Katherine looked surprised when James dove into a full explanation. She hadn’t meant anything by her comment about Bastien, so she hadn’t thought that James would find it necessary to explain his feelings to her. She hadn’t thought he’d address it at all, but it was sweet of him; it showed that he actually cared about his friends. Not that she’d tell him that; one can’t really call James Bradfield sweet and hope to get away with it. Instead, she just smiled fondly at him, nodding. “Oh, I know. He has every reason to miss you. Though you’d just expect him to be a little more polite about it.” Though once you got to know him or he simply stopped seeing a reason to be nice, he was hardly polite so she shouldn’t really be surprised.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be fine. Whatever I end up doing this summer may not be glamorous or exciting, but I know I’ll deal with it and do it well. It’s just frustrating that you have to wait when you’ve already found what you love and want to do. You know?” And she imagined he did. She knew that he had already decided on becoming a musician, but that was hardly an easy field to enter, and she’d be surprised if next year, he someone escaped having to work some temporary job or two until it finally worked out.
She couldn’t help but grin at his last remark. “I’ll try. I can make no promises.” She was hardly unbiased, and there was a small worry that she’d say something stupid to the wrong person and put her career in jeopardy, but she was confident that her strengths would speak for themselves. She knew she would excel as a writer, and maybe there was a little arrogance there, but she doubted that she’d ever get herself into too much trouble.
“Hey, are we nearly there?” she asked suddenly, glancing down nervously at her watch. “I’m kind of supposed to meet up with Liz and Blair and everyone before we arrive.” He didn’t have to know that she had been expected to join them earlier, but she had chosen to stay with him instead. “So yeah, I think I need to go…” she trailed off, turning back to him. And, in spite of herself, she may have sounded a little disappointed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see her friends, but she’d have the whole summer with them. If James was leaving right away, she wouldn’t see him for months. Her eyes searched his face, and she didn’t realize that she was frowning. And without thinking about what she was doing, she leaned over and kissed him.