Frowning, I shrugged. “I don’t know. As long as it takes, I guess. They haven’t brought everything in yet.”
He ignored my attitude and continued to sit, scratching his head every now and again, finally opting to remove his suit jacket. From the corner of my eye, I watched him. Something was definitely up.
The guys came from the back room laughing at some joke they’d told before entering the living room and then they walked out of my apartment, leaving the door open when they did.
Jason scooted up to the edge of the couch. “We should talk,” he said hesitantly.
Without looking away from the television screen, I asked, “About what?”
“Us.”
That could mean anything.
The men came back inside, making as much racket as they could it seemed, and then thundered off to the studio again.
“What about us? I asked.
Jason blew all the air from his lungs again. “Never mind. We’ll wait until they finish.”
Fine by me.
Still perturbed from our falling out days ago, I didn’t pay him any mind. I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly and chuckled at the part of the episode where Florida Evans scolded Michael for taking a picture down from the wall to put up JJ’s rendition of “Black Jesus”. The fact that my lack of concern didn’t even upset Jason a little meant that he was preoccupied within his own thoughts.
“Ok, ma’am, we’re all set here,” Tweedle Dumb announced.
I faked a smile and took the receipt from his hand, fighting the urge to demand a discount because they were so doggone late.
“If you have any issues, the customer service number is right at the bottom of that document. Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.”
I nodded once. “Thanks. I’m sure I won’t need to call.”
The guy tipped his baseball cap at me and then traipsed out of my apartment followed by his partner. I eyed the receipt and walked it over to the kitchen counter before going back to the couch, deciding to put off checking out the guys’ work until later.
“Ok, what is it?” I asked. Jason looked at me and there was something about his expression that made my heart skip a beat. Whatever he had to say was heavier than I realized, probably because I hadn’t really been paying him much attention since he got here.
Unable to look me in my eyes anymore, the first thought that I had was that he was here to admit to something – maybe to tell me that all of my suspicions were true.
“This is about the text,” was his first admission and I’m not gonna lie, my heart nearly stopped cold in my chest. The hard role I was trying to play was quickly slipping away.
“Okay? What about it?” I asked.
As I watched, he hesitated for a moment, and then continued on with his movement toward his pocket. When he laid his phone in between us on the couch, both of our eyes were trained on it.
“What am I supposed to do with that?” I asked.
Again, Jason’s response didn’t come immediately. He raked his fingers over his low-cut hair and tried to steady his breathing. “I need you to look at something. But before you do….there’re some things that I need to say to you first.”
My heart leapt to my throat this time, but I didn’t speak.
Jason was practically shaking which made me extremely uneasy.
Oh my god…there’s another woman. I was right.
“There are three things I need to say before you look at what I have to show you. One: I love you with everything in me, Sam. For real. Regardless of what this thing I’m about to tell you might seem like, I swear I never meant to hurt you.” He paused in an attempt to stabilize his shaky breathing. “Two: If I’d figured out a way to tell you this before, I need you to please believe that I would have. You have to know that. It was never my intention to hold this back for so long.”