Chapter 13 Opening Night
Opening Night
Theo
May had gotten off to a rough start.
It had been a week since Theo had properly seen Catherine.
The hallway encounters didn't count, the ones where Catherine would slow almost imperceptibly, like she was waiting for something, some signal that it was okay to stop and talk, and Theo would give her nothing because she couldn't yet, because she was still one wrong word away from crying in a corridor, and she had some dignity left, just about.
Asking for space had seemed like the right call at the time. Mature, even. The kind of decision a person made when they were handling things well.
But she wasn’t handling things well.
Her apartment had never felt so empty. Some nights she'd find herself in the kitchen, mug halfway to her lips, head tilted toward the wall she shared with Catherine, listening for footsteps, the shower, the thud of a cabinet closing.
Anything. The silence was starting to get to her.
Somehow, it was worse than Catherine's middle-of-the-night Chopin marathons had ever been.
It was on one of those quiet Fridays that the lights cut out. Theo was brushing her teeth when it happened, one second visible in the mirror, the next in total darkness, toothbrush still in her mouth and minty foam sliding toward her lip.
"Shit," she mumbled around the toothpaste, then bent to spit blindly into what she hoped was the sink.
Her hand fumbled for the faucet, smacking against the cold porcelain twice before finding the handle. At least the water still worked. She cupped her hand beneath the stream, rinsed and wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist.
She edged out of the bathroom with one hand trailing the wall and made her way to the bedroom, where enough moonlight came through the blinds to turn the furniture into shapes. Her phone was on the nightstand, and she grabbed it, squinting as the screen flared to life.
She waited for it to connect. Then waited some more. It didn’t. The Wi-Fi icon hovered on searching, the loading wheel spinning as if her phone were as confused by the outage as she was.
Theo opened her browser anyway and watched the loading icon spin, willing her unreliable 5G signal to cooperate. When the page finally appeared, it offered only a bland reassurance about ongoing assessments and power disruptions. God forbid there be anything useful.
She was still staring at it when her phone started ringing, the sudden volume making her flinch.
Theo watched Catherine’s name light up the screen. She let it ring once. Twice. Her thumb hovering over the answer button. For a moment, she considered letting it ring out—but this was Catherine, and that was never really an option.
“Hi, Theodora,” Catherine's voice came through the speaker, hesitant and achingly familiar.
“Hi.”
"I know you asked for space, and I promise I’m not trying to pressure you, but...” There was a pause, and Theo could almost picture her gesturing helplessly in the darkness. "My entire apartment is dark. Do you have a flashlight I could borrow, please?"
“Um, maybe. Hang on." Theo wedged the phone between her ear and shoulder and felt her way cautiously into the kitchen, one hand skimming the counter until she reached the drawers.
She worked through them by touch, the third one turning up a flashlight, small and weak but probably functional. Hopefully.
"You're telling me the woman who alphabetizes her spice rack doesn't have a working flashlight?"
The line went quiet for a moment. "I did—I do," Catherine said finally. "But the batteries died."
"What about candles?"
Catherine let out a frustrated sigh. "I've got candles scattered all over the place. But my electric lighter died, and I can't exactly charge it right now."
"Your phone light?"
"I’m on 2%, and I don’t know how long this blackout is going to last."
Theo leaned against her kitchen counter. "The great Catherine Matthews, defeated by basic emergency preparedness."
"I excel at many things, Theodora. But power grid failures weren't on the curriculum at Juilliard."
Theo shook her head, unable to stop the small smile that kept trying to surface.
"How do you not have a pack of backup matches?"
"I'm not in the habit of setting things on fire."
"Ha-ha. So you're just sitting in the dark with a near-dead phone, no flashlight, and candles you can't light. Very prepared."
"I have wine," Catherine offered. "Does that count for preparedness?"
“Only if you’re planning to black out through the blackout.”
“Not the worst strategy I’ve considered tonight, but at my age, drinking alone is a habit I’d rather not take up.”
Theo felt that small familiar twinge behind her sternum, the one that showed up whenever Catherine said something like that, casual and self-deprecating, like she hadn't quite noticed she'd said it.
Theo pushed off the counter as she swept the weak flashlight beam across the floor. "What about your Kindle? That has a pretty bright backlight.”
"Well,” Catherine cleared her throat. “I was in the middle of this book. One of those slow-burn friends-to-lovers romances where you spend the whole time waiting for them to just...you know."
"Oh?" Theo's feet stopped moving.
"I got to the part where they’re finally about to get together, but one of them panics and runs." She let out a small laugh that didn't sound like a laugh at all. “It frustrated me so much that I threw it out my window, and it didn’t survive the fourteen-story drop.”
Theo stood there, parsing what Catherine was offering—an apology, maybe. Or maybe it was just Catherine's way of acknowledging that the silence between them had taken its toll on her, too. Either way, the metaphor ached.
“Did you really throw it out your window?”
Catherine huffed almost to herself on the other end of the line.
“Of course not. I didn’t want to accidentally murder a pedestrian.
But I did throw it at my bedroom wall, and that cracked the power button.
I assume that wasn’t the emotional response the author was aiming for, but it felt appropriate. ”
Something caught in Theo's throat—not quite a laugh, not quite a sigh—as Catherine's words settled between them.
"Find your way to your front door," Theo said instead of addressing what Catherine had just revealed. "I’m bringing over a lighter."
"Theodora—"
Theo hung up before Catherine could finish. She pocketed her lighter, crossed to her door, and pulled it open, stepping into the hallway’s darkness. Emergency lighting had at least cast a weak green glow from the stairwell, even if it was barely enough to see by.
Theo's first stop was 14B. She knocked lightly, then let herself in without waiting for an answer. Luis sat on the sofa next to Mary, the glow of a battery-powered lantern casting long shadows across their faces as he handed her a blanket and a deck of playing cards.
"So, we’re all in the dark, huh?" Theo said.
Luis glanced up with a lazy smile and raised his hand in greeting. "Hey, Theo. Yeah, power's out on the whole block. We're making the best of it, though. Got twenty bucks riding on whether they'll restore power before midnight, and Mary’s going to teach me how to count cards."
Mary cradled a steaming mug between her palms, her eyes twinkling with mischief in the dim light. “I appreciate you stopping by, sweetheart, but I’m fine. Your pianist is the one who needs checking on.”
"She isn't—" Theo's face warmed. "Just call if you need anything, alright?"
Mary dismissed her with an elegant flick of her wrist, the gesture of a woman who had weathered far worse than power outages and romantic complications.
Back in the hallway, Theo let her fingers trail along the wall as she approached 14D, her pulse quickening with each step. At Catherine's door, she paused only briefly before raising her hand to knock.
Catherine opened the door in silhouette, the emergency lighting from the stairwell casting just enough glow to make out her features.
She'd changed into the plush pants and oversized sweater that Theo had come to associate with their evenings in, with the version of Catherine that existed only in private hours.
Her hair was down in loose waves around her shoulders, which Theo had once thought was rare. She knew better now.
"Hi," Catherine said, stepping back to allow Theo in.
Theo crossed the threshold and stopped just inside the door, unwilling to risk walking into something expensive. “I can’t see anything.”
"Neither can I." Catherine's voice floated from somewhere to Theo's left. "I've been sitting in one place since the lights went out."
The admission drew a small laugh from Theo. She fumbled for the lighter in her pocket, then pulled it out and reached for one of the votive candles on Catherine’s entryway table.
The plastic wheel scraped under her thumb as she tried to generate a spark, but nothing happened. She tried again, putting more force behind the motion, and managed a brief flame that guttered out before she could bring it near the candle's wick.
"Come on," Theo muttered, thumb working the wheel again with growing frustration.
She felt rather than saw Catherine move closer. "What's wrong?"
"Lighter's being difficult." Theo tried again, this time generating nothing but impotent clicks. "Or I'm being incompetent. Could be either."
Catherine's hand appeared in the darkness, pale fingers wrapping around her own. "Let me try?"
Theo handed over the lighter with poorly concealed irritation at her own failure to perform this basic task. She heard the distinctive flick of wheel against flint, then light bloomed between them as flame caught and held steady.
Catherine's face appeared in the warm glow, her expression concentrated as she brought the lighter toward the candle still clutched in Theo's other hand. The wick caught immediately, and Catherine released the lighter's trigger, letting the small flame of the candle become their only illumination.
"Show off," Theo muttered, but the word carried no real bite.