Oxterionn: Of Love and Fast Cars

Kat was in a serious dilemma. The past few weeks she had fallen quite clumsily and completely for her new boyfriend Cal. They had been on countless romantic dates, ranging from casual (a day at the beach) to formal (a night at the opera, which Kat loved, mostly because Callum wore his military uniform – and a girl really does love a guy in a uniform). Sometimes, when Albert was on a business trip, Cal would visit and they would just hang out at home, which often resulted in him spending the night. It was almost like a fairy tale, but like all fairy tales, it must have an ending.

As Kat rode home from her latest adventure with Cal, Red noticed she was a little quieter than usual. “Is everything alright?” He asked, glancing at her. She looked a little sad and just stared blankly out the window.

“Cal’s going back to England soon,” she sighed dramatically, as if it would somehow make it better. “Maybe I’ll just follow him back to Europe…. That kind of makes me sound stalkerish, doesn’t it?”

Red grinned, although it could have been mistaken for a grimace. “It might be construed as stalker behavior, however if he felt the same way, then I’m sure he’d find it…adorable, or something.”

Kat detected a not-so-subtle tone of boredom or even irritation in his reply and it sent another prickle of anxiety down her spine. Instead of being annoyed at his tone, or insulted, she was, in a way, scared. Scared and excited, and a little confused. Despite being blindingly in love with Cal, there was one thing she had slowly become aware of over the past few weeks. She’d come to the conclusion that Red had some kind of feelings for her, but it was complicated. Like, he felt guilty about liking her.

Kat thought perhaps he had a girlfriend. Or maybe it was because he worked for her father and he felt it would be wrong for him to have feelings for his employer’s daughter, so she just tried to ignore it.

But she could not. She was slowly, and regretfully, realizing that she perhaps had the same conflicting feelings for him, whatever that was. It was different from the way she felt about Cal. With Cal, it was an intoxicating, fluttering kind of euphoric attraction that was almost like a high. He always knew the right thing to say when Kat felt insecure or when she was awkward (which was pretty often), and he always had something fun or romantic planned. The best part was that her father already liked him. A lot. Perhaps a little too much.

If Cal was the sun, then Red was the moon. He was always there in the background, not always shining brightly, but still there. Kat’s feelings toward Red were still a little ambiguous, like a subtle lightening. It was like he was her best friend, but it was more than that – what's it called when you want to make out with your best friend? Even before she knew he was a famous race car driver she got butterflies whenever she got in the car with him, and it was not because of the way he drove.

Currently, they were racing through the outskirts of the city after Kat and Cal’s most recent date, which ended not minutes ago. Kat was lost in thought replaying their last few moments together.

Callum had waited until the end of their date to tell her, he said he had not wanted to ruin it. They were taking a walk after getting dinner at a nice restaurant (which she’d paid for), though she did not mind paying for him, especially when he wore his uniform, like he had tonight. She had not expected him to wear it, but she was not going to complain.

“I thought you were wearing black tonight; if I’d known you were going to wear white I would have worn something that matched better,” Kat joked, noting her black dress and his white uniform.

“Kat, you look beautiful no matter what you wear,” he took her arm in his and led her down the sidewalk. “Why don’t we take a walk, it’s a nice evening.” They walked slowly, enjoying the warm August night. It was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday evening; the city seemed to be asleep. Kat was thinking about how amazing her summer had been, almost like a dream, when Callum interrupted her thoughts.

“Kat, I want you to know how much I regret having to tell you this,” he paused, and swallowed as if he was fighting back his emotions. Kat’s heart started to beat so fast it leapt up into her throat, and she worried it would beat right out of her mouth and all over that crisp white uniform of his. “I swear, this was unexpected, I would have told you sooner if I’d known, but I have to go back to England this weekend.” Cal sighed and looked at her regretfully. “My leave has been cut short and I have to return to the Navy, so I can live on a boat for a few months and watch the Russian coastline.”

Kat fought back tears for a second before breaking down in choking, unattractive, sobs. Callum handed her a neatly folded handkerchief and comfortingly wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want it to end so soon, but this situation with Russia has changed things and a lot of officers are being called off summer leave early,” Cal explained, but Kat only heard one thing. She knew something had been happening between Russia and its neighboring countries – that was not what surprised her.

“Did you say ‘end?’ You mean we’re-” Kat broke down in another fit of crying, unable to finish her sentence. She was going to say ‘breaking up,’ but she was not entirely sure she could form the words.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that,” Cal quickly explained, a hint of panic in his voice. For a second, his façade broke, and if Kat had been looking, she would have seen the worry lines temporarily exposing the ‘real Cal’ behind his outer shell. The one that wanted to keep her safe and shield her from any unpleasant thoughts, like the ones he was flooding her mind with currently. “I meant our time together, for now, is ending, that’s all. I thought I had a few more weeks of summer to spend with you.”

“Will I be able to see you again before you leave?” Kat looked up at him, not caring that her mascara was probably running down her face, or that her eyes were puffy and red. Surprisingly, neither did Cal; it actually broke his heart a bit more seeing her fall apart like this. Yet, it was also reassuring.

“I hope so, because there’s something I’d like to do before I go,” he said as he wiped a few drying tears off her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her cheek lightly and gently held her face in both his hands. “I don’t know when, or if, I’ll be able to see you again. This situation with Russia is…. tricky, and it could get a lot worse. I’m not trying to scare you, or anything,” he added when Kat took a sudden, short, breath, eyebrows raised in concern. “I don’t know what’s going to happen; we could go to war, or not. You never know with Russia.” He smiled a half-uncertain grin that Kat returned.

“And what is it you want to do before you leave?” Kat asked.

She saw a brief moment of hesitation in his eyes before he leaned down to kiss her on the lips. “If I’m going to have to go off to war, I want to spend one last night with my girl,” he said, and looked down at her with a hint of something in his eyes Kat had not seen before.

Her cheeks reddened slightly and she had to clear her throat before responding. “I think that could definitely be arranged.”

Callum slipped something in her hand and leaned in to whisper in her ear before kissing her on the cheek, “Meet me here at 8:00 tomorrow night.”

He gave her a confident, yet mischievous smile before slipping into the building they had stopped walking in front of. Kat looked up at the majestic structure and realized she was standing (rather awkwardly, in the middle of the sidewalk), in front of The Plaza. She had been here several times for various functions, and although she had never stayed here, she knew it was one of the most expensive hotels in New York City.

‘How the hell is he paying for that?’ Kat wondered, when a hilarious thought snuck into her head, and she actually laughed out loud. What if her dad was paying for it?

“What’s so funny Miss Katherine?” Red asked with a grin standing next to the car with the door open, waiting for her.

She blushed, “I didn’t realize you were there. How long have you been watching us?”

“I just got here, don’t worry,” he winked as if to say ‘your secret’s safe with me,’ although he was one of the people Kat did not want knowing. Her dad obviously knew, and seemed happy about her dating Callum, but she felt uncomfortable being affectionate with Cal in front of Red. Without another word, Kat climbed in the car and they took off into the warm August night. Red was chattering about something, Kat was not really sure what, because her mind was far away. She looked down at the card Callum had pressed into her hand before leaving and it was, as she thought, a room key. She looked out the window blankly as she tried to think over everything that had happened that night, and if tomorrow night really meant what she thought it did.

Whatever it meant, she was going to spend the entire night with Cal, and whatever they did she would love it because she was not going to let the fact that it could be their last time together ruin it.

~ ~ ~

“Mrs. Knight?” Andy McLaughlin approached the woman, and after a moment she turned around.

She stood to greet Andy and the pair settled into the corner table she had selected at a busy cafe.

“’Knight’, that’s an admirable sounding last name. Considering, before that, it was Saxon, wasn’t it?” Andy got right into it without any introduction. Millie was clearly not used to someone knowing so much about her history and gave him a wavering but stern look.

“Yes, and who are you again?” She nervously glanced over her shoulder for the fifth or sixth time that afternoon before returning her worried gaze to Andy.

He smiled, “I’m a friend of the Saxons.”

Millie froze and stopped her nervous fidgeting.

“I don’t have it,” Millie Knight whispered to Andy. “I thought Albert was hiding his money in a secret account, but he isn’t. I’ve tried everything, but I can’t get my hands on the money.”

Andy watched her closely for a moment before speaking. “I have a proposition for you. Something that could make all of this go away, the Saxons, the money…everything.”

Millie looked hopeful, but waited to hear his terms. They had been after her for so long that she could not imagine life without a yearly reminder from the Saxons of the increasing sum she owed them.

Andy crossed his arms and leaned in. “I can make this all go away if you tell me how you ended up so in debt to the Saxons.”

* * *

“Are you sure?” Callum asked quietly with his phone pressed to his ear to hear the response over the sound of the city waking up below. “She’s so…. delicate, and fragile, this might actually hurt her-”

He stopped and listened to the response for a moment. Callum frowned, and for a moment wanted to throw his phone off the balcony to ignore hearing his mother remind him one more time that he owed her. “Fine,” he cut in finally, “but I’m not doing this ever again, okay?”

As he hung up he almost missed his mother remind him that if this worked, he wouldn’t need to do it again.

* * *

After an absolutely rapturous night at The Plaza, Kat awoke to the sound of Cal arguing with someone on the phone on the balcony. He was speaking quietly, but she was pretty sure she heard her name a few times. Then again, he could have been talking about a completely different cat – like, the kind that had claws and whiskers. He glanced at her a few times, and realized she was awake and staring back at him. He was mostly dressed, sipping a cup of coffee, and holding a newspaper (which he immediately pretended he was reading). His shirt was unbuttoned, exposing the sculpted abs Kat loved so much. She blinked as her vision slowly came into focus and ran a hand through her messed up hair. Compared to Cal, she must have looked like a wreck, at least that was what she thought.

“Good morning beautiful,” Callum said as he came back into the bedroom. He poured another cup of coffee and handed it to Kat. “I’ve ordered some breakfast from room service, I hope you don’t mind; it’s on the balcony.”

Kat stepped out into the morning sunshine and set her coffee cup on the table before admiring the view of New York below. Callum wrapped his arm around her waist, lightly tracing her hip bone with his thumb. He leaned over and lightly trailed kisses down her neck, and even though her head was screaming ‘yes’ she gently stopped him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked and she turned to face him. “We only have a few hours left together before I leave, and I might not be back for months…. I just thought we could-”

“Maybe after breakfast.” Kat smiled and kissed his cheek before turning to see what he got them for breakfast. “Strawberry crepes? My favorite, how did you know?”

Callum sighed as he sat down across from her and looked frustrated (Kat assumed it was because he was not used to being denied). For a second, she thought he was going to say something else, but he smiled his usual smile and returned to the Cal Kat was used to seeing. “You told me about your trips to France to visit your grandmother, and how much you loved the crepes her chef made for you.”

“Thank you, these are almost better than the crepes I’ve had in Paris,” Kat replied after taking a bite. The rest of the morning continued in this pattern: moments of tension interrupting Cal’s usually serene and confident disposition. Kat thought it was because he was being shipped off to deal with whatever was happening between Russia and its neighbors – potentially war – and excused his behavior as perfectly normal. He was being more physical than usual, which Kat did not mind at all, so the next time he asked, she did not decline his advances. Although it really did not take much to get Kat to fall into bed with him; seriously, he just had to look at her, or give her that sly half smile, and she was already halfway to the bed getting undressed.

It was late in the afternoon by the time they crawled out of bed again, and this time they both walked out to the balcony together to enjoy the late summer sunshine. Standing in each other's presence was not enough to satisfy Kat and she inched closer until his arm was around her shoulders, and she was protectively secured to him.

"I wish I could keep you here, away from whatever conflict is going on..." She reminded herself that it may likely end up being nothing. Cal's arm tensed around her shoulder before he unclasped himself from her grasp.

"I wish I could stay, too. There is one last thing I would like to do before I leave. Maybe it's too soon, but it would bring me solace in the midst of battle if I knew you were wearing this:" From seemingly nowhere Callum produced a small black box and bent down on his knee to present it. "Katherine, it has been a pleasure to spend this summer with you, and I hope to spend countless hours like this with you in the future. Would you do me the honor of allowing me to ask your hand in marriage, and becoming Mrs. Callum Knight?"