Chapter 181   - A Failure

"The beginning was a little bumpy but everything turned out great in the end." His father looked highly dissatisfied with the lack of details. "When I marry her, I will tell the story. I promise you tell the story so many times that you need to stop me from ever mentioning it again," Cage quipped.

"Was that a jab at me?" his father asked, pointing at himself. "Let me know when you want me to start planning the wedding. I might just start making a mood board." He rubbed his stubble and stared off into space.

"You have a piece to finish. Also, they just met."

Cage pulled up a picture of her and passed the phone to his dad. "She's beautiful." The older man stared at the picture and then swiped, suddenly seeing a picture of us together. "It seems you have fallen under the Cavanaugh curse," he said with a chuckle.

"The what?" Cage asked, perplexed.

"Uh. It's a family tradition of knowing that you will marry this person and dedicate your life to them the minute you see them," his father explained. Cage shook his head, clearly thinking this was a joke. "I'm not lying."

"Yes, because your hate to love story can be called that," Cage replied with the roll of an eye.

His father shrugged. "Extreme attraction manifests in different ways. The stories develop differently, but the outcome is the same."

"Don't believe him. He tried to persuade me with this nonsense as well. Apparently, all of their family fall in love this way. You'd better not believe in these fairytales and do your best to keep that girl happy. There are no happy endings without effort."

His dad, of course, started to tell his side of the story, with his mom interjecting at times. Cage loved the story. As much as he kept groaning about his dad telling it all the time, he really liked it. It had given him hope about true love for a long time and now he could see it come true with Katherine. He got it. Maybe his father wasn't wrong about the whole soul mate thing. But his mother was right too.

"Your dad has quite a dirty mouth too. Good thing his voice can make grown women weep, or else I would have slapped him for his impudence."

"Okay, guys. Stop." If he wanted to be scarred for life, he would let this conversation continue. Not today, not when he was on a Katherine high.

"Cage, your story is so much more romantic. Crossing paths in the virtual world and falling in love without seeing each other. Almost meeting and then fighting... only to drive hours to her house and fixing it. It sounds like a blockbuster movie." She sighed. Then her eyes lit up. "That would actually make a good movie." She threw Cage a suggestive glance.

"It would be cute and might work in the box office but I don't want my love life to be talked about. But are you footing the bill?" He winked at her. She made a face.

"I didn't say anyone needs to know it's about you. And no, I don't have as much money as you."

"Sure." He didn't really mean it. He shook his head, knowing there was no arguing with her when she got an idea in her head. Might as well let her forget it naturally.

- - -

The weather had been extremely humid recently and Katherine was dying to change into comfortable clothes by the time they had dinner. The drive home took some time but when they reached, all the girls went to their rooms. The past week had been extremely stressful for people in the household, so they needed some good rest.

It was time for Katherine to call home. She had been dreading it and putting it off until she possibly couldn't do it anymore. She had to tell her parents she was not coming and she had to convince her father that it was all okay. She had spent a couple of days of bliss with Cage, but now it was time to face reality.

Katherine dialed her mother's phone and waited for the woman to pick up. "Hi, mom," she said immediately.

"You finally have time to call me." Katherine shifted guiltily. "Sorry, I got caught up with something and didn't have time to get back to you."

"Yeah. Is your mood better? How was your date." Date? Katherine thought for a minute. Suddenly, she remembered the date on Wednesday and what had followed. She had told her mom she was going out but never gave her an update on that. At least her dad didn't know anything about it, or she would get a lecture of being fickle.

It had been a couple of days and so much had happened that she could barely recall all of it.

"Oh, it was a failure," she said simply.

"What happened?" She didn't sound concerned. Mostly because she was expecting Katherine to live the forever single life by then.

"Uh. The guy was really nice but he quickly guessed I wasn't interested in him. So we called off the date and he brought me home." She waited with bated breath.

"And what happened with the other guy you were crying about?" she asked. Katherine could hear the dishes in the background and chuckled.

"I couldn't avoid him any longer."

"Okay?" her mom said, now sounding suspicious.

"When my date brought me home, he was waiting for me in my room. We talked about everything and cleared up the misunderstandings." She smiled at the thought. "I feel happy."

"You sound happy," she said. "Well, I suppose I will have to ask my friend to cancel that blind date I had set up for you." Katherine froze. "I am joking," her mother said quickly.

"Thank god." Katherine paused. "I need to tell you something."

"What?" Her mother had mood swings galore.

"He's famous." There, she had said it. There was a long pause on the other side. And then her mother started to cackle.

"Pray tell me which celebrity you are dating. Is it a YouTuber? They earn a lot but I doubt you could keep up with their ego," she scoffed.

"I'm not dating a YouTuber."