Bittersweet

Hey everyone! Once again, I'm sorry this took me so long. I've been really busy lately and that has kept me from writing. In addition to that in my head I there are

already ideas for a new, completely different fan fic and that messes my plans up. But somehow I managed to write down the next chapter and here it is...

To Fanny, thanx for your constant support! It helps me a lot, let me know if you like this one.

To Jess, I'm sorry, I forgot to let everyone know why Jamie knows it's not his child. I wanted to write it, but somehow it just got lost in the net of ideas in my head.

Thanks for reminding me. You'll find out in this chapter, but you have to read closely. He can't have children because of his poast as an alcoholic. I hope you'll like the
rest of the story as much as you liked the past chapters.

To everbody else: Enjoy!

*

Chapter Seven

Orlando groaned and turned around. Where was he? His head was hurting and he was slightly dizzy which was a consequence of yesterday’s excessive drinking, but why

wasn’t he wearing any clothes???

He heard a soft murmur beside him and suddenly it all came back to him. Louisa. Fuck! Well, probably…He wished he could remember…He looked around and noticed

that he was not at his house. Then he looked at her. She was sleeping, so peacefully, she smiled in her sleep. Poor thing. He really could be a bastard sometimes.

Louisa had had a crush on him for a while now, but he never really cared about her. She was hot, hell yeah she was, but that was about it. She was one of those shallow

girls that only look nice on the surface, but are pretty empty beneath it. Still, he felt sorry, because even these girls have a heart. Most of them anyway…

Now, what was he to do? Should he just get up and leave? Leave her a note? Wake her up? He definitely couldn’t stay. It was already past six am and he would have to

be on set very soon. He thought for another moment, stretched himself and then got up. He slipped into his boxers which were luckily right beside the bed. He wrote her

a short note saying that he was sorry for leaving so early, but he had to work today and didn’t wanna wake her up. Coward. Maybe she wouldn’t mind, maybe it was…shit!

He was a bastard.

Okay, but where were his clothes now? He roamed through the apartment in the dark, careful not to wake her up until he had finally found his clothes.

After he had left the apartment he felt guilty. He took a shower at home and when he left it again, he figured out why he felt so bad about it. His head felt a bit better,

the dizziness slowly vanished and his memory returned. During the whole act he had been thinking about Katie. She was like a ghost always haunting him, appearing in

his every dream, never leaving his mind in peace. God, Orlando, pull yourself together, it’s been a year now. One whole year since he had seen her the last time, one

year since that kiss. After all this time this kiss was still on his mind. He could still feel her clinging to him, her hands being tangled in his hair, brushing against his

neck. He sighed deeply. Why did it still hurt so much?

He kept on thinking about her every day. He laughter that used to make his days, her smile that had always encouraged him to move on when it seemed as if there was

no way out, her hair, that wildly fell around her lovely face and of course, her eyes. How could he ever forget these sparkling green diamonds? They seemed to change

their colour with her moods. They sparkled with the sun when she was having fun, but they turned into a threatening dark green when she was angry. That practically

always happened when he had messed up her hair, which he had loved to do. He had loved the feeling of her soft curls around his fingers, and at the moment, he felt

as if he would kill only to feel that again. But still, he hadn’t called her. There was no way he’d be able to hear her voice and not be able to touch her ever again. Not

after what happened that night in her garden. He had kissed her and she had let him; not only that, she had replied, she had wanted it. He couldn’t get over it, over her

– at least not yet.

He sighed deeply and shook his head. Then he banned all the thoughts of Katie from his mind and got ready for work.

*

“Wow...” Anna sighed deeply.

“Yep...” Katie answered. She felt cold. There were no more tears left inside of her. Her head rested on her sister’s knees who gently played with her hair.

“Well, hun, you know you can stay here for as long as you want to. My door’s always open for you, but...”

“I know.”

“I’ve already got three children...You know...”

“I know...I know...All I’m asking you to is to let me stay here with you guys until I found myself something new...”

“Of course, of course...You really don’t think that you two will be able to work this out...?”

Katie sat up and shot her sister a deeply sarcastic glare.

“Well, yeah, okay, you’re probably right. But how...When will you tell him?” There it was. The question Katie didn’t want to hear. What was she to say? She didn’t know

herself. Should she tell him? Or stick to her original plan?

“I...I don’t think I will.” she whispered.

“What?”

“Well, I would only be addicted to him...and I don’t know. He just doesn’t need to know...”

“Hell yeah! He does!!! He is the father, Katie, he is the father of your child, whether you want to or not. And even if this was just a once-in-a-lifetime-thing, he deserves

to know!”

“Well, why? I won’t...”

“How will you raise this kid all on your own, a child needs a father.”

“I...I...I won’t.” Katie’s voice had faded to a murmur.

“WHAT???” Anna screamed in shock.

“This kid ruined my life, Ann, it’s I already made the appointment, I wanted to do it, even before Jamie found out, and I still think that’s the best idea.”

“You think an abortion is the best way? I thought you always wanted children?”

“I do, I love kids, but…I can’t have this one…What if it looks like him? What if it comes out one day? Who a I then? How will I take care of a child all by myself? How…?”

“Hold it, girl! You sound exactly like I did when I was pregnant with Nora. I asked you the same questions. And what did you tell me back then?”

“I told you that there you would find the answers to all of them in time.”

“Exactly, and look at me now. I’m married, I’m happy with tree children now.”

“Yes, but, you were lucky…”

“Being pregnant is not a reason to despair, Katie; it’s a reason to celebrate. You’re gonna have a baby, are you not happy at all?”

“Maybe for you, but this is different…”

“No, it’s not. Think about it, Katie, please. Don’t make any decisions now, you’re confused, rest and then think again. The world will look a whole lot different tomorrow.”

“That sounds so cheesy…”, Katie remarked sarcastically and then laughed out.

Anna joined in immediately, “Yes, I know, but somehow it’s just right. Come go and get some rest.”

*

Orlando rushed into the Café. This really was not one of his best days. When he had announced yesterday that he wanted to take a couple of weeks off and stay in

London, his management had freaked out and made him talk to the press all alone. And he had done so with the result that reporters were chasing him all through

town. His car broke down and he had had to take a taxi which he hated. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, Jamie urgently needed to talk to him.

What could be so urgent that it couldn’t wait for another day? It’s not like they were best friends again. Or were they? Orlando wondered, could he be someone’s with

whose fiancée he had slept just a few weeks ago? Or to correct himself, with whose fiancée he had been madly in love for the last years?

Enough of that. Jamie was already waiting for him. He gestured for Orlando to sit down beside him. He looked awful, as if he hadn’t been sleeping at all in the last few

months. “Hey, how’s it goin’? Do you feel as bad as you look?”

Jamie chuckled at that. “Pretty much, yep.”

“You wanna tell me what happened?”

“I hoped you’d ask that, because that’s why I called you. I’m sorry again, I hope I’m not keeping you from anything, you’re probably really busy…”

“Oh that’s okay, I’m always glad to have a good reason to escape from work. Now tell me what happened.” Orlando, remembering that Jamie was an alcoholic, ordered

two coffees.

“Well, I threw Katie out and we called off the wedding.”

Orlando’s jaw dropped to the floor. For a few minutes he was just staring at Jamie, unable to grasp the meaning of those words. He took a sip from his coffee, burned

his tongue as asked for a glass of water. Jamie didn’t seem to notice anything around him. He looked as pale as the dead. His eyes sad, cold and red from crying.

Orlando couldn’t help pitying him. He knew exactly what Jamie was going through at the moment. He had lost the ultimate life partner, the most beautiful girl in the

world. But why? You don’t just throw a Katie Stratford out and blow off the wedding! Something must have happened. Did he find out? Orlando gratefully accepted the

water the waitress offered him and took a big sip.

“She’s pregnant.”

Orlando coughed out and spit the water all over the table. “Well, that’s great, isn’t it?” he muttered when his voice came back.

“It’s not mine. I told you I can’t have children, because of all this drinking crap; I ruined my life with that. .”

Orlando stared at him in shock. It wasn’t Jamie’s. His brain was working so hard his head was probably smoking. Not Jamie’s child…The words echoed in his head. He

stared at Jamie. That just couldn’t be…Katie pregnant? With his child?

Jamie glanced at him suspiciously. “Are you alright?”

That brought Orlando back into the real world. “Yeah…yes. I was just wondering…Well, whose is it then?” Great Orlando, how thoughtful.

But to his surprise, Jamie laughed. “I don’t know and up to now I didn’t even care. But now that you mention it? I always thought that there was only one man who could

ever be dangerous for us…You haven’t seen her lately haven’t you?”

“Me? No, no…as you said, she hates me. It’s been ages.” At least it felt like it. Orlando only wanted to get away from here. He didn’t care about Jamie anymore; all he

wanted to do was talk to Katie. He needed to get out of here and find her. Where did she go when she was in trouble? Her sister, Anna, he thought immediately. She

had always been a close ally for Katie. That’s where he would find her.

Again Jamie brought him back into the real world. “Are you sure? Please, if you met her, tell me. I need to know if she has told you anything…” It broke Orlando’s heart

to see his best friend like that, but at the moment Katie was the only thing that mattered. “Listen, Jamie, I’m really sorry about all of this, and I wish I could help you,

but I swear I didn’t know anything. We will talk about that later, alright? I really have to go now. I’m sorry.”

He stood up, left some tip on the table and then went away to search for Katie, leaving a completely bewildered Jamie behind.