After ✔

06

"Soda?" Asks Catherine.

She throws one at me anyways. I catch it with ease, nestling in the blue bean-bag. 

"So Rosie asked me if you were coming over." Says Catherine. With a glass of champagne, she takes a seat on the sofa.

"I have no idea." I groan.

"When was the last time you visited, anyways? Was it last year?"

"For Cayden's eighteenth, yeah."

She takes a sip and sets it on the table. "Didn't you also say you were going back to Dani's next week?"

"Only for a couple of days." I shut the book that's resting in my lap, unable to concentrate right now. "Amelia's going back to America to make a deal with my dad and some gallery owner."

"Why don't you just visit her then?"

"Exams." I say, pointing to the textbook. 

"Huh, then there's that." She replies. She crosses one leg over the other, flipping her hair to the side. "Tell me Dani got hotter."

Classic.

"Yeah, but Nate was asking about you."

She wrinkles her nose. "He's cute too, but isn't he married?"

I shake my head. "Nope."

"Really?" She tilts her head. "I could have sworn he was."

"They were supposed to. But then Gabriella - his fiance - got pregnant with their child. They had a fight, yada yada, he cancelled their wedding."

"Theyre till together, though?"

"Yeah. I can't ever imagine otherwise."

Her mouth lifted up in a small smile. "Sucks."

Catherine might have changed, but her flirty ways hadn't. 

I look around the room I've been sitting in for the past hour. Ombrè paintings hung on navy blue walls, looking as impeccable as the planked floor and the furniture.

"Did I tell you how much I love your place?" I ask, eyeing the little library she had constructed in the corner. And she didn't even read.

"Might have come up in conversation." She laughed. "Oh by the way, I set up the spare bedroom for you." She glances at the clock. Its eleven. "Feel free to shower and change."

Before I get up, I say, "Catherine? Thankyou. I don't know what I would have down without you."

She smiles at me, and this time it's different. This is the first time her smile isn't sarcastic, or seductive - I've seen her give plenty of those to boys in our university.

"It's the least I could do." She says. "After everything that happened..."

"Two years ago." I complete with a frown. "Why are you still holding onto that?"

She shrugs. "Not only have I been a mega-bitch to you and everyone else, but I've also done a lot of things I regret." She purses her lips. "And that for a guy who was never mine." She adds sadly.

"Do you still love him?" I ask.

She's silent before answering. "I never loved him." She says. "I loved what we were."

I crack a smile. "Power couple. The bitch and the jock."

She laughs. "Before little red had to ruin it all." She pauses again, picking up her glass of champagne. "I'm not bitter, really, I just feel..."