Jake felt Beth's tears fall from her chin to his shoulder as he felt her softly sobbing. He ran his hand over her hair to soothe her. He pulled away from her embrace and looked her in the eyes.
"Why are you crying?"
"I'm just happy."
"I love you. I love you so much."
"I love you, too. I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I'm so thankful that you came into my life," she said as she touched touch his cheeks with both hands.
"I'm the lucky one. I don't deserve you at all. I know that. I used to always make fun of Pete and how he said he's found the love of his life and all that mumbo jumbo...and now look at me. It's come back to bite me a hundredfold. Love, I know it's only been a month, and this is all a whirlwind, but I can't picture my life without you in it. Please don't ever leave me," he asked her, his eyes reflecting fear at the mere thought of it. She kissed each eyelid, hoping to rid him of that look.
"I love you," she repeated before they drifted off to sleep.
***
"Love, I'll be by at 5:30 to pick you up."
Beth cradled her phone phone in between her shoulder and her ear as she balanced a stack of folders in her arms.
"Actually, babe, I can't tonight. Sorry for such short notice. I'll just see you tomorrow morning, okay?" she said hurriedly.
Jake's eyebrows knitted at her words. He can feel her trying to get rid of him as soon as possible.
"Anything wrong?" he pressed on.
"No...I just have to be somewhere tonight."
"Where? I'll take you."
"Um, the thing is, it's something I have to do by myself. I'll just see you tomorrow. Okay, I really have to go. Bye, babe! Love you!"
Before he could get another word in, he heard the sound of the dial tone. He still drove to her work later that afternoon and saw her getting into a cab holding a bouquet of flowers and a pastry box. He decided to follow her cab. He was surprised as it pulled up to a cemetery.
Beth stepped out of the cab and asked the cabby to wait for her for half an hour. She gathered the flowers and the box and started walking to find the headstone she was looking for. Jake got out of his car and followed her, making sure to keep a distance between them.
She set the flowers down and took the cupcake out of the box, placed a single candle on it, and lit it. He watched as she started singing the happy birthday song quietly before blowing out the flame. She sat down on the grass and he finally saw the name on the headstone: Alexander Madrigal.
He felt instant guilt for following her, but it was too late; he was already there. He just kept watch behind her, silently listening to her talk to her ex-fiance.
"Hi, Alex. Happy birthday. Ironic that I'm singing to you, right? But I know you don't mind. I hope you also don't mind that I've finally moved on. That doesn't mean that I love you any less...because I don't. You will always hold a special place in my heart, you know that, but I need to put you in the back burner now and put someone else in the front. His name is Jake, and he's wonderful. I wasn't expecting anyone to come into my life and make himself at home in my heart, but here he is. He sneaked in there and made me fall in love with him," she said, wiping tears away from her eyes.
Jake wanted to leave, but he was rooted to his spot. He knew he was invading her privacy, and he knew she would get angry if she found him there, but he couldn't move. His brain couldn't make his feet move back to the direction of his car.
