Always Remember

disappeared – much to Jen’s delight – it’s started to warm up. A little.
    Since her flat is closer to Red, and that ’s where I left from this morning, I have to walk to hers. Shit. I wish I’d thought of how bloody tired I’d be after work. And hungry. I’m fucking starving.
    I fumble in my pocket for my phone to text Jen as I enter the park outside her house. I shoot off a quick message, telling her to meet me here and we ’ll grab chips. I whistle under my breath – and walk straight into someone.
    “Shit, sorry, love!” I grab the person ’s arms. And drop them like they’re on fire when I see Heidi looking up at me. My jaw clenches.
    I ’m beginning to wonder if she has a tracking device on me, because she just pops up at the most convenient times. She just “bumps” into me every fucking time.
    “Oh, Bing.” She flutters her mascara clad eyelashes at me. “What a coincidence.”
    “What is?” I grind out.
    “That I should just happen to bump into you.”
    “Yes, Heidi. In the largest city in the country – on the side of the city you don’t live – I’m sure it’s a coincidence you just happened to bump into me,” I say dryly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and meet my girlfriend.”
    Her eyes flick over my shoulder, and she puts a hand against my chest. I knock it away.
    “Heidi. I fuckin’ mean it. Enough!”
    She pushes herself against me and I take a deep breath in to calm myself, tilting my head back slightly.

JEN

    Her lips touch his neck softly, her eyes icy and focused on me. Bing jolts, shoving her away, and she smirks at me. I nod at her once.
    She wins, because I can’t keep fighting that losing battle with her. I’m only twenty, but I’m too damn old for petty school girl games.
    I step backwards as Bing turns, and I hear him yell. The words all run into each other, and that’s what I need to do. I need to run – even though it’s not his fault, it’s all her, and I know he’ll chase me, but I need to get away.
    “Jen!” he yells, and I shove my way past people to get out of the park. I glance at the road and run across the empty street. I slam the code into the keypad, yank the door open, and move straight past the lift to the stairs. I take them two at a time and I can hear his footsteps thundering after me.
    I push my front door shut behind me, walking across the room to the window. The door opens and closes.
    “Please leave,” I say quietly.
    “Jen…” He crosses the room to my side and raises his hand to move hair from my face. I shake my head, and step back.
    “Please don ’t,” I whisper. “I can’t-”
    “It was all her. Not me. Believe me, Jen.”
    “I know that.” I step back again. “I know it wasn’t you, but I can’t do it. I’ve tried, Bing. I’ve tried so fucking hard to deal with her and all of her bullshit, but I can’t anymore.”
    Each word is killing me slowly. It ’s snapping off a piece of my heart, breaking it and shattering it. I don’t want this. I don’t want to walk away. He’s become everything so quickly.
    “Maybe…” My breath hitches. “…Maybe what we had was never meant to be anything more than sex.”
    “What we had?” he asks, his voice more vulnerable than I’ve ever heard. “No, Jen, it hasn’t just disappeared because you decided you can’t do it anymore! It’s always been there, and maybe it always will be, but what we have is more than just sex. Every time I watched you fly apart in my arms, every time we played, joked, laughed, that was more than sex, babe. It was more than sex when I promised you forever.” Tears fill my eyes and I look down. “When I promised you forever, Jen, I fucking meant it. I mean every goddamn word I said.”
    He moves from me, and I hear his footsteps in the direction of the door.
    “Obviously you didn’t if you’re walking away so easily.”
    “I ’m not the one walking away!” he yells. “You are, even though it’s breaking your damn heart, you’re still walking away. Where’s my Jen, huh? Where’s my Jen that would have walked right up to Heidi and put her on her ass for what she did?”
    I shake my head and turn away. She got lost. She got lost when she did something stupid like give Samuel Edwards her heart.
    “I’m not walking away from us, Jen. I promised forever and I’m gonna give it to you. I just can’t stand here and watch you cry, watch you push me away, because it hurts too much. I can’t stand there next to