Joe kept looking at the time, and with every passing minute he became more certain that Katherine had left him. He felt a sense of sadness that she'd no longer be part of his life but more than anything relief was flooding through him. He didn't know when their relationship had begun to go wrong, however, the situation was finally resolving itself.

He briefly thought of his parents, he was not looking forward to telling them that the wedding was cancelled. His father especially would be deeply unimpressed. His mom he was less sure about. She had never got particularly close to Kat, maybe she'd be pleased if he managed to get back together with Shannon properly.

As he was sat convincing himself it would all work out for the best he heard the front door rattle. His heart sank knowing it would be Kat and he got ready for another confrontation. Hopefully their last one.

'Hi Joe, only me,' she called out her words slurred. Joe frowned thinking it wasn't like her to drink. He recalled she'd once said that after embarrassing herself one time too many in her college days her and alcohol were no longer good friends.

'Are you ok Kat?' he asked hearing her thump about.

'I'm going to the bathroom,' she said dashing upstairs and he hesitated before following her up. He knew he had to face her and the sooner he did the better.

'Do you want to talk?' he asked as she came out of the bathroom. Her face was still wet where she'd attempted to wash it, streaks of mascara running under her eyes.

'I'm tired, we'll talk in the morning,' she murmured pushing past him. She threw herself onto the bed and was almost instantly asleep. Joe sat on the edge of the bed feeling disturbed, it wasn't like Katherine to lose control. Knowing he was to blame he threw the covers over her and then went downstairs to sleep.

~~~~

The next day Joe had been up and out for a run before Katherine even surfaced. He wanted to see Shannon and had tried calling but she wouldn't pick up. He'd ran faster as his frustration grew everytime his calls went unanswered. However, as his head cleared he'd realised he had to resolve things with Katherine first. Trying to deal with both women in his life would give him an ulcer.

He opened the front door and he could hear that Katherine was up, the kettle was boiling in the kitchen. Taking a deep breath he walked through but she barely looked at him as she made her drink.

'How's the head?' he asked and she grimaced at him.

'I feel like death, no thanks to you.'

He thought she looked like death too but they were past the point of making jokes. 'We need to sort this out but I guess you're not up for talking yet,' he said.

She cut her eyes at him. 'Typical Joe, always swerving the big conversations.'

He guessed he deserved that. 'No I just meant you'd want to pull yourself around first, we can talk whenever you want,' he said feeling ashamed.

'You're having an affair right?' Her words were accusatory but her voice was tired.

Instinctively he opened his mouth to deny it. 'No I'm not, not like that, I'm-' He knew he had to come clean but he couldn't get the words out.

'Joe be straight with me, lies only make it worse.' Her eyes were shadowed, her face ashen.

'I'm not having an affair, not now,' he said thinking that Shannon had dumped him again so technically he no longer was.

'So you did have an affair?,' Katherine asked her face losing what little colour it had left. 'With Shannon?' She seemed to shrink as if his words were diminishing her.

Joe looked at a point past her head. 'Sort of but it was brief, just a few times. I don't know, she's my ex, it didn't feel like an affair with another woman.' As soon as the words were out of his mouth he realised how stupid that sounded.

Katherine shook her head. 'So you had a fling for old times sake?' she sneered her hands gripping tightly to the cup she was holding.

'Yeah I guess you could put it like that,' he said sheepishly. 'I'm sorry, it shouldn't have happened.'

'No it shouldn't have! Here I am planning our wedding,' she said choking on the words. 'And there you are taking a trip down memory lane. How could you do this to me?'

She slammed the cup down and he winced. 'I don't know, me and Shannon, it always felt like unfinished business. I should have kept away from her.'

'So why didn't you?'

He shrugged helplessly. Deep down he knew he'd wanted something to happen with Shannon but it seemed unnecessarily hurtful to tell Katherine that.

'Do you love her?' she asked her voice wavering.

'Don't do this Kat,' he said as tears began to stream down her face.

'Well, do you love me?'

'Of course, of course, I love you.'

'Good cos I still love you,' she said stumbling over the words. 'I wish to god I didn't, I actually hate you for doing this, but I still love you.' She half laughed and half cried and he felt his heart sink. It sounded like she was actually open to trying to work things out.

'What are you saying Kat?' he asked tentatively.

She looked up at him and let out a long breath. 'I know you don't deserve it, I know I should throw you out, but I want us to get through this. I don't want this to be the end, Joe. If Shannon's just some sort of old-time fling, I want to move on.'

He saw hope and fear on her face and felt trapped. How could he finish with her when she was offering him another chance? He didn't deserve her, he didn't deserve another chance, and more to the point, he didn't want one.

'I can't believe you feel this way,' he said looking into her eyes for a sign of uncertainty, something.

'We've been through too much to throw it away over some dumb slut,' she said and Joe bristled.

'Don't call her that, this was down to me.' He wouldn't let Shannon take the blame when he'd made most of the moves.

Katherine's eyes widened. 'Hey, you don't get to tell me how I feel, or what I can say when you two are in the wrong.'

'I'm in the wrong Kat, leave Shannon out of this,' he said quietly refusing to react to her anger.

'I will leave her out of this. I told her she will be permanently out of this. You can't ever see her again, or call her, or message her, or be her friend on social media.' Joe nodded, he knew under the circumstances that was reasonable. 'And she's not coming to the wedding either.'

Now he began to panic, Katherine still wanted the wedding to go ahead? He knew he had to be honest with her. There she was thinking she was giving him a second chance, and here he was not wanting to take it.

'You still think it's wise to go ahead with the wedding?' he asked, they had to at least put it on hold.

'I'm not going to give the slu- I'm not going to give her the satisfaction of disrupting our plans.' Joe felt suffocated. Somehow he'd lost control of the conversation and he couldn't wrestle it back.

'Kat I think we need to consider our future on the basis of what's right for us as a couple, and to hell with what anyone else thinks.'

She looked away from him pulling a face. 'Joe I'm not postponing the wedding. I won't be humiliated like that. We'll sort this out and the wedding will go ahead as planned. But right now I've got a headache so can we drop this until later?'

'Yeah sure,' he said relieved to end the conversation as it was going all wrong. He'd have to prepare himself for next time. He didn't want to cause her more pain but he had to get her to realise that they'd be happier apart. The first item on his agenda was getting the wedding cancelled.

~~~~

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