James reached out a gentle hand. It was meant to be a comforting touch on Jean's shoulder. "Tomorrow, you're going to work. I'll take you to another fitness base in a while. It would be a good chance for you to learn things in advance," he said softly.
"All right," Jean replied, wiping the sweat that beaded her forehead with a towel.
Half an hour later, they arrived at one of the biggest fitness clubs in the city. James led and showed her around the fitness club. It was evident that he knew everything backwards and forwards. Jean almost felt impressed. For the first time since coming to know about this industry, she looked at things with more serious eyes. She took in as much detail as she could—even taking photos and notes as they looked around the club.
As her eyes scanned around the area, James drew her attention to a small group of people, with a man standing in front of them. "There's a coach having class over there, Jean," he said, gesturing towards their direction. "I want to see it myself. You can look around by yourself for now." With that, James walked over to the class area alone.
Jean had guessed that the class would be forty minutes, at least. She had taken her time to learn everything she could by walking around and observing, but right now, there was almost nothing left to look at, so she decided to just sit down on the sofa in the lobby to have a break.
James hadn't come back yet, and she was starting to feel bored. After all the activity she did earlier, time seemed to go by slowly, now that she was resting. With nothing else to fill her time, she pulled out her phone and began to browse today's news and then check updates on the social media. To her chagrin, Julie's new post greeted her. This day had been quite productive, and it was as if was deliberately placed there, in that timing, to mock her.
"To hear the person you love say he loves you back is happiness," the post read, followed by a photograph. It had been taken in a bar—the telltale neon lights were enough to guess. Behind her was a man's figure. The photo had been framed to show only half of him, but Jean knew instantly who he was. It was Zed.
Her hands trembled at the images that flashed through her mind: his arms around her, his lips seeking hers and whispering sweet nothings, limbs entangling as their bodies moved together…
She gritted her teeth in anger, and she suddenly found herself in want of air. The phone shook in her hands as she visualized what the two of them had done in the hotel room.
She remembered the look Julie gave her when she was in the hotel that morning. Her eyes glinted with arrogance as she headed directly to Zed's room with deliberately slowed down movements. She had wanted Jean to see this. She could not escape the thoughts that filled her. Did Zed make love to Julie the way he did to her? Did he tell her the same sweet words that only she used to hear? Did he kiss her, look at her the same way? Jean felt her own pain and anger consume her. How she wished she could just go directly to them and take all her anger out.
"Shameless!" Jean hissed.
Looking down at the line again, she felt a sharp pain in her head for a moment. Then, grief took the place of her fury like water freezing into ice. She put her
It all starts on that fateful night.
When Ella, who is the dear sister of Samuel’s best buddy, sneaks into the hotel where the drunken Samuel resides and gets pregnant…
"I don’t want a divorce!"
"I don’t want a divorce!"
"I did no such thing!"
Ella jumped on the bed and cried out. “I don’t want a scheming woman as my wife. Just sign the paper...
ng turn ugly, and even the divorce itself is reason enough for people to talk. It's not worth going through all that troubles for just a woman."
Jean thought about James' words. It was true that they made a lot of sense, but now she was even more confused.
"And then what?" she asked quietly.
"And then, you try to get him back of course. Try to make him remember how happy he could be with you," he said.
Jean froze for a moment, and her expression gradually turned sorrowful. She sighed, "So it's a compromise to get him back? Forget it. I won't beg for his love." Her eyes were cast downwards. "But you're right. I should be moving out. It's pathetic really. I'm desperately clinging to hopes that would never become reality, and I'm tired of torturing myself like this," she laughed emptily. "If I could really move out, it would be my first step out of that bitter sea,"
she said, her voice choking on the last words as tears formed slowly at the corners of her eyes. She blinked them away and turned to look out of the window again. "Let's go back now," she whispered.
James felt helpless at the sight of her sadness. He didn't know what else to say, so he just followed her, and started the car wordlessly, letting silence envelop them once again.
As the car drove off, the wind blew into Jean's eyes. The tears that had dried up flowed freely once again. After some time, heavy with pain and exhaustion, she succumbed to the pull of sleep.
The car was parked at the door of the fitness base, but James made no move to wake Jean up. Even in her sleep, she looked as if she was in pain. He closed the window gently, a small protection against the cold wind. Then he took off his coat and draped it over her.
As he gently laid the coat on her shoulders, the distance between them slowly disappeared. James hovered over her, only a few centimeters away. His heart pounded in his chest. They had never been this close before.
He looked down at her as his chest beat loudly.
Her eyelashes glistened with tears and her cheeks were flushed from crying.
At that moment, a crazy idea appeared in his head. All he could think of was how soft her lips looked...