Be With Me

Chapter 17

Then she spotted Kelly approaching James. She was drunk, stumbled on her feet here and there and then she smiled at him. Rafaela whished she could hear what they were talking about, but of course they were far. She felt a little jealous, after all there was some sort of story between them.

"Hi James." Kelly told him with a saucy smile on her lips. James looked at her and didn't smile back.

"How are you doing?" He simply asked her while waiting for the drinks.

"Missing you." She said taking both her hands to his chest and running them over it. Rafaela shuddered watching the whole scene and James wrapped his hands around her wrists and pulled her hands away from him.

"Kelly..." He warned her.

"Don't you miss me?" She pouted her lips.

"Rafi and I are still together. We have our own place now and I love her." He clarified things for her, at the same time he glanced at Rafaela by the corner of his eye. She was staring at them. He hope she was coping with the situation lightly.

"Are you really that serious about her?" Kelly asked then, feeling some weird sobriety invading her. That was too much to take. They were living together.

"I am." He affirmed looking straight in her eyes, so she could see he meant it.

"I thought you'd get sick of her in a couple of weeks..." Kelly smiled ironically, then shook her head. "Life is strange..."

"Well, you were wrong. In fact I love her more now than when we began. We're cool, so stop trying to provoke her. I know what you're doing..." He said.

Then he heard the glasses being put on the counter. He looked away from Kelly and grabbed the bills inside his pocket. James paid for the drinks and grabbed the small glasses within his hands. "Bye." He said dryly and left.

Rafaela's eyes searched for James' the instant he got there. James distributed the shots leaving hers for last.

"What did she want?" She asked him when he got near her.

"Leave her babe." He told her shaking his head softly.

"She was running her hands on your chest." Rafaela argued, but she wasn't mad at him, still she was jealous. James put their shots on the table and grabbed her hands in his.

"She was provoking you, maybe trying to tease me too. I love you Rafi..."

Rafaela stood on the tip of her toes and kissed his lips softly. "I love you too." She whispered after.

"Let's toast then." He cheered her up with his cute smile. Rafaela smiled back and grabbed her shot. The group united the glasses in the middle of them and yelled some cheering, then swallowed the liquid all at once.

"It's not much money, but I think we're gonna do fine." James said embracing Rafaela against his body.

"I think so too. As long as I have you I don't need anything else." She told him with her heart bubbling. But somehow she felt him distant after a few seconds. Even his embrace had subsided a bit.

His smile vanished suddenly as he stared at some distant point. Rafaela stopped smiling too as she noticed his face turning pale. His lines became rigid and she felt his chest coming up and down against her face in heavy breathing. She looked at where he was looking, his grip around her shoulders tightened then, he squeezed her against him like protecting her, but in the end he was just trying to protect himself. From all his actions, he didn't have to tell her who the man approaching them was, she instantly knew.

"What are you doing here?" James asked almost aggressively when the man stopped in front of them.

"I came looking for you." The man told him. "Why don't you talk to me James?"