MARRY ME NOW

I reached my office and it was nowhere near 2 pm. It seems like today was going slow, sighing in frustration, I threw myself on my chair and began tapping on my table.

I hope Mr Kings won’t call me for the rest of the day and thankfully, he didn’t. It soon got to 2 pm. I flung off my chair, arranged the office, and got out of the building.

Reaching my car, I drove off to Anne’s school. She sat at a table painting a picture. I smiled as I walked toward her. She looked up at me with a huge grin on her face.

“Mommy!” She screamed getting off from where she sat. I stooped down to hug her. I released her after a few seconds. She took the drawing she drew and showed it to me.

It was a drawing of a woman hugging a little girl. It wasn’t that good, but it was really good for her age. On the drawing was ‘Anne heart mommy!!’ Oh, my heart.

“Aww, baby, I love you too,” I said giving her a huge bear hug. “I see you’re here, Miss Carl.” I heard the teacher say. I stood straight back up with a smile directed to the teacher.

“Yes, sorry. I was 20mins late.”

“Oh, no problem. Bye Anne.” She said with a wave before waving Anne goodbye. I took Anne’s school bag and lunch bag before walking out of the school. It was raining so badly.

It’s a good thing I’ve got a car. We rushed towards my car. “Mommy? Are we going shopping today?”

“Not today, sweetie. It’s rainy.” Now I’m thinking of it, it’s a good thing it rained, I can’t think of another excuse if it wasn’t raining. She hummed.

I drove to the house. Noticing someone on my porch, I wonder who it may be. We got out of the car and ran towards the porch. Seeing who it was, my face shifted into a scowl.

What was he doing here? “What do you want here?!” I hissed giving him a mean glare, I’m sure if looks could kill, he would have been dead by now.

“You said you’d talk to me later, so here I am.” He said I was going to say something when I noticed Anne was shaking. Was I seriously going to keep her out like this in this weather?

I quickly stepped closer to the door, opened it with the keys, and ushered Anne in. She quickly stepped inside. And of course, Carson tried to step inside too. “Not you, what are you even doing here?” I asked stopping him from coming in.

“I already told you.” He said. I just noticed he’s shivering too, but that doesn’t mean, I’d let him in. “You should have known I wasn’t truly going to ‘talk to you later I only said that to make you leave, and would you just GO?! Stay out of my life. You wanted me out of your life and I left what else do you want?!” I snapped at him.

He winced at my tone. “Te-”

“Don’t you even have a wife? Girlfriend? I wonder what she’d think of you coming here! You wanted to talk to your daughter and I have nothing against that, just do it and stop talking to me!” I snapped again. He seems to be controlling his anger.

Seriously speaking, if anyone has to be angry here, it should be me. He clenched and unclenched his jaw before looking back at me. “Just let me explain, okay? As I said, I don’t know what got into me. I regretted what I did and by the time I realized what I did, it was too late. I searched everywhere for you..” He continued saying things that I didn’t want to hear.

I would have asked him to stop, but I believe this would be over by the time he was done. “I was broken, I thought being with another woman would help me get over you, but it didn’t. I know you still love me, Tess..”

I laughed a little at that. Love? No, it was the complete opposite of that. “Love?” I laughed. Why was I even laughing?

“Do you know what love is?”

“Yes. Do you?” He retorted.

“No, tell me.”

“Love is the capability of caring for someone and I know you care for me, you’ve always done. So. You love me.”

“No, no. I don’t love you. I hate you. If there’s a word- yeah, there is, I despise you.” I said. His nostrils flared.

“You don’t know the meaning of hate and you do love me, that’s the point, Tessa.” He said to me as you’d say to a child. This time, my nostrils flared.

“Yes, I do know the meaning of hate. I want you completely out of my life, I hate you!” I said stepping in, I slammed the door in his face. A few seconds passed and I heard him fuming.

“FUCK YOU, TESSA!! FUCK YOU!!” He sounds angry. He kept banging on the door as if trying to open it. Pinning the door shut on every side, I sighed in relief.

For a second out there, I thought he was going to hit me. He kept banging and shaking the door. I have to call security. I quickly took my phone from my bag and called security.

“DON’T THINK THIS IS FUCKING OVER, TESSA! I’D MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID, YOU FUCKING WHORE!” What was he talking about now?

I don’t think he cares for Anne, he is screaming explicit words when he very much knows she could hear him. I can’t believe I was even considering letting him see her, well, this was it. He wouldn’t see or talk to her ever again.

I talked to the security, urging them to come to my place. “Mommy?” I felt someone touch me. I jumped back, scared for a second. I looked down to see Anne.

Only then, I’d realized I’d been crying. I stooped down to hug her. I was crying on her shoulders. She patted my head with her tiny hand. A few minutes later, the screaming stopped.

I had forgotten he had mood swings. I had been married to him for 6months till I found out he had BPD. He never thought it would have been nice to tell me before we got married.

When we were dating, I noticed his mood swings fast, but I’d just thought he had a bad day or something. A few weeks before I caught him cheating, he had hit me several times and didn’t even bother to apologize.

I stayed with him for fear of losing my home. I released Anne as I stood up straight. I looked through the peeping hole. He wasn’t there anymore, had the security come?

~

I was cooking dinner, and Anne was in the living room, watching Dora. For some reason, I was having headaches. I jumped when my phone rang.

I placed my hand on my chest as I took the phone from the shelf, I looked at the caller’s ID. “H-hello?” I said. Why was I stuttering now? He’s going to think something happened.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jake asked. I didn’t reply immediately. I breathe in and out trying to calm my calm myself. “Of course, how can I not be okay?” I hit myself in the head realizing what I just said.

He’s only going to suspect more this time, why didn’t I just give him the usual answer ‘yes, I am, you?’ I’m such an idiot.

“You don’t sound okay, what happened?” He asked. I faked a laugh. “Nothing, what makes you think something happened?”

“Tessa, I know you and you’re lying.” He said. Darn it! He knows me so well. I sighed. “Can we just forget about it? I was kinda down, but I’m alright now.”

“Okay..” I know he wouldn’t believe me and one way or another he is going to get me to say it. “I called to ask how you were. Did the tantrum that happened earlier at your place-” I cut him off. How did he know? What tantrum? He might be talking about something else.

“W-what tantrum?” Darn stutter.

“The dude at your place earlier.” I should have known he knew about it the moment he asked how I was because he asked it weirdly like he knew something happened.

“W-what do you mean?” Why am I still denying it? I mean. “I know what happened Tessa and try working on your lying skills.” He said. I furrowed an eyebrow as he could see it.

“Are you okay?”

“How did you know about it?”

“I came to your place and saw him screaming out your door, didn’t come in cause I figured out you might want some time to yourself. Who is he?” He asked. I’ve never really told Jake about Carson.

There is no need not to tell him, he’s going to find out anyway or he already knows and wants to hear me say it. “… my ex-husband.”

He didn’t answer immediately. “What did he want? Did he hurt you?” I sometimes wonder what I did to have someone as amazing as Jake in my life.

“No, I’m alright. Thanks for inquiring.” I said with a surprisingly firm voice this time.

“And Anne?”

“She’s perfectly fine, I’d love for you to speak with her but I don’t think she’d listen, she’s already on Dora,” I said. He chuckled.

“I’d just speak with another time. I’d call you tomorrow?”

“Of course! Bye.”

“Bye.” He said. Just like that, my evening turned out great.

~

It was the next evening (8 pm) and I was contemplating if I should leave Anne at home or take her with me to the party.

She seems hyped today. She was running everywhere in the room, I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing because of her screams.

I think I’d just take her with me.

Jake said there’s a room in the building where the party holds I could use after the party. “Anne?” I called.

“Yes?” She replied. “Come let’s go take a bath,” I said. She whined. I managed to take her to the bathroom after much protest from her.

We took our bath, when we were done, I dressed her in a nice comfy gown and made her hair.

I looked for something to wear, and after minutes of searching, I found a gown. I’ve got to look nice… I mean, it’s an engagement party, so true, I’ve to look nice.

Remember whose engagement party you’re going to? It’s weird because both couples engaging hates me, If they hadn’t invited all staff, I wouldn’t have gone.

I sighed, putting on my red gown. It’s pretty long and beautiful. I’ve worn it once since I bought it.

I did a little bit of makeup. When I got done dressing I put on a pair of heels. I waited for Jake. He’d be here any minute from now.

After waiting for 5mins, my doorbell dinged, I stood up and walked to the door, I looked through the peephole to see Jake.

I opened the door. He looked so good. I wonder if he’s real. Realizing I was checking him out, I looked at his face to see if he noticed, and thankfully he didn’t notice.

But, I noticed he was checking me out. I blushed. He looks surprised for some reason. He smiled. “You look beautiful.”

“Thanks, you’re not bad yourself,” I said trying to sound normal. He chuckled. “Thanks.” His voice was deeper than usual.

“Uh. I’d go get Anne.” I said and quickly turn around. I took my bag and held Anne by the hand. We walked together to his car.

We drove in a not-so-quiet drive, Anne was busy singing a Dora song, technically screaming.

After a few minutes, we got to the place. My eyeballs threatened to fall out because of the expensive cars parked outside the building.

They are rich people, so expect rich guests!

The decorations outside probably cost more than a million dollars. Wow.

I felt nauseous looking at this. If I have the money they used for decoration only, I’d probably not have to work ever again.

We walked to the building and got inside, it was like someone cast a spell because almost all eyes were on me and Anne.

Could it get any worse?

I looked down nervously. I felt Jake entangling his hand with mine. I looked up eventually, to meet the eyes of Mr Ki- no, Austin.

I can call him Austin when we’re not at work, so yeah. He looked at Jake, then at Anne before his eyes landed on me.

I am surprised because he didn’t take his eyes off me for what seemed like minutes, he looked back at Jake but I couldn’t make out the emotions in his eyes.

It felt like time stopped at that moment.

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