Free Free Me (Caged Hearts Book 1) by Heather West

voice.
     
    “Well,” Kait could feel herself becoming flustered. “Really, I want to talk about us.”
     
    “Us?” One of Jasper’s eyebrows shot up as he echoed the word. Was he intrigued by the topic of discussion or just annoyed?
     
    “Yes, us,” Kait confirmed with a brisk nod of her head. “I feel like we’ve seen each other a number of times now,” she was interlocking her fingers together and then releasing them as she spoke. “There have been flowers and a dinner and more than one night spent together.”
     
    “What’s your point?” Jasper asked curtly.
     
    For a moment, Kait’s mouth flapped open and closed.
     
    “My, my point,” she tried to recover. He was being surprisingly abrupt with her given the subject matter.
     
    “My point is that I’d like to know where we stand. Together. Are we friends? Are we a couple? Are we on the way to being a couple?”
     
    Shaking his head, Jasper looked down at the floor.
     
    “What?” Kait’s hands landed on her hips to reflect her indignation at his response.
     
    “You came here to ask me if I’m your boyfriend?” There was something mocking to Jasper’s tone which Kait didn’t appreciate one bit. “What are we, ten?” Jasper was still shaking his head as he picked his weight back up and continued to work out.
     
    “I’m not asking for a label!” Kait insisted, though in reality she was. “I just need to know where this is headed.”
     
    Jasper continued working out.
     
    “Well?”
     
    With a roll of his eyes, he looked up at her.
     
    “I’ve got a huge match coming up this Friday.”
     
    “Right, yeah,” Kait already knew this. Why was he even bothering to tell her? What did it matter?
     
    “So I need to be focused on that.” Jasper explained.
     
    “Okay.” Kait still wasn’t following.
     
    “I need to focus solely on that,” Jasper spoke slowly, ensuring she got the point he was making. Kait’s mouth fell open once more as her cheeks began to burn. He was blowing her off. Her worst case scenario was coming true. He was telling her that his focus needed to be on his big fight, not on her. He was letting her go.
     
    “Right, okay, I see,” Kait did her best to remain calm and collected. She blinked away her tears and continued to hold her head high. “Well good luck with that.”
     
    She turned on her heel and marched her way back through the gym, desperate to reach the changing rooms so that she could release the tears which gathering behind her eyes. She swallowed down a lump in her throat, and as she reached the double doors, she took a second to glance back at Jasper. He was staring intently at the weight he was currently working out with; he wasn’t even looking at Kait. She pushed the doors open in despair and made it in to the changing rooms just as the tears came.
     

Chapter 23
     
    It was early Friday evening and Kait was doing her best not to think about Jasper. Yet she found herself checking his Twitter account at least once an hour. His big fight was now just hours away.
     
    “I hope you lose,” Kait seethed at her phone when she saw yet another Tweet from Jasper about how confident he was about this latest bout. She plunged her spoon in to the bowl of ice cream she was clutching and looked back at the television where her favourite film was playing. She refused to let Jasper Duboix bring her down. Yet she knew how pathetic she was to be wearing her flannel pyjamas and tucked up before the television when it was only six in the evening and still light outside.
     
    Kait pushed the spoonful of ice cream in to her mouth and closed her eyes in satisfaction. The sweet, cold chocolate flavour was a welcome respite from the pain which burned through her core. She couldn’t believe that Jasper had so readily pushed her aside. And what for? For a fight. Did she mean so little to him?
     
    Tears trickled from her blood shot eyes, but she ignored them as they journeyed down her cheeks. The curtains