Chapter 17 #2
I almost choke on my salad. I can’t stop coughing. Who chokes on salad? I’ll tell you who, anyone having a conversation with Chloe. She races from her side of the booth next to me. I go from being a choking victim to being assaulted from the blows she’s administering to my back.
“Cat, are you okay?”
“I would be better if you weren’t making my back black and blue!” I was able to croak out after dislodging the lettuce stuck in my throat. “More importantly, stop drawing attention to us.” The few people in the café are casting concerned looks in our direction.
“I don’t want you to choke to death, it would ruin my lunch.”
“Thank you for being so concerned.”
“No problem, what are friends for?” Her phone rings. She looks at it and puts it back down. “I have to cut lunch short, the wicked bitch of the east has summoned me back to work.”
“You’re supposed to be off for the rest of the day.”
“Yeah, well, I’m an on-call personal shopper. The money says I’m working, I’m working.”
“Since when are you on call?”
“I’ve been promoted for the day. Apparently, an absurdly rich sheik has requested me to be his personal shopper for the day.”
“Maybe this could be your Mr. Right. He asked for you personally, so he must be interested. Sounds like he’s an older gentleman with lots of money—your type.”
She grabs her bag off the table, pulls out a twenty dollar bill, and puts it on the table. “I don’t think so. Men like him don’t like women with smart-ass mouths that back talk. And I don’t like a man telling me what to do unless it’s in bed.”
“Are you sure? He could be a nice guy. He could be a modern-day sheik who believes in women’s rights.”
“The novelty with a woman like me wears off pretty fast with men like that. I like the freedom to do and say what I want to. If he takes me back to his country, I know what I’m in for. No, thank you! I’ve seen Dateline. I don’t want my mother to have to smuggle me back out of a foreign country.”
She’s right; with her mouth, I know what she’s in for too.
“You know what my plans are for the rest of the day. What’re yours?”
“I’m headed home. I’m on babysitting duty, remember?”
She stands and slings her bag over her shoulder. “You should have chosen door number two, the cocktail party with all the men.” She wags her eyebrows up and down at me.
I smile at the face she’s making. “I’ll talk to you later.”
She kisses me on the cheek before she leaves. “Later.”
I look out the window of the café after Chloe leaves.
I try not to do it, but I can’t help it; I find myself thinking about Nick.
I haven’t seen or talked to him since the morning I left his house in a hurry to get away from him.
The day after Ava went to see him, she called me.
She didn’t have much to say, which is not like Ava.
She didn’t even try to force the issue of the two of us getting together.
The only thing she said was he wasn’t as upset as she thought he was going to be.
She hasn’t said anything else about him since then.
He hasn’t texted or tried to call me. Maybe he’s really upset with me for leaving the way I did.
I know I should call him and at least give him an explanation for the way I left.
Truth be told, I miss hearing from him. I’m disappointed he didn’t call me. I thought he would.
I change into my sweats and make myself a sandwich, then shuffle into the living room look for the remote.
I flip through all the channels twice, like something I want to watch is magically going to appear.
It’s like looking in the fridge over and over again when you’re hungry.
Nothing new is going to be there, but for some reason you keep on doing it.
My daddy walks into the living room dressed in his tux.
“Hey, kit Cat!” He comes over and gives me a hug.
“Hey, Dad, you look good.”
“Thank you, thank you. I had to pull it together tonight for a good cause—Sickle Cell Anemia. I don’t go to too many of these things, but your mother really wanted me to go to this one.”
“Where is your other half?” I brush a piece of lint off his shoulder.
“She’ll be down in a minute. I didn’t know you were here.”
“I was in my room.”
“I haven’t seen much of you lately. I thought I would see more of you now that you’re back.”
Since Kate’s moved back, I find any excuse possible not to be here.
“I have both my girls under the same roof again and I hardly get to see the both of you in the same room.”
Thank God. “Well, Dad, we’re not little girls anymore; our schedules don’t always coincide.”
“No matter how busy you are, you should make time for family. I was thinking maybe we should start doing every other week Sunday dinners again, since you’re home.”
“We haven’t had one of those since Chris and Jay went off to college.” I brush an imaginary piece of lint off his jacket this time.
“Now would be the perfect time. Our family is growing. Jay would probably bring Vanessa, it seems like they’re working things out. Kate could bring Nick, it’ll be great.”
“Oh great, sounds like fun times,” I say enthusiastically. He hugs me again, and I fake a smile for him. That is the last dinner on earth I want to be at. Talk about uncomfortable.
“What sounds like fun times?” My mother walks into the room dressed in a black-and-white, above-the-knee strapless dress with the matching short sleeve shrug jacket. Her hair is pulled up off her face. She looks sophisticated. She’s fifty-seven but looks ten years younger.
“I was telling Cat we should do Sunday night dinners again.”
My mother walks over, air-kissing me on the cheek so she doesn’t ruin her makeup.
“I think that’s a good idea, darling. Don’t you, Cat?”
If my mother likes it, it’s definitely going to happen. No way to get out of it. The doorbell rings several times rapidly and then we hear the door open, followed by Vanessa scolding Sasha for the doorbell ringing.
Sasha runs straight to me, jumping into my lap. “Auntie Cat!” She wraps her chubby little arms around my neck. I hug her back tight. She’s so soft and smells so good.
“Hey, baby, I missed you!”
In her cute little voice she says, “Miss you too.”
She’s exactly what I needed tonight. She doesn’t want a thing from me. She doesn’t care who I’m seeing or if I have a job, or if my clothes look professional. We’re just happy to be together. No guilt and no one’s heart is going to get blown into a million pieces from us being together.
I take her little cheeks in my hands. “We are going to have so much fun tonight.”
“Cat, don’t corrupt my baby and take her out on the town. Let’s leave that to you.”
“Hi, Jay.” That little joke is because Mom was complaining about me staying out all night and not calling.
Chris didn’t see the text message Nick sent from my phone the night he picked me and Ava up from the club until the next morning.
Vanessa and Jay give me a hug and I sit back down on the couch with Sasha’s arm still around my neck.
They look good together, like their wedding day all over again.
Jay in his tux and Vanessa in a white-and-black off-the-shoulder cocktail dress. I’m happy they’re working things out.
“Thanks for watching her for us, Cat. Jay and I were going to stay home until you offered to babysit.”
“I didn’t have anything more important to do than spend a night in with my favorite niece.”
Jay sits next to me and Sasha. “She’s your only niece.”
Maybe not! “Yes, she is, and I would rather spend the entire evening with her than sitting at a table with people I hardly know or care about.”
My mom bends down to kiss Sasha on the cheek. Her lips barely touch her face; she’s making sure to keep her makeup intact.
“We’ll see you later, sweetheart, don’t stay up too late. A lady needs at least eight hours of sleep to look her best. You don’t want bags under your eyes. Make sure you pass this advice on to your aunty, she needs a little help. The way she’s going, she’ll never catch a man.”
I look at her and roll my eyes. “Really, Mother?”
“Yes, Catherine. You need to fix yourself up a little more. Between your hair, nails, and makeup, you need my help desperately. Let’s not mention your lack of knowledge when it comes to men.”
She straightens up when she’s finished giving my ego a black eye. My father bends down and gives Sasha and me a kiss on the cheek. He whispers to me in his deep voice, “If you only had five minutes of sleep, you would still be the prettiest girl in the room.”
I wrap my hands around his neck and kiss him. “Thanks, Daddy.”
“No thanks needed, it’s the truth. You don’t need a man to tell you you’re beautiful. You are. Don’t listen to her.”
I love my dad. Sometimes he takes the sting out of my mother’s bite.
“I heard that. She doesn’t need a man, but it would be nice if she had one. How do you expect to get any more grandchildren?” she says in her dry tone.
“Candice, leave her alone. If she wants a boyfriend, I think she’s perfectly capable of finding one on her own.
There’s no rush for more grandkids. Let’s enjoy the one we have.
” My dad is the buffer between me and my mom, as always.
But I know, if it comes down to it, he will put up a united front and side with her. “Now, come on, let’s go.”
My dad helps my mother with her coat. Jay looks at me, and I shrug my shoulders.
I think he’s going to give me more instructions about Sasha.
Instead, he hands me a list of instructions on how to take care of her, which I promptly throw in the garbage, in front of his face. “What, Jay? I don’t need instructions.”
“No. I think you should let Mom set you up on a date.”
“What?”
He holds his hand up to her. “She has a good sense of character when it comes to guys.”
“Listen to your brother, dear. He knows what he’s talking about.” She nods her head to him and gives him a full smile.
You have got to be kidding me. I’m sure he knows as well as I do that she doesn’t. She got lucky with my dad. Real lucky.
I narrow my eyes at him slightly and mumble, “I’ll keep that in mind.” With Sasha on my hip, I walk to the door in front of them. I’m ready for them to get out. “Look at the time, you’re going to be late. Let me open the door for you.” I open it wide and wait for them to leave.
“We can take a hint, little sister.”
“Good.”
Mom and Dad walk out, and Vanessa kisses Sasha. “Be good for Aunty Cat. Mommy loves you.”
“Love you, Mommy.” I just love her little voice.
“See you later, Cat.”
“You don’t have any instructions for me?” I tilt my head back behind me to Jay. “Like your husband?”
“Please, if I can take care of Sasha by myself, you’re more than capable. Don’t pay any attention to your brother. At times he can be overprotective, as I’m sure you already know.”
She gives me a sympathetic smile. I smile back when I nod my head.
I’ve always liked Vanessa from the first time I met her.
She’s the same every time you see her. I like people like that.
You don’t have to wonder who you are going to get today: happy Vanessa, sad Vanessa or attitude Vanessa.
She’s genuinely a nice person. It would be easy for her to be not so nice because her family comes from money and she’s so pretty.
Jay kisses Sasha in my arms. “I love you, and I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Daddy. Love you.”
Before he walks out the door he asks, “Have you seen Nick lately?”
Where did that come from? Why’s he asking? He never cared before. “No, why?”
“You used to spend a lot of time together. Kate and he are engaged, but I don’t see him coming around, and she’s staying here now. Is everything all right between them?”
“Before I went away to college we used to hang out like friends do. As for Kate and him, I don’t know what or if things between them are…whatever. You would have to ask them.”
What the hell is this? I don’t want to think about them. I’m trying to avoid both of them and here Jay is asking me about their nonexistent relationship. Why is he asking me instead of Kate?
He looks at me intently. “I will. I want to make sure my sisters are okay. Are you okay?”
My heart is beating a little faster. Does he know something? He couldn’t. Only Ava knows what happened between me and Nick. She’s not saying anything and neither is Nick. I think my guilt is making me paranoid. I swallow and smile the best I can.
“I’m fine. Don’t I look fine?”
He studies me for a minute before he speaks. “Yes. You do.” He gives me three quick pecks on the cheek like when I was a little girl, looking up to my big brother. “Love you, sis.”
I smile a genuine sad smile this time. “Love you too.”
I close the door and sigh in relief. My feelings are all over the place.
Between my mom, Jay, and Kate, it’s all unsettling me.
I feel like a fraud and a lying cheat. I’m trying not to think about Nick.
The harder I try, the more I do. I think about us in the car, in the bathroom at his house when he stripped me down to nothing.
He took care of me like I was his. And the way he kissed me…
I’ve never been kissed like that before.
I can see us in my dreams making love. Him on top of me, pushing me, riding me hard and fast until I scream his name.
I close my eyes against the thought. I take a deep breath and let it out.
Opening my eyes, I see Sasha looking at me.
“Okay, Aunty Cat?”
“Yes, baby, I’m trying to be.”
That’s as honest as I can be. “Come on, baby girl, let’s get this party started. Let the night of fun begin,” I say, skipping into the living room smiling.
For the next six hours, I entertain Sasha and she entertains me too.
We played blocks and I helped her build a pink tower.
We also played hide and seek three times, until I couldn’t find her and freaked out.
I realized that wasn’t such a good idea, in a house with so many places to hide for a three-year-old.
I was scared out of my mind when I couldn’t find her and she wasn’t answering me.
I knew Jay and Vanessa were going to kill me for losing their only child.
I was about to call them when she jumped out of her hiding spot, all smiles.
I’ve never been so relieved in my life. We finished the night off dancing, coloring, watching a movie, and reading a bedtime story before she fell asleep in my bed with me.
I did a pretty good job of not thinking about Nick. A few times I had a flash of his lips pressed against mine. Each time I closed my eyes against the memory. Who am I kidding?
I want him. No matter how much I try to fight it, I want him.