When Different Worlds Collide ✔️

Happy -Kat's POV

I had felt hopeless for all my life. I just wanted to be a normal person with a normal life. I didn't want to be Katherine Reynolds. I just wanted to be me, and maybe it was time to start living like that. Maybe it was time to start realizing that I was important too. It wasn't about only whatever my parents wanted me to be.

"I just-" he paused as he stopped at a red stop light and turned to me. "I want to see you happy. I don't like it when you cry. It- It, I don't know... I don't like the feeling I get from it," he said as he held my gaze.

His dark eyes looked amazing in the reflected car lights from in front of us as we stared at each other. I could see the care for me there in his eyes. It was genuine care that I had seen from so few in my life.

Did Erik Jones actually care about me? That was a crazy thought.

After a few moments of us simply looking at each other, neither one of us ever tore our gazes from the other even once, a car horn sounded from behind us. Erik ripped his eyes away from mine and began driving once again while shaking his head slightly and blinking rapidly.

The car ride was silent as he continued to drive me home. I welcomed the drunk numbing feeling that was finally overtaking me just like I wanted it to. Thank goodness, I needed that feeling in that moment. I needed it to lessen the feelings of utter worthlessness that I had in my heart. I needed it to quiet my berating mind. I could still hear my mother's shrill insults ringing in my head. It was all so loud.

Erik pulled up to the gate that was at the entrance to my neighborhood. The same security guard was there that had been there the last time he dropped me off. The man instantly recognized Erik and let him through with no questions. He had barely even looked to see if I was in the car with him.

Erik laughed heartily as soon as he made it through the gate. It was a velvety deep laugh that made my insides melt with attraction. He definitely needed to laugh more often, it suited him.

I turned my gaze to him and tilted my head in question, wondering what had been so funny. I was amazed that he was being so openly expressive with me in the car with him. It went against everything that I had ever heard about Erik. Then again... Everything that I had ever heard about Erik Jones was not what seemed to be the truth. I was realizing that more as I spent more time with him.

"You must've made a lasting impression on him for him to just wave me on through like that. You scared the poor man," he said before he chuckled again. "I'm going to have to keep you around as a bodyguard. You're obviously way more effective than I am."

I smiled goofily back at him and shrugged. "He deserved it; I have no regrets."

He pulled up to my house and parked in the driveway just like he had done the last time he had dropped me off. I found myself wanting this to be more than just an every so often occurrence. I genuinely liked his company and found him easy to talk to.

"Thank you again, Erik. I guess you're turning into my knight in shiny armor," I said with a goofy grin.

"I'm no knight, Kat. Far from it," he replied.

I shrugged. "I see what I see, and what I see is a good man," I told him before squeezing his hand affectionately. "Thank you... for everything."

I opened the door and got out of the car. What I hadn't expected was the alcohol to hit me all at once as soon as I stood up. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I immediately hit the ground. I groaned as I waited for the dizzy spell to pass so I could get up and continue walking. Maybe two full bottles of champagne on an empty stomach were not such a wonderful idea...