17. Andrew
Andrew
K aty and I spent the entire weekend holed up in my house, avoiding everyone else. We cooked. We watched movies. We read books. And we made love. Over and over again.
Despite my reputation as a playboy, I hadn’t been with a lot of women the last five years or so. I’d lost interest in the thrill of the chase, and as I got older more and more of the women I dated seemed more interested in finding a baby daddy than a partner. While I’d never been opposed to having kids, I didn’t want it to be the sole reason I got married.
I hadn’t touched another woman since the day I first met Katy. Even though I was certain we would never be together, I simply couldn’t drum up interest in anyone else. The past eighteen months had been the longest dry spell of my life, and now that I had Katy in my bed, warm, willing, and almost completely uninhibited, I couldn’t get enough.
We had sex in the kitchen. On the couch – twice. And in the bed, of course. We even took a bath together in the jacuzzi tub.
When we weren’t having sex we talked, getting a little deeper into the personal details that we’d previously avoided. In the wee hours of Sunday morning Katy had shared the bare bones of her childhood. A mother who was neglectful. Worrying about the men who her mother brought home. Going to bed hungry many nights.
For my part I talked about growing up the middle child, the decision to go to law school, and the subsequent disillusionment with big law firms that made me decide to hang up my shingle in the town where I’d grown up even though I’d never be rich as a small town lawyer. And I told her story after story about living in a mostly self-sufficient small town full of nosy busybodies.
I also learned more about Katy’s job. The nature of her work was that she needed to be available to help in an emergency at a moment’s notice. There were long stretches of planning intersperse with brief emergency activations. And as one of the few women in the field, it was important to her to be the best at her job.
I’d heard similar stories about Steph from Christopher. When I thought about it, it was weird that we’d ended up with similar women. My brother was a cranky bastard, set in his ways, where I’d always been the more charming and sociable of the two of us. For his part, our younger brother Patrick was a perfect mixture of the two of us.
On Monday I had to go back to work. Even though I was tempted to take the day off, I had several projects pending for clients. Katy and I went for a run in the morning, then we had a quickie before I headed into the office. As I looked at my schedule for the week, I thought about how much of the work I did could be done remotely. Not all of it, of course, but quite a bit of it could be adapted, just like we’d all done during the pandemic.
A plan was gelling in my mind. I could move to Denver but keep my house in Lawson, just like Christopher did. One week being physically in the office for things that needed an in-person touch would likely be sufficient. The rest of the time I could work remotely and spend with Katy.
Her house was kind of small, so we’d need to move some place where I could have a home office to manage my law practice remotely, but that was easy enough to figure out. I had a fair amount of money in savings since my expenses in Lawson were so cheap. I opened a tab and started perusing Denver real estate listings.
Katy didn’t need to worry. I could figure this out for the both of us.
Thursday night when I came home from work Katy seemed a little off. Distracted maybe. Or sad.
“Is something wrong?” I asked as we set the table for dinner.
“My time here is almost up,” she said. “It’s gone faster than I expected.”
My breath caught in my chest. “What?”
“I have my follow up doctor’s appointment Monday and since my hand is feeling so much better, I think I’ll get released to go back to work,” she said. “I was talking to Steph today and she and Christopher are planning to come up for the weekend. I figured I’d hitch a ride back to Denver with them Sunday afternoon.”
I felt a strong sense of foreboding. “Why?”
“Because you drove me here, remember? My car is in Denver.”
“I could drive you back.”
She shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. It’s two hours round trip and they’re going anyway. Besides, you’ve done so much for me already.”
“We should talk,” I said before she could mention ‘being a bother’ again.
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” she asked.
“No, I mean about us. What happens next.”
Despite Katy’s statement on Friday night that she thought we’d be good together, I knew she thought we wouldn’t be able to figure it out. But she was wrong. We could and we would.
“Can’t we just enjoy our last few days together and talk about the serious stuff later?” she asked, clearly trying to avoid a heavy conversation right now.
I studied her carefully. “Did you mean it? What you said on Friday about us being good together?”
The oven beeped and she went to take out a pan before answering my question.
“I meant it,” she said finally. “But the more I think about it, the more I realize that there’s no way for us to make it work when we both need to be physically at our jobs.”
I stalked over to stand in front of her.
“There’s a very easy way to make it work,” I said. “I have a plan. I’m going to move to Denver, just like Christopher did for Steph.”
Her eyes widened. “You have a law practice here Andrew. You’re the only lawyer in town. You can’t give that up. People need you to be in Lawson.”
“Most of my work can be done remotely,” I said. “I figured I’d live in Denver three weeks out of the month and come back the fourth. If it’s a quiet time at your work, you could come with me and telework, like Steph does when she comes to Lawson. We might need to find a larger house in Denver though. I’m not sure that your place is big enough for both of us to have a home office. I found a couple real estate listings that look promising.”
Katy looked annoyed. “You’ve planned out our whole future without even talking to me?”
“It wasn’t too hard to make a plan given that we’ve both seen something that works.”
“Just because something was right for Steph and Christopher doesn’t mean it’s the best plan for us,” she said stubbornly.
“Sure it would. I have it all figured out.”
“Is this what a relationship with you would be like then?” Katy’s voice turned colder than I’d ever heard it. “You make all the decisions, and I’m just supposed to go along with them, no questions asked? Did you even think to talk to me about what ideas I have, or what I want?”
Oh crap. She had a point. I was being overbearing. Time to retreat.
“I didn’t make any decisions Katy. I just did some research and came up with a proposal for us to consider.”
When she didn’t say anything more I added, “I’m sorry. I think I didn’t really present it as a proposal.”
Because I hadn’t even considered that I needed to. Or that there would be other options. I was such an asshole.
I continued, “I know this is a lot for you and I can see you freaking out. But we can make this work. I know we can.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked.
I took her hand and placed it over my heart. “I feel it here.”
She still looked conflicted. “Look Andrew, I’ve really liked spending this time with you…”
My heart sank. Was she about to blow me off?
“But going from being a near stranger to a houseguest to having you talking about moving to Denver for me all in less than a month, it’s too fast.” She gave me an earnest look. “I have whiplash. I need you to slow down. Give me time to catch up and come to decisions at my own pace. Can you do that?”
Her request was totally reasonable. Even though I’d been in love with her for eighteen months, I’d only really gotten to know her over the last three weeks. If someone else told me they were moving and making major life changes for someone after being together for three weeks, I’d think they were insane. While it was true that Katy was skittish, she was right to be cautious, especially when I was being so impetuous. I’d let my excitement get in the way of common sense.
“Okay. We can take our time.”
Katy looked relieved. “Really?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Let’s eat dinner and figure out what a long-distance relationship looks like, something that will work for both of us.”