!!*

chapter twenty two

Shortly after the episode with Amber, Jared and I left Mike’s party. The whole scenario put a damper on things, to say the least. 

Climbing into his SUV, I sat quietly, thinking over what had happened earlier, and what Amber had said before Jared had walked over. 

“What’s wrong?” Jared asked. I looked over at him in the driver’s seat, resting his arms on top of the steering wheel. Worry and concern were written all over his face. 

“Well, it’s just that Amber, well, she---” I started, but Jared cut me off.

“Look, Tiff, don’t worry about her. She’s nuts. I think all of the makeup that she slathers on has soaked through to her brain or something.”

“Well, what did she mean when she said that you were hers before I showed up?” I couldn’t help but ask. The question had been burning in my mind since she’d said it.

Jared took a deep sigh, and then looked at me closely for a long minute before answering. “Several months ago, like six or eight months before I met you, so almost a year now,” Jared started, his shoulders slumping, “Amber and I dated, albeit very briefly. Like I said, she’s nuts. We were only ‘together’ for maybe two or three weeks. The first few days, maybe the first week at the most, were okay. She seemed normal, and sane. But then,” Jared paused, and looked intently into my eyes. Even in the dark of the SUV, I could see the honesty in his eyes; those gorgeous eyes that were the blue-gray color of the sky on a stormy day. “But then, well, she became increasingly possessive. She would show up at the farm and wait for me to leave. She was always at my house. She called me twenty times or more a day, and I couldn’t tell you how many texts a day she sent. It was a lot. Just extremely excessive. At first, I thought I was just imagining things. Then my brother and parents mentioned to me how much she was around. Even Kinsley said something, and that’s rare.” I watched Jared as he continued to tell me the story of his, apparently, crazy ex-girlfriend. “So, I tried breaking up with her. She wasn’t having it. Not one little bit. She practically stalked me, as if she wasn’t already,” Jared looked into my eyes, and then sighed, turning in his seat to look out of the front windshield.

“Oh, Jared, I’m sorry. I--I didn’t know. I didn’t realize---” I stammered. I suddenly felt incredibly guilty for thinking that I had really ‘stolen’ him away from Amber.

“It’s alright. I should’ve warned you about her before now. I guess I just figured that she had moved on with her life and was finally going to leave me alone,” Jared replied, turning back to face me. I lowered my eyes from his gaze and stared at my hands resting in my lap. I felt like an idiot now.

“Look,” Jared said, putting his finger under my chin and tilting my head upwards, “it’s no big deal, really. I’ll handle it. I thought I already had, but apparently she’s still entertaining her delusions.” Jared paused for a moment and shook his head. “Crazy bitch,” he muttered under his breath. “She really is,” he said, clarifying to me, as if I had thought he’d been talking about me. I smiled weakly back at him, but didn’t say a word. I wished that he had told me about her before, also. But I supposed that I could understand his reasons for not saying anything. 

Jared turned the key over in the ignition, his SUV in turn roaring to life.