"Maybe with time if you consider that the firm is not the best place for you, you can also leave," Astra said. Jared was still working on the sketch.
"I am not so sure about that. The firm might not be the best working place on the planet, but the working force is a ghetto these days, getting a job is harder than it seems. I don't have the strength to start from somewhere new to build my career," Jared said. He had dropped his pencil then, he was done sketching. Astra shrugged at Jared's explanation. She did not totally understand his need to stay, he deserved more and he deserved better, but Astra knew he would still stay, he was not much of a risk taker. Astra was not exactly sure she liked that about him, she was not perfect either, so she was not in the position to be choosy.
"I am done," Jared said, stretching his sketch pad to her. Astra took the pad from his hand, when their finger brushed, she looked up and saw him smiling, she smiled at him in return.
Astra looked at the sketch and saw a replica of herself. She was wearing a cheeky smile in the sketch, the type that children wore when they wanted to do something sneaky. Astra smiled at the replica, wondering what was on his mind when he drew her with that smile.
"It's very beautiful, I am going to frame it," Astra sais, holding the sketch to her chest.
"Are you serious?" Jared asked while laughing.
"Of course I am, I will put it in my living room and everyone would wonder how much I paid to get my sketch from a world renowned artist like yourself," Astra said again and Jared's laughter increased this time.
"I am serious Jared. It is oh so beautiful," Astra said, she was gushing.
Astra was still admiring her picture when her phone rang. Astra picked up the call immediately she saw that it was Stephanie calling.
"Hello, Steph. Is anything wrong?" Astra asked.
"I can't do this anymore Astra, I can't stay here anymore, it is as though he knows that I want to leave and he is trying to punish me for even thinking that I can leave. All he does these days is stay at home and pretend that he is the perfect loving husband. If not for the fact that I know him so well and I know how good of an actor he is, I would have actually believed that he had changed, he is such a good actor you see," Stephanie all but cried. Astra could feel her heart breaking for her friend, and she was pregnant on top of it all. Astra could imagine that Ray suspected something, he was a very smart man, he could not be played and certainly not for so long. Regardless of the fact that Ray might have found out, Stephanie needed to leave.
"Just relax Steph, I will think of something. You will get out of there in no time, I will not let you remain there, you know that I love you so much," Astra said. She could see Jared's confused expression as she talked to Stephanie. She figured that she would have to tell him about Ray eventually.
"Thank you, Astra, please think fast. I cannot bear this for much longer," Stephanie said.
"I will Steph, I promise," Astra said before she disconnected the call.
"Is Stephanie okay?" Jared asked after the call. He sounded worried. Astra berated herself for not taking an excuse to take the call elsewhere. Jared would not usually ask any questions as he respected her privacy but she figured that this one was out of limits.
"She is leaving Ray," Astra said. Jared raised his eyebrows. Astra knew how it must sound to anyone, they had not even been married up to a year, and they were together for about seven years before then. It would seem that marriage had destroyed their relationship. People wouldn't understand that there was no relationship in the first place.
"What? Is he being abusive?" Jared asked and Astra shook her head.
"Not physically," she replied, Jared frowned as he clearly read between the lines.
"Does she need a lawyer?" Jared asked and Astra shook her head for the second time.
"She is running away," Astra said and Jared's frown seemed to deepen.
"There is something you need to tell me," Jared said and Astra sighed.
"I think Ray is obsessed with me," Astra started and proceeded to tell him everything about her and Ray, from when they had met and how he followed her around, to high school and how he assisted in ruining her first relationship, to throughout college to following her to the latter and how she had set him up with Stephanie so that he would leave her alone, to recently when she suspected that he was still following her, when they met at the art exhibition. She told him about how weird he acted around her, the things that she noticed in his marriage with Steph, and then she finally told Jared what Stephanie told her that Ray was obsessed with her, about the fact that Ray did not love Stephanie and only got married to her to stay close to Astra, and that he was controlling every aspect of her life and she could not take it anymore, she needed to leave.
"Wow!" Jared said after she was done. It was obvious that he was dumfounded. It was clearly shocking to him.
"That is quite a lot to swallow. The man needs to be stopped before he does something more," Jared said.
"Well, Stephanie needs to leave him first. I don't think I will be able to handle it if something happened to her or the baby. I feel very responsible for this mess, I was the one who match made them in the first place. I actually thought they were in love at first when they were getting married, boy was I wrong," Astra said and Jared sighed.
"I don't understand why she was with him for so long though," Jared said.
"Money, stability. Stephanie has gone through various levels of poverty. She thought money would be enough, she was wrong," Astra said. Jared shook his head at that, but did not say anything more. The air seemed tense for a while before Jared piped up again.
"You said Ray tried to dissuade your former boyfriends from being with you?" Jared asked and Astra frowned. She did not like where the questioning was going.
"Yes, but that was like in college, nothing of the sort has happened recently," Astra replied.
"But you did say he was following you recently," Jared said and Astra frowned and nodded.
"Where is this going?" She asked.
"Well, I have been receiving threats for a while now, sometimes it's a note, or maybe flat tires little things. Nothing pointed in your direction though, until I asked you out and I saw a note that said, Stay away from Astra, in my house. I actually figured it was Nicholas. I didn't realize that I was wrong," Jared said, and Astra felt a chill run down her spine. He could even be looking at her now.
A thought went through her head as she wad processing the whole thing, if he was doing this to Jared, did it mean that he had done something to Nicholas too?