Taking her own seat at the table and poking her food, she giggled at the antics of the two. “Just not the lasagna since it has cheese…don’t want Roxy causing the apartment to be s-smelly after all,” she reminded him, thinking back to the day Jack had confessed his feelings for her when he had first warned her. She tried to fight back the blush that rose at the thought of the past. How long ago it seemed now – as if living with Jack and being his fiancee was the most natural thing in the world.
Looking at him from over the table as she took a bite of her food, Katelynn decided she’d wait to tell him about the past events until he was well rested and could handle it better. Though he had told her to tell him when things happened she just couldn’t at the moment. She just prayed he would understand why she had waited.
“You always dreamed of going to New York…it was your dream vacation spot and the fact that you went because of your art becoming so big..I’m really proud of you, love,” she whispered, free hand sliding across the table to take his gently. “You’re getting the recognition you deserve.”
As he tucked into his own meal, Jack watched Katelynn eat hers. In the weeks before he’d left Metro City, she’d gotten better about not missing meals, and he’d hoped that she would continue to be okay while he was gone. She looked healthy, at least – tired, and stressed by something, but not painfully thin anymore. It was a great relief.
“Thank you,” he said softly, clasping her hand in return. “New York was … it was nice. B-but I didn’t really get a lot of time to myself,” he admitted. “They wanted me to go to meetings, and galas, and I kn-know some p-people enjoy that, but I’m n-not one of them.” His stammer came back as he remembered how nervous he had been during so many of those functions. It was nice to get so much recognition, but when he was there in person, being shown off by his manager, there had been a lingering unease in the back of his mind – did people want his art because they thought it was good, or because they wanted the novelty of having art done by a blue-skinned alien?
“They don’t n-need me there in person for the tour,” he went on. “I’d much rather be home, where I can w-work on my own time.”
The tour, of course. Squeezing his hand gently at the thought of having Jack moving around and being apart from her would have been hard but she would have been able to deal with it as long as they could talk on the phone. What killed her were the moments when she couldn’t reach him, spending her free time worrying if something had happened to him as it had gone on for days where she would try to call or text him and get nothing in return. No new messages and the immediate message of his answering machine.
Shaking dark thoughts out of her mind she tried smiling for him. No point in stressing him out. “Y-Yeah..too much too soon can be bad for you..your friends have also asked for you..” Though truthfully only Bernard had but she was sure Mets was wondering where the two of them were.
She definitely needed to contact her friend and let him know they were okay. She hadn’t talked to him in weeks.
Jack felt a nasty pang of guilt. It wasn’t completely his fault – he’d been kept very busy, shunted to and from meetings – but still, he wished he’d made more effort to keep in touch with the few friends he had back here. He swallowed his bite. “Well, I’m back now. And I don’t plan on leaving Metro City again any time soon.” For all its dangers, the city was his home.
“I’m s-sorry we didn’t have more time to talk, Katelynn,” he went on as they kept eating. He couldn’t quite get out what he was most sorry for – that he hadn’t been there for her when her mother died, when she’d truly needed him. “… H-has anything happened I should know about?”
Jack Maple 