By Jean Gasho
“I’m sorry”, Jade whispered. “I don’t know why I do these things, it just happens.”
“It just happens…”, he paused and sighed, “ You do these things Jade, and that is who YOU are!”
“John, you know its you I love, once we get married we can put this behind us, and move on.”
“So you keep saying Jade. I don’t know what difference the wedding is actually going to make.”
“Are you saying you are having second thoughts about marrying me?” Jade asked in disbelief, with a desperate tone in her voice. “ You know what, don’t answer that. I haven’t got time for this John. My mother is waiting for me right now, I have a gown fitting this afternoon, the bridal shower is…”
“Well go and have your gown fitting Jade, that is obviously more important to you than fixing things with the man you are supposed to marry isn’t it?”
“Oh my, so I’m supposed to cancel this important appointment and sit here in a car park with my over sensitive, over jealous fiance…”
“This is now the second time you have been chatting with your ex. You just can’t seem to resist the guy. I thought you blocked him on Facebook. ”
“John I did. But he had another account…”
“So I’m supposed to be happy with you exchanging these messages with your ex boyfriend on Facebook? Whom you have slept with and I haven’t. Whilst I am supposed to wait till the wedding?”
“I knew you were going to go there. It’s always about sex, isn’t it with you? There is nothing you think of more than that. I don’t even know if you love me or it’s my body you want!”
“Well you were not saying that to your boyfriend, were you? You gave it to him on a silver platter, then to me you wanna act all holy. I have tried to be okay with this even though I don’t agree with it, but now going to chat with him just before our wedding…”
“John, you are overreacting. So what if I slept with him. He’s my ex boyfriend! We were not even in love. It was just a fling, well sort of. We have been through this. With you it is love, it is special. The Bishop says we have to wait till after the wedding. We have to honor God and…”
“Oh shut up will you! Honor God? Does your Bishop and your parents know you have been chatting on Facebook till 3am with your ex? Do they? ”
“He is both our Bishop John. You are a church member now. Anyway I have unfriended him. I have blocked him. I have said sorry? You need to get over this John, otherwise you are going to destroy what we have been building for the last year.”
“I’m sure he has another Facebook account which he will use to chat with you in a weeks time, if not days or hours. Well maybe we should go to the Bishop with this issue. This certainly calls for ‘counselling’ doesn’t it? ” John was searching Jade’s eyes. Her phone started to ring. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Its mum, I have to pick it. She’s probably there already. I have to go. I love you”
She leaned over to kiss him on the lips. He turned and gave her his cheek, showing her that he was still very angry with her. She pretended not to notice and opened the door. “I will see you on Sunday babe, remember this Sunday is special, Bishop will call us to the front about the wedding, so you have to dress smart, wear a white shirt coz I’m wearing a white dress, will call you tonight ok.” With that she answered her phone as she walked off from the car. “Mum I’m on my way. I’m literally minutes away!”
John sighed, trying to breath away all the anger and tension. He watched Jade walk away as she talked to her mother on the phone. She was without a doubt a beautiful woman. She was everything he had wanted in a woman. Smart, funny and beautiful. Dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a matching blue blouse and sandals, she looked effortlessly sexy with her long braids neatly tied into a bun. He could not deny he loved this woman desperately. Part of him could not wait till she was officially his wedded wife. But part of him resented her because he felt she still loved her ex boyfriend, whom she had given her body to. He hated her ex boyfriend and could not help but feel uncontrollable jealous in his heart as he starred at his future wife. Jade could probably sense John’s stare, she looked back at him and waved, he could not wave back. He just forced a smile at her until she disappeared into the streets still talking on her phone, laughing as though she did not have a care in the world.
When Jade disappeared from his site, he tried to shift all his focus from the whole situation. It was Friday afternoon, he thought maybe a drink out after work with his mates would do him good. Jade didn’t like him going out. But right now he didn’t care what Jade wanted. It had been a while since he had had a good night out with the lads. He suddenly thought of Amanda, his ex girlfriend whom he used to go clubbing with before he met Jade. He had left her for Jade, which had left her very heartbroken. She still texted him now and again, begging him to come back to her. She had even tried harassing Jade at the beginning of their relationship, but Jade had not taken any of it and reported her to the authorities, leaving Amanda with a caution from the police.
Now there he was, sitting in his car 3 weeks before his wedding to the woman he loved, thinking about an ex girlfriend who had turned into a bunny boiler. She was the last woman he had slept with, and right now at this point of his life, Amanda was just what he needed. He had her number saved as “Alex” to avoid Jade suspecting anything. The first contact in his phone. For some strange reason he had always hanged on to her number, but always deleting any messages from her before Jade could see them. He didn’t love her anymore, but he still had that soft spot for her that caused him not to completely erase her from his life, or his phone contacts rather.
He thought of sending her a text to say hi and ask her if she wanted to meet up that night. And knowing Amanda, she would never say no to that. She had not moved on, even a year after their breakup it was clear to John that she was still single.
He started to scroll on his phone, and there it was, Alex. He clicked on message and without giving it a second thought he started to write…
“Hey it’s been a while. How have you been?” He paused for a few seconds, then closed his eyes and clicked ‘send’.
With that John started the car. Jade’s favorite song began to play. It was a gospel song by Sinach, I know Who I Am. John quickly turned it off and switched to The Weeknd. He drove off into the busy streets of Liverpool wondering whether Amanda was going to reply to his text soon. His lunch break was almost over. As he drove to work his mind shifted to his success, how well he had done in the past year. It had been exactly a year since he had graduated from John Moores University as a Pharmacologist. And within that year he had managed to secure a good paying job in a Food Laboratory as an Analytical Chemist. At 25 he felt he had done well for himself. He was working towards getting a mortgage with Jade once they got married, they had been saving up for a deposit. As he parked outside his work building, he took his phone and checked if Amanda had replied. There was a message icon. He knew it was Amanda. He quickly opened the message with a smirk on his face…
“Baby the dress is just beautiful and it fits perfectly. I feel like a princess in it! I cant wait for you to see me in it. I will make you the proudest husband ever! Mwaa mwaa mwaa.” It was not Amanda, it was Jade. John sighed. Without giving a second thought he replied with just a kiss emoji and just when he finished sending it, another message came in.
“Awww John what a surprise to hear from you! Didn’t know you still had my number! I’m not too good been stressed a lot lately”, her message read, with three crying emojis at the end.
A voice of reason knocked through John’s mind. “I’m about to get married for goodness sake! This is not right. Maybe let me go out with the lads instead”. He told himself. “But she’s the one who started it, why is she entertaining her ex if she’s about to get married to me”. He argued with himself. He could not help but go back to Jade’s Facebook messages with her ex boyfriend. He had screen shot them and saved them in his phone.
“He will never love you like I did Jade, you know that”
“Stop it. You know me and you were never going to work. I’m with John now and we getting married in 3 weeks. We are having a church wedding and all”
“So you keep telling me, you sound more excited about the wedding than about him. But be real with yourself, does he kiss you like I did, does he hold you like I did, and make love to you the way I did. Hmmm”
“That’s were you wrong, John and I decided to wait till our wedding night, he’s different. He’s not like any other guy. He respects my body and my values 100%.”
“Yeah he sounds like a ass, waiting till marriage, you don’t even know if he’s gonna be good…like me”
“Don’t say that…”
“So are you denying I was good?”
“No I’m not…you were the best but there is more to life than sex.”
John could not read anymore. He had gone through the messages over and over. And each time he had read them it was like the first time. It hurt him more and more.
He went on Facebook, part of him felt like sending the guy a message warning him to stay clear off his fiance. He searched the name Khani Q. That was his name on Facebook. There wasn’t much on his Facebook wall, just a couple of pictures and no updates. He could tell from his Facebook profile that he was dodgy and not real. The thought that this man had slept with his wife to be was eating him up, and going through their messages on Facebook had been heart-breaking. He thought twice about sending him a warning message. But he realized he didn’t want to give him any ammunition to attack him back, so he stopped.
John started to think his friends had been right. They had told him the idea of being told to wait till marriage by a girl who was not a virgin was not right. They had told him to taste the waters first before committing. They had told him to challenge Jade, but he had stuck to his guns and told them that because he loved her, it was going to be worth the wait.
John then went on his fiancé’s Facebook wall. Jade had done nothing but share about the wedding preparations on her Facebook since the engagement. John had been more laid back, the only time he had shared about his love life was when had posted their engagement picture with a caption “She said yes!” He had also changed his cover picture to Jade’s photo. However Jade had been updating her Facebook almost every week with photos of them together and every little thing that John did for her. She had also decided to spread the message on her Facebook about purity before marriage, and had done a few videos of messages which was starting to attract a lot of followers, especially women. She also had a YOU TUBE channel where she uploaded videos about the evils of fornication and why it was important to wait before marriage. John didn’t have a problem with it. He also did not have a problem with her always updating Facebook, but at this time he did. Jade had just updated her Facebook wall half an hour before. Probably when she got to the bridal shop. One status read, “Jade just checked in at Eden Bridals.” The next read..
“Looking forward to my bridal shower this weekend, so excited!!! Feeling blessed as I am about to try my wedding gown for the last time before the big day. #MrsCampbellToBe”
She had received over 200 likes and over 50 comments in half an hour. Mostly women telling her how blessed she was. John shook his head as he browsed through some of the comments. He got out of the car and started walking towards the Laboratory. He could not stop thinking about her messages to Khani Q.
That was enough to drive to him to send Amanda a reply…
“Of course I have always had your digits sweetheart. Do you want me to pop round after work, will bring a bottle of wine to make you feel better”, he put a smiley face emoji at the end.
John clicked send, and he knew he would be heading to Amanda’s house straight after work. And he didn’t care that he was about to break every vow he had made to made his beautiful fiance Jade.
To be continued…
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