Chapter IX

                                    

                                          
The bustling noises of the sporadic cafe filled my ears, trying to switch my attention towards the double-glazed smudged window; People who held vast amount of emotions on their faces tread across the glossy pavement which was decorated with the usual litter, listing from fast-food boxes to plastic bottles. 
Letting out a deep exhale, my lips went back to blowing the hot mug of coffee which had the radiant Costa logo printed on its white base. I could smell the fulfilling scent of coffee, which woke me up full of energy, preparing myself to have a lovely chat with my best friend: Kat. 
"[Y/N]!" A loud voice shouted from across the cafe's entrance. I looked up, finding my dazzling friend in dashingly fashionable clothes, suited for her role of as Fashion Designer. She had a light grey pastel trench coat, accompanied with black pleated wide leg trousers and a white cotton shirt. She also owned some jewellery shining brightly from her neck and fingers, the glistering of the golden jewellery in the bright cafe's industrial light. Lastly, to pull off the finishing look was her black mid square sunglasses, as she hanged them up her head to see me properly now that the sunlight was no longer here to interfere with us.
"Kat, so lovely to see you again!" I spoke with a joyous tone, as made a small gesture with my hand for her to sit down in front of me.
She sat opposite me, immediately taking off the coat and sunglasses and began to talk quickly to me, with a recyclable cup of coffee in her left hand she previously ordered. I love her and her lively energy, yet sometimes it can be difficult to catch up with what exactly she's talking about as we move from topic to topic. 
"Literally Pickles the cat wouldn't stop meowing at me last night for food, ughhh. I've fed her so many times, and she just keeps begging me for treats. I love her and I hate her." She groaned, her face collapsing on the table before she swiftly put it back up to look at me with a smile. "You look different, by the way. Let me guess, you started doing yourself up after meeting your ex-husband?"
I chuckled softly at her little rant, but her last question intrigued me; I never really thought too much on how Jotaro has made me want to actually style my hair, wear some makeup and have more fitting clothes for my style. I wasn't the single mother, who wore some black leggings and a plain boring sweater. My mind was beginning to move forward to stand out from the crowd now, and look more presentable to the public or rather... to Jotaro?
"Sounds like you're having the time of your life back and home, and no, no. Definitely not. He doesn't want to see me after our little dinner out at that Italian Restaurant. Told me himself." I gave a small shrug at the end of my sentence.
Her face was practically agape at this information. "I'm sorry, he what? So... he asks you out for a date-"
"Not a date, just a friendly gesture. I suppose." I interrupt, trying to make her understand that me and Jotaro aren't exactly on those type of terms right now.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure. But, like I was saying... he takes you out to a nice fancy restaurant, probably even paid for you," I nod at this assumption whilst she continues. "and yet he decides to act like a complete dick towards you again?!"
"Mhm. That's about it. He's here for a month though, god knows what he's doing." I let out a deep exhale.
Kat snorted. "Probably has a secret girlfriend here-" She stopped herself quickly, realising how insensitive that type of rumour was to say to me. "Ah- god, I'm so sorry. Just slipped out."
Smiling, I spoke in a gentle voice. "It's fine, I can handle it. I've moved on after all, and if he's sleeping with another woman then it doesn't matter whatsoever to me. He can do what he wants, he's not in my life anymore so I don't care about him. Just... want to focus on Jolyne and forget about him."
"Hey," Kat slightly giggled. "Remember the time when you saw his therapist trying to make a move on him, and you thought he was cheating on you. He's too ignorant of his sexual needs, I doubt he would've slept with anybody after your divorce. 
Kat had a good point. He wasn't too known to be sexually active when we had first started dating all those years ago, yet, I still had my doubts about that. He never lost his virginity to me, so he could have someone on the side after our divorce, or he couldn't. I just wasn't too sure what to believe, but what I knew was that I should probably stop being so focused on who my ex-husband is sleeping with as it's none of my business.
"Yeah... those were some interesting times. So, what's been going on for you?" I tried to move the conversation, as I didn't exactly want to be just talking about Jotaro the whole day, after haven't been able to see each other since months.
Her eyes began to light up when I asked what she has recently been doing; Kat was an interesting friend. She really enjoyed talking, and talking all about her life and life experiences and I prepared myself with a flood of drama and upcoming news about her love life.
"Right, listen." She put her coffee which she was sipping on down onto the table surface. "Okay, so... you know my girlfriend? Naomi. We're planning on taking a holiday off from our jobs, and head on over to Australia and experience the Long Reef Beach of Sydney. Getting ourselves some nice relaxing suntans~"
Feeling empathetic for her, I was so glad that she found herself the love of her life. She had recently came out as bisexual, yet mainly swinged more to females than men due to her experiences with how men have treated her. Naomi was a wonderful girl to her and had a unique style similar to Kat, but instead leaned more on the darker tones instead. 
"Wow, gosh. You're making me jealous now." I chuckled, my smile widening to see my best friend begin to explain all the things she loves about her girlfriend.
"Oh, and you know... Next year, we're going to go into Japan. See her family. I heard they live in this place called uh... oh, what was it again. Morioh? Yeah."
My eyebrows raised a bit. "Morioh? That's where Jotaro left to, right before he divorced me. But... enough about him, I'm so glad you're seeing her family! I'm sure they'll love and accept you." 
Soon enough, the conversation was being lead onto about our past together, when we used to go to school with each other back in Japan whilst I was a transfer student. It was nostalgic to look back onto our lives, seeing how old we're growing now; but not too old for our faces to begin wrinkling. Just us two adults, living life to the fullest whilst we're both are coincidentally in the same part of America. We kept talking, until the time flew by and dusk set on before us, displaying an end to our time and shifting back to our own separate lives.
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Woooo! I absolutely love the character Kat, I hated how I didn't develop her character enough in my previous book. I'm pleased with myself to see me focus on different characters now though!