Baby, I Think I Love You

Serafina

“Why are we here, Edwin? It makes me nervous leaving Avery and Monique at home alone,” I sighed, allowing him to help me out of the car. He kissed my hand.

“Just know that I’m not doing this to hurt you,” he begged softly, pulling me into a quick yet sweet embrace. “I just want you to know the truth.”

“Eddy, you’re going to give me a heart attack. Please, what’s going on?” I whispered, leaning against him.

“I love you,” he mumbled against my forehead, pulling me to the entrance of Serafina.

I wasn’t sure if we were going to the fancy restaurant in search of Jasper, or just to get away from the kids! Edwin was looking fabulous as ever in his nice tux, and he’d even made me slip into a rather formal wine-red dress.

“Might I say you look absolutely lovely?” Edwin whispered in my ear as we walked in. I smiled, kind of.

“Eddie, are we just going out for a spot of ‘wine’ or what? Why would Jasper be here? He hates going out all dolled up.”

Edwin smiled apologetically before turning to the waitress. He grabbed my hand gently and led me to a table, glancing around the room. He looked as jittery as a chicken in a house of coyotes! Yeah, not my best analogy, but what are you going to do?

“Sweetie, I would like to point out that the owner of this restaurant is also an old family friend—and a vampire, too. I didn’t plan on ordering anything, but you look like you could use a little ‘wine’, as you put it. I don’t want you to faint if this comes as a shock to you.”

My stomach was in knots. Just what was going on? The only thing I could think of would be ‘Jasper is cheating on me’. But surely he wouldn’t do that. He loves me. Right? Right. He loves me to pieces, and that’s why he stole me from Edwin. There was no way he could be with another woman. Absolutely not.

Why couldn’t I convince myself of that?

The manager came up to our table and obviously recognized Edwin right away. They started chatting about something I didn’t care to listen to, so I let my eyes wander. The restaurant was very nice and everyone seemed to think the food was well prepared.

But then I saw someone sitting at a table for two.

“Jasper?” I mumbled to myself, not believing my eyes.

He perked up, and I thought he had heard me. But then he turned his head to the restrooms, watching as a blonde walked out of the restroom. She looked pretty enough from far away, but something just wasn’t right about her.

I jumped when I felt a hand fall on my thigh. Turning to look at Edwin, I saw that he had scooted around the table so he was right beside me. His gaze was focused entirely on Jasper. His hand moved to mine, and he gripped it tightly, kissing me quickly.

I watched in despair as she walked up to Jasper and he rose to greet her with a quick kiss.

But that wasn’t what had killed me the most. No, I could have lived with it if I had known that this was the first time he’d taken her out.

But there, in the woman’s arms, was a small child. She had to be at least seven months old.

I bit down on my lip, ignoring the blood running down my chin. I could feel a single tear trickling down my cheek, but I didn’t do anything about it. I felt like I'd been numbed.

“I didn’t want to tell you... Because you looked so happy when you were with him,” Edwin whispered, sounding almost as tormented as I was.

He had been cheating on me for well over a year...