Jude’s P. O. V.:
I pushed her off me and she didn’t even stir! I got up and quickly dressed and barged into Wade’s room.
“Wade! Sean! Wake up”
“What’s wrong?” asked Wade sitting up and wincing.
“I think I cheated on Natasha last night”
“You think?” asked Sean clutching his head.
“Well I woke up in my boxers and a naked girl sleeping next to me”
“Well see Jude that is not possible. All the girls were warned personally by me to not give any special favors” said Sean clutching his head.
“Sean! I woke up next to Stephanie!”
Both the boys bolted out of bed and rushed to the room where I had been sleeping. I followed and saw that Stephanie was awake and she had a huge smile on her face that would make the Cheshire cat proud. She was dressed now.
“Juuuuuude! Jude, Jude, Jude!” she sang, “told ya that you still loved me”
“Shut up! I was drunk!”
She laughed and said, “you think that matters? What will your precious Natasha think when she comes to know her Jude has been frolicking behind her back?”
I stood there and stared at her wishing that I was brutal enough to raise my hand on a woman. I just stood there clenching my knuckles. “She will understand, she knows I would never touch you in my right mind”
“Right, whatever keeps you happy. All the best” she said and wiggled her fingers at me. I made a move to punch her but Wade stopped me. “She’s not worth it dude”
We watched her leave and all of us collapsed on the sofa.
“Where is Gary?” I asked.
“Dunno man he left sometime in the morning”
“Call him”
“Ok” said Sean and went to call Gary.
Meanwhile I sat there on Wade’s couch, guilt racking my body. I clutched my head and sat there with my eyes shut. I could see Natasha’s crestfallen face when I would tell her. I could already sense her disappointment in me. Was I that weak? How could I have given into something like this so easily?
As one nasty thought chased another I sat there in silence and didn realize when tears flowed freely down my cheeks.
“Jude! Don’t cry man, we will figure this out”
“What if we can’t? what if Natasha wont understand?”
“She will Jude, trust me she will. She is a strong headed and
sensible girl, she knows you wouldn’t cheat on her deliberately.”
“What if she won’t understand?” I went on persistently.
“She has to!” said Wade frustrated.
“Gary is on his way” said Sean and collapsed next to me patting my hand.
“We should have never gotten drunk!”
“Yeah” I said sadly.
“How did the skank sneak in?”
“I don’t know”
“Well” said Wade sheepishly, “I think I left the door open for quiet sometime after everyone had left. She must’ve sneaked in then” “How did she know of the party?”
“Dunno maybe she was stalking us. She is crazy I tell you!”
I sat there in remorse framing and re framing sentences in my head. What would I tell Natasha? Would she believe me? No way, she would kill me or worse castrate me!
The doorbell rang and Sean went to answer it.
“Hey what’s up man? I was getting ready to crash but Sean called me here saying it was an emergency”
Quickly I explained everything to Gary with a little input from Sean and Wade.
“But that’s not possible!”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I asked.
“What time did you wake up?”
“About an hour ago?”
“Jude who put you to bed?”
“Damn if I know!”
“Oh you idiot! I did! I took your shoes off and collapsed right beside you, I left from here about 15 minutes before you woke up!”
“Did you close the door on your way out?”
“Er I think I may have left it open”
“Ok” said Wade, “Jude it wasn’t me man. So if Natasha asks it was Gary who left the door open for Stephanie!”
“Not cool man” said Gary.
“Oh you idiots!” said Sean, “don’t you realize that Jude didn’t sleep with Stephanie! That bitch did it just so all of us would think that way. She didn’t bank on all of us to sit and figure this out!” he said clapping his hands.
Relief flooded through me as I realized that I hadn’t cheated on
Natasha.
“So do I tell Natasha what happened or not?”
“No”
“Yes” they chorused at the same time. Wade and Gary thought I shouldn’t while Sean thought that I should.
“I will tell her, I don’t want any secrets between us. This time I am going to build my relationship right. Its going to be based on truth, honesty and trust.”
The boys watched me with open mouths and Sean whispered, “You go Jude!”
“Ok guys I think I need a huge mug of black coffee before I meet Natasha”
“On it” said Sean getting up.
As he put on a large pot of coffee I went and freshened up. I took a shower and changed my clothes. By the time I came out the rest of them were eating breakfast and drinking coffee.
“I need one of you to drop me home” I said draining my cup of
coffee.
“I’ll drop you” said Gary.
“Let’s go”
“Alright”
Wade and Sean wished me luck and went off to sleep because I had disrupted their sleep.
“Well here’s your stop” said Gary patting on my shoulder.
“Thanks dude, I am so glad you crashed in with me last night or else all of us would have been fooled by Stephanie!”
“No problem”
I got out of the car and got inside my house. I saw Natasha’s shoes near the door. That’s odd, I thought normally Natasha would’ve kept them on the shoe stand. I went towards my room and heard Natasha sobbing. My heart started racing and I rushed inside, was it her mother?
“Nats what’s wrong?”
She didn’t say anything but only sobbed harder.
I went to hug her but she pushed me away.
“Natasha! What’s wrong?”
“You! You are wrong, you are so wrong for me!” she said and sobbed harder.
“What are you talking about?”
She flung her phone at me, my mouth went dry as I glanced at the screen. It was a picture of Stephanie and me from today morning..
“Why Jude? After all this time its still her you want. Why?”
“Natasha please hear me out, I was going to tell you about it”
“When? After we were married?”
“No! I was going to tell you right away!”
“What if I had done the same thing Jude? What if I had come and told
you I cheated on you would you be ok?”
“No”
“Then how do you expect me to be ok?”
“Because I didn’t cheat on you!”
“Seriously?” she said waving her phone in front of my face.
She went on and on ranting about cheats and how I would’ve reacted if she had cheated on me. Well I would’ve cut that bastard’s you know what if he would have touched my girl but that’s besides the point. My point is Natasha went on ranting without letting me get a word in.
So I did what I thought was best I grabbed her and kissed her. She struggled against me and held clamped her lips but after my incessant kissing she finally gave in. after we parted we both were panting then she drew her hand and punched me square in the jaw.
“Ow what was that for!”
“For kissing me you pig!”
“But you kissed me back!”
“That’s just beside the point!”
“Natasha please listen to me, I swear on you I didn’t cheat on you”
“Then what is this?” she asked pointing to the phone and crying once more. I stepped forward and wiped her tears; I kissed her on her forehead and pulled her down on my lap. I put my arms around her as she relaxed.
I then sat and explained everything to her. I started with how Gary put me to bed and how I found myself in bed with Stephanie. I also told her what Gary had told me.
“You swear this is what happened?”
“I swear, you can ask the boys”
“I don’t need to, because if I don’t trust you this marriage will never work”
I looked at her and smiled, this is why I had fallen in love with this woman, she had a huge heart. I mean if I was in her place I doubt I would’ve believed me but I wasn’t about to tell her that. “Jude?” she asked as we sat in silence.
“Yes?”
“I just wanted to say that if you ever did something like this I would die, I am not saying I would kill myself I- I guess what I am trying to say is a part of me would die”
“Natasha I would never ever do this to us! I value you too much” She turned around and hugged me tight like she never wanted to let go. I hugged her back.
Later we sat there swapping our party stories, I laughed till my eyes watered when she told me about the dare Joanna had to do. “Seriously?”
“Yeah! I know right?”
“That is the most hilarious thing I have ever heard!”
“I know! No one bothered choosing dare again, besides we slept pretty early”
“Wow, you really hate parties don’t you?”
“Yep”
“I hate them from now on I am never getting drunk again!”
“Glad you had some sense knocked into your head”
“Yep”
“SO Jude, do you know where Stephanie stays?”
“Yeah why?” I asked nervously.
“Nothing”
“Natasha?”
“Yes?”
“What’s going on in your head?”
“Nothing! Does Wade know where she stays?”
“Yeah I guess Sean does too”
“Hmmm”
I could see the wheels turning in her head and knew she was thinking something, I just wished I knew what it was.
“SO I guess we are getting married in three days huh?”
“Yeah” I replied smiling like an idiot, “can’t wait for these three days to pass!”
“Me too”
“SO there’s nothing pending right? Everything has been marked off the to do list?”
“Yes” I replied, “pretty much everything is taken care of”
“Good”