Life Reconstructed: Chapter Twenty-Two

An hour later, over a frosty pale ale, Cat regaled Ashley with the woes of her kitchen cabinet reno. True to her status as Cat’s best friend, Ashley presented herself as being equal parts interested and entertained by the rollercoaster of events that had followed.

“So you decided to repaint the entire kitchen?”

Cat made a face into her beer. “Yeah, that was pretty much Matt’s reaction, too.”

Ashley pursed her lips. “Matt again?”

“Excuse me?” But even Cat wasn’t fooled by the innocent question. He’d played a pretty prominent role in her story. Perhaps too prominent.

“His name has popped up with unparalleled popularity this afternoon.”

“Well,” Cat reminded her, trying to tone down the instinctive defensiveness that loaded her words, “he is kind of a big part of it all.”

“But he didn’t need to be.”

“Well…”

Reaching over, Ashley covered Cat’s hand on the high-top table. “Not today. He didn’t need to be there to help you paint.”

Cat lifted one shoulder uncomfortably. “I mean, no…”

“I’m not making fun of you,” Ashley insisted. “Clearly, it was his choice to be there.”

“I think he just didn’t want to me fuck anything up.”

“Could be,” she said, hiding behind her pint glass as she brought it to her lips. “But unlikely.”

“Ashley don’t.”

“What?” Ashley placed her glass back down on her coaster. “Now you’re telling me you’re not interested? Because that wasn’t the case an hour earlier…”

Cat swirled her glass on the table, her fingers feeling the wet condescension on the side of the glass. “No, I’m interested.”

“Okay.”

“But he’s never…” choosing her words quickly, forcing her face to remain neutral, Cat plowed ahead. “Sometimes he seems so indifferent when we’re together. Like I’m just this mildly amusing but irritating girl he’s helping out—and just to appease his grandmother, no less. Like it’s just a kindness he’d do for anyone in a similar situation.”

Ashley’s smile faltered a little. “I see.”

“And then, every now and then he’ll say something that’s just playful enough that I wonder…” Cat flicked her gaze over the bar absently.

“If he’s flirting?”

“And if he is, how serious it is.”

“I see.”

“I can’t quite read his expressions.”

Ashley leaned back against the ladder-back chair. She crossed her arms over the table, her gaze narrowing. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Cat said, blowing out a breath. “So I don’t want to get any more confused about the situation.”

“You don’t want to get your hopes up.”

Cat nodded in consideration. “That either.”

Ashley was silent.

“I think he knows how I feel though.” The words felt sticky leaving Cat’s mouth. She didn’t like admitting to their probability, but neither could she convince herself otherwise.

Ashley opened her mouth in instant denial, but on second thought: “You’ve never been very good at hiding your thoughts.”

“Nope.”

“Hey,” Ashley said, leaning forward, her eyes staring into Cat’s. “That’s a good thing.”

“Sometimes he looks at me like I’m just a customer. And then…sometimes, like I’m someone special. But then I wonder if that’s just wishful thinking, you know?”

“Yeah, I do—”

“Hey Cat.”

At the sound, Ashley paused. Turning at the sound, both women were surprised by the toothy grin of an unusually tall, blonde woman standing in front of their table. In the midst of their conversation that hadn’t heard her approach.

“Alex!”

“Alex?”

“Hi,” Alex said, turning to introduce herself to Ashley’s clearly confused expression.

“Hello.” Turning to speak sidelong at Cat, she wondered: “How long have I been gone? Years? Why don’t I know anyone here anymore?”

Not taking offense, Alex grinned wider. “If it helps, I’m not from around here.”

“Please excuse my friend,” Cat said, shooting Ashley a scathing look.

Ashley had the grace to blush. “Yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude…”

Alex waved her hand. “Nah. I moved here about a year ago with my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend.”

Cat nodded sympathetically.

“We moved here when his job transferred him to the local branch.” Alex made a face. “But, you know, I really like it here. This place has character.”

“Which is good for the artist’s soul,” Cat said.

Alex snapped her fingers together. “Exactly. So the bastard can walk out the door. I’m staying.”

“Good girl.”

Laughing breezily, Alex glanced between the girls. “Well, excuse me. I just wanted to stop and say hi…”

“Please,” said Ashley, her hands going to the empty chair. “Join us.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, okay. Let me just go and grab myself a drink…” and with that, the blonde had skipped off toward the waiting bartender.

Taking the moment of reprieve, Ashley lowered her voice as she leaned toward Cat. “Who’s that?”

“Alex. She lives in my building. You’ll like her. She’s nice.”

“I’m sure I will,” Ashley said, but her voice held a funny note. Her gaze leveled on her friend. “I thought you didn’t have any friends here, anymore?” There was no accusation in the words, only awed curiosity. Clearly, that statement was no longer true.

“Is that why you came home?”

“Of course.”

Cat grabbed Ashley’s hands. “You’re the best.”

“Obviously. Stop evading my question.”

Cat smiled. “I didn’t have friends. At least, not a couple of weeks ago.”

“What changed.”

“Honestly? I think it was that damned kitchen door.”

Ashley grinned. “You think?”

Cat shrugged. “I don’t know. It forced me out of the house.”

“What, were you a hermit?” Ashley teased her.

“No, no. But it was like…I never went anywhere new, anywhere out of my comfort zone.”

“Okay,” Ashley conceded, and this time there was no teasing in her voice.

“Walking into that hardware store…” Cat couldn’t quite meet Ashley’s eyes. “Well, it sounds kind of dramatic but it—”

“I don’t think that sounds dramatic.”

Cat’s wary eyes swung back to her friend. “You don’t?”

“I’ve been home for a little over an hour and I’ve already met two people you didn’t know a week ago.”

“And you haven’t even heard about my canasta team.”

Ashley sputtered over her drink of beer. “Your what?”

Coming back up to the table, Alex set a margarita on the table top. “So what are you girls up to today?”

“Girls weekend,” Cat said.

“Oh, how fun!”

“I surprised her,” Ashley inserted with an almost apologetic tone. “And, you know, I really am sorry that I didn’t tell you I was coming now.”

“What? Why?” But Cat had a feeling she knew what Ashley meant.

“I think I may have scared Matt away.”

“Matt?” Turning her attention on Cat, Alex lifted her eyebrows curiously. “How’s this?”

“Just a guy.”

“Hardly.” At Alex’s frank confusion, she added: “He’s gorgeous. Tall, broad-shouldered, dark complexion, if you catch my drift.”

“Ohh, tell me more.”

“He was just helping me paint some cupboards in my apartment. Nothing to it.”

“Painting?”

“Yeah. Well, he thought I’d strike disaster if left with a paintbrush and no supervision,” Cat muttered, picking up her beer. Letting her eyes gaze across the room—dim-lighting with scattered round top tables beside a long intricately designed wooden bar (replete with a mirror-back), and a few Saturday afternoon drinkers and families, Cat refused to meet her friends’ eyes. Focusing on the aesthetics, she forced herself not to show her mounting excitement at Matt’s continued presence in their conversation.

Matt.

Her body reacted just at the mention of his name.

Against her will, her eyes slid rebelliously over to her best friend as a fissure of unease settled over her shoulders. She hadn’t told Ashley about the kiss. Guilt nagged at her stomach. She told Ashley everything. That was part of the best friend code. And she knew she would tell her…eventually. Only, despite the yearning to spill, to relive again those unexpected moments in Matt’s arms, to feel again the touch of his fingers against her chin—for the moment, Cat didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to analyze it for meaning and purpose. She didn’t want to defend her feelings or wonder over his.

Just not yet.

“And then I showed up while they were the in middle of things,” Ashley said, finishing the story where Cat stalled out. She lifted her hands. “So now half her kitchen is sporting fresh paint.”

“He pull the skedaddle at the sight of you?”

Ashley raised her eyebrows incredulously at the word, but she nodded in a serious enough fashion. “That’s about the size of it.”

Alex elbowed Cat playfully, the action effectively bringing her back into the conversation. “That doesn’t sound like nothing to me.”

Cat smiled tightly.

“Sounds like a man who needed some fresh air.”

“Paint fumes?”

“Sexual tension,” Alex returned.

“Oh enough guys,” Cat insisted. At the slight edge in that statement, both women were quick to wipe the teasing grins off their faces. Straightening up in her chair, Ashley crossed her arms over the table top.

Alex merely switched tracts. “Does this have anything to do with your search in the basement storage the other day?”

“Basement storage?” This came from Ashley.

“Long story.”

“You’re racking up a lot of those lately,” Ashley said, and Cat thought she heard the slightest tenure of displeasure in her friend’s voice.

“It’s how we met,” Cat explained, pointing at Alex. “I was looking for some leftover paint to, well you know, paint the kitchen.”

“Ah.”

“I was looking for paint, too,” Alex said. She chuckled, “but a different kind.”

“For different reasons.”

At the words, Alex furrowed her brows. “Wait. So, you and Matt weren’t able to finish painting?”

“Nah,” Cat said, flipping her hand casually. “But there’s not actually that much left to do.”

Ashley seemed ready to disagree with that statement.

“Want some help?”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Cat was quick to say.

“But she could ask Matt?” Ashley sidelined to Alex.

Alex winked back at her. “Definitely not nothing.”

“Okay,” Cat cried, throwing her arms up. “I would love the help. That would be great. Fabulous.”

Alex grinned slowly, rubbing her hands together. “Great.”

“It’s hardly worth that level of excitement,” Cat assured her.

Alex shrugged. “Painting is painting.”

“I’m not so sure…”

“Plus, I’ve still got a bit of residual resentment leftover from my ex,” Alex said. “What better way to exercise some of that rage—brush stroke up, brush stroke down. Oh, I’m already feeling the cathartic effects.”

“And she won’t have to worry about ruining a perfectly good piece of canvas,” Ashley said.

“It was a mistake,” Cat realized, her finger pointing between Ashley and Alex, “letting the two of you meet.”