Not The Desired Effect

While the kids were chatting about what they wanted to do for the show, I decided it was a good time to slink off into the wings and see what goodies were lurking there for us to use for our show. I was surrounded by old props from the drama clubs various plays when Josh appeared again.

“Hey,” I flashed him a smile. It was going to be a long production if Josh and I didn’t get along so I figured I should try to be as friendly as possible. “What do you think?” I swung a purple feather boa around my neck and posed. “Is it me?”

“Not quite…” he chuckled and scanned the floor. “Here, try this.” He scooped up a pair of star sunglasses. “And this…” As I slipped on the sunglasses, he plopped an oversized straw hat onto my head.

“How do I look now?” I laughed, knowing I looked completely silly.

His expression became serious all of a sudden. “Beautiful,” he stated, his hands sliding down my arms. “You always look beautiful, you know this.”
I sighed. He killed my mood. I pulled the hat off my head, dropping it into the box I found it in; the sunglasses followed shortly after.

“You aren’t going to say anything?”

I turned away.

“Are you going to be like this for the whole show?”

“Like what?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” he replied.

“Umm, no.” I chuckled. “If I knew I wouldn’t ask.”

“I told you already, we need to talk.”

I shook my head. “We don’t.” I started to walk away when his arm shoot out, stopping me in my tracks. “Drop your arm.”

“No,” he lowered his arm enough to wrap it around my waist. “We need to talk Anna.”

Lifting my chin, I stared into his eyes. “Talk never got us anywhere Josh.”

He looked like he was going to argue that but finally he nodded slightly. “You’re right, talk didn’t get us anywhere, this always did though.”

Before I could even comprehend what he was talking about, Josh lowered his head. As his lips captured mine, his arm slipped around me, pulling me to him. My eyes widened in shock, as I pressed my lips tightly together; I couldn’t believe he was doing this. Hands that were hanging freely at my sides, jumped to his chest. Using all the strength I had, I pushed against him, his arm tightened around me.

I wasn’t having any of that, I quickly removed one hand from his chest and swung at him, my hand not doing much damage as it struck his cheek but it was enough for him to pull back.

Although it wasn’t enough for me, I slapped him again. “Don’t you ever do that again!”

Stumbling over the props on the floor, I started to walk away, only to stop again. This time it wasn’t Josh who stopped me.

“Jordan?” I couldn’t believe my luck. Seriously, what were the odds? I wanted to ask him what he was doing there but all words died on my lips as he turned his eyes towards me. He looked so angry and hurt as he answered my unspoken question.

“It’s 5:20, we are suppose to meet Wanda at 5:30.” Hurt, more so than anger, sounded through in his words. “We were still going…?”

“Yes,” I moved towards him. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day.”
“Yeah?” He sounded so unsure at that moment that I hated myself, even though it was Josh I should’ve been upset with.

I nodded, “Yes.”

Jordan glanced over my shoulder at Josh before looking back at me. “We should go then.”

Reaching out his hand, he swept the curtain back so I could pass and then he followed me out onto the stage.

“I just have to grab my stuff and…” I trailed off when I spotted my nieces sitting on the edge of the stage talking with a couple of their friends while they waited, for me, because they were supposed to be staying at Jordan’s with me that night.

“Good, you found her, we can go now.” Cassie pushed off the stage. “I already got your stuff….” She trailed off, frowning. “Is everything ok?”

I glanced at Jordan, his attention was on something else; I turned in time to see Josh join us.

“Are we going?” Cassie asked slowly, her eyes jumping back and forth between Jordan and Josh.

Nodding, I reached for my bag to grab my keys. “Jordan and I have to meet with Wanda, why don’t you take my car and ­–”

“Can’t we go with you?” Lindsay asked.

“I…” I hesitated because I didn’t know if Jordan was in the mood to go house hunting with me at the moment, let alone have the girls tailing along.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jordan shrug. “I don’t have a problem with it but we have to go right now.”

The girls squealed and then started to talk excitedly amongst themselves as they headed towards the door.

“Thank you,” I smiled at Jordan. “You just made their day.”

“No problem,” Jordan stated.

I started to move forward only to realize Jordan didn’t move. I turned to find him staring at Josh. Closing my eyes, I prayed that nothing would happen. But something did.

Jordan told Josh to have a good night.

Josh was visibly stunned by this. He didn’t say a word as Jordan turned to me and smiled, really smiled. “Ready?” He held out his hand to me.

“Ready,” I had to bit my lip to stop from smiling like a fool as I slipped my hand into his.

Outside, in the cold darkening November evening, as he held his truck door open for me Jordan took a deep breath and let it out. When I turned to look at him, he told me he never doubted me for a second. “I’m glad you slapped him,” he whispered as he lowered his head so the girls wouldn’t hear.

“I didn’t want him to do that,” I told him.

“I know,” he reached up and rubbed his jaw. “I can’t blame the man for trying when I did the same damn thing.” He shook his head. "It seemed right at the time but it was a jack ass move. I'm sorry Babe."

I agreed. “It was a jack ass move. Although was a difference.”

He told me there was no difference but I insisted that there was. “What’s the difference?” He wanted to know.

I grinned, wrapping my arms around his neck. “The difference is, I kissed you back.”