Be With Me

Chapter 18

The next morning Rafaela woke up alone in bed. She blinked her sleep away off her eyes and then stayed quiet to listen if some sound could be heard inside the house, nothing. She pulled the covers away and opened the door of the bedroom to peek at the living room. No one to be seen around.

"James?" She called him, but there was no response.

She eavesdropped near the door of the bathroom to see if he was in the shower, but everything was quiet. Then she looked out in the balcony and he wasn't there as well, when she came back inside she saw a note on the counter of the kitchenette.

"I went there. I'll be back later. Love you." She read.

Rafaela took a deep breath knowing exactly where he had gone and read the time. One o' clock, she had slept a lot. Not knowing exactly at what time James left the house, she felt a bit anxious to know what was happening and she even felt a bit lost and paced around nervously for a while. Then she decided to take a shower and right after it, she prepared something to eat. Her heart was beating fast and the air was just too thin to breathe, her anxiety was taking the most out of her. How she wished she was there to hold his hand, but that was something that he had to do alone.

As time went by and three o' clock arrived, she decided to leave the house. She grabbed the keys of her car and left towards the Metallimansion, as they called it. It was on days like that, when she needed to talk that she missed Kelly the most, but there was no way she could go to her, not that she felt dissatisfied with her new friends, far from that, but her connection to Kelly had been much stronger due to the years they had spent together.

"Hi!" She exclaimed meeting everyone in the backyard relaxing under warming sun.

"Where's James?" Lars asked as the used to be always together.

"He went somewhere..." She said not knowing if James would want to share that private matter with everyone.

"Somewhere?" Lars asked again not satisfied with her response.

"Yeah..." Rafaela still answered vaguely.

"Do you even know where he is?" Cliff then asked being attacked by curiosity.

"I know where he is." Rafaela affirmed.

"Ok..." Lars said a bit thoughtful.

She spent the rest of the afternoon with them. Just talking and having a few beers, the usual, though that time she refrained from drinking. She wanted to be completely sober when she got home, to talk to him and listen to everything he had to tell her. God only knows what his condition would be, as that was such a delicate issue to James. Around seven she said her goodbyes and left.

First she stopped by James' favorite fried chicken deciding it would be their dinner, with French fries. She wanted to please him, just in case he was not feeling good. Then she drove back home. When Rafaela parked her car she saw James' truck already there. There was a light showing on their living room window and Rafaela ran upstairs to the second floor, not even waiting for the elevator. She reached their door heaving, so she waited a bit to calm her breathing and then opened the door.

His head turned to look at her as she got in. James' was sat on the couch watching a football game. Rafaela left the bags on the counter and went to him. She noticed a plate on the coffee table.

"You've eaten already?" She asked while she bent over him to kiss him.

"Just a sandwich a while ago. Did you bring dinner?" He asked looking at the bags resting on the counter.

"Are you hungry?" She smiled.

"Starving." He commented.

Given his smile and his glittering stare she assumed he was alright. Still he didn't mention anything about meeting his father and her curiosity was killing her.