Page 32 of Cherish

“I love the flowers!” I yell to his retreating back.

CHAPTER 20

JASON

“Motherfucker.” Six missed calls from another strange number. Three text messages all tell me the same thing. Call me.

Like all the other times, I delete the texts. Eager to get home and be with Alex, I shower as quickly as possible in one of the bathrooms next to my on-call room, scrubbing away the entire day, including Natalie’s attempts at contact.

As I’m angrily putting my jeans on, I feel my phone vibrating again, but I’m pleasantly surprised when I see who the picture is from, holding the bouquet of wildflowers. She has the vase covering half of her face. Her lips are a soft pink and puckered as if she’s blowing me a kiss.

There’s no message, just a picture.

“Where’s Alex?” I toss the mail on the kitchen table and walk to the fridge to look for water.

“It’s good to see you too, big brother.” I don’t bother responding to her remark since it’s obvious that Alex isn’t here yet. “Why are you in such a bad mood?”

“I had a long day, and I’m tired.”

“You need your woman to make it better?” She smirks, but I don’t take the bait.

“Yes.”

She sits down across from me, crosses her arms, and waits for me to say more.

“Natalie keeps calling and texting.” She cringes as I pull out my phone to show her all the missed calls. “I deleted the texts.”

“I hope she shows her face here so I can kick her bony ass clear across the street.”

“You don’t need another arrest, and I don’t want her coming here and causing a scene, Mellie. That part of my life is done.” I run my hands over my face and lean back in my chair, mentally and physically exhausted.

“You need to tell Alex about her now. The last thing you want is for her to show up here. You know how she likes to twist things. If she knows you’ve moved on, she’s going to do her best to mess that up for you. She’s a horrible bitch. She can move on and have a life, but heaven forbid you should do the same.”

Mellie continues to talk, but I tune her out. I try to drown out the noise inside my head that tells me it’s wishful thinking that I can simply ignore Natalie and have her take the hint. I refuse to acknowledge all the times I’ve ended things with her, only for her to find her way back into my bed, and ultimately my life.

As an adult, I can look back now and realize we were always doomed. Her family never approved of us being together. Her conservative Korean parents wanted her with a Korean man, not me. Young Jason thought it was thrilling to sneak around, having her every way in her parents’ house when they weren’t home.

We planned on attending the same college, and we got our acceptance letters into Boston College the same week.She didn’t tell me about her plans to attend NYU until the middle of July. Our first breakup only lasted until winter break. The thrill was too much to resist.

“Did you hear me, Jase?” Mellie asks, waving her hand in front of my face, breaking me out of my daze.

“Yeah, and tell her what? The man she’s sleeping with, the one she didn’t want to get involved with in the first place, is a scumbag?”

“You’re not a scumbag. And better you tell her than she find out from that evil, manipulative bitch. She’s the scumbag, not you. She’s a liar. You never would have been with her if you knew. You have a past. So, what? She’s not going to hold it against you, Jase.”

“You’re right, but not yet.” She opens her mouth to argue, but I talk first. “Soon, Mellie.” She starts to protest, but we’re interrupted by a loud knock on the door. “Drop it.”

I open the door to catch Alex with her hand up, about to knock again. She’s changed since I saw her hours ago. She has on a white wrap around dress with yellow flowers. The dress accentuates her narrow waist and big breasts, and I can’t help but look down her at her cleavage.

I will myself not to ravish her in the doorway and pull her inside to instead wrap my arms around her. I pull back only so that I can kiss her sweet lips. I hold her tighter and rest my chin on top of her head.

“You smell good,” I say to her, reaching up to touch her damp curls.

“I showered.” She giggles against me as she looks up and kisses my neck.

“Are you two going to continue to stand there with the door wide open or are you going to come inside?” Mellie walks up to us and takes a big brown paper bag from Alex. “Food!” she says, walking with the bag to the kitchen.

“You didn’t have to bring dinner. I was going to take you out. Where’s your overnight bag?” I lead her inside, close the door and kiss her again. “I’ve missed you.”

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