by Jane Frances
“If it’s so important to you, why don’t you go and ask Cathy yourself?”
“I may just do that.” Sue became intent on washing and drying her hands, and was all of a sudden infuriatingly quiet.
Toni watched Sue turn to leave the bathroom, almost certain she wouldn’t ask Cathy. After all, she would have already done so if she felt she’d get a response other than you’re fired. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Why not?” Sue stopped halfway out of the door. “Cathy does-n’t bite.” Her eyebrows wriggled suggestively as she said, “Or does she?”
Toni didn’t grace Sue with a response. Instead she just glared at the door as it swung shut, then pulled it back open and stomped down the hallway. Sue’s laughter echoed from the reception all the way to Toni’s office. Toni wished she had hire and fire rights. She’d show the trumped up little gossip who could bite the hardest.
She was still bristling when a knock came on her door around nine thirty.
“What!” she barked.
“Well someone sure got out of bed on the wrong side.”
Toni broke into a smile as Cathy entered and crossed the floor to settle into one of the chairs opposite her desk. “Hi. How was breakfast?”
“Filling.” Cathy patted her tummy. “And fruitful. We’ve got another one to add to the books.” She leaned forward in her seat. “Which is just as well it seems. Lucky it was me just then and not one of your clients. I reckon you could have scratched them off your list with that little welcome.”
Toni waved Cathy’s reprimand away; she had it covered. “I knew it wouldn’t be a client. I don’t have anyone due for another half hour.”
Cathy folded her arms, her disapproval evident. “And of course you never have anyone pop in without an appointment?”
“Sue would have rung through,” Toni said testily, upset Cathy was upset with her. “Stop making such a big deal out of it.”
“I am not making a big deal,” Cathy shot back. “And stop arguing the point.”
Momentarily dumbstruck, Toni just stared when Cathy rose to leave. As the door closed behind her Toni sat wondering what the hell had just happened. Her answer came only a minute later, when another knock sounded on her door.
“Come in,” Toni said in the most polite voice she could muster.
Cathy entered and sat back down again. “I’m sorry Toni. I shouldn’t have snapped.” She gave a little lopsided smile. “I guess I’m just having trouble changing all the hats I wear with you now.”
“Huh?” What on earth was Cathy on about?
“You know, boss hat, friend hat . . . lover hat.”
“Oh.” Toni knew she took full advantage of the liberties Cathy allowed because of their friendship, but it hadn’t occurred Cathy may now see the same liberties as taking advantage of the privilege that came with sleeping with the boss. Toni smiled sheepishly and said, “I’m sorry too.”
With the forgiving nod that greeted her from across the desk, Toni decided to push her luck just a little more, “There’s a reason why I was so grumpy before.”
“Oh Toni,” Cathy said, shaking her head in exasperation as Toni related details of her conversation with Sue earlier that morning.
“No wonder Sue had that silly grin when I was talking to her this morning. Well,” she sighed, “We may as well publish it in the paper now.”
“Are you embarrassed about it?” Toni asked in a small voice.
“Don’t be such a silly.” Cathy waved the question away as ridiculous. “I just would have liked to keep the information to ourselves for five minutes, that’s all.”
“Well,” Toni continued with her confession. “There’s something else—”
Cathy also waved away the news that Sue was sniffing around for information about Cathy and Lisa. “Good luck to her. No one knows except you, me, and of course, Lisa. So she can just dig away. Anyway, speaking of Lisa, there’s something else I wanted to tell you.”
“What’s that?” Toni asked warily, wondering what news Cathy had to break now. The night before had seen Cathy announce she’d changed her mind about canceling the tiling. Toni had been unhappy at the news, but Cathy managed to convince her she was doing the right thing. After all, they’d cleared the days of appointments, the crafty Sue had already made arrangements for the break, and it was highly unlikely any other suitable tiler would be able to fit in with their plans at this stage.
“Well, it’s not so much about Lisa, it’s more about the rest of the renovations and how they’ll fit in around her . . . and Joel.”
Relieved the news was nothing more than renovation related, Toni leaned back in her chair and listened as Cathy explained what she’d decided on the drive between home and breakfast.
It seemed she suddenly realized they were all so caught up in the tiling that all else had fallen to the wayside. Painting was still to be arranged, office furniture ordered and—another item was tossed into the renovation pile—new carpet for the offices selected and installed.
As far as Toni could see, the furniture shouldn’t be a problem, so long as the supplier had the pieces Cathy liked in stock. Similarly, choosing carpet wouldn’t take long, but when would it be laid? Then there was the painting. First they’d have to get quotes, arrange a suitable time and . . . the whole exercise seemed too hard.
“Piece of cake.” Cathy waved the potential problems away. “I’ve got a client who paints houses for a living. I’m sure she’ll give me a good price. And I’m sure it can be fitted around the tiling somehow. Same with the carpet, except I don’t have any contacts there. Do you?”
Toni shook her head.
“Oh well, what are you doing around one today?”
“Going looking for carpet,” Toni said matter of factly.
“Great.” Cathy flashed one of the smiles that made Toni want to melt. She stood. “I’m going to go make some phone calls.”
“By the way,” Toni said before Cathy could reach the door. “Did you have any idea Julie has a bit of a thing for me?”
There was no hesitation in Cathy’s reply. “Yes, of course I did.”
Toni’s eyes widened. That wasn’t the answer she expected. She’d just thrown it in to see how Cathy would react. “Really?”
Cathy grinned. “No not really. I just wanted to pretend for one minute I knew what was going on in my own practice.” She tilted her head slightly and said, “What are you going to do about it?”
“I thought I’d just ignore it.” Toni shrugged. “What else can I do?”
“Good idea Toni.” Cathy gave a knowing smile, and said, “We’ve proved that theory works.”
“We have haven’t we?” Warmth spread throughout Toni’s body. She squirmed in her seat, wishing Cathy would snap the lock on the office door and get her gorgeous behind onto Toni’s desk.
But Cathy didn’t. She reminded Toni of Julie’s sensitive nature, told her to be careful, gave another of those melting smiles, and left.
“I love you,” Toni said quietly in the direction of the closed door. She turned back to her computer, closing down the still unfinished depreciation schedules. They’d have to wait until later. Her 10:00 a.m. was due any minute.
Cathy emptied her briefcase of required contents before slipping it under her desk for the day. She placed her diary in its usual location at the top center of the desk. Next came a couple of files she had intended working on over the weekend, but had not gotten around to. Finally she pulled out the envelope containing the card she selected for Rebecca and Dee. She placed the card on the desk’s work area. Cathy sat down, thumbing her diary to the page where their address details were recorded.
Despite her best intentions, Cathy hadn’t made it to their anniversary celebration, one thing and another leaving her in a definite non-party frame of mind.
She had been flying through her Saturday afternoon, achieving everything planned, even making a good start on the housework. The whole place was dusted and vacuumed, and the kitchen now spark
led. But it was around the time she was stripping down the bed she suddenly felt all weepy again. She fought against the tears for the time it took to get the sheets into the washing machine, but it must have been the rush of water as the machine filled that set off her own waterworks. Feeling very alone and very sorry for herself, Cathy sunk to the laundry floor and wept. She missed her brother and his little family . . . she missed Lisa . . . she missed Toni. She missed her life before it suddenly got complicated.
The washing machine was in its first spin cycle by the time Cathy hauled herself to her feet. It was then she felt the familiar tug in her guts and the headache that was more than a post-tear thud. Cathy took herself to the bathroom and it was as suspected— her period had arrived. That was the last thing she wanted at the moment, but it provided an excuse to bow out of her evening engagement. She called Rebecca and gave her apologies, saying she was sorry but wasn’t feeling well.
Still by the phone, Cathy tossed up ringing Lisa, but had no idea what she was to say. Hi Lisa, I love you—are you sure you want to be with Joel? Then she tossed up ringing Toni, Hi Toni, come over, I need you again, but she decided against that too, her conscience pricking. She did ring her brother, spending over an hour on the phone to him, his wife and her nephew. Another rush of tears came when she finally hung up. Why did they have to live so far away?
Having already failed miserably in her promise to stop pining, Cathy decided to go for broke, spending a good part of her evening sitting cross-legged on her bedroom floor, sifting through the shoebox kept right at the back of her wardrobe. It was the one already pulled from its home twice in the last few weeks. Once again she pored over the contents: cards, letters and photos, small trinkets and tokens, and all the little notes passed to her in lectures, left under her pillow or stuck to some item in the pantry or the fridge. Finally Cathy snapped open the lid of the small black velvet box, removed the single gold ring and slipped it on her finger. It still fit. Briefly she wondered what had happened to the other ring. Had it been kept, sold or maybe even thrown away?
Soon after, the shoebox was again stored out of sight, although the memories it conjured were not out of mind. She made up the bed but didn’t put herself into it, instead choosing to occupy herself by cleaning the bathrooms. It was past eleven when she finished. Still not tired she turned to the bookshelves in her study and selected a novel she had already read twice. She fell asleep with the book in her hands and woke the next morning feeling groggy and cramping. Determined to keep her tennis appointment, she swallowed some painkillers, some juice and a banana, and headed out to smack the living daylights out of some fuzzy balls.
Each time Cathy had a spare moment, she filled it. She completed her housework after returning from tennis and lunch. As soon as the last item of washing was folded and put away she headed for the video store, selected a couple of DVDs, then kept her promise to ring Toni.
Toni reacted as predicted when Cathy announced she had changed her mind about the tiling. She also got a bit upset on discovering Cathy stayed home the night before but had not rung. But she did settle down. Once settled, she took Cathy’s final piece of news—that physical activity was curtailed due to circumstances beyond Cathy’s control—in unexpected good humor.
Disappointed sex was temporarily on hold, Cathy was surprised at just how much she enjoyed lying with her head in Toni’s lap, having her hair stroked as they watched the movies. It was very soothing, so soothing she nodded off for a little while. On waking, Toni related all she had missed of the movie, then made them both dinner and kept Cathy happily amused as they settled into an evening of hot chocolate and chatter. Once in bed, it was time for cuddles and a tummy rub. Cathy fell asleep feeling safe and warm and very wanted.
The warm feeling washed over Cathy again as she copied Rebecca and Dee’s address onto the envelope. She popped it into her outgoing mail tray and pulled her desk phone closer. But the moment Cathy began dialing the number already committed to memory her warmth and fuzzies disappeared and her heart began to thump.
It was answered on the third ring. “Hawthorn Tiling. Lisa speaking.”
Cathy’s heart thumped harder. Why did the woman still have such a damn fine voice? Not deep, but definitely heading toward the lower end of the scale, it assumed a delicious resonance over the phone. Stop it! Cathy gave herself a silent reminder friendship was now the aim of the game and launched straight into the call. “Hi Lisa, it’s Cathy. I was just wondering if you had a minute to spare?”
Cathy concentrated on what was being said instead of the voice that conveyed the information. Unfortunately the news was not particularly good. Ideally, the tiling should be completed first, then the painting and finally the carpet. It all made sense really, for even with the best of care, tiling was a dusty, messy process, not something that should be done with either fresh carpet on the floor or wet paint on the wall.
“Of course, the carpet could be laid first,” Lisa said. “After all it’s only your office that has its own bathroom, so we can lay down dust covers and plastic over the carpet. It’s not an insurmountable problem. And the painting of the offices could also be done while we’re tiling, it’s just the rest of the areas that would have to wait until we’re finished laying. But as we estimated, that probably won’t be until sometime on Tuesday.”
Cathy voiced concern it was all a bit of tight squeeze, especially since the offices were to be put back together on the Wednesday to begin trade again on Thursday. Lisa hesitated, “Well, what if we commit to completing the job by midday on Tuesday? That will give you a definite half day for finishing off the painting.”
“That’s very good of you.” Cathy appreciated the offer but sensed it was not the preferred option. Especially since it was Lisa’s birthday on the Saturday. It was bad enough she was working all through the weekend, so she didn’t want to ruin any plans Lisa may have for a celebration by setting an unrealistic deadline. “But I don’t want you two to work yourselves into the grave because I didn’t organize myself properly. Just let me make some phone calls and I’ll get back to you.”
“Okay. Thanks Cathy. And Cathy,” Lisa continued, “Thanks for calling to ask. A lot of people assume it’s okay to have everything happen at once and it just ends up slowing everyone down.”
“No problem.” Cathy smiled into the phone, pleased. Then Lisa asked if she had decided on a carpet supplier as yet. When Cathy said no, Lisa said Joel knew a guy in the business, would Cathy like the details?
“Sure would.” Cathy waited, hearing muffled voices as Lisa placed her hand over the mouthpiece to speak to Joel.
“Sorry Cathy,” Lisa sounded slightly agitated. “Caveman here forgot to bring his diary today. But he’s heading out soon to get his morning tea and said he’d drop by home on the way. Is it okay if I call you back in say, an hour?”
“No problem, speak to you then.” Cathy pressed the tabs on the phone and checked her watch to see what time it would be in an hour.
Cathy set about making moves for her other renovation arrangements, all the while keeping an eye on the time. She didn’t want to miss Lisa’s call. After all, she needed the details for her lunchtime carpet spree.
Lisa leaned up against the brick pillar of the front veranda and closed her eyes. The weak autumn sun was warm on her face, further improving a mood that had been steadily getting better throughout the day.
It was a wonder what a few phone calls could do. Three in fact, Lisa just hanging up from her third communication with Cathy that day. The latest call was to advise that carpet had been chosen, ordered and arrangements made for it to be laid on the Tuesday, the day Lisa and Joel were due to complete the job. Lisa knew the call was imminent, Cathy promising to let her know what was happening. What she hadn’t been expecting was for the call to come so quickly, Lisa only passing on Joel’s carpet supplier contact details in their second conversation a couple of hours prior. But, Lisa admitted, if she knew one thing about Cathy, it was how quickly she worked
after having made a decision.
More than the calls themselves, it was their tone that served to cheer. As usual Cathy had been all business and efficiency, but her manner was completely different to the one Lisa experienced at the cinema on Friday night. Now Lisa thought she might have been wrong in her assumption that Cathy hated her. It was more likely she had just had a bad day at the office. Or maybe she was premenstrual. Lisa knew from experience Cathy could be a bit testy around that time. Whichever, the contrast was so dramatic Lisa no longer dreaded fronting up to Cathy’s offices to do the tiling. If anything she was kind of looking forward to it. Maybe she and Cathy could even become friends.
That last thought brought her mood down a notch. Friends was good, but Lisa wanted more. She was sure of it. Even now, only moments after hanging up the phone, Lisa was racking her brains trying to think of some reason to get back in contact. Maybe there was something else she could help Cathy with? Like recommend a good surgeon to remove that annoying growth on her side called Toni.
Lisa frowned, wishing she knew once and for all if Cathy and Toni were together. She was nearly sure they were, but Steph’s continued insistence Lisa was jumping to conclusions had put doubts in her mind.
For the millionth time Lisa tossed up just asking Cathy outright. And for the millionth time she decided against it, no longer trusting Steph’s judgment. Steph had been wrong about Emma fabricating a story of a friend in need of tiling as an excuse to get Lisa’s details. Just that morning Lisa received a call from the “pretend” friend, and this evening was going to quote on tiling the splashbacks of her kitchen. If Steph had been wrong about that, then who was to say any of her other so-called astute observations were correct?
Her latest observation, made on the return journey from Dee and Rebecca’s party, was that Lisa lacked the ability to make the first move with women.