Chapter 37 - Mary
Mary
The manticore’s tail cut through the air with a wet hiss and lashed toward her chest in one fast motion.
The blackened stinger glinted in the moonlight like a promise sharpened into venom.
She moved before fear could stop her. Stepping aside in one smooth motion, she swung her sword up overhead.
The momentum set her spinning away from the barb and closer to the muscular body.
She didn’t think, she didn’t pause, she didn’t hesitate.
Her movements felt older than thought itself, led by the voices that were now one with her core, until her weapon descended and steel found the center of the creature.
The sheer force with which it collided with the bone and tendons vibrated through every inch of her body and made her teeth clatter.
The manticore staggered at her feet, its face now contorted and almost human.
It snarled at her one more time before it collapsed into the dirt, blood spreading black beneath it.
The sound was almost too quiet for the ending of a life.
A single tear rolled down her cheek, but she didn’t bother to wipe it away.
In death, the wounded creature looked more human than monstrous, after all.
One by one, the voices fell quiet, ceasing to exist in separation, until she could no longer tell where they ended and she began.
A new queen had risen, but this victory tasted too much like grief to feel holy.
My fingers shake when I finish the closing paragraph, and for a moment I hesitate.
I know what comes next, just like she did.
A moment that should be joyous but washes over me like grief instead.
I am not ready to say goodbye to the woman I’ve spent the last ten months with.
The one who haunted my dreams, whispered encouragements when I struggled, and grew alongside me.
She is a part of me now, and writing those words…
Writing those words means you are ready for your next adventure.
My eyes brim when my fingertips touch the keys and I write the closing line.
The end.
I stare at it a little longer and allow myself to feel the sudden separation of a family that only exists in my mind. Reduced back to the work of fiction that they are. Then my lip curls up in a bittersweet smile. It’s done.
Just as I lean back to think about what comes next, I hear the soft click of the front door closing.
My eyes dart to the corner of my screen, and I see it’s already almost nine.
I curse quietly and push myself away from the desk.
My body protests, and I make a mental note to set timers for stretching that I will undoubtedly ignore before I step into the living room.
Cat is taking off her heels in the hall, but her eyes instantly find mine. They are puffy and red-rimmed, sunken in ashen skin. But as soon as we connect, a flash of relief comes over her, and I see a heaviness fall away.
“Baby,” I whisper as I step toward her with my hand outstretched.
She closes her eyes for a beat and shakes her head, steps into my arms, and puts her head on my shoulder.
“What happened?”
“It was rough,” she murmurs against my skin.
“It finally happened today…” She pauses and looks at me.
“The sudden pushback of my second just as we had expected.” She pulls me against her a little closer, her breath ghosting my skin.
“For the first time in my life, I felt like I was in the wrong place.”
“No,” I say more sharply than I intend to.
She freezes for a moment and then starts to chuckle softly against me. Her body shakes softly, sending a string of vibrations through mine as she pulls away a little to look at me with amusement.
“Tell me how you really feel,” she smirks. “No, I know it’s not true, amor,” she continues before I can object. “But it felt like it for a little while.”
“What changed?”
“Riley.”
My eyebrows shoot up to somewhere in my hairline when the unexpected name falls from her lips.
“Riley?”
“Sí, she was in the hospital for work and stepped into my office. We spoke a little, and it was good.”
I hesitate for a moment. A part of me wants to know what they spoke about, what Riley said to make her feel better, but another part wonders if this is some privacy I should not invade. The question dies before it can even reach my lips, and I smile up at her instead.
My fingers brush Cat’s jaw as I cup her cheek, and I press my lips against hers. The smell of jasmine and antiseptic curl around me, as if it can single-handedly pull me closer to her.
“She told me that my judgement hasn’t been altered just because I fell for you,” she offers when I lean back, and the warmth that hits my chest is all-engulfing.
“You thought that?”
She shrugs.
“I know it’s irrational, but fear doesn’t care about that, does it?”
Cat frowns as if she is realizing something, and her hands slide a little down my sides.
“Baby, I have always deemed it unethical and immoral for a doctor to get with a patient. It’s not just because it’s against policy, but also because those are my standards,” she says carefully, giving me plenty of time to catch up, but not enough time to bristle.
“Getting together with you forced me to look at those standards again and admit that they aren’t as black-and-white as I thought. ”
“Do… do you ever re—”
“No,” she cuts me off before I can finish the sentence. “Not once.”
She brushes my jaw and presses her forehead against mine. Our breaths mingle, and her lips brush mine in a chaste kiss before she speaks again.
“But that does not mean that I haven’t felt conflicted and confused. It made me wonder if I was really the person I thought I was.”
“That makes sense,” I agree softly, even if it makes me feel raw. “I felt that too.”
She leans back in surprise, her eyes scanning me as she takes me in.
“You have?”
“Yes, of course. Do you have any idea how often I asked myself if I was a bad person for pursuing you? Especially after…”
“After?”
“After you told me the risks. I didn’t protect you like I should have. Your father was right about that, you know? Katherina, I pulled you into this dynamic because I couldn’t stay away from you.”
She huffs and shakes her head. Something dark flashes behind her eyes.
“Carino, you don’t hold that power. I willingly stepped into that dynamic because I could not stay away from you either. That is the choice I made. That is the conflict I felt.”
“And now?”
“Now I know that my feelings for you did change me as a person.”
My breath hitches, and I feel my stomach plummet, but Cat just smiles at me, and the feeling of dread suddenly turns into something overpoweringly beautiful.
“They make me a better person, Maria. They add another layer to who I am. You don’t subtract from my core. You enrich it.” She closes the space between us again, pressing her skin against mine. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
My lip trembles when she takes it between her teeth and tugs at it softly before sliding her tongue inside. I gasp and then sigh, melting into her as she deepens the kiss, and I feel the tension in her body loosen as well.
“Welcome home, baby,” I chuckle softly after she breaks away, and she chuckles too.
“Best home to come back to.”
And everything in me soars.
I whip up a simple dinner of fish, grilled veggies, and rice while Cat takes a shower.
By the time she comes out, she looks more like her delicious self again.
The bags under her eyes are the only thing stopping me from making her take a second shower.
Instead, I tell her about my story and how I’ve managed to finish the draft.
“En serio, Maria? You only tell me now? Baby, that is what you should’ve led with when I came in,” she says, beaming up at me, her fingers brushing the inside of my wrist.
I grin sheepishly and shrug, trying to make it not look like a big deal. She squints her eyes and tilts her head.
“You know, we have to celebrate this…”
“No,” I say a little too fast, and she pauses. “It’s only the first draft. I need to edit and refine it, and probably rewrite it another fifteen times before I can send it to my agent.”
“Wait, amor, you have an agent?”
I nod as I feel my cheeks flare up. It isn’t something I go around and tell people, mostly because Robyn hasn’t actually had the chance to do anything solid for me yet.
Why she took me on, lord knows. I only had my indie novels and short stories to show, but it was enough for her, and we made agreements.
We spoke about my next idea, and she nearly begged me to let her work her magic.
“Uh, yeah, sort of,” I stammer, and her eyes go large.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, she hasn’t… we haven’t… this will be the first manuscript she’ll receive from me. It’s new. Maybe she changes her mind. It happens.”
“No, it doesn’t. Not with your work.”
“How do you know?”
“Amor…” She glares at me, but there is a spark of amusement there. “You read me full passages at two a.m. and now you ask me how I know? Your work is fantastic.”
That same blush is now spreading to my chest. I try to hide it by standing up and cleaning off the table, but Cat won’t have it. She grabs my wrist before I can pick up her plate and yanks me hard against her chest and into her lap. I giggle loudly as I’m startled, and her whole face breaks open.
“Así, my favorite sound in the world.”
She kisses me, all warm breath and tenderness, before looking at me again.
“You finished the story, amor. We will celebrate this milestone. Then you will polish and rewrite and do everything else you need to do, and we’ll celebrate again when you send it to your agent.”
“Cat, no, we—”
“Maria, yes, we definitely must. We will celebrate every step, and that is that.”
She seals my lips with another kiss before I can protest, and all objections drain out of me. I just nod weakly, and she smiles against my lips.
“Eso, mi amor. Let me take care of it. We’ll get the girls, go to a rooftop bar in DC, have bubblies.”
The laughter that bursts out of me surprises us both, and Cat blinks at me.
“Bubblies?” I hitch and her lips instantly tick up.
“Bubblies,” she confirms with a stern nod.
I shake my head, laughing. Not once had I pegged Cat as the kind of person to say bubblies, but now that she did, I don’t want to hear her say it any other way ever again.
“We don’t even like bubblies,” I snicker.
She growls before she nips me and kisses me again, drawing another laugh from me just as my phone buzzes. We both look up in surprise, and I glance at the device across the table. When I pull it toward me, the message pops up, and I read it out loud.
10.13 p.m. - Rosa Durand
Hola, mija, do you have time for a cafecito tomorrow morning? Let’s say 10 at Cozy District Café. Cat knows the one.
“She loves that place. It’s near the hospital,” she offers without even batting an eye. “I’d drop you off, but my shift starts at seven.”
Tears spring into my eyes, and I bury my face in the crook of her neck.
“Oh… okay…” Cat whispers, but tightens her hold around me. “What is happening, amor?”
“N… nothing,” I gasp.
Because how can I explain the vastness that just opened up in my chest at how normal it is for my partner to know that I am going out for coffee with her mother?
“I just love you,” I whisper, and she squeezes even tighter.
“And I love you.”