Chance Encounters by J. Sterling Page B

first and knew he felt stupid when he quickly added, “Forget it. I shouldn’t have asked. I shouldn’t have called back.”
    “No! Jackson, wait!” Caroline pleaded. “I do…want to be with you.”
    “You do?” His voice sounded lighter…hopeful.
    “Of course I do,” she stressed. “But it’s not that easy.”
    “It is that easy, Caroline. You want something, then you do it. Why won’t you just do it?”
    “Do what? Leave Clay and be with you? Is that what you want?”
    “Of course that’s what I want. Isn’t that what you want?” His voice sounded desperate.
    “What would people say?”
    “Who gives a shit what people would say? You’re going to just stay in this relationship, marry this guy and have his kids, because you don’t want to deal with what people might say if you leave him?” Jackson spat, his tone rising.
    Silence thundered between them before Jackson spoke again. “You’re not the person I thought you were.”
    “What is that supposed to mean?” She choked the words out through her obvious shock.
    “I just never pegged you for the kind of girl who lived her life to please everyone else. It’s pathetic, really.” He spoke the last sentence with as much disdain as he could muster up.
    “That’s not fair.” She wasn’t going to sit there and let him talk to her like that. “It’s easy for you to sit there and judge me when you’re not the one who has to make the tough decisions.”
    “God damn it, listen to me,” Jackson lashed out. “I want to be with you. I don’t want you to marry this guy, no matter how great he is. And if you wanted to marry him, you wouldn’t be having this conversation with me right now. Hell, we wouldn’t have done anything that we’ve done the last six months.”
    “I know. It’s just…”
    He cut her off. “Let me finish.”
    She fell quiet as he continued. “I’m not sure I could live through you marrying someone else. I think about you all the time. And I think about us all the time. I want there to be an us , Caroline. We belong together. And if you’d stop worrying about what everyone else thought, you’d see that too.”
    Caroline leaned her head into the bed and tried to muffle the sound of her heart breaking. “I don’t think I’m strong enough,” she admitted softly.
    “Strong enough…for what?” his voice faltered.
    She paused a moment before answering, “To leave Clay.”
    The silence hung between them like thick smoke in a slow burning room, until Jackson choked out, “Caroline?”
    “I’m here.” She spoke the words so faintly, he barely registered the response.
    “I’m in love with you.”
    It was the final blow. She broke down. “I just don’t want to hurt anyone. And leaving Clay would hurt so many people.”
    “So I guess it’s better you live your life unhappy so everyone else can be happy?”
    “Don’t be mean. It’s not that,” she fretted.
    “Then WHAT is it? Tell me. Help me see what the hell it is that you’re thinking? Make it okay for me that I let you go. God, Caroline, do you love me or not?” he asked half-crazed.
    “Of course I love you. The thought of not being with you makes me feel like nothing will ever truly be right in my life again.”
    His heart beat wildly with hope against the confines of his chest. “When two people love each other, they should be together.”
    Filled with guilt, she asked. “At what cost? Any? That’s so selfish. I can’t live my life only thinking of myself with no regard for anyone else.”
    “No. You can’t. But it’s not like you’re already married. You haven’t taken that leap yet.” His voice quivered as his tone changed. “I’m just asking you not to take it, Caroline. Because once you do that…well, I can’t keep doing this. Not if you choose to marry him.”
    “Clay doesn’t deserve this.”
    “But I do?”
    “I never asked to meet you!” Caroline pulled the phone away from her face and yelled into the receiver. Once the