Chapter Three: In a New Light
Later that night in their room, Ephram was just reading a book on Jazz, when Jenna started talking to him. "Ephram, do you think Amy is ok?" "What do you mean?" Ephram asked looking up from his book instantaneously "I mean she was a bit strange tonight, don't you think? Actually the whole day already..." Jenna answered "like she was lost in thoughts all the time or something. She didn't really talk a lot." "You think so too?" Ephram asked "I had the impression once or twice this evening that she was very quiet." Jenna nodded and continued "And then later she asked all these weird questions about my ex. I wonder why she was so interested in him." "I have no answer to that" Ephram replied apologising. "Well, never mind." Jenna sighed "Maybe you get a chance to talk to her soon. I am going for a shower now."
As she stepped under the shower, Ephram went back to reading his book. But he couldn't concentrate anymore. He was thinking about what Jenna had said, asking himself whether Amy had really acted weird that day. Trying to recall certain moments of the day, he had to admit that she had really been unusually quiet. And a person who didn't know Amy as well as him probably wouldn't have noticed it, but Ephram found that Amy had looked a bit unhappy. Could she have a problem that is worrying her? Maybe. But she has Colin now, so I guess she could talk to him about it. Plus she still has her family and Hannah, or her new roommate Angela. Ephram had the feeling that there was something else. But what could it be?
Twenty minutes later Jenna stepped out of the shower, wrapped a big towel around herself and went back into their room to get her hairbrush. Having been lost in his thoughts completely, Ephram hadn't realised that she had turned the shower off and he was startled when she entered the room. He looked up at her and was so amazed by what he saw that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. For the first time he saw how beautiful and sexy she really was.
Her skin was still a bit damp and her cheeks were rosy from the hot water. Even though he knew she hated to exercise, her body was in good shape. She was quite small, only about 5"2' but her legs were rather long. Her bum was well formed and her breasts were just about the size Ephram liked. But her most attractive part was her pretty face. Her pale skin was in contrast with her long dark brown, almost black hair that fell smoothly over her shoulders. She had a cute little snub nose, a small but full lipped mouth and some of the most stunning blue eyes he had ever seen. She could have been a princess from one of the fairy tales his mother had read to him as a little kid, Ephram thought, indeed she looked like Snowwhite.
Jenna smiled as she went back into the bathroom to brush her hair and get dressed. She knew that Ephram had just checked her out and judging the look on his face he had liked what he saw. But Jenna wasn't mad about it. Not at all. It felt good to know that men still found her attractive. After the break-up with her ex-boyfriend and the discovery that had followed, her self-esteem had been extremely low. Naturally her friends had told her time and time again that it hadn't been her fault and that he was the biggest idiot of all times, but nevertheless she had asked herself many times if she could have done something to prevent him from cheating on her in the first place. Only gradually she had come out of her rabbit hole. And when she had, other men's flirtatious glances and whistles had been like soothing balm for her wounded soul.
Realising what he had been doing, Ephram felt a bit ashamed. His mother had always told him to respect women, that their hearts were much more important than their bodies. And Jenna had a good heart, no doubt about that. But after all he was just a man. He had needs. Of course he masturbated sometimes when it got really bad, but that wasn't the same as being with a woman. Actually Amy had been the last woman he had slept with and that had been over five months ago. Since then he hadn't even kissed another woman. But wait, he suddenly remembered, there had been a kiss!
One day, about two weeks ago, Amy and Colin had come to their place with a bunch of DVDs for them to watch. Horror-struck, Ephram had realised that they had no food there whatsoever while he was already starving. A few minutes later Jenna had turned up, carrying a huge bag, fully loaded with his favourite Chinese food. He had been so glad, that without thinking he had grabbed her, had bent her down like they sometimes did in the movies and had given her a hearty kiss directly onto her mouth. Of course Ephram had only meant it amicably and Jenna had just laughed afterwards but could it be possible that Amy had misinterpreted this kiss? The more Ephram thought about it, the more he was sure that this occurrence was the reason for Amy's weird behaviour. She was jealous. But jealousy was always born with love, or wasn't it?