71

James' face grew grim as soon as he heard the words that Lila said. He grabbed Kara's hand in his own and pulled her towards their seat. He helped her get seated by pulling her chair for her. The table was already filled with food of different kind.
"Have your dinner." He put his hand on her shoulder and kissed the side of her temple, "I will be back in a bit."
He started to move away while turning towards the exit but Kara grabbed his hand at the very last minute, stopping him in his tracks, "Where are you going?"
She knew where he was going. But she wanted him to confirm her suspicion..
"Nowhere." he responded and pulled his hand out of her grasp, settling her palm back on the table, "be back soon. Finish your dinner, baby."
He turned around again to leave but Kara grabbed his wrist, this time standing up on her feet instead of remaining seated, "Don't go to fight with Damon." her voice was firm.
James' heated gaze turned towards her, "You don't have to protect him every fucking time."
"He is angry." Kara tightened her grasp on James' wrist, "his anger will cool down soon. And you can't take the words of a woman like her for things that she said. Maybe she is just jealous and tried to make me angry at Damon."
"She is not that dumb." James gritted out, frustrated with the way Kara kept on defending Damon like there was no human being as noble as him ever born, "and I can go clear that doubt right now by talking to that bastard face to face. He created all this mess today."
Kara pushed the chair away and came closer to him, her voice low to avoid attention from the people sitting around, "And you are only looking to find a way to get in a fight with him!"
James raised his brows threateningly, "I am. Very much so, and he has just given me the perfect reason."
He pulled at his arm again, his strength being more than hers, she clutched onto him with both of her hands tightly to not let him leave but he had already freed himself and was moving towards the exit. Kara followed him silently with steps just as quick as his own. When he realized she was following him, he turned to her furiously, "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"You are already not letting me eat a proper dinner. You are going to fight Damon, so I am coming with you." Kara said without stopping her stride towards the car.
James sighed through gritted teeth, his eyes clenched shut for a moment before he opened them again and ran after Kara. Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her back towards the restaurant to finish the dinner. He could not let her stay hungry, after all.
*****
A Week Later... at the office
"I did not want you to come." James insisted and pulled at Kara's shoulder, "it is bad timing for you to return to business."
Kara shook off his hold and put her purse from the table, "You just don't want me anywhere near Damon. This has nothing to do with me coming back to work."
"It is the same fucking thing."
"It is not!" Kara turned around and glared at him, "I can not stay holed up in that house because of what you did."
James stepped closer to her, his eyes burnt with frustration, "I never did anything wrong."
"In your eyes, you never do anything wrong, James." Kara opened the door of the her office to walk out of the confined space and James was already following her, "but you do wrong things and you ignore them instead of confronting them without caring about how much you hurt the other person."
"Everyone is saint in your eyes except me!" James snapped angrily, "you are not worried about me hurting anyone else. You are just worried about the damn man whom you think as the most innocent man ever to exist on earth."
The people in the office had started trying to not look at the banter while still sneaking glances at the ongoing fight they were having. Even through the glass wall, the sound of them talking loudly could be heard from outside.
"I am talking about your family!" Kara threw her hands up in the air in frustration, "they love you! And you hurt them! You take revenge on them instead of explaining to them. You don't give them a chance to get close to you, and yes! For the love of heaven it includes Damon because you RUINED that good man's fucking wedding!"
"You don't need to teach me about my family! If it had been you who had gotten treated like fucking shit by your parents instead of me then you would have understood what it feels like to have everything snatched from your hands to be given to others without you having done anything wrong."
Kara fell silent at his words. It was like a slap of reality being thrown in her face. This is why she hated taking her guard down in front of him. Whenever she opened up, he striped her feelings to skin and bones. Those words that James spoke hit her again somewhere, the reminder of her dead family coming in this conversation without an ounce of thoughts about her feelings.
On the top of all this, the media, their friends, extended family did not leave even one chance to taunt her about the whole switching the husband situation. Everything was burning her down bit by bit.
James regretted his each word the moment he said them to her. He was angry with himself but that one look from Kara made him loath himself all over again. He was frustrated with the whole situation, but Kara had gone through the worse and still managed to accept him so many times with a smile on her face. He was the one who had made that smile disappear from her face and now by bringing up her parents in the conversation, he had just snatched that last bit of emotion from her face.