Overly Possessive Paths

THAT SAME NIGHT...

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Josh got into his car and drove out of the building parking lot. Just as he left, Jennifer was already behind him and was looking to follow him to where he was going.

She hailed a taxi and after it stopped, she quickly got in.

“Follow that car,” She said to the driver and pointed at Josh’s car.

The taxi driver started moving and followed Josh’s car. In the taxi, Jennifer began to redo her hair and makeup so she wouldn’t look like she had just left the office without going home to change first. She took her brush and makeup kit out of her purse and applied them.

She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do when she got there but she knew she’d know when the time came. Her devious mind was sure to come up with something soon.

While Josh drove, he called Isabelle so he could reassure her that he was already on his way so she wouldn’t be too upset with him. He dialled her number and put the phone on loudspeaker.

“Hey babe, I’m so sorry for making you wait but I’m already driving to the restaurant,” He told her.

“You didn’t go home to change first?” She asked.

“There wasn’t time for that but don’t worry, I know the manager of the restaurant personally and they do more than just sell meals there. I already called him and asked him to prepare me a suit so when I get there, I’m going to change and then, we can begin our special night,” He said.

“Wonderful! Just be careful and don’t drive too quickly, alright?” she said before hanging up.

After a few minutes on the road, Josh finally got to the restaurant. It was a fancy establishment called “Clarence’s” and it was located in one of the fanciest parts of LA. Josh got out of his car and walked into the fancy restaurant, unaware that Jennifer was right behind him.

She also got out of her taxi which drove away after she paid him his fee. She followed behind Josh and waited for him to go inside before she went in herself.

“Isabelle,” Josh said happily when he got to the table he had reserved for them, “You look so gorgeous in that dress,” He complimented.

“Well, I can’t say the same about you. You look like a mess,” She said when she saw that he looked worn out.

“Yeah, it was a crazy few final hours at the office. We had a financial meltdown and…you know what? I’ll tell you everything after I get changed,” Josh said.

A waiter walked over to him with an expressionless face and spoke.

“Hello, good evening, sir. You must be Joshua Clinton,” He said with a posh accent.

“Yep, that’s me.”

“The manager has asked me to lead you to the changing room where we have prepared your suit,” The waiter said.

“Great,” Josh remarked, “I’ll be right back, honey, just give me a few more minutes,”

He followed the waiter to the changing room while Isabelle waited for him to return.

Jennifer entered the restaurant and saw Josh going into one of the back rooms. She looked around and saw Isabelle sitting on one of the tables. Her expression completely changed when she saw the woman who was with the man she wanted and she felt like attacking her at that moment.

She needed to do something to make this night a disaster, Jennifer thought to herself. What could she do that would make Josh not suspect that she was jealous or acting out of spite? She couldn’t just walk over to them and spoil their evening so she needed to think fast.

Then, she had an idea but for it to work, she would have to change her clothes. Jennifer left the restaurant and looked around for a nearby store where she could quickly buy a dress. She walked around for a while and finally found a store that sold women’s clothing. She went inside and as soon as she entered, a young lady approached her.

“Good evening, miss. Can I help you look for anything?” She offered nicely.

“You can help me by taking my card and waiting for me by the register. I need to find a dress and after I do, I want to pay for it immediately because I have somewhere I need to be,” Jennifer said, a bit rudely and gave her credit card to the worker.

There were a few other women shopping in the store but Jennifer didn’t pay any mind to them and began browsing through the store’s dinner collection so she could find the perfect dress that would have to be a blend of sexy, elegant and provocative.

She looked for more than five minutes until she finally found the perfect dress. It was on a rack a few paces ahead of her and she could hear the dress calling her name. She walked up to it and licked her lips because she was sure that this was the dress she needed. She knew that if she wore this dress into the restaurant, it was sure to do two things; Grab everyone’s attention and make them drool over her, including Josh AND it was sure to annoy Isabelle so much she would probably not be able to control herself and act civil.

Just as Jennifer was about to pick up the dress, another woman came up from behind, swooped in and snatched the dress off the rack before she could.

“Excuse me, that was my dress,” Jennifer told the snatcher.

“Is that so?” The woman asked with a raised brow.

“Yes, that is so,” Jennifer replied, already very agitated.

“Well, the dress is in my hands so it can’t be yours,” The woman replied with a scowl.

One of the workers in the store noticed the verbal tussle and went to the women to inquire about what the problem was.

“Ladies! What seems to be the problem here?” She asked.

“I was just about to pick up that dress and this…thing stole it before I could,” Jennifer said angrily.

“All I did was walk up to a dress and pick it up. I don’t see anything wrong with that and I can tell that this is your first time shopping here so you wouldn’t know that this store has a policy that whoever picks up the dress first, gets the dress,” The woman said and walked away with the dress.

“She’s right, miss. That is our policy,” The worker told Jennifer.

“Do you at least have that exact dress, in that exact size and that exact colour?” Jennifer asked as she was in too much of a hurry to fight or argue.

“Let me check,” The woman said and excused herself.

While Jennifer waited for the worker to return with hopefully good news, she looked over at the payment counter and saw the woman that had stolen her dress pay for it with cash.

The worker put the dress in a fancy bag and handed it to her. The thief turned around and noticed Jennifer staring at her so to provoke her, she blew a kiss her way before grabbing her bag and leaving the store.

Jennifer felt like ripping the woman apart but she had more pressing matters to deal with. The woman came back to her and didn’t look like she had good news.

“I’m so sorry, miss but that was the last of that particular dress. I can show you others that resemble it but…”

“I had that dress first and now you’re telling me that..,” Jennifer raised her voice in anger but immediately mellowed out, “You know what? I’m just going to chase after that woman and ask her to please let me have that dress because I need that exact dress,” She said.

She walked to the front of the store and retrieved her credit card from the young girl before prancing out of the store. She looked around and saw the woman who had stolen her dress by her car, putting the dress in her trunk. Jennifer looked at the ground and picked something up before looking around to make sure no one was going to see what she was about to do. She angrily walked over to the woman, determined to get that dress back.

“Hey, I’m going to need you to give that dress back,” Jennifer said from behind the woman who had her back to her.

“How many times will I tell you that I had it in my hands first so it’s mine?” The woman said as she turned around to face Jennifer.

As soon as she did turn around, she felt the full force of an iron rod crash into the side of her face. Jennifer hit her on the head with a crowbar that she had picked up and the woman fell to the ground. She hit her on the head a few more times until she was sure that the woman was dead.

She threw the crowbar away and took her dress out of the woman’s truck. She lifted the woman’s dead body and put her inside the trunk of her own car.

“No one takes what’s mine, bitch,” Jennifer said to the dead body before slamming the trunk shut.

*******

Josh stood in front of the large mirror in the changing room making sure that he looked alright before he went back out to join Isabelle. He smiled at himself, satisfied with how he looked and was ready to go back out.

“Sir,” The waiter walked in, “Is the suit to your liking?” He asked expressionlessly.

“It is! I like it a lot,” Josh replied.

“Good to hear, sir. I’ll be outside waiting for you,” The waiter said before he left.

“Looking good, lover boy,” Garin’s voice said to Josh.

Josh looked at himself in the mirror but it wasn’t himself he saw; it was Garin.

“There you are! I thought you were finally gone from my life,” Josh said to his reflection of Garin.

“Why would you think that? Is it because you didn’t see me for a single day? Come on, man, our connection isn’t that weak and our time together isn’t going to be that short,” Garin replied.

“Whatever! Isabelle’s outside waiting for me so I gotta go,” Josh said and stepped away from the mirror.

“Hey,” Garin called out to him and he came back, “You look really nice,” He said.

“Thanks, Garin,” Josh said and went outside.

He went over to his table and when Isabelle saw him all dressed up, she couldn’t help but look at him longingly. He looked good enough to eat and she wanted a huge bite.

“Wow, you clean up real nice, don’t you?” She teased.

“I take that as a compliment,” He kissed her and took a seat beside her.

The same waiter came up to their table with a bottle of their finest champagne and poured them both a glass.

“When you are ready to order, I’ll be right over,” He said and left the table.

“How about we make a toast?” Josh asked.

“And what are we toasting to?” Isabelle asked back.

“How about we toast to us getting back together? To a second chance at happiness which we’ll be able to have after we get rid of the two people living inside us and to our love that I hope is strong enough to withstand the desires of well, God.”

Isabelle looked at Josh with a raised brow because his toast was poorly constructed and it was a little bit funny to her.

“I know that was a terrible toast! It was the best I could do with the material I had,” He joked.

“Yeah, it was very bad,” Isabelle snickered, “How about we just make a toast to ourselves and to trying again?” She raised her glass.

“To us and to trying again,” Josh said.

They clinked their glasses together and took a sip of the delicious liquid.

Their dinner began and their date got underway. They were having such a good time in each other’s company and several sparks were flying already as the rush, passion and adrenaline they felt when they first started going out returned in full force and it was a lot stronger than it had ever been.

The evening was going quite well but in every love story, there’s always a villain who swoops in and tries to destroy everything and in this case, that villain was Jennifer.

The blonde beauty strutted into the restaurant and immediately she did, all eyes fell on her as she instantly changed the aura of the restaurant with her grace, poise and beauty. Her hair was nicely done, her shoes were sparkling and her red dress clung to her body so tightly and showed off all of her natural curves.

She was built perfectly unlike most white women most men had seen in their lives. It was almost like she had the body of a Latina in the skin of a white woman because of how curvaceous she was. Her physical beauty was undeniably powerful as all the men made that clear with their fixated glares, but nobody knew that the woman inside of that gorgeous body had more evil in her heart than probably the Devil himself.

Jennifer had located where Isabelle and Josh would be sitting and took a seat right where they could see them. She was positioned just a stare away from Isabelle’s eyes but Josh was backing her which was perfect because she wasn’t there to get Josh’s attention, she was here to get Isabelle’s.

The two lovers were probably the only people who didn’t notice Jennifer when she entered the restaurant because they were already too engrossed with each other but it was only a matter of time before Isabelle would spot Jennifer which was sure to open a few cans of worms and Jennifer could not wait for the show to start.

Jennifer ordered some wine and two glasses for it which was part of her plan because she certainly wasn’t expecting any company. She had a sip of her wine and had her sights all over Isabelle’s face, waiting eagerly to be spotted by her arch nemesis.

“So, what happened at work that made you almost stand me up tonight?” Isabelle asked Josh while they ate their dinner.

“Oh, I don’t want to bore you with work stuff,” Josh brushed the topic aside.

“No, really, I want to know. Your work can never be boring to me,” She said.

“Well, if you must know, we had a financial meltdown,” He began.

“How so?”

“I don’t know exactly what caused it but our entire account began an unauthorized stocks sale and if we hadn’t managed to stop it on time, my business would most likely have gone bankrupt,” Josh told her.

“Woah! That sounds really bad. Thank goodness you were able to stop it,” She said.

“Well, it wasn’t just me. If Jennifer wasn’t there, I don’t what would have happened. She kept her cool really well and helped me get things back under control,” Josh said proudly about his assistant but he immediately regretted mentioning her name.

The look on Isabelle’s face changed as soon as Jennifer’s name was mentioned and Josh decided to do some damage control immediately before it got too bad to handle.

“I’m sorry for mentioning her…”

“What? It’s fine that you mentioned that she helped you. I mean, she is your assistant after all,” Isabelle responded calmly.

Josh didn’t know what to make of her reaction to this because he was expecting a little more than this. He was expecting her to be upset and the fact that she looked like she was fine with the idea of him staying late in his office with a woman she had once broken up with him over didn’t put his mind at ease.

“I just shouldn’t have, you know, because…” Josh said nervously.

“Josh, it’s fine. I’m over that and it doesn’t bother me anymore,” She assured him.

“That’s…great,” Josh said in relief.

He felt that everything was fine now since Isabelle didn’t care that Jennifer was still working for him but it all went sideways when she said her next sentence.

“What bothers me is that she’s sitting right over there, conveniently in the same restaurant we’re in the exact day we’re celebrating getting back together.”

“What?” Josh nearly choked on the question.

He turned around and saw Jennifer sitting at a table not too far from theirs and she was looking at the menu so she didn’t see him looking.

“What is she doing here, Josh?” Isabelle asked, now upset.

“I don’t know! I left her at the office after we were done so I don’t get why she’s here,” Josh said in confusion.

“Well, she obviously followed you here,” Isabelle accused.

“Honey, I seriously doubt that. She did tell me that she had plans and maybe that’s why she’s here,” Josh said.

“So, her plans just so happened to be taking place in the same place our plan is? How convenient?” Isabelle rolled her eyes.

“If you want, I can go ask her why she’s here or we can go somewhere else,” Josh offered.

Isabelle didn’t want to ruin their perfect night out and she surely didn’t want to become insecure again and let this woman and her desire for Josh spoil her mood so she took the high road and decided to stay right there and see the date through.

Jennifer pretended that she hadn’t seen them but she had and could already tell that her presence there had stirred up a little provocation and now, it was time to turn up the heat.

About thirty minutes later, she looked at her watch and sighed before standing up to leave. She had paid her cheque and started to walk out of the restaurant but rather than take the path she took when coming in, she took the one that was sure to cause a run-in between her and Josh.

She walked passed their table and looked to her side and pretended to have just spotted them for the first time since she had been there.

“Mr Josh? Is that you?” Jennifer said.

“Oh, Jennifer. What a surprise to see you here! Are you leaving or something?” He asked casually, already sweating because of the uncomfortable situation.

“Yes, I am. My date seems to have stood me up. It’s probably my fault for making him wait because of what happened at the office. He must have gotten tired and gone home or something,” She said.

Isabelle knew exactly what Jennifer was doing and felt like putting her in her place but she controlled herself. She cleared her throat to remind Josh that she was still there.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Jennifer you remember my girlfriend, Isabelle.”

“Of course, I do. Nice to see you again,” Jennifer smiled and put her hand out for a handshake.

Isabelle wanted to leave her hanging but so she wouldn’t come off as childish, petty or angry, she took Jennifer’s hand.

When their flesh touched, it generated a little spark which was sure to be the tension, rivalry and hatred that both women had for each other.