The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 62

They worked in the cafe for hours, long past dark, and eventually found themselves on the streetlamp lit sidewalk, the escalade now observing from across the street.

Their track record of constant distraction remained unbroken, and the day had become more of an informational interview for Kat than for Jove, with her delving so deep into the details of her own life that she somehow found herself telling him about limnology Erik.

Standing outside of the darkened storefront with him, feeling giddy, near drunken with the intoxication of proximity, Kat giggled inexplicably, causing Jove's easy laughter to renew.

"What?" he asked, his laughter mounting.

Kat guffawed and they both burst into further peals, the few people hurrying by on the darkened sidewalk turning to look.

"What are you even doing," asked Jove, breathless with hilarity that stemmed from nothing.

"What are you doing?" Kat shot back accusatively in return, holding her sides as she wheezed with laughter.

They'd been this way for the last few hours, in a near delirium at the pleasure of time spent togethers, moments slipping slyly, quickly past in the company of one another.

"Do you need to get home?" Jove finally asked.

Kat felt an icy stab of guilt piece her heart and begin to drip down her chest, reduced to quickly evaporating steam from the sudden, uncomfortable embers beginning to smolder hotly within her.

The sense of exhaustion that had been following just behind her, stalking her as if she were prey only barely concealed by high grass, had found her once more and was attempting to pull her to the earth with swats of a giant clumsy paw. It had caught her for a moment in the booth, pounced upon her and brought tears to her eyes despite her attempt to keep her composure, but she'd been able to fight it off, to escape with less than a full pound of her flesh clenched drippingly between its teeth. It had gained on her again however, overtaken her more wholly this time, and was nipping at her heels incessantly, drawing stinging pinpricks of tart, acidic blood with each bite.

It had all become too much for her, the uncertainty, the dishonesty, the guilt. Her promises to Andy so quickly forgotten. Kat felt emptied, hollowed of her original contents and refilled with falsities and betrayal as if she were making an attempt on the city of Troy.

Her sense of grounding slipped from her fingers and Kat stumbled in place alongside it, tears springing to her eyes once more as she righted herself after tripping on nothing. Her intakes of air were becoming more laborious, and her breath came in shorter and shorter spurts as her need for oxygen became more urgent, an uncharacteristic lightness filling the space behind her eyes and spreading about the contours of her mind.

"Whoa," said Jove, reaching out a steadying arm and grabbing her elbow lightly, helping to right her. "What are you, drunk on the green tea?" he teased, gently tugging her to face him.

Looking at him, so happy, so unaware of the way this would play out, the way she wanted it to play out, Kat could no longer hold back the torrent and burst into tears, her face dropping into her hands as she stifled a wail.

"Kat, Kat, hey," said Jove, surprise and concern interwoven in his tone like a multicolored quilt. "What's wrong? Hey. What's wrong?"

Kat felt herself becoming undone, dissolving. Everything was settling in on her, piling up on her like a brick facade, and the weight of it was too much. She couldn't have Jove and there was nothing she could do about it. She was going to have to hurt him, hurt him badly, and then she was never going to get to see him again. Andy knew and probably thought less of her, had to. She shook silently with tears, feeling herself growing hysterical.