Chapter 15 #2
Oh my God! She always has to take it to the next level.
How embarrassing is she? I take my bag from the cashier, who is barely looking at me now, and say thank you.
I take Ava’s arm and hustle her out the store before she says anything else.
We get outside, where the clouds are covering the sun and it’s starting to drizzle.
The weather forecast didn’t say it was going to rain today.
They’re not always accurate, are they? We walk down the block and Ava and I try to get a cab.
Rush hour is the worst time of day to get a cab.
“Cat, you need to get a car. If you had one, we wouldn’t be stuck out here getting rained on.”
“What about you?” I say, trying to hail down a cab.
“What about me?”
“I don’t have a car, Ava. You do, but you don’t drive it. It’s parked in your building’s garage while we’re out here getting wet.”
“You should get a car, Cat.”
“I don’t mind public transport or walking, and you know I can’t afford the car I want yet.”
“This again?”
“What again?” I look around to see what she’s talking about.
“I’m talking about you. Nick will get you any car you want. I bet he already offered, didn’t he? And you turned him down.”
He did and I told him no, giving me his card was enough. “You have a brand-new BMW sitting in a garage. Use it and next time we won’t be standing in the rain, frizzing out our hair.”
“You know I don’t like to drive here. The driving in New York is too aggressive for me. You know I’m prone to road rage.”
“Yes, you are. The last time you drove out here we were almost in a fist fight with a lady and her two kids.”
“Kids my ass! Did you see those two baby giants? Looked like they escaped from Jack and the Beanstalk.”
I laugh and watch her hail down a cab that stops in front of us. She is right, those kids were about eight or ten, but they looked more like morbidly obese mini-adults chewing down on Doritos and mini-Snickers bars. Ava opens the door for me.
“Get in. I don’t want you to catch a cold. The last thing I want is Nick chewing me out about having you out in the rain shopping.”
She closes the door, and as if he could hear us talking about him, my phone rings. I smile and hold it up for her to see the screen. She rolls her eyes at it. I answer, giggling. “Hello.”
“Hey, babe. You’re in a good mood, what’s so funny?”
“You and your cousin.” I sit back and rest my arm on the door.
“You’re with Ava?”
“We were shopping; we’re in a cab heading home now.”
“She’s trying to convince you to take me to the poor house again.”
“You know it.”
“You and the baby doing okay?”
“We’re fine, we miss you.”
“I’m missing you too. I’ll be home soon. I have to be in a meeting in five minutes, but I wanted to hear your voice and to check up on you. I’m going to be working overtime to see if I can get home to you a day early. By the time I’m finished working, you’ll probably be sleeping.”
“It doesn’t matter what time you’re finished working, call me.”
“I love you, gotta go.”
“Okay. Talk to you later.”
“Tell Ava I said stop trying to corrupt you. I can imagine what she’s trying to get you to do while I’m gone. Absolutely no clubbing!”
“Scout’s honor, no clubbing.” Ava points her thumbs down and silently boos. I swat her hands away and she sits back.
“Like me you were never a scout,” he says.
“Then your only alternative is to trust me as much as I trust you.” There’s a slight pause, I think the phone gets disconnected. “Nick?”
“I trust you. I have to go, bye.”
“Bye.” There it was again. He sounded fine until the end of the phone call.
Like he wanted to say something else then he changed his mind.
It’s probably nothing, my mind and emotions are working overtime because I miss him.
I put my phone back in my bag and look at the raindrops slide down the window.
“How’s Chris?” Ava asks a few moments later.
“He’s fine.”
“I haven’t seen him in a while. You should invite him over and we can hang out.”
“Hang out? You know he might not come if he knows it’s you, me, and him alone.”
“Don’t tell him I’ll be there.”
“That would be lying, and anyway, he’s working late today. I talked to him yesterday.”
“Invite him over another day when Nick comes back. You can do that as a friend, can’t you?”
“I guess I can. I haven’t watched Tom and Jerry since I was a kid. The way that cat chased that mouse no matter how many times he escaped was exhausting but hilarious.” The corner of my mouth lifts in a half smile, and Ava looks confused.
“What does an old cartoon of a cat chasing a mouse he’s never going to catch…” The look on her face tells me she’s made the connection. She runs her tongue over her perfect white teeth trying to suppress a smile. “Whatever. Shut up.”
I press my lips together and shake my head. “For the record, I didn’t say never. I would like to think he eventually caught his mouse.”
“Speaking of cat and mouse games, Matt asked me about you.”
“When?”
“A few days ago. He wants to take Chloe and me to some new hot club. He hinted at inviting you. I didn’t have the heart to tell him you were in no shape to hit up a club.”
“He texted me the other day to say hi and I texted him back. He doesn’t know Nick and I are back together. The last time he called, I couldn’t answer my phone; Nick was sitting across from me. I sent it straight to voice mail.”
“When are you going to tell him and put him out of his misery so he can stop keeping hope alive?”
“I’ll tell him after I tell my family when Nick comes back.”
“You’re going to tell them with Nick there?”
“Do I look crazy to you? That would be gasoline and dynamite, and I would be the match.”
“Nick would definitely be the dynamite.” She holds up her hands and makes the sound effect. “Boom!”
“Exactly.” The cab stops in front of the apartment, and I tell Ava to put her money away while I pay the driver.
Rushing to get out of the now-pouring rain, I slip on the steps and pitch forward.
My hands break my fall, but my knee is scraped.
I was okay, but Ava was more shaken up than me.
After she fussed over me, I changed my clothes, and she made sure I was fine then she insisted she call Nick.
I practically yanked the phone out of her hand.
“We are not calling him. I’m fine.”
“Cat, you have to tell him. He’s going to be upset with both of us if you don’t.”
“He’s in a meeting. If you tell him all he’s going to do is spaz out, worrying about nothing. He’ll be calling me every minute on the minute.”
“You’re going to tell him, Cat.”
“I’ll tell him later after his meeting. I promise. I’m not feeling any pain, I’m fine.”
“I’m going to spend the night.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, I’m staying in case you need anything, and it would make me feel better. I know Nick would feel better too.”
It was fun having Ava spend the night. It was like living together again: we cooked and watched old eighties movies, Sixteen Candles and For Keeps.
I told Nick about the fall, and I played it down as much as I could.
To confirm what I said, he insisted on talking to Ava.
After being grilled by Nick, she thought it was best to follow my lead.
He was glad Ava decided to stay the night.
He told her to check on me every hour. He still called me in the middle of the night to check on me, twice.
Ava didn’t get up once to check on me—she was sound asleep, as she should have been, snoring.
Two days later I get exactly what I wanted, my man is home.
A day late, because his flight was canceled due to severe weather.
He didn’t tell me what time his flight was coming in that night, and it was the best surprise I could have gotten.
I was so excited to see him that if it wasn’t for my belly, I would have jumped on him and attacked him.
He looked better than when he left, even with a rumpled suit from sleeping at the airport.
He said he couldn’t spend one more night in the hotel room because it was stifling him and all it made him do was think about how much he missed me. So sweet.