56

Jocob and Lina had not appeared in the party till after Kara and Damon had left barely ten minutes after the fiasco. When Kara had asked Damon if he was aware of Lina having a crush on him, he had just shrugged and mentioned it did not have anything to do with him since he was not really fond of her in any way despite of meeting her several times in the past.
Damon's words the previous day had brought a wave of breaking news in all the newspapers along pictures of Kara and Damon. The news had spread like fire and all the news channels and newspapers were filled with the engagement and business related talks relating to Damon and Kara's family. Damon's parents had not thought of it as a big issue, considering they had to make an announcement in the near future, anyway. James, on the other hand, had nowhere to be seen for Kara to gauge his reaction. Even though she did not really need to guess about how bad it might have been. She was quite surprised that James had not already made a move to make her life hell, since he was not one of those who sat around after giving an empty threat.
By the time Kara came back to the office in her car, she found something strange. The whole office was empty for some reason. There was not even a single employee in the whole floor. Damon was going to his father's office today so he was also not with her at that time so walking inside the empty hallway really did give Kara creeps until she reached inside her room and sat down. She fished out her phone quickly to dial Damon's number to ask what was going on but it was snatched out of her hand suddenly, making her shoot up from her seat in shock. When her eyes snapped up, she found a pair of green ones looking down at the screen of her phone lazily while turning the phone off.
"What are you doing?!" Kara snapped and tried to snatch the phone out of James' hand.
James moved his phone away, out of her reach and slid it down in his back pocket sneakily. With his other hand he grabbed hold of Kara's shoulder and pushed her back against the wall before entrapping her with his other hand as well, rendering her motionless.
"Happy now?" he asked blankly.
"Happy about what?"
"Preparing to make a fool of yourself and Damon's in front of the whole world through that dumb news? Feeling happy about that?" James' hands moved to slip on the back of her neck while the other one went to slip around her waist.
Kara's hands pushed at James' rough ones to remove from her body, but his hold remained unmoved no matter how harder she tried to get free of it.
"Nothing like that is going to happen!" she gritted out and pushed at him, "no one is going to make a fool of themself. The date is already set. I don't think you need me to repeat everything for you?"
"Kara..." James sighed aloud, "...you talk like you don't know me."
"I don't know you." she turned her head sideways and gave him a fake grin, "is that a news to you now?"
James' eyes heated but he took a deep breath and remained calm, "Let's give you and me another try. Let's start from the beginning. Okay?"
Kara let out a mocking sound and looked away. Then turning her head back to him, she asked, "I thought we had already ended everything? What is there to start? Another disaster that you want to see me get hurt with?"
At her words, James let go of her body, and took a step back. His hand moved to his mouth to swipe away the traces of tension. 
"I will try to fix myself. I... it was not right of me to judge you back then and say the things that hurt you." he lifted up his eyes and looked into her eyes before continuing. His forehead was creased with tension as he pushed his hands inside his pockets to gather strength from within his heart, "I know I have made so many mistakes and you are now tired of me, but I just want you to reconsider the decision you have made."
His words made Kara look at him with a blank gaze and unchanged expressions, "If you have forgotten, I have heard these words from you many times over the years, and each time they have been forgotten by you." her head turned to look outside the office to see if anyone had come inside but it was still just as empty as before, "I am not sure why you are here now. As I had said earlier to you, you and me, we are over."
"You are just angry about what happened." James murmured and inched closer to her. He turned her face back to himself, "don't let your anger destroy our future."
"Oh? Is that right now?" Kara pushed his hand away from her face and stepped back to create distance between them again, "you do realize that you are in no way in any condition to give me lectures about anger management, right?"
James clenched his hand at her response. But she was right. He had no right to say this when he himself was not in any position to calm his own anger in any situation.
"I will work on it this time. I... I will go for therapy sessions."