Page 10 of No Ordinary Love

A soft knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts.

Kath walked in, her heels clicking against the polished hardwood floors, her presence as familiar as it was unnerving. She was the CFO, a colleague, a leader—but also something far more complicated. She was a piece of my past I'd never fully let go of, and now, according to her, she wanted to be part of my present and future too.

"Lucas," she greeted, her voice smooth, her eyes searching mine. "You look pensive, sweetie. Everything alright?"

I sat up straighter, trying to compose myself, but I knew she could see the strain on my face. Kath had always had a way of reading me, of knowing when I was on edge. It was part of what had made our relationship so intense—and so volatile. We knew each other well enough to rile up passions.

"It's done." I pushed my phone away as if that act could erase the conversation I just had. "Amara and I…it's over."

Kath's lips curved into a small, almost sympathetic smile. She walked around the desk, stopping just short of where I sat, close enough that I could catch the familiar scent of her perfume—a fragrance that brought back a flood of memories, which in the past I could block, but not now, not when she wasavailableto me.

"I'm sorry, Lucas," she murmured softly, her hand lightly brushing my shoulder.

"She's hurt."I hurt her.

"Isn't it better that it ends now and not later, when it would be even more painful for her?"

I wasn't sure if Amara was the only one hurting. I felt hollow inside. Since she moved all her stuff out, the townhouse felt empty, drained of life and soul. I'd thought I could live there, but now I was convinced that I had to get rid of it. Our bedroomstill smelled like her. I'd find an errant hair tie or lipstick, and it would make my heart beat faster and infuse me with grief.

I missed her. I wasn't surprised by that. We'd been together for two years; we had a relationship where we spent time together. I enjoyed her company. She was witty and intelligent, down-to-earth, and so different from the kind of women I'd grown up with. But more than that, Amara was giving.

In all my past relationships, I was the giver. But with Amara, it was different. I enjoyed being taken care of by her just as much as I enjoyed taking care of her. She was genuinely happy with whatever I did and always grateful for it. She never expected anything—no presents, no rewards for simply being together. Kath, on the other hand, would drop hints about what she wanted for her birthday months in advance, or she'd outright ask for specific gifts on anniversaries and holidays. But Amara? I could bring her gas station flowers, and she'd light up like I'd given her diamonds.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"You poor thing," she whispered.

Something about the way Kath looked at me, the way her hand lingered just a little too long, angered me. I'd hurt a gentle and kind woman by being careless with her. I didn't deserve sympathy and let's face it, Kath wasn't being genuine because I knew she was thrilled as fuck that Amara and I were over.

She settled against my desk, her hand still on my shoulder, now stroking. "Lucas," she began, her voice dropping to a more intimate tone. "I've been thinking a lot about us lately—about what we had and…what we lost."

I looked up at her, meeting her gaze head-on. Her eyes, a piercing blue, were filled with an intensity that matched the fire we had always ignited in each other. The memories of our past—those years of passion, fighting, making up, tearing each otherapart just to fall back together—came rushing back almost too quickly for me to process.

"I know things ended badly between us," she continued, "but I've always regretted leaving you for Mercer. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, but God, Lucas, I was wrong. I've missed you, missedus."

The words hung in the air, heavy with a past that had never quite been laid to rest. I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the emotions churning inside me. Kath was the one who got away—the woman who had been everything to me from the time we were eighteen until she walked out of my life at twenty-five. We were young, passionate, reckless. Our love was intense. We fought hard, made up harder, and left emotional scars on each other, marked one another.

My relationship with Amara had been the opposite. With Amara, everything had been soft, easy, and comfortable. Our passion wasn't a wildfire; it was a steady flame; hot and constant. We didn't fight, we didn't hurt each other. With her, I felt safe, loved, and understood.

Had I felt too comfortable? Is that why, when Kath reappeared, those old feelings of living on the edge in a relationship came rushing back? Is that why I'd been so easily swayed—why I hesitated when Amara needed me to be certain of my feelings for her?

Had I been bored with Amara, with the ease of our relationship, of it beingtoocomfortable? I wasn't a teenager; I was thirty, a grown man, and was it folly to continue to look at relationships in the light of something I'd felt when I was a teenager?

"I don't know, Kath—" I started, but she cut me off by dropping a kiss on my mouth, a light one.

It felt wrong, and I jerked back. I felt like I was cheating on Amara. We'djustended, and it wasn't right to already move on,not even grieve a relationship that had meant so much that I'd, for the first time in my life, asked a woman to move in with me.

"Lucas, don't you see?" she whispered, leaning in, her voice urgent, ignoring my reticence. "We were always meant to be together. I know I made mistakes; we both did. But we've grown up. We can make it work now. We'rereadyfor each other."

I looked at her, the woman who had been my world for so long, the woman who was still everything I should want. My heart twisted in my chest. Kath was offering us a chance to rekindle what we once had, to recapture the fire that had burned so hot between us.

But there was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind, a voice that kept reminding me of how different it had been with Amara. How right it had felt to be with her. But that was over now, and Kath washere, in front of me, asking me to take her.

"We could try," I heard myself saying, the words slipping out before I could stop them. "We could see if there's…."Anything left?

Kath's face lit up with a smile that spread across her entire expression. "There's a charity gala this weekend," she spoke quickly, as if afraid I might change my mind.

I hated such affairs, and thankfully, since Amara never wanted to put herself or me on display, I'd happily avoided most of them for two years.

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