“Damn it,” Kait repeated to herself as she pushed the trolley out in to the cool afternoon air. There was nothing for it; she was going to have to call Jasper. Reaching into her handbag for her cell phone, she called up his details and took a sharp intake of breath.
He answered after several long rings.
“Hey, babe,” he panted. Clearly he was in the middle of working out. Kait inwardly groaned at having to disturb him at such an important time.
“Jasper, hey. Look, I kind of need a favor.”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m over at the supermarket, and I bought way too much stuff,” as she spoke she cast an eye over the dozen shopping bags crammed in to her trolley.
“I really need to go and get my car, but I can’t leave the stuff unattended while I do.”
“Why did you buy so much?”
“Umm,” Kait looked down at her food shopping. She didn’t want to spoil the surprise, not yet. “I just got carried away I guess.”
“Right, okay,” Jasper sighed. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes, okay?”
“Okay, great. Thanks.”
Twenty minutes later, Jasper jogged over to where Kait was waiting wearing his jogging bottoms and a hooded jumper. The sky overheard was darkening with the promise of rain.
“Hey,” Kait jumped up from the bench she’d been sat on as he came over.
“Hey,” Jasper panted. He’d clearly jogged all the way over from the gym. He glanced down at the contents of her shopping cart.
“Jeez, Kait, you planning on feeding five thousand people?”
“Actually,” Kait tossed her hair over her shoulder and smiled brightly at her boyfriend, “ta-dah!”
She waved a hand across the plastic bags like a glamorous assistant revealing a prize in a television game show. Jasper frowned.
“It’s all for you,” Kait explained with an enthusiastic grin.
“For me?”
“Yes,” Kait nodded. “Your cupboards were so bare that I thought I’d like, you know, stock them up for you.”
She saw Jasper bristle at her words, and she instantly feared that she’d done the wrong thing.
“I don’t need your pity purchases,” he told her coldly through gritted teeth.
“Pity purchases?” Kait didn’t understand what he was getting at. “Jasper. I was just trying to help; I thought you’d be pleased.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Jasper - ”
“I’m fine, everything is just fine! I sure as hell don’t need you buying food for me!” The look of disgust upon his face chilled Kait to her core.
“Jasper - ”
“Sort yourself out,” he pulled his hood up over his head, turned around, and jogged away. Kait stared after him, her mouth gaping. What had just happened? She feebly called after him a few times, but he didn’t look back. Why was he suddenly so mad at her? What had she done wrong?
With no other options left, Kait was forced to call a taxi. She managed to hide her burgeoning tears from the driver as he kindly helped her load her bags in to the boot of the car. But once at her apartment building, he only helped her with them to the door. Kait didn’t mention that the elevators were broken. It took her four journeys in total to carry everything up to her place. With each load, her heart sunk lower in her chest. This food wasn’t meant for her, but Jasper had made it painfully clear that he didn’t want it. But why? Was she becoming too much? Was she smothering him? Kait’s vision became blurred with tears as she wandered up and down the staircase, laden down with shopping bags like a pack horse.
Chapter 78
Jasper didn’t stop running until he was back at the gym. By then, his chest was burning, and he was struggling to catch his breath. Sweat was gathering beneath his jumper so he shoved down the hood to try and cool off.
He kept thinking about how Kait had gone food shopping for him. Did he seem that pitiful that he needed her to buy food for him? He knew things were tight financially, but he’d done his best to conceal such problems from her. It was important to him that Kait saw him as strong and financially stable not weak and in need of assistance. The last thing Jasper ever wanted to be seen as was weak.
Jasper angrily paced outside the gym, not yet ready to go back inside. And all that awaited him in there was the equipment and the punch bag. His trainer was already on a plane headed back to America. There was no one yelling at Jasper, no one demanding he push himself. How was he supposed to win his next fight without a trainer? Jasper felt as though he was standing in quick sand. No matter what he did, he just sunk further in to his problems.