Time to Go!

This is a 750-word effort.

Jeanie and I had been together for nearly two years. She was wearing an engagement ring we had picked out together. She and her mother had most of the details of our wedding planned out, but today she wanted me to accompany her to the mall to check out a few things.

We had just exited the third store she wanted to visit and were approached by a young man with a microphone. Standing a couple of yards away was a guy holding an expensive-looking video camera.

"Excuse me, could I talk with you for a moment?" He extended the mike towards Jeanie and she stopped dead in her steps. She gave me a surprised look and then smiled and nodded at the guy.

I was about to tell him to bug off, but he quickly asked me if we were a couple. I nodded and Jeanie volunteered we were engaged and flashed her ring at the camera. The guy smiled and spoke into his mike.

"We are out here today talking to couples. You guys are engaged so can I assume you're happy with each other?"

"Oh yes! He is the best guy ever! I'm so lucky to have found such a wonderful man. I can't wait to become his wife." Jeanie's eyes sparkled as she spoke to the guy then turned to give me a loving smile.

"So, I assume you two are in love and trust each other completely?"

I nodded and said, "Of course we do. You can't marry someone you don't trust." I turned to Jeanie and she was nodding in agreement.

"Okay, let's put that to a test, shall we?" Without waiting for a response he quickly added, "Open your phones and then exchange them with each other."

I looked at Jeanie and shrugged, opened my phone, and extended it to her. She was punching some keys on her phone when the guy snatched it out of her hand.

"No cheating!" He laughed as he handed her phone to me. I looked at the screen, It was open to her text messages. I thought that was odd and just kind of looked at the guy with what must have been a quizzical look.

"Dude, open her text messages ..."

"Hey! Those are private! ... Honey, give me back my phone," Jeanie yelled and grabbed at the phone. I held it away from her.

"Okay, here we go," the guy said as his cameraman moved closer to me.

Jeanie was frantic as she snatched at the phone. Her behavior was way out of her norm. I hit "Edit" and then "Show recently Deleted" and saw "Grant 42 messages 19 days." I hit "recover" and opened the messages she had just deleted.

"Please baby, it's nothing, please, just give me my phone," Jeanie pleaded, still trying to grab her phone from my hand.

"STOP!" I yelled at her and she shrank back. I was pissed because Grant is her old boyfriend. She dumped him when she caught him cheating. They had been split about 8 months when a mutual friend introduced me to Jeanie. Now, more than two years later, she was exchanging texts with him and had been for nearly three weeks!

The guy with the mike asked me if it was bad. His camera guy stooped down to capture my face as I read the text. They started innocent enough with Grant saying he'd heard she was engaged and he was happy for her. She told him she was very happy and looking forward to her wedding.

A few days later, he texted that he wanted to talk with her and asked she meet him for coffee at Starbucks. She agreed. Had that been the end of it, I would have been pissed, but maybe could have understood her meeting with the guy to reiterate things were over and she didn't want to be involved with him. But, it wasn't. The texts soon became her lament that he had cheated and ended something special.

Of course, the asshat read her correctly and asked her for a final goodbye. He swore he would leave her alone once she was married, but he just had to have her in his bed one last time. She agreed.

The date for their rendezvous was three days away. I handed her the phone and pulled my ring from her hand, as she screamed and begged. The camera guy got it all. I looked into the camera and said, "Time to Go!"

******

It always amazes me what people will do and share with complete strangers who happen to be holding a microphone.