Page 58 of Filthy Commitments
Neither of us had a thing on as we slept naked each night. I picked her up and took her to bed, covering her up and running my hand over her forehead. “You don’t have a fever. You didn’t say your stomach was hurting.”
“It just hit me. I was fast asleep, then I was up and running. That’s the third time today.”
“I’ll take you to the doctor tomorrow. I’ll let my family know we won’t be going to the wedding.”
“Jett, no. I’ll be alright. It’s probably a little stomach bug. You know a twenty-four-hour thing. Just get back into bed. I’ll be better by the morning. You’ll see.”
I got back into bed, unsure that it was a stomach bug that was causing her to be fine one moment and throwing up the next. Something was wrong, and I was pretty sure I knew what it was.
Stress.
The stress of lying to her family was too much for her. Her brain thought she could handle it. Her body was rejecting it.
I could see it clear as day even if she couldn’t. The lies were getting to her, making her sick.
I had to leave. I wasn’t healthy for her. Not in any way.
But I held her that night. For the rest of the night, I clung to her and wished like hell there was another way to make things right. I fell asleep with no other idea in my head.
I had to go. I owed it to her.
Asia
In the month of August, I’d thrown up more than I had in my entire life. Much of the time, Jett knew nothing about it. I didn’t want him to worry about me.
I was pretty sure it was stress-related. I thought all the time about what we could do to make things right. It was always there, knocking at my brain.
If I’d been a liar my whole life, I think that would’ve helped me to deal with what I’d done. Lies apparently did not sit well with me. Hence the vomiting.
Jett was being bothersome, nagging me to go to the doctor. We had one more wedding to go to, and I wasn’t about to mess that up for him. I promised I’d go the next day if I got sick any more.
I had a couple bouts of nausea throughout the day, but nothing too bad. Maybe with the last wedding to attend, the stress would ease up. I hoped so anyway.
The fact was that I wanted to talk to Jett about really getting married.Wouldn’t that end all our problems?
We could simply go to Vegas and do it for real, and then no one had to know anything else. If Jett would agree, I thought the stress would vanish.
I hoped it would, and I hoped he’d agree. His notion of me wanting to marry him only because it was something he wanted and I wanted to please him, was stupid.
I loved the man!
I loved Jett more than I knew was possible. And I did want to marry him. The main reason was love. The other reason was to get the lie over with. We’d be married, and all that nonsense of a fake marriage would be over.
There was one easy fix. The hard part was getting Jett to accept the easy fix.
It was crazy, the man had wanted to marry me, and I had to be bullheaded about it. Then I want to get married, and he got stubborn about it.
It was funny, really. Only it was time for the joke to be over and for us to take the bull by the horns and take charge of the situation.
Stop the lie by really getting married.
It was the only way to go. The only thing in my way of fixing it all was Jett. Now how would I get him to see reason.
Jett
Our last social function was at hand. My cousin, Felicity and her fiancé, Ron had put on a fancy wedding at The Plaza Hotel in New York. My parents insisted we all get rooms there and stay the night. It trumped my plans for leaving that night.
I’d get one more night with Asia. That was both good and bad. Every minute I spent with her made it that much harder for me to leave. Doing the right thing was getting harder and harder to do.
