Exposed: A Novel by Ashley Weis Page A

like much of a lover anymore, but he was right, he was still my best friend. And I needed him.
    His arms opened. I curled into his chest and pressed my forehead into his body. He sighed. I pulled away, unable to go through with it.
    Someone knocked on the door. Probably my next appointment. I didn’t move or speak. I couldn’t. There’s nothing I wanted more than to be comforted by my best friend, but I wanted nothing to do with my husband. It didn’t make sense.
    Nothing made sense anymore.
    My cell phone rang the second I got into my car. I ignored it and turned the keys in the ignition, wondering how I made it through the day without a breakdown. Thankfully my last few clients were new and more interested in spilling their stories than listening to me.
    I pulled out of the parking lot onto Emmorton Road and saw her. Same woman as before. Blonde ponytail taunting me as it swung back and forth and out of view. I turned down a side street to follow her. Perched on my steering wheel, I drove by and analyzed her body. Jealous. So jealous and I hated it. I’d never felt so crazy in my life.
    I passed her, turned around and drove by again.
    “Wow. I’m losing it. I’m really, really losing it.”
    I slouched into my seat. Then I saw her face. Only one word for that face: beautiful. She was beautiful—not me. Not in a million years did I think I’d care about this stuff. I’d always felt so secure with Jessie. But maybe my security was my naivety, I reasoned. But I’m not naïve. Maybe I’m just blind.
    I stopped at a red light and thought of the first words Jessie’s dad said to me. I don’t know how I could have been so stupid. I should have believed him, but Jessie encouraged me, held my hand, told me he’d always stand beside me.
    You know how the sky looks just after sunset? The colors fade to navy, almost grey, while the clouds float under the stars. That’s how the sky looked when Jessie took me to meet his father for the first time. Except just before we reached his house the edges of the clouds turned black.
    Jessie knocked on his dad’s front door. No one answered. He knocked harder. Paint chips crackled and fell off the peeling door. A sparrow flapped out of view, leaving a silence so thick I couldn’t imagine breaking through it.
    Wham! The door thrust open, porch boards creaked.
    Jessie’s father stood in the doorway. His eyes hardly opened as they stared me down. “Who’s this?”
    Jessie shifted his balance from one leg to the other and wrapped his arm around me. “Sir, this is my fiancée, Allyson.”
    Veins covered his father’s black eyes like tree branches. My hands shook and I couldn’t stop blinking. For a few seconds I managed not to breathe, afraid of what might happen if I drew more attention to myself.
    Jessie’s arm slipped from behind me and took my hand. “Sir, we are going to be married soon. I thought you should meet her first.”
    “This isn’t the right one for you.” His father stood, hand twisting the doorknob.
    “Actually, she is.”
    Eyes of death ran up and down my body. “You’re not marrying her with my permission. You need a gorgeous wife.” He surveyed me again. “She’s okay, but not gorgeous.”
    Jessie’s chest rose and fell like he’d been running for his life. I squeezed his hand. He looked at me. My eyes begged him to take us back to the car. And without a word, he consented.
    Before we reached the steps the door slammed. I jumped.
    Jessie stopped, held my face in his hands and said, “Listen to me, Ally, you are everything I ever wanted to marry. Don’t let him get to you. He doesn’t even like me and I’m his own son. We don’t have to talk to him for the rest of our lives if he wants to be like that, you hear me?”
    I nodded.
    Romance was enough. I didn’t need anything else. One look at Jessie and I didn’t care about the world. All I wanted was more of him. To wake up next to him every day for the rest of my life.
    He was all I