I hesitated before taking the call, letting him speak first.
“Hey,” that soothing voice broke the silence from the other end of the phone. My heart jumped and a small smile spread to my lips, I had clearly missed hearing that voice, I was just too busy to notice.
“Hi,” I replied, trying to hide my excitement.
“So… I didn’t mean to bother you, I just wanted to make sure that we were still on for tonight.”
My jaws dropped as his words sunk in. Today! Of course it is Friday, I had promised him a date at my place on Friday night, which is today, how did it escape my mind?
“Oh… um…” I muttered, trying to come up with words.
“You didn’t forget about our meeting today, did you?”
“Of course not,” I lied and laughed nervously. “Just that, there was a slight change in my schedule. I can't meet you tonight, Jimmy. Why don’t we shift it to another time?” I asked.
I knew this meeting wouldn’t work because I would be occupied tonight, and there is an emergency meeting at the office tomorrow morning, after which I would have the rest of the day to myself, so going out to meet Jimmy tonight wasn’t such a good idea.
“Come on Anna, you promised to hear me out, please don’t do me like this.” He pleaded in that appealing tone.
“No, no!” I said quickly. “It is not what you are thinking, I am really not avoiding you, I just have work. You know what? Let's keep it tomorrow night, I will be free tomorrow night, I promise.”
“Hmm… Well, I know you to keep your word, as long as you are still my Anna, then I believe you.” he uttered from the other end.
I sighed and bit my lips. Was I still his Anna? I don’t think I was the same Anna that he knew and dated, I was different now, the past few weeks had changed me. The Anna he knew would have chosen dignity over money, that Anna was lost.
“Sure,” I finally responded, “Tomorrow night it is then, where do we meet? You still want to come to my place?” I asked nonchalantly.
“Actually… There is this new place, it is opening tomorrow night and it is not too far from your place, so why don’t we meet there?”
“It is not a club, is it?” I asked curiously. I disliked noisy places.
“Well, it is kinda but with less groove, I promise you would love it.”
I was curious to ask him how he knew I would love it if they were just opening for the first time, but I held back. Maybe it was a slip of tongue, he could have meant to say a previous date.
“Alright then, just text me the address, I will be there by eight pm.”
“Sure, I will. Don’t forget to be sexy as usual,” he teased.
“Go away Jim,” I blushed and immediately ended the call. I didn’t want to give him the impression that all was fine between us again, it shouldn’t be that easy. He had literally cheated on me with some random girl who I like to think is ugly by the way, and if Jenny had not exposed him, then I would have never known.
Jennifer had sent me a short video clip of Jimmy having sex with a girl, her face was hidden and that is how I found out that he was cheating. I have no idea how she got hold of that video, I never bothered to ask because I was dealing with the pain of betrayal at that time, but now that it crossed my mind, how did Jennifer get that video and who was the girl in the video?
Maybe if Jimmy had denied it the moment I forwarded it to him, then I would have further investigated and that would have led the discovery of whoever was in that video clip with him, but he accepted it straight to my face and laughed over it, he called it a fling, that it was nothing serious. I guess I was more hurt by how he reacted than the actual fact that he had been seeing another girl.
Maybe when I get to hear his side of the story tonight, and judge from his reaction, then I can tell if to forgive him and accept him back into my life or not. Aside from cheating, Jimmy had been the perfect boyfriend. I thought we had something special. I just don’t know how he switched up so fast and didn’t see it as a big deal to sleep with someone else.
But meeting Jimmy tonight would put me in a dilemma. If I accept him, I would have to keep my affair with Mr. Blackwood a secret from him, how does that make me any better than him? I would just be committing the same offense that I had broken up with him for.
I don’t know if I could live with that guilt, keep it all bundled inside. How do I look him in the face when I know I am sleeping with some other man? What if he finds out? I am afraid he would be disappointed in me. He might have cheated on me but he would never expect the same of me.
The truth is that Jimmy holds me in high esteem, he thinks I can do no wrong. How disappointed he is going to be when he finds out that his innocent Anna was gone, she was sleeping with a total stranger in exchange for her daily bread.
I sighed and shook off the thoughts, I should save worrying about that for tomorrow night, I don’t even know how it would go, I might end up not taking him back, even though deep down, I knew that I wanted my gummy bear back, I was still madly in love with him, that is why it hurt whenever I thought of the video. Maybe it would have been best if Jennifer never showed me that video, at least I would not have a hole in my heart that would never heal.
Since I would be officially meeting Jimmy again for the first time in few months, I decided to look my best, I would have to appear in something he had has never seen on me, a new cloth and I had just enough money for that- courtesy of Blackwood Precious Stones and Jewelries
How about cloth shopping tonight?
!