𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐖𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞//𝐇.𝐊.𝐌

35. "𝙸'𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎"

James and I sit on a park bench across from the coffee shop amongst the trees and open area where lots of people are having picnics or conversations with each other. With my coffee in hand and Honey at my side, trying desperately to say hello to everyone that passes by, James and I finally had time to catch up.

After all these years of living together but hardly communicating, I'd learnt today that James is very into marine biology and wants to move to Australia to work on saving the barrier reef. He's hoping to move there by the end of the year.

It's weird, I would never have labelled him for someone interested in marine wildlife. He was telling me about some of the different ways he thinks he can help and that he wants a little shack near the beach, where he can see the sunrise from his kitchen window.

"So you went on tour with your favourite celebrity, and now you're living with him?" James nudges me, changing the subject from him.

I look at him and smile. Although we barely talked when we lived in that hell hole, he still picked up on the little things that were most important to me, such as who my favourite celebrity was.

"Um yeah. His name is Harvey and we're actually dating now." I say, chewing the inside of my cheeks.

"Didn't see that one coming." James says sarcastically.

I laugh and he follows my lead, joining in.

"Be quiet." I tease, but then suddenly become very serious, "Besides, we had an argument this morning."

As soon as I sat down with James earlier in the day, I felt comfortable around him, like this is what we were used to. Catching up with a coffee like middle-aged people in their forties tend to do.

"What happened?" A tone of sincerity in his voice as he said those words.

"He told me he loved me." I said, hearing how stupid the words sounded coming out of my mouth.

"And you don't love him?" He asks.

"I don't know."

I do know. I'm just afraid to admit it.

"You know." James says confidently from beside me taking a sip of his coffee, after analysing my facial features.

I smile to myself and look straight ahead, also taking a sip from my coffee cup.

------

"Thank you for coming out today." James says, as we walk further down the road from the park, honey bounding along by my side.

"Thank you for doing this. I had a lovely time catching up with you." I said.

We walk a little further down the road until James stops at a car.

"This is me. I'll see you soon." James smiles.

"Hopefully before you move to Australia?" I joke.

"Definitely." He chuckles.

After saying goodbye, I walk back to the Mills' house, dreading the bad mood that Harvey might be in. I really can't be bothered with it after the really nice day I'd had.

As soon as I walk in the front door, I remove my shoes along with Honey's lead and watch her run off somewhere into the house. It seemed awfully quiet but then again, sometimes it was in their household. I walk into the kitchen to grab myself some late lunch when I see Max standing at the island on his phone.