CHAPTER 14

Love's like... that.
She had expected this, if she hadn't then she didn't know Karyn well enough. Yet, it was still hard to ignore Karyn's dark blue eyes staring at her as she made coffee. Karyn was just waiting for her to crumble under her piercing stare. Finally, Amber turned to Karyn, one hand on her hip in annoyance.

"What?"

Karyn was eating an eclair, one that rightfully belonged to the customers. But she swore she would pay for it. After being questioned by her colleague, she merely gave a sly smile and went, "Oh, nothing."

"Fine then. If nothing is wrong then would you mind leaving me and my coffee alone? We need privacy."

Karyn shrugged. "Sure."

Amber was slightly relieved. Maybe Karyn would just let her off.

"I was just wondering about something, you know. If you want to know what I was wondering about. I was wondering about how Ms Amber feels about last night. If you don't know, before you came to work, two reporters stopped by."

Karyn could see Amber was trying to ignore her but could not control her obvious surprise. So she continued in the same taunting voice.

"Yep, word spreads fast, huh? I heard about the encounter with the reporter... and how Jason stood up for you!"

There was no response, so Karyn went on.

"My, my. That Jason is a real gentleman isn't he? Standing up for his girlfriend...."

Once again, Amber concentrated solely on make the coffee. So Karyn got up and walked to her and started chanting "Amber and Jason sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G". This drew much attention from the customers but Amber still wasn't replying. So Karyn started dancing.

"KARYN!" Amber finally turned away from a beverage and held Karyn still by her shoulders. "SHH!"

Karyn stopped, but the cheeky grin stuck on her face. The customers went back to breakfast.
Amber sighed. "What do you want from me?"

Karyn grinned.

"Say it!"

"Say what?"

"How you feel!"
"Annoyed."

"No! How you feel about Jaaaasooonnn. Jason. I know how you feel about him Amber, it's obvious. Plus you're a sucker for hunks."

"I am sooo not!"

"Yes, you are! And I bet you were feeling like a princess from a fairy tale when he stood up for you during the red carpet."

"Oh please, I'm not as childish as you."

"Fine whatever. Say it."

"Why?"

"Because I want to here you say it!"

"Sheesh! You have some sort of distorted way of entertaining yourself right? Okay, I'll say it. I love him."

"Who?"

"Jason. FINE. I love Jason."
"Louder!"

"I LOVE JASON. Happy?"

Karyn took her hand out from behind her, in it was a voice recorder. "Yep." Then she quickly sped into the kitchen with Amber running after her.


Many blocks away, in a posh hotel, there was a much different atmosphere. Faint classical music was playing and to him, it was an annoyance. But classical music was the least of his worries. Swaying slightly, he wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans again and stared nervously at the numbers as the lift moved up. Every 3 seconds, a number lit up. He was at 6 now.

Kaine couldn't remember the last time he had been so nervous. It was ten in the morning and the bottle of beer he had drank a few minutes ago wasn't helping his nerves as much as he thought it would. He dreaded what he was doing. But after last night.... Kaine wiped the beads of sweat off his brow.

Nights alone can really ruin you.....

He could not find the reasons why he was doing this. He couldn't find the reasons why he had called her last night to make the appointment. All he remembered was the number of martinis he had after making that call.

The lift made a "DING" sound. Storey 12. Kaine stepped up and met with the cold rush of the air-conditioned corridor. His shoes made a slight squeaking sound against the carpet one the floor that seemed to be moving underneath him. Due to nervousness, the beer or plain nausea, he didn't know. All he could think about was the white doors that he slowly passed. The brass numbers seemed to scream out to him.

Finally, he arrived in front of the door, his destination. His hand was curled into a fist and it reached for the door....

At that same moment it opened. Call it coincidence. Kaine stared straight into her eyes, fist still raised. She stared back with similar surprise before eyeing his feet.

"You're stepping on my newspaper." Kaine quickly stepped back and Jennifer bent down to pick the crumpled papers up. Then she stood up and was met with the same stare.

"Well?" Jennifer enquired. Kaine looked away, lost for words. Then he looked her straight in the eye but before he could explain, Jennifer had welcomed him and even offered a drink. Kaine was on the brink of asking for a can of beer but held back. He was seated on the leather couch, in the hotel, looking out of the window to the most elegant view of the city. Then he felt the cushions lower slightly as Jennifer sat beside him.

"Look," Kaine quickly turned around and spoke before Jennifer could say anything. He couldn't take it. The more she welcomed him, the more she tried to be nice to him, the more awkward the situation was.

"This is so weird for me, I've never questioned something like this.... I... Um I need to know if..."

Jennifer was rather stunned by Kaine. Usually he was the one that people would be stuttering to. He was always the one, sure of what he was doing. Yet now, he looked rather lost and vulnerable.

"I need to know what's going on between us. I mean, the relationship between us, I need to know what it is! I just... argh. I don't know what I'm saying." Eyes on the breathtaking scenery, but mind racing, Kaine took a few deep breaths. Then he turned and stared into the blue eyes and felt a surge of emotions run up his spine and through his body.

"I just want to know, are we more then friends? Are we..."

"Lovers?" Jennifer finished. Kaine was staring straight into her eyes but he couldn't tell what she was thinking. She was giving an odd look, not a sad one, nor a happy one. Kaine didn't know what was coming next.

"I... can't say that."

The first stab. Kaine felt as if a knife went right through his heart.

"Look, I know when... when we kissed. There was something. But. But the fact is that in the past we had a relationship. Then you ran away and I was just left there. I was studying in school, Kaine! You weren't, you dropped out! I was still in school and I was depressed! I skipped classes! I failed tests. I would just lie in bed for hours crying myself to sleep. Thank God Jason was there. He was always there. But you weren't."

Second stab. The tears on her face were killing him.

"The truth is, Kaine, I love you. But I don't know if that was present or past tense. I can't start loving you like I did. Because I'm so afraid of you leaving. What if you leave again? I'll have to go through everything again."

"I won't leave you."

"How can you be sure?!"

"Look, I-"

"Kaine!" Jennifer had raised her voice. "This isn't some sort of movie contract that you can just terminate. This is a relationship. And I don't think I can take it again. I can't have you leaving me again. So I think.... the best.... is for nothing to start. So nothing can end."

Kaine's heart leaped. He looked at her but couldn't look away.

Jennifer stood. "You know the way out." Then she wiped her tears and walked into the bedroom and shut the door quietly.

Silence filled the air. It was broken by sobs.

ACK. i think kaine's all mushy at the end. my ending sucks laaaarrhhhxxx. haha. anyway im done with this so lookout for chap 15. haha.

THANKS FOR READING. pls comment so i can keep improving. I sort of tried to put more emotion in this but it didnt work very well. hahaha. ok. :)