The Uber ride back to her house in Georgia was beginning to feel familiar. Georgia was more like home now, and she actually felt a tinge of happiness when the car turned into her street and she spotted her house.
Teja had kept Moon for her over the holidays. She couldn’t wait to see the kitten’s cute little face again, her blue eyes and silver-coloured fur, the way she purred so loudly while Jessica stroked her side on the couch. She smiled as she thanked the Uber driver and hurried into the house. It was cold, but not so frigid as it had been back in Oklahoma. The sun was bright, and she could already feel that her overcoat was too much.
After she’d stowed her suitcase in her bedroom, she hurried next door. She waited impatiently for Teja to answer the door, then embraced her friend, who handed her the kitten.
“Oh, thank you so much. I knew Moon would be fine with you, but I definitely missed her.”
“She’s a sweetheart. It was no trouble at all, although I do have a few scratches on my fingers from when she decided to play rough with me.”
“She does that,” Jessica replied with an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’ve got them all bandaged up. How was your Christmas? Come in and tell me all about it.”
Teja fixed them each a cup of hot cocoa while Jessica filled her in on the details of her family Christmas.
“It was a nice holiday. Honestly, I’m glad to be home, though.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” Teja replied with a laugh.
“So am I.” Jessica sipped her cocoa. “And how about you? What did you do while I was gone?”
“We had lunch at my parents, and then Christmas Eve was with Robbie’s family. His brothers have so many kids now, it’s bedlam. But we enjoyed it.”
“That sounds nice. We don’t have any little kids in our family yet. But one of my sisters has a serious boyfriend, so I think they’ll probably get married before too much longer. I’m dying to have nieces and nephews. I’m going to be the cool auntie.”
“I’m sure you will be. And what about Tyler? What did he do for the holidays?”
Jessica hesitated, forcing a smile. “Um… I don’t know, actually.”
Teja’s brow furrowed. “What? What do you mean?”
“We broke up.”
“Oh, no!” Teja reached over to place her hand on top of Jessica’s. “I’m sorry. That must’ve been hard right before the holidays.”
“No, it’s fine. I ended things. I wasn’t ready for something serious, and he seemed to want to take things in that direction. After everything that happened with my ex…”
“I can understand that. It was a lot for you to deal with.”
“Tyler was really understanding, too. He wasn’t upset about it, and he hasn’t bothered me at all since then.”
“No calls? No texts? Nothing?”
“Nope. Not a single thing.”
“Wow.” Teja nodded slowly. “He’s a good guy.”
“I know he is. I really like him. It’s just hard to trust my own judgment right now. I thought Hilton was a good guy too. How do you know? How can you tell who you should trust?”
Teja tipped her head to one side. “Oh, bless your heart. You poor thing. You’re dealing with so much. But I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I think Tyler seems like a real catch. He’s a good guy and comes from a nice family. I’ve known of their family for years — don’t know them personally, but I’ve heard about them from time to time. And I’ve never heard one bad thing about them. His mother runs a café in town and is as nice as can be. Seems like they’re quality people to me.”
“That’s what I thought too… but this stuff with Hilton has me really questioning everything.”
“You know, Tyler’s never going to be perfect. I love my husband, but he’s far from perfect. We fight pretty regularly. There are a lot of things about him that drive me crazy, and I sure drive him crazy too. But he’s a good man. Obviously you have to avoid men like your ex, but you can’t expect anyone to meet an impossible standard of perfection. He’s going to have flaws, and if you love him, you’ll just have to accept those.”
“You’re right. I know you are. I have to figure this thing out. I feel like everything in my life is out of control at the moment. I’m in over my head at work, I’m living away from my loved ones, I can’t trust my judgment about men—I don’t know what to do about any of it.”
“You’re doing fine, Jess. The job is new, and you’re killing it. You’ll get used to being away from home. And Tyler is a good man. If you want my advice, I say you should give him a chance. But then again, if you’re not ready and it makes you uncomfortable, give yourself some time.”
