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"Am I really?" he challenged.
"We will talk later," I stressed.
"Sure, turn your back on me... like you always have..."
Click.
I hung up, not being able to take the assault of his words anymore. It hurt when he accused me like this. I felt a heavy weight on my chest. My head was spinning. I had been naive enough to believe that things with my father had finally gotten to a place where they could mend, only to get let down again.
Sitting alone in my hotel room, I felt like the walls were beginning to close in and I had to gasp for air. The loneliness was too much to bear right now, and I knew I needed company. Making a beeline for the door, I stumbled out into the hallway. Four doors down from my room was the only person I wanted to talk to right now.
Without thinking, I knocked on the door.
“Kathy,” I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her face peer out of the door. “I need you.”
Kathy blinked at me with her mouth dropped open. The confusion on her face was hard to miss and it was almost like she didn’t believe her eyes.
“Dylan?” Her voice had a light huskiness to it, and I wondered immediately if I had woken her up with my sporadic knocking, given how late it was already.
“Can I come in?” I gave her a pleading look.
The last thing I wanted right now was to go back to my own room alone. So much so that I was willing to risk being spotted by one of my employees who could turn up at any moment and see me standing at her door.
“I…” she bit down on her lip, contemplating.
I must have looked pretty distraught because it did not take long for her expression to soften. She then took a step behind to open the door to let me in.
“How can I say no?” she said, as I pushed my way into her room.
It was strange how the presence of her changed the way I felt about the hotel room so drastically. By all standards, both of our rooms were the same. But somehow, having Kathy in it transformed it from an alien space to a place that felt almost like home.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered sheepishly as I took a seat on the edge of her bed. “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”
She was standing in front of me now, arms folded across her chest.
“Normally, I’d give you grief for ruining my beauty sleep. But you look,” she paused to find the right words. “Distressed.”
“Well, you’re not the only one who’s losing out on sleep,” I said, rubbing my temples.
“Now that you are here, we might as well make the most of it,” she sighed in resignation and plopped down on the bed next to me. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“I’m not sure if I feel like talking about it.”
From the look on her face, I immediately realized that my tone had come across as too harsh.
“Then why are you here, Dylan?” she asked, losing her patience. “What do you want from me?”
“I don't know. Some comfort... some company, perhaps," I sighed. "Did I come to the wrong place?"
Her face softened. "No, you can stay."
"Thank you," my voice quivered. The silence in the room was punctuated with the sounds of our breaths, equally ragged.
She extended her hand and rested her delicate fingers on mine. I closed my eyes, feeling the comfort of her tracing small circles on the top of my hand.
"He went back to it," I blurted out.
"What do you mean?" Her voice was colored with confusion.
