Growing up in a home where my family struggled to make ends meet on a daily basis, I made a promise to myself that I would do everything in my power to become wealthy, and truly, I tried my absolute best.
At the age of 16, I left home in search of something more than my little town; I worked a variety of part-time jobs to raise money for University, but, despite my achievements, life did not change much.
After graduation, I was lucky enough to get a job that could pay my bills but that was all it could do; pay bills, and most days felt like more of a struggle than I thought it would be, well, that was until I met Jake.
The day I met Jake began very unusual, I woke up late, missed my bus to the office, and for some reason, it started raining even though the weather forecast promised clear skies, I was almost about to give up at the bus stop when I heard a honk from a car, and then the driver came down with an umbrella and spoke to me;
“Hello, my name is Jake, uhmm, well, I have seen you at this bus stop several times before and I am wondering if I could drive you to work”
"Well, hello there, Jake." "My name is Letitia, and I appreciate your offer, but I don't know you, and I don't feel safe stepping into your car," I answered as I walked over to a bench.
I expected him to return to his car and drive away, but instead, he sat down next to me on the bench, trying to make small talk, which I eventually gave in to.
After a few minutes of talking, he suggested that we go grab some coffee because I had already missed work, which I agreed to after a few seconds of thought.
Getting to the coffee shop, we made our order, got some seats, and began talking, we had spoken for almost five hours before the realization dawned on us that it was nightfall, at that point, Jake took me home and we made plans to see the next day.
This routine continued for a while, and before long, Jake and I were dating, which I saw as a dream come true because Jake came from a wealthy family, and he had already begun making plans for us to marry and establish a business together.
There was only one problem with the entire situation, and that was the fact that I didn't love Jake at all and was only with him for his money; don't get me wrong, he was an amazing guy, but he just didn't give me any kind of spark, and even though I could have simply ended it, I wanted the life he offered and didn't mind being in a loveless marriage on my part.
We kept dating and making wedding arrangements, and in that short period, my life changed, my goal to be wealthy materialized, and for the first time in my life, I could buy whatever I desired.
I lived in contentment with the life I was going to have but then, everything came crumbling down when Isaac came into my world.
Isaac was Jake's best friend and the first time I met him, I was utterly irritated; Jake had invited him to meet me and we just couldn’t agree on any matter, we kept on butting heads and the meeting ended with an “I hope I never see you again” but we saw again and we continued butting heads until one fateful day.
During this time, Jake had to travel for business and begged Isaac to keep me company in our home even though I spoke against it, Isaac came around and one thing led to another and we started conversing with each other which brought us to realize that we had a lot in common.
We spent the duration of Jake's trip together, and before I could recognize it, Isaac was all I could think about which was crazy because I didn’t even think about Jake that much.
I decided that the best thing to do was meet up with Isaac and talk things over because keeping it to myself wasn’t helping me, so I called him over and we started speaking;
“Isaac, I don’t know what is happening to me but, I can’t stop thinking about you, I don’t expect you to feel the same way, but I needed to speak to you about it”
Isaac at that point looked at me and smiled saying; “ Thank God I wasn’t alone, because all I have dreamt about for the past few weeks has been having you as mine”
“We can’t do this to Jake, he is such an amazing guy, he is kind to me”
“But you don’t love him, so then what?”
“Well, I guess, the best thing to do is stay away from each other, because I can’t help myself when I am around you and he is your best friend and my fiancee”
After that conversation, we made a promise to stay away from each other but, it didn’t work out as planned, one thing led to another and we found ourselves alone and succumbing to our flesh.
Immediately after the action was done, regret came rushing and I couldn’t imagine that I had hurt the one man who loved me unconditionally, I hurried home back to Jake's apartment and began packing my things to leave but, Isaac came around and told me to stay because Jake needed me.
He further spoke about how what happened could be our little secret and we just had to work on keeping our emotions in check, and after much consideration, I agreed and continued living my life with Jake.
Eventually, I and Jake got married and even though I continue to live my life in the guilt of what had happened, my dreams still came through and I was lucky enough that my husband never discovered what happened between me and his best friend.
