Page 38 of More Than Enough

Elizabeth, embarrassed and shocked, looked up to see who she had ran into and who the familiar voice belonged to, only to realize she knew him.

“Jacob!” She tried to relax, but those butterflies started flopping around in her belly. She smiled up at him despite herself. His typical simple attire of khaki shorts, Birkenstocks, and a T-shirt looked amazing on him, and she couldn’t help but stare from head to foot, and back again. Stopping at his eyes, she gave him a flirty smile.

“I’m so sorry. I need to pay better attention.” She looked up at him and tried to sound genuine. “I haven’t seen you in a while. How ya doing?”

He looked at her and quickly stepped away from her cart. She noticed him glancing down at her belly. His eyes hung out there for a second before he slowly trailed his eyes upward and met her gaze.There was something in his gaze that she couldn’t quite understand, regret, longing…

He gave her a very slight smile. “I’m good. Sorry about running into you. I’m in a hurry, but glad you’re good. I’ll see ya around.” He placed his hand on her arm as he passed, gave her a forced grin, and walked away without looking at her again. She turned in confusion to watch him.

“That was weird and a little rude.” She told no one as she continued her shopping trip. When she got home, she relayed the meeting to Jessica as they cooked their dinner.

“That doesn’t sound like him.” Jessica was cutting the vegetables, onions, green peppers, and carrots for the pot roast they were making.

Elizabeth leaned on the counter, drying her hands on the towel. She just finished peeling the potatoes and put them in a pot with cold water. “I know, it was so weird. I felt like he wanted nothing to do with me. I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess. I have been ignoring him and avoiding him as much as possible.”

Jessica didn’t say anything and continued vigorously cutting the vegetables. Elizabeth watched her, amused. “You know, those vegetables did nothing to you. You don’t have to kill them!”

Elizabeth carried the roasting pan with the roast over to her friend. “Here, we need to get this in the oven.” She sat the pot on the counter, picked the vegetables up off the board and placed them in with the roast, put it into the hot oven, then spun around to face Jessica.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Elizabeth shot her an accusatory tone. “Okay, what’s going on?”

Jessica stopped her now crazy cleanup of the counter and faced Elizabeth. She was playing with the towel in her hands until Elizabeth reached over and roughly took it away.

She used the towel to point at Jessica. “Spill the beans. Now! You’ve been acting weird all night.”

Jessica placed her now empty hands in a praying motion in front of her and looked at Elizabeth with worry in her eyes. “It’s just something Chad told me.”

“Oh, yeah? When did you talk to Chad?” Elizabeth looked with interest at her friend. She had noticed that he kept stopping by the boutique more and more to talk with Jessica. They were both sitting together in church and were finding more time to hang out.

“It’s not a big deal. We’re just talking. Anyway, it’s not that I was talking to Chad, but what we were talking about.” Jessica stopped and made eye contact with Elizabeth. Elizabeth had no clue where this was going, but she was interested.

“He told me that Jacob and Kristen are now a thing. He, I mean Jacob, is seeing Kristen.” She stopped here, squinted her face, and grabbed Elizabeth’s arms before she continued her torrent of words. “I’m so sorry. He told me last week. I didn’t know how to tell you. If it makes you feel better, he said he thinks Jacob is just using her for sex again. And he also thinks Jacob is trying to make you jealous.” Jessica stopped abruptly, noticing the hurt in her friend’s eyes and shut her mouth tight.

Elizabeth looked at Jessica with shock and disgust and turned abruptly around. “No, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” She crossed her arms over her chest and took deep breaths to keep the tears that were pooling in her eyes from overflowing.

“I’ve noticed her car in their driveway a lot, but just figured she was there with Stacey.” She lifted her hand to wipe angrily at the stray tear that broke free, closed her eyes, and turned toward Jessica.

“I shouldn’t be so upset. I broke it off with him.” She looked at her friend and lost her cool. “Oh my God! What a jackass!”

Elizabeth threw the towel against the wall hitting the spice rack, sending some spices toppling over. “He’s not doing it to make me jealous. We’re all adults. He’s made his choice, and he just chose her even though she’s a royal bitch to us. She is pretty, thin, and blonde. That must be his type. Not some brown-haired girl with a fat belly.” Elizabeth knew she sounded like a child. It was easier to put herself down than admit how upset the situation made her.

Jessica crossed the kitchen and took Elizabeth in her arms. “Aww, honey, don’t let him get to you.”

Elizabeth hugged her friend, took a breath, and got herself together. She walked over and tore a paper towel from the roll hanging under the cabinet.

Wiping her face clean of tears, she placed her hands in front of her. “Okay, that will not happen again. I can do better than a man who jumps from woman to woman. Whoever I end up with will have to be good enough for the both of us.”

She had her hands on her stomach and looked at Jessica as new tears started flowing. These were more than just new tears. They were also sad and lonely tears.

“I’m tired of being alone, Jessica. You have Chad, Stacey has her new boyfriend, and now even that bitch has taken someone. I feel like I will always be alone. I always have the worst luck with relationships.”

Jessica again took her friend in her arms. “You know what, you out of all of us, are the only one truly never alone.” She pulled away from Elizabeth, looked her in her eyes and placed her hands on either side of Elizabeth’s growing belly. “You always have a little man with you. And this one will love you more genuinely than any other man ever could.”

Elizabeth smiled at Jessica, taking in the words she just said, and laughed at this statement shaking her head.

“You kill me. You are determined this is a boy.”

“Yes, I am. I can see you with your little guy.”

---