"No," he spat back.
"What did you say, I asked you to leave, now go." she said.
Jaden was in turmoil. Her body craved this man desperately. Even as he stood before her, his blue eyes blazing with lust and confusion.
"Jay, please let's talk about this, we use to talk about everything, except the sexual tension. Now you know how much I crave you and I know you feel something for me. Why won't you give it a chance? Why are you trying to push me away?"
Jaden stood firmly with her exposed breast heaving slightly with each intake of air.
"I...I thought you were a different person." she said, bending down to pick up her t-shirt. "You can't build a relationship on lust." she said it almost breathlessly, as the shirt slipped easily over her head, covering her dangerous curves.
Her anger was dissolving and in its place was the sinking feeling that she was losing what could potentially be a great love of her life.
"Baby, we obviously have more than that." Tristan said, he took slow steps toward her, trying not to scare her off or worse make her angrier. "Don't you see we have the chance to have something more?"
"I mean Jay, isn't the sex and lust a bonus?" We have the same corny sense of humor, we like the same music and movies. And most importantly I know I can talk to you about anything."
Jaden was annoyed now, he was standing directly in front of her, her arms crossed over her breast. Now was the time to tell him she knew everything.
*********
Dan had been calling her frantically the entire weekend. The last time they were together she told him it was over. They had been through a lot, but it wasn't going to work now. It was too late she said.
He was pacing back and forth in his room. A huge space that now seemed like a cramped box. He couldn't let her go he just couldn't.
Just then the bedroom door opened "Hi honey," said Alicia, with a bright smile on her face. A smile that was slowly starting to fade as she noticed the look on Dan's.
"What's wron-" she started, but Dan put a finger to her lips.
"Alicia, we have to talk."
*********
"You can tell me anything? Really T? If that's so true why did you never tell me you had a girlfriend, Mr. I can tell you anything."
"Am I really just a piece of ass? I didn't want to believe it, I made excuses about how you would tell me something like that. I was fooling myself, but I know it's true and I just can't be the other woman." she said it as fast as she could.
He took her in his arms feeling like he probably lost her for not being honest.
"I fucked up, not telling you baby, but we were really just friends. we've been through so much we couldn't admit we were going our separate ways." Tristan paused to look Jaden in the eyes, slowly he continued.
"For a long time now Kim and I have been just friends, we haven't been physically or mentally intimate for almost a year. All of our conversations were just surface, because we've been too scarred to move on."
"Wait a minute, what Kim... " they were startled by the buzzing of Jaden's cell. She ignored it and focused again on Tristan. "Who's Kim?"
Now it was Tristan's turn to be confused "Kim is-was my girlfriend, but I officially ended it. After that night with you, I realized I had to. I took a train after work the next day to tell her everything."
Again Jaden's cell buzzed in the distance. But she ignored it. Jaden felt sick, she had been torturing herself for nothing.
"I rushed home to finally be honest with you and you were gone. I thought you were having second thoughts about us, I had to find you, I had to show you we could be perfect together."
She looked into his piercing blue eyes, they were heavy with concern. Maybe he did feel something more than lust. She was an idiot.
********
"I'm not going to lead you on anymore. I love you with all my heart honey, but I'm not in love with you." Dan said everything staring blankly at Alicia.
"When we met I told you I didn't know if I could be in a relationship because of my ex. I even refused to speak her name, but now she's back in my life, and I can't lose her again."
Alicia stared back at Dan. She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again. Her eyes were watering heavily, but she willed them not to spill.
"Alicia, please don't hate me. I haven't been sexually invovled ok? But I can't lie to you anymore." Dan stepped forward to touch her.
He didn't want to be cold, he wanted her to say something. Instead she flinched back, like his touch was tainted.
She wanted to be strong like Jaden, but she was made of fairy tales and wishes, her life had not yet experienced true deceit and unhappy endings.
So she did the only thing she could, she cried. Dan was her first serious boyfriend, the man she gave her virginity to. The man she expected to marry and live their power lives together before she got pregnant with their 2.5 children and moved to the suburbs.
It was too much, to much, she stepped back to try and make it to sit on the bed, but she couldn't and instead dropped to a heap on the floor.
Dan went to her, to try and console her, his heart ripping into shreds. Alicia pushed him away, "I hate you!" she screamed in between sobs. "Just..go..away." Dan sat facing her on the floor.
He couldn't leave her like this. After a few moments, when Alicia was gaining a little control of her tears she stood up. Her body still shaking. She stepped over to the lamp on their nightstand.
With all the strength in her body she picked it up, yanking the cord loose from the socket and threw it across the room, screaming at the top of her lungs for Dan to get out. It smashed acroos the wall pieces of glass flying everywhere.