One Step at a Time

Heh, thanks for the movie suggestion, but to be honest I'm not a big movie goer. I just used P&P in the last chapter because I needed a movie like that for Jake to groan about.

Again, thanks for the reviews.

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“Liz!” Alice cried out as she saw Jake’s girlfriend enter the sandwich shop and ran over to throw her arms around her. “It’s been forever!”

Forever in her eyes, but it had only been a couple weeks since they last saw each other. Though ever since Liz and Jake had gotten together she had made it her life’s duty to try and find out as much as she could about their relationship. Neither of the two ever cracked under her persistent hounding for information, and they preferred to keep it that way. If she found out just how intimate the two of them have become, it would be a long time before she would let it go.

“Hi, Alice.” Liz greeted warmly. “It hasn’t been that long.”

“Long enough.” Alice countered. “So what are you doing around these parts?” She asked, ushering her over to a corner table where their conversation could be more private.

Liz brushed away some stray crumbs that were scattered over the tabletop. “I came to see Jake, but Nick said he wasn’t working until later. So I decided I’d drop in and see you instead.”

“Well I’m glad you did.” Alice perked up straight in her seat. “We have time for a nice long chat.”

“Don’t you have work to do?”

“I’m on my break.” She turned around and shouted towards the kitchen. “I’m taking my break!” Luckily there was only one other person in the shop to notice that spectacle, but it didn’t seem that he was even paying attention. “So, we’ll start with how you and Jake are doing. Well?”

Liz shifted uncomfortable about the subject falling on the two of them immediately, but she should have known it would. Of course she figured she would just drop in and say hi before heading off. “We’re fine.” She answered with a slight sigh that followed.

“Uh oh.” Alice started. “You two didn’t have a fight or something, did you?” She reached her hands over to Liz’s in case the answer was a yes.

“No, we didn’t have a fight. We’re perfectly fine.”

“Then what’s the problem? You sound weird.” She asked, tilting her head to one side.

Liz rolled her eyes and gave a small smile. “Just what every girl wants to hear. That they’re being weird.”

Alice returned her comment with a shrug and a nonchalant grin. “People say I’m weird or odd all the time. It doesn’t bother me.” Of course it wouldn’t, Liz thought. Alice had all the confidence in the world, just like her Heather.

Liz let out another small sigh. “It’s just… I don’t know. I’ve been feeling a little…”

“Oh my God.” Alice gasped as she leaned back in the booth and covered her gaping mouth. “You’re not pregnant are you?”

A dark blush fell over her face and she denied it exasperatedly. “I am not! And yes I am sure that I’m not.” She added, knowing that was going to be the next question.

“Okay, I believe you.” Alice said with a laugh after eyeing her for a bit, seeing if she was telling the truth. “Then what is it?”

“I don’t know…” Liz was silent for only a moment as she looked down at her twiddling fingers before looking back at Alice. “Have you ever… been jealous? Even though you don’t have a reason to be?”

Alice looked up at the top of her eyes as if she had to think it over. “No… can’t say that I have. Why? Jake isn’t… seeing anyone else is he?”

“No. No, but… I don’t know. Jake ran into an old friend where I work when he was meeting me the other day, a girl, and I don’t know why. I just became jealous. I couldn’t help it.”

“Ah, well. I can understand that, I guess.” Alice comforted. “Jake is, after all, the only guy you’ve been serious about, so it natural to be thrown a little. But Jake is a good guy, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”

“Hey, Liz! I didn’t expect to see you here.” A male voice called out to her from across the shop. It was Nick strolling in with a Jack in the Box drink held loosely in his fingers and he was surprised to she her there talking with Alice. Usually she didn’t visit this area much since it was kind of out the way for her. “What are you ladies talking about?” He asked as he gave acknowledging glances to both of the girls and took a seat beside Alice.

“Just Jake’s other girlfriend.” Alice joked with a smile. Liz in turn shot a frown towards her when Nick gave her a questioning glance.

“He does not have another girlfriend.” She protested. “It’s just an old friend from school that he ran into.” She explained to catch Nick up.

“And Liz is jealous.” Alice chimed in. You are not helping, Liz chided silently.

“Ah, well. It’s Jake. There’s nothing to worry about.” Nick consoled and Liz couldn’t help but smile some in relief. Two of his friends that know him pretty well both said this was nothing to worry about.

“By the way, what is her name, anyway?” Alice asked, curious to know who this ‘other woman’ was.

“Linda.” She answered simply and Nick just about spit out his drink that he was taking a sip of.

He quickly swallowed and looked at Liz intently. “Did you say Linda?” He asked and she nodded. “Linda Avery?” Again Liz nodded, but weaker this time. What was wrong? What was so shocking about her? And from Alice’s expression she was just as confused. Nick leaned back in the booth some and covered his mouth as if he was in contemplation. “What the hell is that… is she doing back in the picture?” He mumbled aloud to himself, but the two girls heard it clearly.

Liz’s stomach dropped at hearing him say that. “W-what’s… what is it?” She asked meekly, afraid to hear the answer. Nick looked back at Liz with an expression in his eyes as if he had forgotten they were there.

Nick shook his head before responding. “I don’t know if I should say. It’s not my business.”

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll explain.” Alice scolded with a fire in her eyes neither Liz nor Nick had seen before.

He was silent for a moment longer before shaking his head again. “God… I really shouldn’t be the one saying this…” He trailed off and leaned forward over the table. “If I do you have to promise not to tell Jake I told you. Both of you.” Both girls immediately nodded their heads in compliance before he began.

“Okay…” Nick started, leaning back against his seat again, struggling to figure out how to start explaining what was on his mind. “Jake was head over heels for her.” Already Liz could feel her face drain of color as several different images popped into her mind, and she dreaded hearing the rest of what he had to say. “At the time I met him they had been going out for about a year, they met in their sophomore year, I believe. As far as I could tell, and everyone else too, they were the perfect couple, it was rare to see one without the other.”

Liz swallowed hard and she could already feel tears welling up, but she refused to let them fall. Not here anyway. Her eyes drifted over to Alice and she was staring intently at Nick, awaiting him to continue. “Well, everything was fine until their senior year. The two of them went to the senior prom together and I guess everything was going fine until the end of the night…”

He trailed off and Alice chastised him immediately for stopping. “Well don’t stop! Tell us what happened!”

Nicked looked over to Liz again and her expression was blank and he notice her messing with her fingernails absentmindedly. “Apparently…” He started again with a deep sigh. “She went with him to the dance, but left with someone else. That night Jake came wandering in to the store when I was working a graveyard shift stocking the place and he told me everything.” He paused again and took a sip of his drink to sooth his drying throat.

“And?” Alice pushed on, not wanting a single pause in the story.

“The pitcher to the school’s baseball team.” Nick exclaimed. “Jake caught them together in the bathroom and nearly came to blows with the guy after an argument, but Linda dragged him away.”

“What happened after that?” Alice asked, so involved with the story as if she was listening to a soap opera. “Did they try to fix things or what?”

Nick shook his head. “I don’t think he ever talked to her again, or even saw her. He had more things to think about at that time too. It was around that time that his dad died, so it was a really screwed up time for him. He really hadn’t been the same since… until he met you.” He motioned towards Liz. “He use to be a lot more active and energetic about things.”

Liz couldn’t fight it back any longer and she could feel some tears sliding down her check. Alice reached over and grabbed a couple napkins from the dispenser and handed them to Liz. Nick felt horrible that he told her everything about Linda and the reaction she was having towards it. “I’m sorry.” He said solemnly.

Liz shook her head as a sniffle escaped her. “It’s not your fault.” She said quietly. “But why didn’t he tell me?”

“I guess he just preferred to forget everything.” Nick answered.

Liz was silent again and finally dried her eyes, controlling herself she looked back up to Nick. “Did he… did he actually love her?” She asked weakly.

Nick looked down and shook his head. “I can’t answer that.” He said simply, partly because he didn’t know, but he also didn’t want to tell her his suspicion about it. “But I can gather the wrench didn’t feel the same about him that he did about her.”

The three of them fell completely silent for the next few minutes before Liz stirred and started to get up. “Wait, where are you going?” Alice asked, nearly pushing Nick out of the booth to make her way to her.

“I’m going to see Jake.” She sniffled. “I don’t want to talk about this with him yet… I just want to see him.” She said, knowing exactly what the other two were thinking.

Nick shuffled out of the booth to allow Alice to get out and she rushed to Liz to grab her in a hug. “I’m here to talk to if you need it.” She whispered into her ear and Liz only nodded on her shoulder.

When the hug was broken Liz looked over to Nick. “Thank you for telling me.” Her voice was soft and quiet as if she had spent hours crying. “And I promise I won’t tell him you told me. Somehow.” He nodded his head, regretting that he brought this up at all, but as soon as he heard the name of that woman, he thought. Hopefully everything wouldn’t snowball from here. Liz headed away and gave them a wave when she reached the door before leaving. The two of them stood there for a few seconds and exchanged worried glances.

“No good’s going to come from this, is it?”

“I can’t see any.”

***

Liz took a long look at Jake’s house from the street after she climbed out of her car. She had managed to settle herself down on the drive over and now she just felt tired more than anything. As much as she tried to convince herself that everything was all right, three were still thoughts nagging her in the back of her head. Like why he didn’t tell her everything about Linda or scarier yet, why he took her number. Now she couldn’t help feeling a little stupid for kind of pushing Jake to see her.

She hiked up the driveway and knocked her booths on the porch before motioning to knock on the door, but was startled when it suddenly flew open. She let out a startled gasp and noticed that he seemed just as surprised to see her.

“Oh, hey, Liz.” He said, still a bit of shock in his voice. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Liz looked up at him shyly and brushed some hair back from her face. “I know. I just felt like seeing you, that’s all.”

Jake replied with a gentle smile and stepped out onto the porch with her, wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning down to kiss her lightly on the lips. Liz could feel heat radiating off of him and she melted in his touch, wrapping her arms around his neck, but just as she was about to lose herself in the moment the kiss was broken. “I’m sorry.” He said with another smile. “I’m glad you’re here and I wish we could spend some time together, but I have to go to work.” He finished with a tinge of whining in his voice.

“Oh…” Was all Liz could as at the moment as she pursed her lips. There was no hiding the disappointment in her voice.

“But hey, we can do something later tonight if you want to. Is that okay?”

Liz nodded her head. “That sounds fine.” She said softly and had to force her smile a bit. “Um…” Liz started and looked around the porch nervously. “Do you mind if I stayed here for a little bit? I’m little worn and I don’t feel like trekking across town just yet.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, she told herself. A white lie maybe, though she was tired now and she didn’t feel like going home, those weren’t the reasons she wanted to stay.

“Be my guest.” Jake said and she returned a sincere smile. He brought his hand up and tapped the glasses that were resting on her face. The glasses he had gotten her. “I see you’re still not hating them.” He joked affectionately, completely changing the subject.

“I could never hate them.” She returned. They were, without a doubt, one of the most personal gifts anyone had ever given her. Being reminded of that restore some of her faith in their relationship, but her mind was still in a tug-of-war over everything she had learned that day.

“I’m glad.” He smiled back. “Well, I should get going. I’m already a little late as it is. But I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay.” She nodded back. “Have fun.” She managed to joke afterwards. He returned it with a roll of his eyes as he climbed into his truck. Liz stood there and watched him pull out of the driveway, waving to him when she saw him wave through the window and disappear down the street.

Liz let out a heavy sigh and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. “This is so sneaky.” She told herself out loud. “I’m being a horrible, jealous, untrusting girlfriend.” With a quick pace she made her way into the living room and looked over the bookcase that lined most of the wall. I don’t even know why I thought of this, she thought to herself. The idea just popped into my mind all of the sudden.

Her eyes lit up with a dim triumph when she spotted what she was looking for. She carefully pulled out four books that were lined up on the bottom shelf, Jake’s yearbooks from high school. Liz ran her hands over the smooth cover and slowly opened the sophomore year, flipping through a few pages at first before going to the index in the back and looking for Linda’s name.

Nothing much came from this book, she realized. There was only one picture of her and it was small and black and white. She quickly moved on to the junior year and checked the index immediately this time. There were more picture this time, but not much more to show. A couple of her in group photos, a candid one of her in a hallway, and… Liz’s breath caught some in her throat. One of her and Jake sitting together on some bleachers, their arms wrapped around each other and their heads leaning together.

They looked so happy together, she thought. There was a sparkle in both of their eyes and Liz wondered if the two of them had that same look. If she had a picture of the two of them on hand she would have actually compared them. She hesitantly moved on to the last one of the three years they were together. This one nearly broke her heart. There were barely any pictures of either of them away from each other. There was one of him carrying her through a puddle ridden parking lot, one of the two of them dressed up at a dance, another candid one of them… kissing.

Liz had to keep herself from crying again. It was his past, he was with her now, but every time she reminded herself of that she would also remember that ‘the old flame’ was back again. She went to close the book and put them away when something fell out from the back pages. It was a separate photo of the two of them on a porch swing, looking as if they had fallen asleep together. Her head was resting on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around her protectively.

Both looked much younger in the picture than they did now, even though not that much time had passed. Jake’s hair was shorter, though still unruly, and he was clean-shaven. Just like his drivers license, she remembered back. Linda, now… she was as beautiful as she was when Liz saw her in the store. She had shoulder length golden locks, however and a flawless, porcelain face. And though her eyes were closed, she knew those vibrant blue eyes were underneath.

Liz looked over to the window beside her and caught her reflection. Biting her lip she looked between herself and the picture. She didn’t have anywhere near the looks of Linda she criticized herself. Her eyes were dark and dull, her face had a few scattered freckles and other features she saw as imperfections, and Linda was even a little slimmer than her, as well as taller.

She looked back at the picture she was holding gently in her hands. Do we look like that to other people? Do we look like that together? Then looking at another picture of them. Does he look at me like that, or was that a look reserved only for her? She wondered. A dozen questions flowed through her mind at once without a single answer to any of them.

“What did he ever see in me?” Liz said aloud with a heavy sigh. She placed the picture back in the pages and set the books back in their spot. She stood up slowly and smoothed her skirt out as she looked around for what to do next. She was feeling more depressed now than scared or sad, though she had that coming by snooping into Jake’s past.

She breathed in deeply and told herself that she would have to bring this up with Jake. Not tonight, though. She would try her best to just enjoy the night that the two of them were going to have together, though she wasn’t as good at hiding her emotions as Jake apparently was. There was no way she would have been able to stay so in control if she had run into an ex that she was close with and he was with Linda. He acted as if nothing had happened at all.

Liz looked around once again at the room just to make sure nothing was out of place that could make Jake suspicious. She stepped through the room to leave when her eyes stumbled upon the photos of his parents again. So much loss in those few years, she thought. No wonder he’s so withdrawn the way he is. “Maybe he didn’t tell me about her because he was scared of how I’d react. Maybe he was afraid he’d lose me too, maybe?” She thought out loud. To her that idea sounded stupid, but it was a thought that eased her somewhat. If that was the case, I guess he really does feel something for me.