And I Love Her

Chapter 15 - Katalina

James' POV

"Call her," Salomé interrupts my thoughts.

"What?" I turn to face her across the coffee table.

"Dad, I asked mom about the card."

"What card?" I sit up on the couch, now intrigued.

"The one you got in November. This one," she speaks and takes the blue envelope from the center piece of the coffee table.

"Honey, leave that there," I tell her and she does so. "What did your mom say?"

"She said that you were very happy with your friend and that you got even happier when you heard from your friend after a long time because you missed her a lot and that she doesn't know why you don't do something about it."

"She said that?" I sit up a bit more.

Salo just nods.

"Daddy," she says. "Call her."

I take out my phone from my back pocket and begin scrolling through my contacts after I unlock it.

I then place the phone to my ear and hear the ringing.

"Hey," I speak. "We need to talk."

A half hour later and I'm sat across Marcelo in his back yard as his son and Salo play with his dogs.

"What's going on in that mind of yours, James?" Marcelo asks as he notices something is wrong. "You called for a reason."

"That I did," I admit. "I got a letter in the mail about three months back- a card actually. A thank you note to be specific."

Marcelo furrows his brows as he thinks back to what month it was three months back and then he raises his eyebrows in realization.

"Kat!" he cheers. "Is that why you were so happy at training that week? That explains it. Wait why did you get a thank you card? You weren't at the party."

"I kind of gave Toni a card to give Kat and-"

"Sly," Marcelo interrupts. "Why was I not in on it? I would've made a grand delivery."

"That's why," I suggest. "Toni was discreet."

"Yeah, he definitely was. What'd the card say? Have you spoken to her?"

"I was just wishing her a Happy Birthday. I honestly didn't think I'd get a response and then the next month I got one and she was apologizing for not having spoken to me in a such a long time and she sent her best."

"That's it?"

"That's it," I sigh.

"You want to talk to her," Marcelo smirks.

"Of course I do," I say. "I miss her."

"I'm your middleman!" He sings.

"No," I stop him in his tracks. "I wanted to know what you thought. How should I approach this? Should I even approach it? Or should I just wait on her-"

"Well, firstly," he starts. "I should've been in on the plan."

"Marcelo," I almost sigh.

"Okay, okay," he gets serious. "Write her. Send her an email or letter or something."

"I shouldn't call?"

"No, that's the worst thing you could do. It's worse than seeing her in person. What did Toni say she said?" he inquires.

"She didn't say anything," I say. "He was just telling her about how I was and she just kept nodding, but he said she seemed eager to read the card."

"That's a good sign," Marcelo smiles.

"Neymar told me she didn't want to see me," I remind him.

"That was before the letter she sent," he reassures me.

"Neymar has been seeing her lately-"

"So? Nothing's going to happen between them. They're done, they're history. What they had is in the past now, she wants you! I can feel it in here," he points at his chest.

"You're terrible," I shake my head at him and begin to laugh.

When I get back home with Salo, I put her to bed before I begin to clean up in the living room.

As I gather up the toys she was playing with earlier today, I look at the thank you note.

I find myself deciding whether or not to do what I was planning on doing all day and after I finish cleaning up, I head to my room and start up my computer.

I sit back in my chair as I begin drumming on my desk out of nervousness before I pull out my phone from my back pocket.

I begin to call Toni and it rings a bit too much, so I hang up.

"What am I doing?" I run my hands through my face then hair.

A vibration comes from my desk and I look over at my phone, Toni was calling back.

"Hey," I say.

"You called?" He asked.

"Yeah," I bite my lip. "You know what? Never mind, it was a mistake-"

"Marcelo called," he says. "This is about Kat, isn't it?"

"What'd he say?" I sighed.

"He just told me about what happened today. What you asked," Toni says.

"Well?"

"Well, I'm going to send you the number you were going to ask me for," he says, and I could hear him smile through the phone.

"Oh yeah? What number is that?" I sit back in my chair as I open up the web browser on my computer.

"Bye, James."

Toni ends the call and I get a text seconds later from him.

Naomi

Followed by her number.

I save the number onto my phone, then find myself browsing through flights from Madrid to New York.

I look at my calendar and decide on the trip to be in April.

Shortly after I close all the windows on my computer and begin shaking my head.

I decide to quit it all and head to bed, then I looked back down at my phone and decided upon calling up Naomi.

"Hello?" She asks.

"Naomi," I say.

"Is this-"

"James," I say. "It's James."

"James," she repeats. "Wow, how are you?"

"I'm good," I say. "How about you?"

"I-I'm good."

"Kat isn't around is she?"

"No," Naomi says. "She, uh, doesn't live here anymore."

"What?" I ask, surprised.

"I mean, she moved out-"

"Oh."

"Yeah, no. What's going on, James?"