Chapter 268 - "Play Me"

61st Floor Suite

Katherine's unit in Golden Phoenix Residences was about half the size of the Penthouse above her which was still huge for an apartment in Harbor City. 

The colors of the interior design were muted colors of pink and grey, and beige — it definitely screamed class and luxury. Her unit was at the side of the building where she gets to see more of the city view in the living room and the coastal view in the bedroom.

When she arrived at her unit, Amelia and Styles were waiting for her in the dining room. Placing the paper bag of food on the table, her mind drifted back to the person she met in the lobby.

Seeing Caleb a while ago was crazy. She became good friends with the guy but it was weird to see him after what happened between her and Damien. She wondered what Damien told him about their situation… and now she's wondering what Caleb would do after finding out she lives here.

Would he tell Damien? A silly question. Of course, he would tell his friend.

How was she supposed to feel about this? She had been elusive about telling him things about her since she came back. She hadn't come up with a decision yet about what to tell him and what it really means for them now that she's back. 

If Damien finds out where she was staying, what would he do?

What would she do?

"Mhmm… the smell. How does a burger smell so different in this place? I mean…" Styles sniffed the wrapped burger and his eyes rolled backwards. Rolling his wrist and waving his hand in an attempt to smell the fragrance some more, he added, "Can you smell that? Even the burger smells expensive."

Amelia and Katherine looked at him weirdly and softly chuckled. He was really so extra sometimes but that's why they love Styles. Everyone should have a 'Styles' in their life.

"Ah… Mama Mia." Styles slowly chewed the burger, trying to feel and taste every bit of it while humming. "The taste is so… luxurious. It's like eating heaven. Ugh… Except I feel like it's so sinful. How extraordinary!"

"It is definitely sinful. Savor every bite because I'm not sure if I will go back there anymore. It's friggin' expensive!" Katherine stated.

"Oh, I bet it is. Look at the size of this thing." Styles held the food next to his face to show how big it was. "How much is this?"

"It's more than a hundred dollars." She shrugged.

Styles's eyes grew wide and he almost spat the food in his mouth but he stopped himself right away because he didn't want to waste any of it, no matter how shocked he was. His hand flew to his mouth and he forced himself to swallow it.

"That's ridiculous!" he said and looked at the burger, "I'm sorry baby. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'll enjoy you so much more now." He kissed the bun.

Amelia who was munching on some overpriced french fries shook her head. "I guess we need to do some grocery shopping if we don't want to keep on spending so much per meal."

"Yeah… I'm down with that. What did they put in this burger? Gold?" Styles remarked but took another bite anyway and he almost melted. It was expensive but also really delicious.

Katherine placed flutes on the table and popped open a champagne bottle. She poured the golden, sparkling liquid on each flute saying, "Whatever it is, let's just enjoy it. Surviving last night, I think we deserve a little luxury."

"Hell yeah, we do!" Styles raised his glass and prompted them to toast with him.

With a smile on her face, Amelia clinked her glass with theirs and said, "To freedom."

"To freedom," Katherine mirrored. They weren't technically free yet, what with everything that they still had to face. However, it was a mentality that they had to set. In order to win the battle, they had to be optimistic. They were fighting for their freedom. 

"Amen to that." Styles took a large gulp.

His head tilted to the side at the same time that Katherine and Amelia did as if they heard something. "What is that beeping noise?"

Carefully setting down the flutes on the table, the three of them cautiously got up. Amelia drew a gun from the holster that she attached under the table and tossed it to Katherine who expertly caught it in her hands while the former simultaneously reached for the gun strapped on her waist. 

Amelia quietly signaled for Katherine to take the left while she went to the opposite side and they followed the sound which led them to the living room. Taking each step slowly, their eyes scanned the place wondering what it was. 

They couldn't have been compromised already—that would be terrible.

"Um… Queen, it's coming from your bag." Styles pointed at Katherine's duffel bag on the floor.

The three of them exchanged looks as they approached the bag. Carefully, Katherine unzipped it and saw a cellphone screen flashing and beeping.

Amelia lowered her gun and muttered, "Is that…"

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Katherine's shoulders relaxed. "Yeah… It's the cellphone that Damien gave earlier."

"Why is it beeping?" asked Styles.

Setting the gun on the table, Katherine sat on the sofa and reached for the phone, checking the notification. "It's a reminder…." Her brows were knitted as she inspected the device. She didn't know that it was already turned on when she took it out from the box and tossed it in her bag a few hours ago.

Shaking his head, Styles turned around and headed back to the dining table with Amelia, leaving Katherine on her own with her new phone from King Charming.

Katherine tapped her phone screen, stopping the sound and the buzzing from the reminder. It opened an application that showed a note that said "Play me" with a video attachment.

Upon pressing the play button of the file, Katherine heard Damien's voice in the background.

"Come here, boy. Mommy wants to see you…" he said, pointing the camera to the approaching large dog.

Katherine gasped upon seeing the clip. She was so happily surprised to see her baby Bear on the screen. He looked grown already. The two months apart made her heart flutter and throb, seeing how much she missed. 

She noticed how the place on the video didn't look familiar to her. It wasn't from the house in Pearl Gardens so she wondered where they were. However, she disregarded it and continued to watch the one minute clip of Bear just wagging its tail and spinning around. 

She didn't see Damien in it—not that she was expecting it, but the moving picture made her very happy. It was so sweet of him to let her see the fluffy ball of fur. Now she missed Bear even more.

Katherine checked the phonebook and sure enough, she saw Damien's number saved there. "Of course," she muttered. Of course, he saved his phone number. But even if he didn't, she knew the digits by heart.

Damien's number was saved with the words: 'Baby Bear' and an emoji of a bear next to it. She softly chuckled and contemplated if she was going to send a text or not.

After having a mental debate, she decided that it was rude if she didn't so she quickly typed in her message and sent.

[Katherine: Thanks for the video. I love it.]