Love Me Tender (A Kaimelia - Kai Bartley/Amelia Shepherd - fanfiction)

Part 26

Merry Christmas, please don't hate me 😬

_______

I should've known this was a bad idea, when Link offered that I should stay in the hotel with them. Granted, I did get my own room, although he mentioned at least twice that he had two beds in his room and I could have my own. But something about that just felt wrong.

I would've gone back to Kai's, but Scout had a fit when I left for the bathroom and was gone too long so I really wanted to spend extra time with him. I've also been unintentionally ignoring Kai a little so going back would've been awkward.

It's not that I don't want to talk to them. Just.. when they text me all these caring and sweet things, it messes with my head even more. Or is Link the one who messed with my head? I don't even know anymore.

What I do know is that I should've put Scout to sleep and stayed there with him. Instead I took up Link's offer to have some ice cream and a chat in his room so I grabbed the baby monitor and headed over. Took about two minutes for him to get into it again.

"You don't even know her and yet you choose to have the surgery here, move in with them and then what? Move here completely? And just forget about me and your son?" Link is irritated and I'm just tired, wishing I had gone to sleep as well. To make matters worse, my phone pings. I have two unopened messages from Kai already. I just don't know what to say.

I don't even look at this one right now. They're probably thinking the worst of me anyway considering that I've spent the day with the father of my child who still very much wants to marry me and I have been ignoring them while doing it.

"I'm not forgetting about Scout. I gave birth to him, kind of hard to forget that since I was actually there for it," I say finally, coming off a bit meaner than intended. Right now he brings out the worst in me.

"Oh, so now your blaming me for not being there? When I'm the only one who's been there while you chase lord knows who and what here in Minnesota?" Link gets up now and walks around the room.

"You mean the freaking cure for Parkinson's?" I ask with a frown. A sound comes from the baby monitor and I'm hopeful for a minute that Scout is up and I have an excuse to leave. He's just one room over so I could be there in a second. But one look at the video feed shows that he just turned to the other side.

"No, I mean the woman whose clothes you were wearing this morning!" Link finally gets to what's really bothering him. And here I was, hoping that he didn't actually notice or care. Stupid of me.

"For the last time, they are nonbinary," I grit my teeth. It's the disrespect that's really bugging me right now. Plus, it's easier to focus on that then to really think about his questions. It's not like I don't wonder about that relationship myself.

Link shakes his head and sits down on the bed, distancing himself from me. He's angry, but I can also sense sadness. "I don't give a fuck, that's not the point of all of this. So what? You're throwing everything away for this fling?"

"We broke up, Link. And then I came here and met Kai and fell in love. I didn't throw anything away," I sigh with frustration. He's truly acting like I left him for someone else, when in reality we broke up months before I even came to Minnesota.

"So you're in love, seriously? After a few weeks?" Link asks then, the look in his face quite honestly shocked. I frown at that and shake my head, the words not really getting through to me.

"It's been months.. and I didn't say that I was in love, that's.. I'm not.." I stutter, feeling like I just got smacked in the face. It can't be, right? People don't fall in love that quickly. Or at least I don't. I keep everyone at an arms length so it can't be. Right?

"You did say that," Link says quietly, looking at me like he's attempting to read my mind and succeeding. I just shake my head again, although the reality is already hitting me.

I love Kai.

Fuck.

"Doesn't matter, okay? I can't keep arguing about this. We're done, you know this. And I get that this is hard, but fighting about it makes it worse. I don't want us to be like this," I eventually change the topic, feeling the exhaustion hitting me again. As I recall, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

Link is quiet for a few moments before coming back to sit in the armchair next to mine. "Me neither," he says and I can only hope that he means it. I look out the window overlooking the city lights and think back to what I said before.

As a reminder, my phone beeps again and I finally look at it, seeing the latest message pop up. The last one I sent to them was just me saying that I'm staying at the hotel for the night to be with Scout. I didn't look at any texts I received after that one, but I guess they've drawn their own conclusions from it.

Look, I get it, if that's the case. He's the father of your child, that's a strong connection. No harm done. I'll see you tomorrow.

I don't even want to look at the previous texts now. The truth is all there. No harm done. It's obvious they don't feel the same about me and I'm just a fool.

I place my phone down on the small table between the chairs and look at Link who's lost in thought. "Are there any tickets left for your flight tomorrow?" I ask, forcing a smile onto my face when I see his light up at that. Might as well fly home for a while then. No harm in that either, I guess.