Jasmine walked into the flat, again looking around like she was seriously considering buying the place. And without a word, she made herself comfy on my sofa. My head was still reeling from my recent shock, and even Jasmine’s presence was of no meaning to me.

I had let her come in because I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. Seeing Carole and that man had drained every last ounce of fighting spirit from me.

But worse, I wasn’t at all amused by the way the whole thing had had an effect on me.  Maybe I actually loved the chic.

Jasmine was quiet. Maybe she understood that I was distressed and didn’t want to talk. A good thing too, since she was single handedly responsible for all this mess with Carole. In my mind, I was not to blame for anything.

Carole had given me a break because she thought I was more interested in Jasmine than her. In truth I was only curious about Jasmine, it was practically impossible for a warm blooded male to be indifferent to such raw beauty.

My attempts to woo back Carole had ended in disaster, with me finding that dude chatting her up! Man, there are always vultures hovering around. You make one tiny slip, and they scoop in for the kill.

Twenty minutes later, Jasmine hadn’t said anything yet. I was still trying to prevent my mind from thinking about Carole. But I was beginning to wonder what Jasmine was up to. She hadn’t said a word to me in twenty minutes!

What was she up to? I opened my eyes, and looked at her. She was seated very still, looking at me. I said, Jasmine?”, but she didn’t answer. Instead she stood up, came and sat right next to me, too close to me, perhaps.

It is at this moment that I believe the fates struck the last blow, the straw that broke the camel’s back; in this case, the camel was my relationship with Carole.  After seating quietly for twenty minutes, Jasmine had come to sit next to me, and that’s when Carole walked in.

From her point of view, it certainly looked like me and Jasmine were making out. But we weren’t! Jasmine had just sat down next to me; I don’t know what on earth for. But of course Carole didn’t know that!

She had knocked, walked in, and seeing Jasmine and me seated like she’d just interrupted a private moment, I heard her whisper, "Oh my God”, and take a step back!  It didn’t need a brain surgeon to understand what Carole was thinking.

I quickly got off the couch, but it was too late. Carole took another step back, looking at me in utter disbelief.  I said, "Carole, its not what you think it is. This is a mistake!” I’d heard of many guys caught red-handed, using the same words but I had never thought I could ever use them myself.

Carole turned, walked out the flat and closed the door. Proven, this day was meant to be one of the longest I’d had.  Carole was as good as gone, all because of Jasmine.

Its not that I even had Jasmine, no man could have Jasmine. I figured that after leaving her place, Carole had come after me. The same time Jasmine had decided to renew her interest in me, a week after she stood me up.

It was all a case of bad timing, basically. I had every right to bash in Jasmine’s face, but am not a woman beater. So angry that I was trembling, I turned to Jasmine ready to tell her to get out of my house, and stay out of my life! But when I turned to look at her, she was smiling.

And that smile, in the midst of my confusion, totally threw me off balance. What was she so pleased about? I’d lost my Carole! I walked up to Jasmine, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet. I was even angrier than before, but, she didn’t seem even in the slightest bit scared of me.

I shouted at her. I asked her what she was so happy about. And in a calm voice, full of satisfaction, she said; "well, that silly girl Carole is out of the way now. Me and you can go to the next step”.

I let go of her, my head was reeling. She was right; Carole was surely out of the way. But whatever she meant by "next step”, I totally had no idea. 

Ends