A Ghostly Love

Chapter thirty

I let Jarell know I'm outside and then set my phone down in the cup holder. I take a few deep breaths so I can calm my nerves but it's not working. I go with my next option and spark up a backwood. The weed helps with my nerves, my car door opens and Jarell slides into the seat. "Hey mama." He kisses my cheek and then I pass him the wood. "Hey. You know the way there?" He nods and gives me directions to the restaurant.

We are sitting at the table in silence so I decide to grow some balls and just spit everything out. "Who was the girl that called your phone that night? She said she was your girlfriend." He wipes his mouth and grabs my hand. "Her name is Seray, she's my ex girlfriend. I keep in contact with her because while we were together she was pregnant." This man has a child!? I don't say anything and just wait for him to get his thoughts together. "She lost the baby at birth. A beautiful baby girl. It just wasn't meant to be between Seray and I." I'm in shock. "So why did she call you her boyfriend?" I don't know what to say now. "Because you, another woman, answered my phone and she wasn't expecting it. She's really nice once you get to know her."

The waitress comes over and takes our order. "Are you expecting me to meet her?" My heart races because the idea of him still talking to his ex makes me feel weird. "Well I was hoping you would." He stares at me with those stupid hazel eyes. He has hope written all over his face so I push my feelings to the side. "Fine but I need you to be honest with me." He nods. "When is the last time you slept with her?" His face drops and I already know it was recently. "The morning I left your house and Wednesday night." I feel sick so I call the waitress over and ask her for a bottle of red wine.

"Oh.." I don't know what else to say about the situation. "Hailey, I know it was wrong I do. I know I shouldn't have slept with her but I was upset, you weren't talking to me." The food and my wine comes. "Thank you so much." I tip the waitress a hundred dollars and her face lights up. "Let me know if you need anything else." She squeezes my shoulder before walking away. "Jarell were you with Seray today?" He nods. "We went to the mall, picked up a few things." His phone goes off. He looks at me and then the phone. "Answer it." I excuse myself from the table and make my way to the bathroom.
Me: This isn't gonna work!!!
Stanley: what's wrong?!!
My phone rings and I quickly explain to Stanley what's going on. "He's telling me everything which I appreciate but I don't know if I can share my time with another woman. I know how selfish that sounds because of their situation but it's the fact that they still get intimate with one another..." Stanley sighs. "Okay look. Lay out the ground rules tell him what you want. If he's sitting there being this open with you then he may be genuine." I thank Stanley and then hang up the phone.

I take a deep breath and then make my way back to the table. Jarell slides his phone towards me, "What?" I pick up his phone and read the message from Seray.
Seray: Jarell I understand why you slept with me that night but that wasn't fair to me or the girl that answered your phone. I can't do the back and forth with you anymore our relationship will be strictly platonic. We are just friends! Apologize to the girl for me, she seems like a really sweet girl. Enjoy your night.
I hand him his phone back and look at him. "Hailey please forgive me." I sigh but take his hand. "I'm not upset. I'm hurt but I'll get over it eventually. You make me feel so alive and happy. It's weird being upset and away from you." He kisses my hand. "Sex is important to me, that first night we met and we did what we did I felt ashamed but then I realized I liked you. Even though I just met you I liked you." As I explain my feelings to Jarell I realize that what he did hurt me deep because I love him.

"Jarell my soul was automatically attracted to yours. It's weird to explain it because even I don't understand it. I just know, I love you and I want to be with you but I need to know that if we ever have another disagreement that you won't run behind my back and go sleep with Seray again." He takes a deep breath before getting up from the table and leads me out back. "Hailey I put it on my mother that I won't do anything like that to you again. When I met you I knew I had to get close to you. I was prepared to be in your life weather it was a friendship or a relationship. The morning I left your house I was in a bad headspace. I was fighting my feelings and after I slept with Seray I knew I fucked up. I felt so guilty, because I knew I loved you."

A smile covers my face, "You love me?" Thinking about what he said I realize that he promised something on his mother. I learned the first week of knowing him that when he puts something on his mother he's serious. "I do." He kisses me. At first I'm into the kiss but then the image of him kissing another girl flashes through my head so I pull away. He doesn't say anything but leads me back inside the restaurant. I ask for a box and a bag so I could carry my food and wine. I realize that I didn't even touch my food the entire time we've been here.

Jarell walks me to my car and opens the passenger door so I could get in my car. He jumps in the driver seat and starts to take me somewhere. "So where are we going?" He places his hand on my thigh. I shift uncomfortably, he notices and removes his hand. "Okay what can I do?" I turn to stare at him. "I understand that your hurt right now so what can I do? During our kiss you pulled away and you don't want my hand on your thigh." I frown. "I don't mind your hand on my thigh it's just everything is still fresh. As for the kiss, I saw you kissing another girl in my head and it made me sick." He drives in silence for a while I almost forget about the conversation.

"Okay no kissing for now." He cracks a smile at me which I return. He pulls up to a old building and quickly jumps out of my car. He races around to the passenger side and opens the door for me. "Where the hell are we?" I look around me to see if I know where we are. "It's a surprise mama." He leads me inside this building and into the elevator. We go up to the top floor and when the doors open I gasp. The room is full of balloons and glitter. There's a rose petal walkway which I follow. It stops at a chair which Jarell makes me sit in. "Wait right here." He disappears into some part of the room.

He comes back with his arms filled with bags and boxes. "This was supposed to be for one of our dates but I decided to Ight would be better." He hands me a box that I happily open. Inside are some black Gucci shoes, "You didn't!!!" He smiles that boyish smile I've grown to love. "I did. I remember you telling me how much you wanted to get them. So I got them." He hands me another box, this ones a bit heavier than the first one. When I open it there's these adorable knee high boots along with some long socks. It goes on like that for a few minutes, him handing me gifts and me opening them.

Just when I think he's done he runs to the back of the room and pushes a giant box towards me. "What else did you get?! This was enough already!" I say as I try on the Gucci shoes. "Just open it." He laughs at me. I walk over to the box and tug on the giant ribbon. The ribbon comes off and the box falls apart reveling a puppy. "Oh! It's so fluffy." The fur ball jumps on me and starts licking my face. "Do you like her?" I grab the puppy and stand to face Jarell. "She's perfect. What kind of dog is she?" I burry my face in her fur.

"I didn't name her, I wanted you to do it." He rolls on his feet with his hands behind his back. "Okay let me think." I stare down at the little fluffer walking around and the name Acadia pops into my head. "How about Acadia?" The dogs head pops up at the mention of the name. Jarell agrees with me. He helps me carry all the stuff he bought me down to my car. Acadia bounces around in the backseat the whole way back to my house.