Too Much of a Good Thing

Jo fidgeted with her hands under the table, shaking her leg. She couldn’t stop thinking about leaving James at home without fixing their problem. She should’ve just let him go with her to her meeting. She couldn’t even concentrate on whatever the people sitting across from her were talking about. She hardly touched her food because she just didn’t have the appetite to enjoy herself when she knew there was something wrong between her and James.

James’ first season with the Preds had been great. Jo enjoyed her time in the family lounge where she met most of the wives and girlfriends. She even met Carrie Underwood twice and had a nice chat with her a couple of times. She proudly wore her Neal jersey even though most of the WAGs just dressed casually.

She was so proud of James. After a couple of months after his trade was announced, she finally grasped what it truly meant for a player to be traded. She had been there to help him pack up his house in Pittsburgh and was there when he moved in to his new home in Nashville. When she attended his first game as a Predator, she couldn’t believe what she saw out there on the ice.

She saw his pure talent, the skill he had and how strong he was. Though they didn’t make it to the playoffs, she was still glad that James had a great season with his new team. She could tell that he was happy as well.

Unable to focus any longer, she excused herself to the restroom. She took her purse with her and fished for her phone. She stayed by the side of the sinks and looked at the time.

6:05 pm.

It had been almost five hours since she left the apartment and she wondered if James was at home feeling the way she was feeling.

On cue, her phone buzzed against her palm.

She expected it to be James but it was just a text from Edith.

Need your approval on a couple of items. Emailing you the details right now.

Jo sighed and leaned against the sink. She typed in a quick reply and then scrolled down her contact list. She stopped at James’ name with a heart emoji right next to it. She wanted so badly to call him but couldn’t bring herself to do so. She was still hurt by the words he had said to her during their fight last night and just couldn’t shake it out of her head.

”How long have you been fucking around behind my back?” James growled at his girlfriend who had one arm in her jacket, ready to leave the apartment. She had tears streaming down her face, not because of James thought she did, but because she was afraid of what he might do.

His face was red and the veins on his neck were bulging out. His fists clenched and his body slightly shook from the anger he was feeling.

James took another step closer to Jo and grabbed the side of her jacket that she hadn’t put on just yet. He threw it on the ground, startling Jo even though only the buttons on her jacket quietly clinked against the hardwood floors.

“Don’t you have any respect for me? Don’t you have any respect for yourself instead of whoring around?” He questioned, his fists continuing to clench. Jo started to wonder if he was ever going to swing.

He noticed her gaze was on his fists. He unclenched them, feeling the blood flow slowly come back to his fingers.

“I’m not gonna hit you, Jo, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said. “I’m mad as hell but I would never lay a hand on you. You should know that by now.”

“I-I’m just...I’m just scared.” Jo quivered.

James pulled on his hair, “Fuck, Jo. I’m scared too!”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” She said quietly.

Again, like fire, James’ anger boiled up. “You call hiding and calling Paul as nothing wrong? That seems like a whole lot of wrong to me!”

Jo was getting fed up. She wouldn’t stand there, have him call her names and accuse her of something she didn’t do.

“Fuck you, James!” She shouted. “I didn’t do shit! Sorry if you don’t like that I’m talking to your friends! If it was the other way around, you wouldn’t hear a word from me!”

“Just tell me now, are you sleeping with Paul?”

“No! I haven’t seen him once! How am I supposedly sleeping with him if I’ve never seen him?!”

“But you would, wouldn’t you?” He pointed out.

“You’re a fucking asshole if you think I would cheat on you. You know I would never do that. I gave up my whole life to be with you!” Jo cried out.

James scoffed. “You didn’t lose a damn thing, Johanna. You still have your business, your family, your friends. All that’s changed is your fucking zip code.”

“What friends? What family? I left them all in California. I didn't just change my 'fucking zip code' you asshole. I moved here with you because I thought you would always be my family, my best friend. I guess I was wrong.”

Jo pushed past James and grabbed her jacket from the ground. She quickly slipped it on and headed for the door. James, his long legs already by the door, blocked her way.

“Get out of my way. I’m done with this.” Jo said lowly.

“Jo, I’m sorry.” James suddenly said with a change of heart. He didn’t think Jo would walk out on him nor did he know about her feelings about leaving everything behind in California. In an instant, he felt like the world’s biggest douchebag.

Jo stared at the ground, not wanting to look him in the eye because she would give in way too quickly. She wasn’t about to fall into his arms after one quick apology.

Getting past James was useless. He wouldn’t move no matter how hard she tried. Instead, she mumbled, “I’ll take the guest room,” and went to their room to get dressed.

Jo woke up the next morning after their fight feeling worse than she did the night before. She went back to their room to get ready for the meeting she knew she had to go to if she wanted to expand her store. What she wasn’t expecting that morning was another fight with James.

Now, standing in a lavish bathroom--the nicest she had ever seen--Jo just put her phone away and hoped that her meeting would be over soon.

As she was on her way back to the table, her phone buzzed in her purse again. She took it out and got another text from Edith. She figured it was another message about business but when she unlocked her phone to read it, her message read, Check twitter ASAP!

Jo was a little confused about what Edith meant. She created an account for her store to reach out to more people, have giveaways, announce events, and such. Jo didn’t have a clue why Edith would want her to check their account. She clicked on the Twitter app and there it was on the bottom of the screen, over 500 notifications, which was very unusual on just a regular weekday.

She clicked the notifications and it turned out to be a bunch of random people who had tagged their store name. Favorites and retweets kept pouring in when Jo finally decided to see what their store was tagged on.

The first thing she saw was the caption ”The Real Deal!!!!!!!!!!”, followed by a picture attached to it, and someone randomly tagging our store name to it. It was obvious that it was something about James and it was no secret to the public, or to anyone who followed James’ life closely, that she was his girlfriend. James had been there for the grand opening of her store and a picture of him next to me were published in a couple of county newspapers.

She clicked on the picture and right on her screen was a picture of James at what seemed to be a bowling place, dancing with another girl. Even though they weren’t touching and were about a foot away from each other, Jo could tell that they knew each other. They were both smiling at each other and if she didn’t know them, she would think that they’re together.

Jo clutched her phone in her hand. Was that James’ form of revenge? Not only did Jo felt betrayed, she felt disappointed. Disappointed at him and disappointed at herself. She hadn’t given what her parents said about James much thought until now.

She could almost hear her father’s voice repeating to her, ”Johanna, you know that professional athletes are known to be cheaters.”

She never ever gave the thought of James cheating on her a chance because she never thought he would ever do that to her.

With a painful squeeze to her heart, her legs wobbling back to the table, she announced that she had not been feeling well and needed to go home.

Jo promised herself she wouldn’t cry on her way home, but as soon as the door closed behind her, she couldn’t help but let the tears fall along with the hope of fixing her relationship with James.