The chain catching in the door woke me. Daniel swore and called, "Jasmine! Are you awake?"

"Hang on." I crawled out of bed and let him in. "Didn't you say you might stay at Belinda's?"

"I'd have liked to, but she's right, it did happen too fast. We're not rushing it." Daniel grinned at me. "I like the idea," he said, stripping to his boxers and climbing under the covers. "Ooo." He bolted up. "I hope you changed the sheets."

"We didn't have sex, so there was no need," I lied.

"Neither did we," Daniel laughed and lay with his hands behind his head and said, "You know what, Jazz, I'm glad she said no. It makes me want her even more." He sounded astounded. "I feel like a hunter planning to catch his prey."

"Oh, for God's sake, next you'll say you're Tarzan." I laughed.

"What's wrong with being Tarzan?" Daniel kicked me in the ribs with his toe. "Jane's hot."

Laughing, I kicked him back. "I've invited Adam over for dinner tomorrow night. Can you not be here?"

"What time?"

"I said seven, but I'm sure he'll be late, so maybe don't come home until midnight."

"Yeah, alright." Daniel rolled over as he said, "I'll go to Connor's."

"Why not Belinda's?" I queried.

The covers lifted as if he'd shrugged. "She said she was going out to a work do."

I smiled because Belinda had taken my advice, and it was working.

I had the cooked Spaghetti in the pot, the table set with one candle, and was bathed and dressed by 7.15. I wore a clingy black mini-dress and decided to wear a G-string underneath with some sexy shoes. I looked pretty good, but decided to tie my hair on top of my head.

By 8.15, I kicked my shoes off, changed into a baggy T-shirt dress and put on some comfortable knickers. I ate a small bowl of food even though I wasn't hungry. By 8.35, I dished some on a microwave plate for Adam and put it in the fridge. I put the rest into containers and then into the freezer. At nine o'clock, I cleared the table and hid the candle, took out my hair and curled up in bed.

At 9.15, Adam knocked on the door.

When I opened it, I managed to turn up my lips in what must have looked like a sneer.

He touched my face and kissed my cheek. "Sorry, I'm late."

I put his plate of food in the microwave.

Adam didn't say anything. He sat at the table; his head hung, bouncing his leg and twiddling his fingers.

I was determined not to say anything. By the time the food was heated and I'd put it in front of him, we hadn't said anything. I sat at the table with him. He burnt his mouth with the first bite and caught me smirking. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"I wish you'd said you couldn't come," I huffed.

Adam continued to bounce his leg as he said, "If I said no every time I thought I couldn't come, we would only see each other once a week. At least I'm here."

"Yes, but if you had said no, then I wouldn't get excited," I snapped. "I wouldn't have gone to the trouble to do myself up to look nice for you. I wouldn't have set the table to have to pull it apart again." The ball of anger heated further. I spat, "If you had said no and then shown up, I'd be more surprised than angry."

Adam glanced at me from under his brows, took another mouthful of food and cocked his head. "It's good."

His offhanded comment angered me more. I had to take a breath and look away or I'd have clawed his eyes out. I stormed to the bed, snatched up a pillow, dug my fingers into it and stared at the TV.

A few minutes later, Adam sat in the recliner with his plate and continued to eat while watching the screen. He wasn't even going to suck up to me. When he finished his meal, he put his plate in the sink. The tap ran for a second, and then he stood by the bed. "Thanks," he said. "I'm going now."

I shot up, taking the pillow with me and stared at him as I said, "So that's it?"

"Yeah..." he said. "It's all I've got. Sorry."

"You're not even going to make up some lie, or suck up to make me feel better?" I said incredulously. "That's it, that's all you've got, what kind of thing is that to say?" I yelled.

His face seemed to cloud, then he pulled me to my knees and jerked me towards him. "I don't know what you want from me right now. I don't need this shit at the moment. I told you I'd try. I told you to make something that could be reheated. How could you not understand that, Jasmine? If you went to great lengths to do yourself up and everything, I don't see how that's my fault." His grip tightened on my arm as he growled, "I'm getting sick of you reading shit into everything I say or do. At the moment, what I do has to come first. Other people are depending on me. People I've known a lot longer than you and being late for fucking dinner doesn't count!" He shook me. His voice got angrier until he yelled the last few words into my face. Adam let me go and stormed to the door. With pain on his face, he said, "I love you, Jasmine! I'm sorry, but that's all I've got at the moment." He closed the door and left me kneeling on the bed in shock.

I dropped onto the mattress. I was so confused. One minute everything was great, and the next I was in tears. The whole time we'd been together, this was how it had been. Nothing had changed since making up, except the highs were higher and the lows lower. I got off the bed and went into the bathroom to wash my face. I studied myself in the mirror.

"Is this what you want, Jasmine?" I asked myself.

I didn't want to cry or constantly wonder when he'd turn up. I wanted it to be like Sunday had been. I wanted that Adam, not the Adam of the last two nights. I scrubbed my teeth, crawled into bed and let my tears flow.

When Daniel got home, I pretended I was asleep because I didn't want to tell him and have him hate Adam again.

In the morning, he asked me, "How did it go?"

I acted as casually as I could. "Just dinner, nothing special. How was your night?"

"Boring," he said. "I worried about Belinda being out with her workmates."

I patted his back as I went to make the bed. "Have you told her you love her yet?"

"Nah..." Daniel shook his head. "I don't want to put her under pressure. I'm supposed to be giving her space, remember? Telling her I love her might be too heavy."

I rang Belinda when I was on the train to work.

"Jazz, you were right. It's working. How long should I keep it up for?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "I don't know, but he's really missing you." I paused and then said, "Belinda, I got it wrong. He wasn't going to dump you. He had other things going on in his head."

"What other things?"

I hesitated before answering her.

She said again, "Jazz, what other things?"

"It's not my place to say, Belinda, but I'm sure he wasn't going to dump you. I want you to know that. Okay." I then said, "You're doing the right thing by not having sex with him every time you're with him. I'm going to try that with Adam because he expects it now."

She must have picked up on a change in my voice because she said, "What's going on? Are you fighting again?"

"Not really," I mumbled. "To be honest, I'm not sure. He left pretty angry last night."

I told her the story. Naturally, she sided with me, but something told me some of Adam's points had been valid. I remember him saying I didn't listen to him properly when he answered my questions.

As I continued to ride the train to work, I recalled asking him about his phone not ringing and him making a joke about the bad guys being in gaol. I gasped. How true that could have been if those people were arrested for drugs. If Adam did their dirty work and they were in gaol, it would make sense they couldn't ring him. These theories exhausted me. 

Yikes! This relationship is going from bad to worse. Who do you think is in the wrong?

I'm so happy Daniel and Belinda seem to be working.

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