Mr. James: A Forbidden Romance (15 page)

She stared at him and he continued. “Cat, I miss you so much. I love you, even just as a friend, if that’s all you want, and I would rather have that with you than nothing at all. So, I know I really screwed up with you, I know I betrayed our friendship, and I know let you down, but I’m here now, and if you want to be friends again, just friends, with no awkward problems, I promise that I will always be here for you, as just a friend, and I won’t let you down again.” He bit his lip and raised his eyebrows hopefully. “What do you say?” he asked, his voice giving away his nervousness.

Catalina laughed and sniffed and fought back more tears as she looked at him in complete gratitude. “I’d say that you have a friend for life.” She answered him. “I missed you too, so much!” she told him as she reached her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

He held her there for a long while until they were both alright again, and then he let her go and helped her to her feet. “So what do you want to do now?” he asked, looking at her for direction.

She shook her head. “I’m so tired and I hurt so much, I just want to go home and not deal with anything else today. I just don’t have the strength for it.”  Then she looked up at him as they began to head for her house together. “Reggie, thank you so much for coming to get me. It means a lot to me that you were there for me right when I needed you most.”

He smiled and elbowed her arm lightly. “Aw, no problem. That’s what friends are for, right?”

She smiled at him and nodded.

He looked over at her a little while later and tipped his head to the side. “So what had you so upset this morning? I don’t think it was your dad that had you crying like that at our spot.”

She shook her head sadly. “No, it wasn’t my dad. It was Connor and his fiancée,” she answered quietly.

Reggie stopped on the spot and stared at her. “His… his fiancée? He’s engaged?” he asked, almost stupefied.

She stopped and turned to look up at him. “Yeah, he’s engaged. I met her this morning in his office. He wasn’t there, but she was, and she showed me her ring and told me all about how close they are and how they’re getting married in two weeks. I thought I was going to die right there. It isn’t because I’m jealous or anything, but she seems like such a mean bitch!”

Reggie looked at her almost humorously. “It might be that you’re jealous, and it might not be. Who is she?” he asked curiously.

Catalina hated saying her name. “Deborah Hargrove. She’s one of the other professors on campus, although I’ve never had one of her classes.”

Reggie’s eyebrows shot straight up. “Deborah Hargrove?” He shook his head. “I did have her for one class, one semester, and that was one class too many. It’s not you, she’s a mean bitch.” Then he paused thoughtfully. “Well, she’s a mean bitch to the girls, but she has a real thing for most of the guys. She likes to uh… see them in her office after class for extra credit, if you get my drift,” he said with chagrin.

Catalina stared at him. “You’re kidding!” she gasped in amazement. “She accused me of being a slut for sleeping with Connor! …and she…”

Reggie laughed out loud. “That woman has no business calling anyone else a slut. She screwed most of the guys that I knew in class. It was pretty much a guaranteed passing grade if they gave her an orgasm.”

Catalina stared at him for a moment. “Did you…” she began, and paused, eyeing him carefully.

Reggie laughed at her. “No, Cat, I didn’t. I kept making sure that I was too busy and that I was out of class before she could call on me to stay, and I never checked any emails from her all semester, so I passed her class of my own volition.” He shook his head. “Never taking a class from her again, that’s for sure.”

They started walking again and he looked over at her. “So why were you going to see Connor this morning?” he asked quietly.

She sighed. “I was going to tell him about the baby,” she admitted. “He doesn’t know. I guess it isn’t going to matter now, though, if he’s marrying Miss Hot Pants.”

Reggie frowned. “I don’t know, Cat. It’s different for most guys when they find out they are having a kid. I think you ought to make sure he knows, just so he can have a chance to make up his own mind about what he wants to do and who knows, maybe he will man-up and help you. After all, that kid is half his responsibility.”

She sighed. “I know, I thought about that, too, but my dad wants me to get an abortion. He told me I have to either get an abortion or get out of his house, and I have nowhere to go, Reg.” She sighed again and shook her head. “You know, he made a lot of really good points; I have no way to care for a baby, no job, no money, I’m not graduated yet, I have no job waiting for me when I do graduate, and if something goes wrong during the pregnancy, I won’t be able to graduate, so there’s a lot to think about.”

He walked a short distance before he responded to her. “You really don’t strike me as the kind of girl who would be okay with getting an abortion. Are you? Could you do that? Could you get an abortion?”

She shook her head. “You’re right. I’m not the kind who could get an abortion. I told my father that I was thinking of adoption, but he blew a gasket about that, so as far as he is concerned, I can get an abortion or get out.” She hesitated a moment and then looked up at Reggie while they were walking.

“I’m really scared, Reg. I’m scared and confused and I have no idea what to do or what will happen. I have no idea what the right thing to do would be.” She stared ahead sadly, not seeing what was in front of her, but looking ahead into oblivion, instead.

He reached over and took her hand gently in his. “Well, the good thing is that no matter what, you aren’t alone,” he told her with a smile. “That’s a promise.”

She looked back up at him then and she knew without a doubt that she finally had her friend back, and it brought her a ray of light and happiness into and otherwise dismal heart.

“Thanks Reg. I’m really glad we are friends again.”

“Me too.”

The Final Chapter

Snowflakes were falling around the campus as Reggie walked, the frosted grass crunching beneath his feet with each step that he took. A cloud of steam billowed out from his lips as he stopped in his tracks for a moment, looking at the corridor before him, wishing that he had never been walking down that corridor the day that he had seen Connor kissing Catalina. So many problems had stemmed from that day, and there he was, back in the corridor, looking down the length of it at a door that was closed to the winter day.

He walked toward the door, telling himself that he was doing the right thing, for once, he was doing what would make all of his mistakes right again. When he reached the door, he pursed his lips for moment and then took a deep breath and raised his hand to the frosted glass, knocking on it carefully.

“Come in!” called a voice.

Reggie pushed the door open and stepped in from the cold, closing it behind him. His eyes moved around the office he found himself in and despite what he felt, he had to admit that he liked the office.

“Can I help you?” the voice asked, and he looked over at the handsome man sitting at the desk in the corner by the window.

Reggie drew another breath and sighed, pulling his gloves off of his hands. “Yeah, Mr. James?” he asked. “I’d like to talk with you, if you have a moment,” he said politely. He knew Connor James from seeing him in the doorway with Catalina, but Connor had never met him and didn’t know who he was.

Connor looked up at the tall solidly built young man before him and indicated the chairs before his desk. “Have a seat, please.”

Reggie walked over to the front of the desk and extended his hand to Connor. “I’m Reginald James, but everyone calls me Reggie,” he said, introducing himself and shaking Connor’s hand.

Connor nodded and something rang a bell of familiarity in the back of his mind, but the connection was not made. Reggie saw the disconnect in Connor’s eyes.

“I’m friends with Catalina,” he added, and the moment he said it, Connor’s eyes grew large for a moment, and then he leaned back in his chair and covered his mouth with his forefinger, staring at Reggie.

Reggie knew he would have some explaining to do before he got to the real reason why he was there. He was also aware that he owed Connor a big apology.

“Sir, I wanted to come see you today for several reasons, but before I get to the heart of it, I wanted to tell you that I’m truly sorry for all the trouble I caused. I never meant for all of the fallout to happen after I told Harold about you and Cat.” He hesitated. “Harold is her father,” Reggie began, and Connor watched him quietly.

“Anyway, I know I caused a lot of problems, and that wasn’t what I was trying to do at all, but it just kind of worked out that way, and I wanted you to know how sorry I am about that, and that I’m here to try to help fix it, kind of,” he offered, his dark brown eyes looking earnestly at Connor’s.

Connor nodded. “Thank you for the apology. What is it that brings you here today?” he asked hesitantly. He hadn’t expected to ever meet Reggie, let alone to hear him apologize for anything that had happened, and a lot had happened. He wasn’t sure yet that he wanted to forgive Reggie for all of the damage that the young man had caused, but he was willing to listen to him, and that was a start.

Reggie took a breath and launched into an explanation of his side of everything that had happened. “So, Cat and I have been best friends since our first day of high school. We were both scared to death to be freshmen in a new school, but I was big for my age and she was really smart, and really nice, and so we became friends and started looking out for each other, and before we knew it, we were best friends.

“Then, sometime around Christmas that first year of high school, I fell in love with her, and I just never had the courage to tell her, so we went on being friends. She dated a few guys here and there, but she was never really into any of them. Not all the way through high school, not all the way through college, that is, until she started falling for you, and I saw it before she did.

“She started calling you by your first name and talking about you all the time. She would get this look on her face and her eyes would kind of… glaze over, and she would look so happy

when she talked about you.

“It started happening more and more, and I started getting jealous, because none of the other guys she ever dated really mattered. They just kind of came and went, and I knew that none of them ever touched her heart, but then things changed with you.”

Connor sat forward in his chair and leaned his elbows on the desk, listening intently to Reggie as the young man continued to explain.

“Anyway, I saw the changes in her and it scared me to death because, for the first time ever, there was actually a man who might steal her away from me. I had a plan for her and me; I was going to graduate and become an engineer, and build a house for us, and then ask her to marry me, and we were gonna have kids and a white picket fence, and it was all going to work out perfectly. “I figured that if I didn’t say anything about her dating other guys all through school that she would have all of that worked out of her system by the time we were out of college and then when I asked her to marry me, she would say yes because she would be ready to settle down.” He looked at Connor expectantly and Connor nodded.

“That makes sense,” he said simply, not wanting to derail Reggie from the train of thought he was on.

Reggie took a deep breath and his shoulders sagged a little. “Then she started going on and on about you, and for the first year or two, it was just little stuff. She wasn’t attracted to you or anything, she was just really impressed with you, then you became her advisor and she started admiring you and all the things you did, and then this last year… that’s when it all went downhill and she started falling for you, and I could see it, and she couldn’t.

“She would swear that there was nothing going on in her heart for you, but I was on the outside, and I could see it clear as a bell. She got so wrapped up in you, and then the two of you took that trip, and when she came back I knew I had lost her to you. She started telling me everything… all of the details, and can I just tell you, Mr. James, it is hard as hell to listen to a woman you are in love with talking about making love with another man.

“I thought I was going to die of heartbreak right there, but I kept telling myself that she was my best friend and I owed it to her to be a good friend, no matter how hard it got for me, and well, that didn’t last too long.”

Connor felt his cheeks warm slightly and he began to feel sorry for Reggie.

Reggie looked directly at Connor. “I knew that I was losing her to you, and I panicked. I didn’t know what kind of man you were, and I didn’t know if you were just another teacher who sleeps with his students or what, so the more she got involved with you, the more I felt a need to protect her, and I finally had to admit to her that I’ve been in love with her this whole time, because I thought if I told her that it would make a difference and she would realize that she ought to be with me.

“The problem was that I never thought that she wouldn’t be in love with me, too. I thought that she was and she just didn’t know it. I thought I could show her how much I love her, and then it would all work out from there, but it didn’t. She just couldn’t get over you.

“I felt like I had nowhere to turn, no other choice to make but to go to her father. I just thought he would stop her from seeing you, and then I could try to make her see that she could love me like she does you, but everything kind of went straight to hell from there.” Reggie sighed and looked down for a minute in shame.

“Yeah, it really did go to hell after that,” Connor agreed.

“Well, I didn’t realize just how mad Harold was going to be. I didn’t ever imagine that he’d go all the way to the dean here, and that your job would be on the line, and that Cat would hate me and stop being friends with me.

“I lost the love of my life and I lost my best friend, all at once, and that’s a hard loss, Mr. James, let me tell you. Then things just went from bad to worse. I’ve never seen her so heartbroken and sad as I did the whole time she had to stay away from you, and now….” He paused and bit his lip looking back up at Connor.

Connor grew worried for Catalina, and he leaned forward anxiously. “….and now what?” he asked expectantly.

Reggie bit his lip again and nodded. “Well, now she and I are friends again, and that’s great, but there’s a little more going on. She came by here to talk to you, but you weren’t here. Your fiancée was here, and she gave Cat kind of a hard time, and Cat left here really upset. She didn’t know you were getting married, and it broke what was left of her heart.”

Connor felt like he was going to be sick. He shook his head and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Oh no…. no, no, no….” He sighed. “I’m so sorry.” He fell back against his chair and buried his face in both of his hands, rubbing his fingers over his forehead and temples.

“I can’t believe she came here and talked to Deborah. That is just about the worst thing that could possibly happen.”

Reggie shook his head slowly. “Nope. No sir, Mr. James, that is not the worst thing that could possibly happen.”

Connor dropped his hands from his face and looked at Reggie in confusion. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” He sat up a little in his chair. “What’s worse than her meeting Deborah and Deborah lying to her?”

Reggie frowned in surprise. “Lying to her? What do you mean lying to her?”

Connor shook his head. “I’ll explain that later, first, what are you talking about? What’s worse?”

Reggie pursed his lips for a moment and then breathed out the truth. “Cat’s pregnant,” he said simply, his eyes locked on Connor. He was going to know how Connor really felt about it before he let Cat talk to him. He knew that it was Cat’s right to talk to him about it, and she was probably going to be mad at him for telling Connor before she got a chance to tell him, but Reggie was anxious to protect her from another fall if Connor didn’t care about her being pregnant.

He could see right away that Connor cared. Connor cared a great deal. He leapt forward in his chair, his hands flat on his desktop, his eyes wide with panic as his heart nearly beat itself right out of his chest, and he stared at Reggie.

“What? She’s… she’s pregnant?” he gasped in utter astonishment.

Reggie nodded and kept his eyes on Connor. “Yeah. She thinks she got pregnant while you two were in Springfield.”

“She’s pregnant….” he whispered, the shock arresting him as he fell back against his chair and stared off into space. He mouthed the word and no sound came from him, and then he said it again in a barely audible whisper. “….pregnant?”

Reggie had long been over the shock himself, but it was still weird for him to think of her as being pregnant.  His eyes stayed on Connor.

Connor shook his head and then leaned forward again toward Reggie. “Is she alright? Is she okay? Does she need anything?” Realization and panic had set in, and all he had in his mind and heart were questions.

Reggie nodded. “Well, that’s a matter of perspective, really. Physically, she's okay. She’s healthy and she isn’t doing too bad; no morning sickness or anything, so that’s alright, but she is going through a really tough time right now, and that’s why I’m here sitting in front of

you, telling you everything.”

Connor’s brow lowered in concern. “What do you mean, she’s going through a tough time?

What’s wrong? I mean… other than the obvious issue that she’s pregnant?”

Reggie sighed. “Well, for starters, she got told off by your fiancée, and you’ll excuse me, but I know your fiancée, and that woman is a cold hearted bitch. I can’t figure out how you would want to marry her and leave Cat, but whatever; everyone has their own standards, or none at all.” He eyed Connor and then continued. “So there’s that, which is making her miserable, and then there’s her dad.”

Connor shook his head. “Deborah is not my fiancée, so please stop calling her that.”

Reggie looked at him in surprise. “She isn’t?” he asked incredulously.

Connor shook his head. “No, she isn’t, but I will explain that later. What about Cat’s dad? What’s going on?”