Sensation (h.s)

Chapter Forty Four

✺ K A T E ' S ✺ P O V ✺

It seems as though no matter how much I prepare for the arrival of James, nothing can shake my nerves that are on high alert. In the back of my mind I know that there's nothing to be worried about and that more than likely after twenty minutes together it'll feel just like old times.

He wasn't able to catch a flight until this afternoon, meaning he wasn't going to touch down in Chicago until almost eight PM. We agreed it would be best for me to not pick him up at the airport just incase anybody saw us. I told him the last thing I needed was to get in trouble with my parole officer and he was sweet enough to agree that he'd do anything to prevent that from happening.

Around eight forty-five, there's a swift knock at the front door of my apartment. My brain scrambles thinking that everything is out of place and I'm not prepared, but I suck it up anyways. After smoothing out my outfit and ruffling my hair, I finally open the door. James stands on the other side with a bright smile that immediately makes my body feel warm and content.

"Hi." I greet, my voice sounding strange. It makes him laugh and makes me blush the second I realize how idiotic I sound.

"Hey, you." He steps inside as soon as I open the door wider and allow him into the apartment.

I've psyched myself out far too much and the entire initial meeting goes much better than I planned a million times over in my head. We both act as we always have; getting along has never been a difficult task between us.

After I've showed him around the apartment and he's settled his belongings into the guest bedroom, we make our way back out to the main portion of the apartment. He seems completely content and it's refreshing to be with him and not feel like we're hiding anything. A big flaw in mine and Harry's relationship is that since the day I met him I've always had to cope with the fact that I probably will never know everything about him. We could spend the rest of our lives together and I still feel like he'd be revealing secrets to me when we're aged and on our death beds.

"What do you do around here for fun?" James asks jokingly as he stares out the window in the living room. The city is buzzing outside but I find myself admiring him. I coped with the changes in my life when I first was charged with his attempted murder by always having to envision him being with me no matter what I did. He was my security blanket for so many years that it was hard to go on without him in my mind.

"We could go out to dinner or something. You probably don't want to sit around here all night." I sit on one end of the couch with my legs tucked under me, staring at James as he paces around the living room. A siren goes off outside the window and he paces back over to look as if he's never seen a cop on duty. I smile in amusement at him, but look away a second later when my phone vibrates on the couch cushion next to me.

With a heavy heart, I discover it's only a notification from some shopping app I have downloaded. I still haven't heard anything from Harry the entire day and assume he's accepted our breakup and isn't going to fight me on it. Really, we were on the verge of a breakup before we even began dating. It was only a matter of time.

"Dinner, huh? If you wanted to take me out on a date you could have just said so." James plops down beside me on the couch and I look up at him with a playful roll of my eyes.

"Us eating dinner together doesn't mean it's a date." I look back down at my phone in my lap again and force myself to exit out of the messages screen. As soon as I do though I'm left slightly sad again when I see my wallpaper is a picture of Harry and I that I snapped on our vacation to the cabin around Christmas. It was such a fun time for us and we were so happy and carefree.