By Your Side

Chapter 28: Done With Hannah

Seeing the anticipation in the girl's eyes, he knew she was probably waiting for him to say something. However he was more focused on the thought that he had never looked at Clare the way he was looking at her now, it wasn't the way a fake love or fake husband would look at their significant other. Instead, he was looking at her like his best friend, and as someone that James couldn't ever live without.

"I just have something I need to tell you, Clare, It's that I-"

Clare removed James' finger from her lips and turned his head to face her. Unknowingly to him, she was moving quickly, and as he turned his head to look at her, his lips slid onto hers. Finally accepting his love for this girl, the kiss was insanely more intimate, passionate, and the greatest moment of either of their young lives. True bliss mixed in with a little makeup that had found its way on to her lips was now being shared between them, as they kissed.

Their lips never left each other, but in the breath they shared, the words they were both thinking met each other at the seal of their mouths. A hushed I love you filled both of their lungs. The barely existent words fused together and exchanged vessels, as the kiss ended and the two pulled away from each other.

"I'm glad we feel the same way."

"Yea."

"So does that mean I'm your...girlfriend?"

"Well I guess so, but why take a step back?"

"Step back?"

Confused, Clare didn't know what he meant as he just happily grinned at her and then down at the ring on her finger. She instantly caught on to what James was implying.

"James...I...that's sweet, but I can't marry you now."

"Why, just get rid of the word fake."

"Fake?"

"You're already my fake wife, just be my wife for this vacation. Then when we get back, we can do the whole girlfriend-boyfriend thing."

"I'd like that."

"Good, so then let's do it."

The two of them went in for another kiss when Clare's phone started to spastically vibrate, and a flood of texts came from Hannah. Clare stopped and picked up the phone, turning her focus to it and then put it down in frustration.

"Hannah?"

"Yea, she's ready when we are to meet her over there."

"She sure knows how to kill a moment."

"We'll just pick back up later."

Giving James a quick peck on the lips, Clare hopped off the bed taking the make-up wipes with her to the bathroom to finish up. While James watched until she was gone around the corner and then fell back on the bed and covered his face with his hands. Am I really just done with Hannah? He asked himself before Clare's voice cut through the room.

"You good?"

Instantly James sat up and looked at her.

"Yea just thinking."

"About me?"

"You could say that."

"Well tell me later, we have to go."

James obliged as he walked over to Clare who had just finished sliding on her flip-flops and pulled out one of the room keycards, putting it in her pocket as she opened the door. James did the same and took one of the key cards and put it into his shorts pocket before they both went out into the hallway with Clare while the room locked behind them.

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The two of them made their way through the hotel, keeping each other's hands locked as they swung them back and forth down the hallway. Heading down the elevator and through the lobby doors, the valet met them on the other side giving James a nod and headed down the stairs to retrieve the car. While they waited, Clare couldn't keep her hands off of James now, as she continually embraced him.

The two of them shared another brief kiss, as the car with the valet driving it pulled up to the front of the stairs and James pulled Clare along. When they got to the car, James opened the passenger side door for her, while the valet passed them and handed James back his keys before returning back up the stairs to his valet post. James closed the door behind Clare once she was settled and got in the driver's seat and immediately put the still running car into drive. Clare's hand greeted his on the gear shifter while she continued to look out the windshield.

James smiled as he felt her soft hand wrap around his, and yet still looked down to see the bond between them. Following the look with a smile, he merged onto the road and started their quest to get to Hannah's apartment. Beside him, Clare entered the location into the built-in GPS, and the map popped up, luckily Nathan was thinking ahead when he booked the hotel since it wasn't very far from the apartment with it only being a few minutes away, probably so that he could sneak out under cover of night to be with Hannah.

James and Clare didn't say a word to each other, but with their hands still, together it felt like an entire conversation. Clare's fingers traced over James' hand over and over again, each movement like another word being written in the intimate silence that they shared until they rounded the final corner to a gated community full of apartment complexes. James pulled up to the number pad at the gate's entrance and rolled down the window.

"What's the gate number?"

"Six hundred and twelve."

James entered the code, and the gate swung open until it bounced into a locked position, allowing him access to drive through and enter the little community of apartments filled with college students. They kept their eyes out for the Jaguar the two had rented earlier, while they traveled in circles until they finally found the apartment that almost looked like a small condo.

Pulling up to the driveway beside the fancier car, Nathan was already unloading boxes from a cube truck that had been sent earlier. Hannah though was standing on the steps of the apartment without the sunglasses on as if she no longer had anything to hide and that was either a good sign or a reall bad one.