"Inventing the Future"
"Chapter 32: Jealousy and Horseplay"
After securing a room for themselves at the inn, Jaming and Meredith decided to visit the different plateaus to pass the time. After the heat of Veniccio, the Valley felt rather chilly in comparison, though Jaming found the change to be refreshing. As much as he loved Veniccio for its isolated location and its natural beauty, he wasn't made for hot climates.
Meredith seemed to be having a more difficult time, however. She wasn't shivering, but she kept hugging herself and rubbing her bare forearms. She never complained, but she was quite obviously cold.
"Here," Jaming removed his coat and draped it around her shoulders, "You need this more than I do."
"Aw, thank you. But won't you be cold?" she asked him, looking very unsure.
"No, it feels just right to me. You take it, I'll be fine."
She slipped her arms into the sleeves, which were a tiny bit loose on her. "Where should we go first?"
"I think we should eat," Jaming told her, pointing to a food stand on one of the other plateaus where a large man in a chef's hat was selling pork dumplings and what appeared to be chicken legs. "Breakfast was hours ago, and the wind keeps blowing the smell over here."
"That sounds..." Meredith looked a little past Jaming blinked. "So this is where he went."
"Hm?" Jaming turned to look, and he spotted a tall skinny man with a funny-looking hat and a scraggly, goat-like beard. Of course, he didn't recognize him. "Who is that?"
"That's Parn. Julia's ex."
"Hm..." Jaming looked speculatively at the artist, then dismissed him with a shrug. "Well, if you want to go say hello, be my guest."
"We never really spoke, so I don't see the-oh Gods, he's coming over..." Meredith's voice dipped down to an almost alarmed whisper.
Jaming had noticed that, like him, Meredith occasionally had unsocial tendencies, but he had never known her to show such social anxiety. He knew it was ridiculous, but he had to wonder if it was because of him and his blue skin and odd teeth. Or, far more likely, perhaps Parn was the one she had been interested in when she was younger. The rush of territorial jealousy that came over him was so powerful that it almost frightened him. He never saw Meredith as belonging to him, but the thought of this skinny womanizer being an object of interest for her made him absolutely sick.
'Push those thoughts away,' he told himself, 'They will do nothing but poison what you have.'
Parn had now come within speaking distance, and Jaming glanced at Meredith to see how she was taking this. Her mood appeared to be completely neutral, but she was squeezing his hand almost hard enough to hurt.
"Meredith? Is that you?" Parn was grinning in a friendly enough manner, but his next question made Meredith's returning smile rather tense. "What happened to your glasses?"
"Oh, gone but not forgotten. Parn, this is my boyfr-"
Jaming reached out and seized Parn's hand in a firm handshake. "Dr. Jaming. It's a pleasure to meet one of Meredith's old school chums!"
Parn grimaced as if he had been forced to touch some slimy dead thing. Jaming smiled broadly, seemingly oblivious to Parn's discomfort.
Meredith, who knew Jaming better than anyone, knew that this was way out of character for him. His behavior was bordering on rude. She gave him a Significant Look, and he took the hint and dropped Parn's hand.
"Boyfriend, you say?" Parn raised an eyebrow at Meredith as if to say, 'Boy, have you ever lowered your standards'.
"That's right. Excuse us, will you?" Meredith nudged Jaming, and they began to disengage from the conversation.
"Wait, I wanted to ask you about something," Parn reached out to put a hand on Meredith's arm, but she casually side-stepped it before turning to face the artist.
Jaming tensed up, but kept his face perfectly blank. He put his arm almost protectively around Meredith's shoulders, letting her know that he was there, and letting Parn know that she was off-limits.
"I don't mean to be rude, but we're kind of in a hurry; we haven't eaten yet, you see." Meredith explained, hoping that Parn would pick up on the fact that they really didn't want to chat.
"This won't take long. Have you seen or heard from Julia lately? She mentioned going to Veniccio."
Parn's question took them by surprise. Jaming looked over at Meredith, and she looked back at him. He was liking Parn less and less, and if her frown was anything to go by, so was she.
"She's doing well," Meredith finally replied, unwilling to say too much. She had always thought that Parn was a little weird, but harmless. And, for the most part, he was. There was just that little matter of a painting brought to life, and his inability to view Julia as an actual person with her own wants, needs, and desires. Julia was Meredith's friend. Jaming's too, to a much smaller extent. And Parn had treated her like garbage.
"I see," Parn looked thoughtful. "Maybe I'll visit her sometime, just to say hello. Until then, give her my best."
"Okay," Meredith watched Parn go, her cheeks reddening in a tell-tale sign of suppressed temper that Jaming knew all too well at this point.
Jaming whispered in her ear, "His best what?"
Meredith rolled her eyes as they headed for Ferdinand's food cart. "We'll have to give Julia a heads-up when we get back. And what was that handshake thing all about?"
Jaming gave a rather evil chuckle. "Just a bit of harmless fun, my dear."
After they had gotten their lunch, they sat on the grass to enjoy it, and Jaming couldn't shake a disturbing thought from his mind. He stared down at the uneven bite he had taken out of a pork dumpling, rather than at his girlfriend's face. "I have to ask you something."
"Hm?" Meredith looked up from her chicken.
"About Parn...Was he the one? You know, from when you were younger..." His face grew hot, and he popped the rest of the dumpling into his mouth and nearly choked on it.
Meredith pounded him on the back a few times as he coughed. "Are you kidding me? That's why you were all 'my woman, hands off'?"
"No!" Jaming snapped defensively, still not looking at her. "I just wondered..."
"Nah," Meredith seemed to be fighting the urge to laugh. "He wasn't my type. And even if I had been interested in him way back when, I sure wouldn't be now."
"Ah..." Jaming used his napkin before folding it up and putting it into his pocket. "So...what exactly is your 'type'?"
"Are we fishing for compliments, now?" She threw her chicken bone into a nearby trash can.
"No, just...wondering."
"Well," Meredith sat back down beside him, still wearing his coat. "Until this past year, I didn't even know I had a type. But let me tell you about this guy I like. He's got a real flair for building things. He's very intelligent. And, once you've really gotten to know him, he can be very sweet."
Jaming looked down bashfully and rubbed his forehead. "Thank you, Meredith..."
"And he snores." She reached behind him, gave his butt a really good goose, then got up and ran off with a taunting snicker.
Jaming's head snapped up as he gaped at her, and the next minute he was chasing her down so that he could catch and tickle her as 'punishment', laughing just as hard as she was. "Why you little..."