Life Reconstructed: Chapter Thirty

Cat was standing in her kitchen, uncorking a bottle of wine when she heard her intercom buzz. Rushing to the front entryway, she hit the admit button. Unlocking her door, she left it open a crack before returning the wine.

“Hello?”

“Come on in. I’m breaking open the vino,” Cat called, her voice carrying down the hallway.

“I’ve got the pizza.”

A third voice called out: “Oh, hold the door please—”

“Hey Alex,” Cat heard Amelia say.

“Hey, girl.” And then, echoing down the walls: “Hey Cat!”

“I’m in the kitchen, guys.”

“I brought the chocolates.” Pouring three glasses of cabernet, Cat could just make out two sets of feet walking down the hardwood floors.

“I dibs the one with almonds in the center,” she heard Amelia saying to Alex.

“Fine because I want the coconut one.”

“What kind of pizza did you get?” Cat called out then, as their steps neared, turning down the hallway.

“Only the best kind,” Amelia assured her as she and Alex entered the kitchen. With a flourish, she popped the top off the box and tipped the pizza toward both girls for their inspection. “Get a look at this—!”

“Green peppers, onions, sausages—”

Cat licked her lips. “And mushrooms.”

“Delicious.”

Smiling wolfishly, Amelia set the opened pizza on the table. Following suit, Alex mirrored her movements, depositing the chocolates beside it.

“Hi there, honey,” Amelia said belatedly, her attention shifting from the food to the pale pallor of Cat’s countenance. Amelia’s voice gentled as she moved to embrace her. “Bad day, huh, pumpkin?”

“Not very good.” Then she felt Alex’s arms come up, around, and over Amelia’s. Leaning into her friends, she felt the first smile of the afternoon drift across her lips. “Thanks for coming over.”

“Hey,” Alex murmured. “When you get a mayday text, you take care of business.”

“Absolutely,” Amelia agreed. “Now, where’s that wine?”

Laughing in unison—not because Amelia’s words had been particularly witty, but because none of the girls wanted to start the evening with tears—they separated at the words. Moving with economy, they lost little time filling up their plates, grabbing their wine and settling in Cat’s living room.

“Want to tell us what happened?” Amelia asked, taking a nibble of her pizza.

Cat sighed. Setting her untouched dinner down on her lap, she leaned forward, her hands searching blindly underneath the coffee table straight ahead of her.

“You okay?” Alex asked.

“This is what happened,” Cat said, retrieving that damned black binder. Looking at it, she grimaced. She’d told Matt that she’d destroy it, and she would, but first—tossing it to Amelia, she grabbed for her pizza again. Leaning into her cushion, she watched while Amelia bent her head over first one page and then another; anxious, Alex leaned forward to read over Amelia’s shoulder.

Much the same as Matt, Cat was forced to wait while their crinkled brows smoothed out, as understanding flitted across their puckered lips. And, just the same as Matt, neither of them was smiling when their wide eyes lifted to Cat’s.

“What is this?” Amelia asked skeptically. Setting the binder down on the coffee table, she took a bite of pizza.

“I, uh, well, you know how good Matt is at woodworking,” Cat said, sputtering to a start. She looked up at Alex. “He really is—tell her.”

“He’s amazing,” Amelia said, but still there was that skepticism clinging to her person.

“But he, well, he’s so afraid to do anything with this gift, so he hides it away. Keeping it safe from the unknowns of a reality that might not match up with his dreams,” Cat breathlessly. “But he loves doing it,” she muttered down to her pizza. “I mean, honestly, I’ve never met a man more content to spend hours on end with the whirl of table saws and whatnot ringing in his ears.”

“Wait a minute,” Amelia said, lifting up a hand. “You made that thing?” she asked, her hand pointing toward the binder.

Cat’s lips pursed. “Yup.”

“Did Matt ask you to do it?”

“No.”

“Oh,” Amelia and Alex said together.

Cat picked up her pizza, then she set it back down again. “I thought it would help.”

Setting her empty plate down at her feet, Alex reached forward to rifle through the binder again.

“Oh honey,” Amelia sighed, shaking her head. “I wish you would have talked to us about this earlier.”

Cat’s eyes filled with tears. “Yeah—Matt hated it, too.”

“I didn’t say I hated it,” Amelia said, reaching forward to squeeze Cat’s knee. “It’s just a little…”

“Insane,” Alex supplied. Lifting her head, she smiled her toothy grin. “But in that great Cat Cryer kind of way—everyone’s best, most loyal supporter.”

Cat sniffled. “It was insane.”

“Your heart was in the right place,” Amelia said.

“And it’s brilliantly laid-out,” Alex said.

“Will you please?” Amelia snapped, her head turning dangerously in Alex’s direction.

“What?” Alex asked with big eyes. “This is fantastic. If I wanted to start a business, I would want this puppy.” For added effect, she patted her hand against the hard-plastic cover.

“But Matt doesn’t want to start a business,” Cat said, shaking her head. “He told me so repeatedly today.”

“Oh, hon—”

At the soft words, Cat felt the first tear fall from her eyes. It was shortly followed by another. “I know it’s stupid to be this upset,” she cried, wiping her eyes, “but I was so excited to show him. I thought he’d love it.”

Amelia and Alex exchanged eloquent glances. Nonetheless, both girls abandoned their spots to squeeze in on either side of Cat.

“He looked at me like…” Cat batted the words away. “I ruined everything.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

Cat nodded. She wasn’t sure she believed Alex’s strong defense, but she also knew she didn’t want to think about it.

“I worked so hard on that,” she said. “Which is totally selfish, isn’t it?”

“Well, a little. Ow!” Alex cried, jumping from the slight pinch of Amelia’s fingers. “But hey, who isn’t a little selfish?”

“And Alex was right,” Amelia admitted. “The binder is truly amazing. You have every right to be proud of the work you did.”

Cat sniffed. “Yeah?”

“I would have loved one when I got the crazy idea to start my studio.”

 

 

 

 

 

Though they tried, in the end, Alex and Amelia were little more than a few hours of distraction. Cat’s thoughts wouldn’t be ignored forever. Long after Amelia and Alex left that evening, she sat on her couch cross-legged and stared at the tightly closed binder, her eyes narrowed on its stiff backing.

What the hell had she been thinking? “And really, why did you think he’d welcome the invasion?” She asked because she realized it truly had been an invasion. She’d known it was an invasion even as she’d done it, but she’d been so sure the result would justify the means. Shrugging her shoulders, she sank down deeper into the green couch cushions. She’d just wanted to do something for him. After everything he’d done for her.

“…and I think he’s wasting this amazing gift,” she muttered, her eyebrows pulling low over her eyes. “But it’s not the comfortable, safe road to travel, so he’ll be content to pretend he’d rather work at a hardware store that his grandfather loved.” She stuck out her tongue. “Well, whatever—”

Jerking at the sudden buzz of her intercom, Cat leaned forward hesitantly as a voice echoed down the narrow length of her front hallway. There was a slight scratchiness to the words, no doubt due to the high winds of approaching evening, robbing the voice of an identify markers. Shoving off the couch, she let her feet drag her to the intercom. Pushing down on the TALK button she said: “I’m sorry? Who’s there?”

“Matt.”

Her stomach pinched at the one-word response. Without bothering to respond, her fingers slipping against the keys in her rush, she admitted him inside. Her fingers moved in a frenzy of chaos as she unlocked her front door. She could hear coming down the hallway even as she swung it open.

Her large green eyes skittered nervously up to his as he came into view. Stopping just outside her door, a lightweight sheepskin jacket thrown casually over his blue-and-white plaid shirt, Matt didn’t speak for a moment. His brown eyes were slightly shadowed beneath the brim of his hat.

Cat licked her lips. “Hi.”

Matt inclined his head. His lips kicked up at the corners of his mouth. “Been drinking?”

“Huh?”

Without waiting for an invitation, he shouldered his way through the door. Bewildered, Cat stepped backward to allow him easier entrance.

“I thought as much,” he muttered, one hand coming up to take his hat off his head. Then she could see his eyes. They glanced down at her with undeniable mirth.

“I’m-I’m—” Cat’s eyes rounded, her feet back-pedaling quickly at Matt continued moving forward, his steps calculated as they swallowed up the space between them.

“I can smell it on your breath, Cat,” he murmured, his head bending at the same time as one hand came up to cradle the side of her face. It was then that she felt the strength of the wall behind her. She had no place else to go.

Not that she wanted to.

She pinkened. “Oh. Yes, well…”

“I wonder what’s been spinning through that head of yours all day,” Matt muttered.

Cat pouted up at him. Her heart was rocking against her chest. He was here. Here. But… “You were so mad at me earlier.”

Matt nodded solemnly, but his eyes were clearly focused on her lips. “Yeah. I was.”

“I wasn’t sure—” she slithered to a pause, her large eyes peeking up at him pointedly. She wasn’t sure she could say the words. Standing here now, cocooned in his arms, it felt rather…foolish. It felt like an overreaction.

He titled his head a little to one side. “Really?” The incredulity in his voice confirmed her fears.

She squirmed.

“That seems a bit extreme,” he murmured, but the smile never left his voice. Instead, he leaned even closer, his lips hovering, teasing hers when they stopped just a breath away from her mouth.

“Then again, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you.” His lips just barely brushed against hers with the words. Cat mewed quietly, piteously. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Saving me from myself, again?” She asked, her mouth following blindly after his.

“Looks like I’m just in time, too.”

“Maybe,” she conceded, her arms reaching up, her fingers trailing over his arms and across his shoulders. “But you should have seen your face earlier.”

“That was then,” he whispered, “and this is now.”

“Hmm—”

“And for the record,” he said, his lips nibbling against hers in chaste, biting kisses. “They are mutually exclusive, okay?”

“I’m starting to get that.”

“Yeah, but I think the reminder will come in handy.”

Cat smirked up at him. “For the next time I piss you off, you mean?”

“Did I say that?” Matt whispered, his head bending to finally take full possession of her lips. Her stomach knotting as the intensity of the kiss grew, Cat felt her back arch just slightly as his hands trailed a lazy lineup and down her sides, his lower body coming to press down against her hips.

“Matt?” Breaking away, Cat’s chest rose and fell heavily over the word

“Yes?”

She was moderately satisfied to hear the same hoarse, uneven quality to his voice.

“Are you staying the night?”

“God, is that an invitation?”

In answer, Cat stretched her left arm out to the side and, grabbing for the doorknob to her bedroom, she gave it a quick, firm twist. With a groan of feeling, Matt brought his mouth crashing down against hers. In one sweeping motion, Cat found herself hoisted up in his arms, her legs swinging around his hips, her arms clutching his shoulders as his leg gently coaxed the door fully open.

The next thing Cat knew, the world tilted as he set her down on the bed, his legs straddling her hips as he bent down at the waist to trail kisses down the side of her neck….

 

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