Page 66 of Once Bitten

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I stayed up all night listening for Kara to come back to her room. Perched on the end of my bed, my ears strained for any noise, a key card in the door, the dropping of her bag on the coffee table, the sound of her shoes being kicked off, but there was nothing.

She didn’t answer any of my calls or reply to my texts. She’d just disappeared.

Our last meeting was scheduled for 10am, I knew she wouldn’t be late for that. I went into the bathroom for a quick shower, leaving the door open in case she called out to me or knocked on my bedroom door.

Letting the hot scalding water massage my aching scalp, I couldn’t believe I was here again. So close to having it all with Kara, and then fucking up before we even had a chance.

Turning the water off, I wrapped the towel around my waist and stepped out of the shower. Just then, I heard the door open and close to Kara’s bedroom, I threw open our adjoining door, running into the living room to see her.

“Kara!”

It wasn’t her.

“Oh, Finn, you startled me,” Larry turned around, cocking an eyebrow at the towel.

“Um, oh yeah, sorry, I just thought it was Kara.”

“Oh, she’s gone, Finn. I’m just here to grab her things.”

“Gone? Where?”

“Oh, um, she came to see me last night, she said since I was here then you and I could handle the meeting today on our own without her and she had so much work to do in NYC that she might as well go home early. I thought she must’ve told you.”

“Um, no. No, she didn’t tell me.”

“Yeah, there was a red eye so she went straight to the airport, I guess. She had all her passport and things in her purse, so she just asked me to come back here and take her suitcase back with me tonight.”

Fuck. I didn’t think it’d come to this, I thought I would at least see her today and make her listen to me.

“Oh ok, um, well, we have a meeting in an hour so I guess I’ll meet you downstairs in half an hour?” I said, excusing myself so I could process that Kara had left the country in order to avoid me.