CHAPTER: TWENTY FIVE

Jaimees POV***

We left early,bidding farewell to her mom and sisters,trey was no where to be found and neither was Bruno, I wanted to ask where they were and if we were leaving the dog but alexis was already sulky so I didn't bother, my mind ran back to her family,her mom had hugged me tight whispering in my ears "take care of my little girl" and I nodded in response to her,her sisters had teased me and told me to ensure I come back to visit,her dad was no where to be seen and I felt relieve, I didn't wanna see him at all. We didn't speak much on the ride home and I wondered how much longer was I to be patient for her to talk to me. We continued the drive in silence, me stealing glances at her every chance I could.

Majority of the drive home was silent, we never spoke not once, my phone rang startling me a bit, i sighed when i looked at the caller id and saw mark's name, he has been trying to get in touch with me since i last saw him but i never answered him, i didnt want to talk, i saw alexis side glance me when she saw me not get the call and she frowned, my phone rang again and she looked at me,

"are you not gonna get that?" she asked annoyance dripping in her voice, i rolled my eyes but answered anyways,

"what" i snapped

" look jaimee we need to talk, we are so much more better than you ignoring me" i didnt answer him i just sat there knowing he would continue whether i answered or not, he did

" where are you?" was the next question he asked

"im not home" was the simple response i provided, he sighed and i heard the frustration in his voice,

" okay jaimee" with nothing being said further he disconnected the call and i stared at the phone, what the hell. Leaning back in the car seat i turned slightly so i could see alexis, she was as still as a stautue beside me still not talking, she had one hand on the steering wheel and the other one rested against the handrest close to me, i grabbed it rubbing my thumbs over her knuckles slowly needing to reassure her in any way that i could that i was there for her, she opened her palms and took my hands in hers kissing mine slowly a small smile formed on her face and i breathed out slowly not realizing i was holding my breath thinking she was going to shrug me off.

"are you okay?" she asked giving me a quick glance,

" ill be okay once you are" i know that sounded cheesy but i really just needed her to be okay, over the times that i have spent with alexis she means a lot to me, i felt possessive of her like she belonged to me, even when she was with emily, i thought about her a whole lot nd the more time i spent with her the more my feelings grew, was i falling in love? my heart beat rapidly against my chest at the thought,

"hey im fine, just my dad and i had a little squabble, but im fine really" she broke in my thoughts,

" i know i heard" i confessed, not wanting any secrets between us,

" he is not accepting of who you are but dont let that break you, there are other persons who care truly about you and accept how you are" i continued letting a little bit of my emotions seep into my voice, she looked over at me briefly again,

" including you?" she asked tentively, did i hear shyness in her voice, i swear she was just so cute,

"especially me" i replied honestly smirking at the grin that busted out on her face, she pulled over suddenly and pulled me over to her as best as she could kissing me on my lips,

" thank you" she told me, pulling back out to continue our journey.

We got to her place rather quickly after and as the  car pulled up closer to her drive way what greeted me was unbelievable, Mark was there leaning up against his car on his phone like he was waiting on someone,

"what the heck" i hissed under my breath, she looked over to me and pulled up slowly behind mark's car, he looked up briefly  then went back to his phone not seeming to realize that i was in the car,

" wait here" i told alexis not waiting for a response from her and heading outside to mark, as i walked up to him he was still on his phone and looked up again as i approached, his eyes narrowed when he saw me and he ended his conversation, i folded my arm as he approached,

" why are you here? is there another baby momma in this region too mark?" i snarled, he rolled his eyes,

" i was worried" he stated,

" how did you find me?" i asked,

" do you remember we installed trackers and gps in all the car's after our first one was stolen "shit i had totally forgotten about that, he went on rambling " well since you wouldnt talk to me on the phone you left me no choice but to find you so i traced the car here, was about to leave when i saw no one was here but i got a call and then you showed up,what are you doing here?" he continued,

" i doubt its any of your concern mark," i replied wanting him to leave,

" dammit jaimee listen im sorry i should have spoken to you about everything, i know i didnt have to lie, jaimee you are like a bestfriend to me, i would never hurt you, you have to believe me that i really planned on talking to you about it" he told me coming up closer to pull me in a hug, i could feel alexis stare burning into my back hopefully from the car,

"cmon jaimee please, talk to me" he pleaded,

" i dont know what to say, look our situation is as complicated as it is already,with us being married, my mother you know how she is, whats gonna happen now?" i asked looking up at him, why did everyone have to be so goddamn tall,

" i know, look ill handle your mom for you, but i was thinking that we wouldnt rush and make any rash decision as yet, can we just wait a little please?"

" you mean continue to pretend like everything is okay with us and we are still the super duper  happy couple?" i asked as sarcastically as i could, he sighed and answered

" when you say it like that it sounds awful jaimee but yes thats what i meant" i wanted to walk away but i stood there in my spot,

" what if  i wanted to get away from this? what if i wanted a divorce mark and we both leave with whatever we earned? what if i wanted to move out, start over and you would be free to be with your family that you created, why should we continue with all the pretense? what if i wanted to be genuinely happy and not pretend to be for the sake of others??"

i took a deep breathe after what felt like a speech exhaling slowly,my eyes tearful as he looked at me in disbelief with his mouth hung open, there was no response from him and we stood there in silence looking at each other, he moved to hug me but i stopped him holding my hands out, there was a slamming of a car door and i stiffened knowing that alexis had left her car and was heading now towards us.

As she came closer to us my heart hammered against my chest, mark's eyes snapped up to her, i could literally see the wheels in his lawyer head turning and i face palmed myself wanting to groan aloud, i told her to stay in the car, why did she have to be so stubborn, his eyes scanned her, and i could see a scowl about to form on his face.  she came up and stood beside me arms folded looking at mark,

" you okay jaimee?" i nodded not looking at either of them, there was silence between the three of us until mark spoke,

" friend of yours babe?" he asked and i rolled  my eyes, i thought he would have looked right away and knew what was up but maybe he wasnt as smart as i thought, now he was all ready to pretend as he usually did, before i could answer alexis struck out her hands to him for a handshake,

" im alex, you must be mark" she greated him calmly, he grinned,

" yeah thats me, cant say ive ever heard of you before" he replied taking her hand in his for a handshake, i watched them my mouth opened slightly, huh.  He turned to me with a smirk and i had to recall my thoughts, maybe he was smart after all, why was he so calm then,

" so jaimee who is your friend?" he asked adding empathis on the word friend, i didnt answer, i hated feeling like i was being put on the spot and thats exactly how i was feeling now. They both turned to look at me,

"im just a friend from work" alexis chipped in looking at me with a small smile that tugged at my heart, i felt bad,she had introduced me to her mom as her gf and here i was before my husband of convenience frozen, she was so much more than my friend and i straightened myself feeling the need to just let that out, i grabbed her arms as she was about to move off towards the house, "wait" i whispered, sighing i turned to mark,this was it ,I was going to tell him, mark and I have never been in love,we had a business partnership and a very strange friendship, yes we were married but that was only for appearances, yes we have had sex but it meant nothing to me,we both needed some form of comfort once in a while,was he going to flip, why should he? I argued with myself almost drifting in thoughts until Alexis cleared her throat and I realized she had turned to me raising her eyebrows with a look of annoyance on her face,

" umm mark, this is alexis, she is more than just my friend, we are together,she is my... My gf" i addressed him meeting his eyes waiting for what ever was to come after, he looked at me, then to alexis, then back to me, surprisingly he was very calm,

" so you are with a girl?" duh i wanted to exclaim, instead i nodded, he looked back to alexis

"how old are you?" he asked and i groaned

"old enough" alexis responded and i had to hide my smile hearing the defensive tone that she took with him, mark was definately not use to anyone taking any form of tone with him, he didnt look please with her answer and his gaze snapped back to mine,

"does your mother know about this" i grimaced at the question and narrowed my eys at him,

"no she doesnt, ill tell her in my own  time mark" he nodded and i was surprised again that he had agreed with me, we stood there again and alexis ran her hand through her hair,

"listen can we go inside to talk about this" she suggested and i agreed remembering about the pictures and the letters.

After convincing mark to park his car at the back we went inside and sat in the couch to have our conversation,

" so why the secrecy? why did i have to park at the back? should someone not see my car" he asked, i looked at alexis wondering if i should say anything, she nodded, i hesitated, after all how could i be sure mark was to be trusted, he looked at us both seated together and i just knew it wasnt him, he wasnt kidding when he said he was my bestfriend, him and cara i trusted with all my might, thinking of cara i made a mental note to call her later and fill her in.  Turning to mark i started to tell him about the pictures and the letters, his face changing from calm to being extremly angry, he got up and started pacing while i spoke, i started to mention about emily but alexis held her hands up stopping me, mark being quick asked "who is this emily?"

"she was my girlfriend" he narrowed his eyes at her,

"was???" he asked her sternly, she nodded,

"so why do you think it wasnt her?" my gaze snapped to alexis, that was a pretty good question mark asked, she didnt answer,

" why? are you still with her or something, look you better not be messing around while you are with jaimee" he stepped towards her fist balled at his side and i jumped between them as she moved towards him as well,

"waiiittt a minute" my palms against both their chest's, hers round with her boobs pressed against my palm and his flat and well toned, i chuckled to me self, this was some jerry springer shit, my husband of convenience wanting to fight my gf thinking she was messing around on me, turning to alexis i nodded my head to the side indicating for her to step off, i did the same with mark, he sighed and muttered to himself then turned to me,

" why a girl jaimee??" i was about to answer but he stopped me,

"dont answer that, i dont want to know, its your choice, i just dont want to see you get hurt, plus we still have a lot to discuss about our situation" i nodded. Alexis came over to me and stood at my side glaring at mark, he ignored her,

"alexis why do you think its not her?" i asked trying to not let the jealousy sound in my voice. she seemed overly confident that it was not emily,

"well the day we left to go to my mom, there was a black sedan following us, i lost it and when we got to moms i was looking out for it, it never showed up, if it was emily she would have known exactly where to show up she has been at my moms place before she knows where it is, it wasnt her" alexis argued and i distinctly remembered when she had started to drive differently than she did when i was in the car, she made a good point so we left it at that, mark had to leave but we all agreed including alexis that mark and i would continue like its all okay and alexis and i will be way more careful with seeing each other. He hugged me and spoke directly to alexis before leaving

" hurt her and ill destroy you" he warned before disappearing through the door, i turned to her apologetic but she shrugged

"its okay" pulling me in her arms i sighed as we sank into the couch together, exhaustion seeping through me.