Breaking the Chain Teaser

That's right!  It's time!  I have enough for a teaser =)  Super stoked about this book.  I'll admit, I haven't done a whole ton of writing on it in the past few weeks but it's def where all my focus is now =)  WOOT!

4 pm.

Leigh stared at her phone.  She'd been texting Jared at this time, every day, for weeks until yesterday.  They'd been... not dating exactly, but not not dating. Ugh.  Being single was so confusing.  They'd been seeing each other.  Talking every day.  She hadn't realized how much she'd come to rely on sending him a stupid joke at 4pm, every day, and getting some kind of response from him until yesterday, when it hadn't happened.

It was like a craving.

Just text him.

Friends could still text each other.  And Jared had said that no matter what happened, he still wanted to be friends.  Leigh wanted that too.

She didn't blame him for needing some space.  His ex, Marissa, had turned up on his doorstep, promising him everything he'd ever wanted from her.  They had seven years of history together.  Seven years of effort, of trying to make their relationship work.  She and Jared had been seeing each other, sort of, for maybe a couple months?  

Yeah, in a romance novel, Marissa and Jared would be the main story line.  The second chance romance.  The woman who realizes everything she's about to lose and goes to make the effort to keep her man.  Leigh would be the other woman.  The stalker 'date' who wouldn't let go.  The bad guy.  

Leigh's own story line was much more depressing.  Definitely not a romance.  Lately it kind of felt like a soap opera.  She was the girl no one wanted.  Not even the guy she'd been trying to make things work with for seven years.  Michael, her ex-boyfriend, the man she'd thought was the love of her life, her soulmate, her everything, hadn't been satisfied with just her.  He'd wanted to date other women.  To know what it was like to have sex with other women.  Until this most recent break up, they'd only ever had sex with each other.

Since the break up, Leigh had slept with a couple of guys.  Enough to know that, while sex could be fun without emotion, she preferred it with.  It was definitely more fun with.  Unfortunately, Michael didn't want to get back together and the only other guy that she'd started to feel emotions for... well, they hadn't gotten that far before his ex had shown up on the scene.

Ugh. 

Lucky bastard.

It didn't really hurt that much.  Compared to having her heart ripped out of her chest and crushed by Michael, this little scratch by Jared was next to nothing.  She'd cried a little bit over it, of course.  She really did like Jared and she felt a little bruised, but she also felt happy for him.  Jared deserved to be happy and she was glad that his story was getting the fairy tale ending it deserved.

She might have also cried a little bit because she was envious.  Part of her wanted to scream - why him?  Why not me?

What was it about Jared that had brought Marissa back to him that Leigh didn't have?  Why didn't Michael want her back?

Yeah, he called sometimes.  Yeah, he'd been pissed about her sleeping with other guys - although she thought that might be because, so far, he hadn't managed to do the same with another woman.  But he didn't want her back even though he didn't want her with other guys.  But he wasn't willing to give up trying to date other women.  Asshole wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

Sometimes she really hated him.

Yet, she knew that if he'd come back... would she have given up Jared?  

The idea of completely giving up on Michael was so foreign to her.  They'd been through so much together.  She still missed him, as if he was a limb that had suddenly dropped off.  Michael hadn't just been her boyfriend, he'd been her best friend.  She still found herself wanting to call him when something funny happened to her.  Or to pick up a six pack of his favorite seasonal beer when she was at the store.  Having Jared had helped a lot with all of that.

Was she just sad because Jared was a distraction from Michael and now he was gone?

No.  It might be partly that, but it was so much more complicated.  Spending time with Jared had made her happy.  He didn't try to change her.  He didn't judge anything she said.  Michael's job had started to grind away at their relationship; he'd wanted her to look differently, act differently, from the person she'd always been, to be the person he thought she needed to be in order to help him advance.  She'd tried, she really had, but she'd felt so stifled.  So boxed in.  Being with Jared made her feel free, especially because he really seemed to like who she was.  He liked it when she was silly.  It made him laugh and that made her feel good because she liked to see him laugh...

Ah fuck it.

She was going to text him.

But what?  A joke didn't seem quite right... maybe a quote... or a funny picture...

Ten minutes later, Leigh was still scrolling almost aimlessly through her phone when she finally saw it.  The exact perfect thing to send.

Her stomach churned with anxiousness as she typed it out, but when she hit the send button, her shoulders felt lighter too.  No matter what, at least she'd reached out.  At least she'd tried.

She and Jared could still be friends.  They hadn't gone very far with the whole dating thing anyway.  Leigh didn't want to just give up, she wanted to keep him as a friend.  Not to mention, it could make their whole social group very awkward if they weren't.

Still, she vowed to herself that if he didn't text back, or if he didn't seem that enthused about her texting him, she would let it go.  Not cling.  Not try to hold onto something that wasn't there.  She wasn't going to be the villainess in his story.