Spotlight [Original]

Chapter 68.

"Couldn't sleep?" Cass rubbed his eyes, walking into the dimly lit kitchen and taking a seat besides Kaia at the island.

She shook her head, peeling it away from her laptop where she was still trying to work on her case and make a good presentation.

"I'm making a pot of chai, do you want?" She tilted her head towards the pit on the stove, as Cass muttered a small "sure."

She got up, turning it off and pouring two cups before placing it down in front of him.

"Why can't you sleep?" She sipped hers but it had already burnt her tongue and she tried for her eyes not to tear up.

"You know how it is sometimes. My mind just races and it's impossible to fall asleep," he shrugged, tapping his fingers gently on the deep red mug.

"Uhm- so Kayla told me you funded this scholarship In Rutgers called KCJ? She said it helps lesser fortunate students with tuition, and other expenses," she avoided his eyes.

"Yeah, I've been wanting to do it for a long while but Theo has been telling me to put it off until I can actually sustain it every year, and so last year I earned more to support that-" he sipped his own chai before continuing. "And that's around the time when you went missing and I mean technically you were the first one I helped so I just kind of named it after us."

Kaia looked at him finally, as he pushed his hair out of his forehead, wiping the small buildup of sweat.
"KCJ, Kaia Claire and Cass Jacobs," he chuckled, "lucky for me, it fit perfectly," he lied.

That wasn't his intention when he named it. It meant Kaia Claire Jacobs. Because he thought that would be the only time he would see her with his last name. But sitting in front of her now, knowing that she was with someone else, he couldn't ruin that. Not for her. Not for Kayla.

"That's very thoughtful of you. It means a lot to me also," she smiled, returning back to her laptop as she worked.

"I'm gonna watch some tv," he moved over to the couch-bed, occupying one side of it, turning on the tv to watch late night reruns of old 90s shows.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she turned slightly and watched as he laughed lowly, grateful that she could hear that familiar sound she had missed. She watched as his arm was flung over the side of the couch, getting a glimpse of the tattoo he had gotten for her.

"Some mistakes are miracles."

She picked up her laptop and made her way over to the couch next to him, folding her feet together and trying to solve the case as she scribbled notes onto her notepad.

She didn't even care that her laptop was almost dead, but she just wanted to be next to him. To apologize. To say that she was giving him a second chance. That she was on her way to meet him that night, before she was taken.

But when she looked at him, none of those words came out. It was like she was starstruck and just couldn't bring herself to speak to him like she had before.

As if she didn't live with him for a year and a half. As If they hadn't been together for almost 3 years. Like they weren't so desperately in love with each other.
She treated him like a stranger now, and she didn't know whether it hurt her more to do that, or him to be on the receiving end.

She hadn't even known that he was going to be there tonight, but when she saw his reaction to Armand, she knew it all.
But she couldn't risk what she was forming with Armand, for what she had with him.
She wouldn't.

And she hadn't moved in with Armand either. He had gotten a new apartment when the entire case was closed finally, but she couldn't do it. Maybe it was too fast, or maybe she just didn't want to, but she used the excuse of spending time with her sister.