Soulmate

Chapter 9

April, 1996

That night, Catherine had slept rather poorly. Partly because it was hot in Florida, and also because she was a little upset. In recent times her relationship with Kevin had deteriorated quite a bit. Worst of all, she had no idea what could have happened to them. Obviously, the constant distance hadn't helped. But the problem was not the physical distance, but rather the emotional distance. Lately they had been doing nothing but arguing, often over silly things. And when it finally seemed that everything was fine again, the fights came back. Despite all this, Catherine had decided to go to Florida to spend the last week with him before he left for Europe to do the promotional tour of the band's first album. She was looking forward to seeing him and besides, she felt like getting away from work. Filming the show was exhausting, and she was fed up with Mike's advances.

When she woke up she was facing the window, and when she turned around she found Kevin also turned around. That was another thing that had changed; before, they slept in each other's arms, always close to each other's bodies. And now they slept with their backs to each other.

Catherine sat up in bed, and sat there for a few minutes, trying to totally wake up.

"Good morning." whispered Kevin, his voice hoarse.

"Good morning." Catherine whispered back.

Catherine got up and went to the shower. As she came out, she saw Kevin fully prepared. Since they were leaving for Europe, management had given the boys the day off. Originally the idea was to do something together, just the two of them, but since they couldn't think of anything to do (and, for some strange reason, didn't really feel like spending time by themselves), they decided to go to the beach with the rest of the band. In front of everyone, they behaved the same as always: they were holding hands, she rested her head on his chest and he gave her kisses on her forehead. Only they knew the truth, and the truth was that the relationship was going down the drain by the minute. They spent the day apart: Kevin was in the water all day with his cousin and Catherine played volleyball with Nick, AJ and Howie.

At eight-thirty in the evening, they all had dinner together at the hotel restaurant. Normally Catherine and Kevin would hold hands under the table, but that time they didn't even look at each other the entire dinner. Catherine was listening to one of AJ's anecdotes while Kevin was talking to Brian and Nick about sports.

They chatted for a while longer and then they all went to their respective rooms at about 10:00 p.m.

Back in the room, Catherine went out onto the balcony to get some fresh air. She closed her eyes as the night breeze brushed her face. She opened her eyes when she heard footsteps behind her. Kevin appeared at her side, leaning against the balcony railing. They said nothing. Catherine looked away as Kevin summoned all the courage he needed to face this conversation they were to have.

"Cath" she turned to look at him. Her blue eyes reflected the lights of the street lamps.

"Yes?" she replied, being aware that that dreaded and painful moment had arrived.

"I think..." Kevin paused for a moment to swallow his breath, "I think we're done with this."

Catherine felt her heart break a little "I think that too."

A stony silence filled the balcony for several minutes.

"So...this is over?" spoke Catherine finally "We're over?"

Kevin was silent for several seconds before muttering in a tone of voice Catherine had never heard him use before "I'm sorry..."

Catherine felt her eyes fill with tears, so she turned her face away "I'm sorry, too."

Neither of them knew quite why they were asking for forgiveness. Perhaps for not having been able to save their relationship. Kevin was about to say something, but realized that, at that moment, anything he said would be over the line. So he left the balcony, leaving Catherine alone. She heard the bathroom door close, and sensed that Kevin was in the shower.

Catherine felt a couple of tears fall down her cheeks, and she persistently rubbed her eyes to stop the tears. She was deep in thought for a while. Suddenly, she had an idea. It was probably a bad idea, and would end up breaking her heart even more, but at that moment it didn't matter. Then she thought about it more clearly and was about to forget the idea, but at that moment she heard the bathroom door open.

"Fuck it" thought Catherine as she walked into the room.

When she walked in, she found Kevin standing in front of the bathroom door, his torso naked and a towel tied around his waist. He was surprised to see her there. Just when he was about to open his mouth to say something, Cath came up to him and started kissing his neck, leaving him really surprised. That had been her idea; to feel his body against hers, the softness of his skin once again. She knew it would make the breakup twice as painful, but at that moment it didn't matter. After kissing his neck conscientiously, Catherine looked up at Kevin, waiting for a response. 

Kevin watched her for a few seconds and immediately brought his hands to her blouse, beginning to unbutton it. She kissed his neck again and began to move down to his chest, then brought her hands to the towel and dropped it to the floor, leaving him totally naked. In view of that, he hurried to undress her and pushed her onto the bed, placing himself on top of her.

Almost three hours passed, but in that room, in that bed, it was as if time had frozen. As if the only important thing was each other's bodies. Catherine dug her nails into his back and Kevin left several hickeys on her neck. It was almost as if they wanted to leave some kind of mark on each other. They kept moving their bodies to the same beat and pursuing ecstasy until they couldn't take it anymore and fell into a deep sleep.

Catherine woke up the next morning with the sunrise. She carefully got out of bed, dressed, gathered her things and turned to Kevin, being aware that this would be the last time she would see him, then left the room.

Once on the street, Catherine kept repeating to herself that everything was fine. But if everything was fine, why did she feel that pain in her chest and that incredible urge to cry?

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It was ten o'clock in the morning and Kevin had not given any sign of life. They were taking the flight to Germany at one o'clock, and everyone was in the hotel lobby except him. In the end, they sent Brian to get his cousin. When he arrived at the door of the room, he called out, "Kevin, man, hurry up! We're going to be late!"

When he received no response he decided to go into the room. There, he saw Kevin sitting on the bed, staring at nothing.

Brian walked over to him "Come on man!" he paused for a moment and looked around. He realized that something was missing "Where's Cath?"

Then Kevin looked at his cousin with a look laden with pain and sorrow, then muttered "She's gone.... We're over..."