Friends with Benefits

Chapter 21

Ruby was sitting in a parked car opposite Jessica's apartment. She had seen Kyle come out a few minutes before and she was livid. "Do I knock on the door and tell the bitch everything? Or do I wait and see if she comes out?"

Jessica answered that for her when she walked out of the apartment and got into her car.

"She's carrying a hockey stick and a training bag," thought Ruby. "She must be in the local hockey team. Perhaps they have a game today. Only one way to find out."

She waited until Jessica had pulled onto the road and then pulled out after her. She trailed her through the city. It was Sunday morning, so the wasn't much traffic on the roads. Jessica pulled into a sports centre car park and parked near the building. There were other cars there, and Ruby could see some women on the field just across from the car park. "There is a game," she thought. "I should do this before the game. That will really mess with her head. Hope she doesn't whack me with that stick, though." She parked at the end of a row of cars and got out.

She hurried after Jessica who was walking over to the sports centre. "Excuse me," she called. Jessica turned around and looked at Ruby.

"Yes?"

"Listen, you don't know me, but I think we should talk."

Jessica looked at Ruby in confusion. She could sense something odd. She felt an instant dislike for the smartly dressed woman with long blonde hair, who was standing before her, a forced smile on her lips.

"I've got a match starting in an hour, and I don't know you, or what you want to talk about, so..."

"It's about Kyle," said Ruby.

Jessica stopped.

"Kyle? What about him?"

"Well, there's something you should know."

She looked at Ruby, her confusion deepening. Half of her wanted to just say she had to go and get ready for a match, and Kyle was of no concern to her, and the other half was curious. Curiosity won out.

"What about Kyle?"

Ruby smiled. "I thought you should know about this, because I don't want to see another woman go through it. But you really should be careful about trusting him. You see, we were due to be married."

"I get it. You're a jealous ex-girlfriend," said Jessica, starting to walk. "I don't want to hear it."

Ruby walked after her. "No. I'm a jilted ex-bride!"

Jessica stopped and stared straight ahead. Then, she slowly turned to Ruby. Thoughts of James, the room in the hotel with her mother and sister, straightening her tiara, looking out of the window to the courtyard below, then her running up the stairs to James' room, finding out he had gone, raced through her mind.

Ruby smiled sympathetically. "Look, I know your relationship is none of my business, but, I wanted to tell you because, being left right before your wedding is the worst feeling in the world.

"Too right," thought Jessica.

"We were due to be married," continued Ruby. "Then two days before the wedding, he called it off. I still don't know why. I can only assume he had another woman. Was it you?"

Jessica suddenly felt sympathy for the woman standing in front of her. Here was a woman who had been through a similar experience to her. Jessica looked at her. She was beautiful, with long blonde hair and pale blue eyes. "Kyle has a thing for blondes," she thought.

"When was this?"

"A few months ago."

"Then no, it wasn't me. We've only been dating, I mean, hanging out, because we are not dating, for a few weeks."