“Just did,” Emily replied as she stepped toward Kate and took the now-empty cup.
Kate slid down off the counter and began to untie her apron. Sensing movement outside, Wren looked out into the store and then gestured to Emily.
“Boss, we’re on.” She nodded her head toward the front.
“Coming,” Emily said and then moved toward to give Kate a quick hug. “We’ll be fine. You go home and take a nap, or get a cuddle from your boy. Do whatever it takes to feel better, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
Kate looked past Emily out to the customers at the counter. “Maybe I could help out first with—”
“Kate, go. I’m sure there’re other things you could be doing.”
Gathering her things, Kate pulled on her coat and made her way toward the front of the store. Pausing at the door, she looked back at the counter: Wren and Emily looked like they had everything under control. She stepped outside, wrapped her scarf around her neck, and began to walk home, wondering what Michael was doing and resolving to call him when she got home.
Kate let herself into her apartment, hung up her keys and then dropped her bag onto the armchair as she surveyed the room. It felt good to be back in her own home, but compared to the space and light at Michael’s, everything seemed to be a little darker and smaller. The air was still, and so she lit her aromatherapy lamp and added some drops of orange oil and ginger to scent the room. Everything around her was just as she liked it, and yet she was alone. Years of being alone—or keeping herself alone if she was going to be honest—had been just what she had wanted. Now she found herself missing Michael’s companionship. Sighing, she walked into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling listless. She wanted to call Michael but felt silly for thinking about it. After all, she had only left his apartment a few hours ago. Falling backwards, she stared up at the ceiling wondering what Michael was doing.
~~~
Michael stashed the dry cleaning ticket in his wallet, stepping aside with a polite smile to allow another customer into the store. A gust of cold air whistled down the street, making him tug up his coat collar and stuff his hands into his pockets as he walked. A flash of color and movement caught his eye. Glancing across the street, he saw a woman flicking a long red scarf around her neck. The color made him think of Kate, and he wondered how she was feeling. Michael smiled and tucked his chin into his chest as he kept walking. After his run, he had reviewed the previous night’s work before calling a very surprised Alistair and telling him to expect the completed manuscript within the week. The rest of his morning had been spent running a few errands, and now he found himself with a free afternoon. He’d go see his girl. As he crossed the street, he felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and fished it out. Tapping the screen, he scanned the message and gave a short laugh before he turned around and broke into a light jog.
~~~
Kate was curled up on the sofa dividing her attention between her book and the talk show on television when she heard the intercom buzz. Pushing the magazine aside, she sat up and half-walked, half-skipped toward the door, hoping that it would be Michael.
“Hello?”
“It’s me.” Michael’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“It’s open.” Kate hit the button, and then unlocked her door before returning to the sofa. She didn’t bother with the magazine now; she sat looking at the door unable to hide the silly grin that was spreading across her face. There was the rapid shuffle of feet on the stairs, and then the door was pushed open to reveal a flushed and slightly out-of-breath Michael.
“That was fast,” she marveled as he shrugged out of his coat and took off his scarf before making his way over to the sofa.
“I was already downtown,” Michael explained as he put his hands on the arm of the sofa and leaned over to give her a long kiss. “So when I got your message, I came straight over.”
He sat down beside her and pulled her to him, smiling when he realized she was still wearing his shirt. Kate had changed her jeans for a pair of leggings and now she wriggled around to sit on his lap.
“I felt kinda stupid sending that message,” Kate admitted as she curled a hand around the nape of Michael’s neck.
“Why’s that?” Michael was running his hand up Kate’s thigh to hold her closer to him, their heads getting closer as they spoke.
“Well, I was at your place this morning. Being apart for just a few hours shouldn’t leave me acting like a damn teenager.” She nipped at his bottom lip.
“Meh.” Michael shrugged.
“Meh?” Kate gave him an incredulous look. “‘Meh,’ said the writer?”
Michael dug his fingers into her sides, where he knew she was ticklish, to make her squirm. “Hey, that’s sass. Are you sassin’ me?”
“Maybe a little,” Kate managed as she tried to evade his hands without much success.
“Right then, I guess I’ll have to see what we can do about that,” Michael growled, grinning as he watched the color rise in Kate’s face while she gasped and squirmed again. She was torturing him as well; the movement on his lap was causing the usual reaction. He knew she had noticed when she stopped moving and regarded him with a slow smile. He raised one of his hands and gently traced the slight smudges beneath her eyes. “How are you feeling?” he asked in a soft voice.
“Tired, but I’ll live,” she said, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch. He trailed his fingers down her cheek and onto her neck. “Having yesterday off was actually kinda good.” She cracked an eye open to look at Michael. “But don’t tell them I said that.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” he assured her, pulling her closer.
“Mmmm,” she said as she settled against him and rested her head against his chest.
Michael’s stubble rasped against Kate’s hair as he rubbed his chin against the top of her head in a gentle caress.
“So whatcha been doin’?” he asked.
“Nothin’ much,” Kate said, almost slurring the words in her relaxed state. “Errands, cleaning—” she yawned, “—stuff.”
“Sounds exciting,” Michael observed.
“I know. I’m not much fun,” Kate apologized.
“You don’t have to be.” Michael kissed her hair. “You’ve been ill.”
“Or just over-tired,” Kate muttered. “Emily gave me a lecture this morning.”
“Just Emily?”
“And Wren,” Kate added. “The two of them ganged up on me, which is why I’m here.” She waved a hand at the TV.
“Maybe they’ve got a point. It wouldn’t hurt to be a bit easier on yourself.”
“Any easier and I’d be in a coma,” Kate scoffed, “but actually …” She considered. “It’s nice being at home during the day. Kinda like skipping school or something.”
“Did you ever do that?”
“Me? Never.” Kate yawned again. “I was always the good girl, you know, the really boring one.”
“Oh, I don’t know. They say it’s the quiet ones you have to watch,” Michael said in a thoughtful tone. “I bet not many of your classmates ended up in New York.”
“No,” Kate admitted, and Michael could feel her smile against his chest. “Most of them stayed at home and married the guys that they’d gone steady with in school.”
“And you? Could you have done that?” Michael stared at the TV while he listened to Kate, curious as to her answer.
“I had a couple of boyfriends, nothing serious,” Kate replied. “Anyway, I left town to go to college and then …” She broke off and gave an odd little smile.
“And then what?”
“Tom,” Kate admitted after a long pause. “And then there was Tom.”
“Right,” Michael said after a slight pause of his own.
“And look how that turned out.” Kate gave a nervous laugh.
“Yeah, about that,” Michael began. “Have you heard from him lately?”
A small worry line appeared between Kate’s
eyebrows, and Michael immediately regretted the question.
“I got an email from him last week.” Kate focused on Michael’s shirtfront again. “He’s seeing someone. It seems to be going okay.”
“And are you?” Michael kept running his hand up and down Kate’s thigh in a soothing gesture.
“Sure.” Kate nodded, but didn’t lift her gaze.
“Then that’s all that matters to me,” Michael said as he kissed her forehead.
Kate looked up in surprise. “That’s it?”
Now it was Michael’s turn to shrug. “I don’t see why not. You and Tom have a history. You’re still friends, but as long as he’s not after my girl, it’s all good.”
Kate’s shoulders shook slightly as tension she wasn’t aware of carrying began to subside. “That simple, huh?”
“Yup.” Michael slapped her rump and leered at her, smiling at her gurgle of laughter. “I’m a simple man.” Kissing the side of her neck, he nuzzled her cheek and continued, “It must have been a hell of a shock, though.”
“Well, yeah,” Kate admitted. “We were friends and then lovers. Tom helped me get past the shock of losing Jack and settle back into college. We were really good for each other.”
Michael gently began to stroke Kate’s hair, saying nothing, just letting her speak.
“But when he worked things out, we went our separate ways. He never set out to hurt me, but he couldn’t deny what he was. I knew he still loved me, but he just couldn’t see me—” she broke off and waved her hand in an entirely vague gesture, “—that way.”
Michael wrapped his arms around Kate and held her closer as she kept talking. Her voice sounded dreamlike as she spoke from the past.
“So I guess after that, I stopped dating for a long time. Wren and Paul kept at me to put myself out there, but I just couldn’t do it. Being friends was easier, so I just decided that I felt safer being invisible.”
Her voice trailed off, and they sat together in silence for a long time. Michael tried to imagine the level of hurt and rejection on such a fundamental level and failed. Now he began to remember the way she ducked her head when complimented, and how she always reacted to his attraction to her with pleasure and surprise, and perhaps a little fear, as if she thought it was too good to last.
“Kate …” Michael’s throat was tight, and he had to clear his throat before he continued. “You’re not invisible to me.”
“I know.” Kate nodded, still staring at the television.
“Hey.” Michael gave her a slight shake. “Look at me.”
Kate’s gaze moved with painful slowness until she was looking into his eyes. He could see the silvery track marks of her tears on her cheeks as she stared at him in silence.
“You’re not invisible to me. You never were, and you never will be.”
Kate’s lips curled into a slight smile; somehow he always knew what to say. She moved so suddenly Michael was surprised when she sat up and fixed him with a long stare. “And while we’re on the subject, you have to promise me something.”
“I’m listening,” Michael said, surprised by the ferocity of her expression.
“You have to tell me if you’re ever seeing someone else, or if you ever want to. I won’t go through that again.”
“Okay.” Michael nodded.
“Promise?”
Michael nodded again. “I promise. Kate,” he continued in a quiet tone, “all I see is you.” He leaned forward and gave her the softest of kisses. “Only you.”
Kate’s expression softened as Michael kept peppering her with kisses, and she laughed, kissing him back until neither of them was capable of speech at all.
~~~
“Cat got your tongue?”
Wren was pulled out of her reverie by David’s soft voice, and she looked up to see him regarding her over the top of his reading glasses. Tonight they were at David’s apartment, and she had been sitting at the table, twirling some hair around a finger while she stared off into space, lost in thought.
“Sorry.” She offered up a sheepish grin. “I was miles away.”
“I could tell when I asked you what you wanted for dinner, and you didn’t say anything.” David smiled. “That’s gotta be a first.”
“Mm-hmm,” Wren mumbled as she glanced down at her notebook that she had covered in random sketches. Ideas were coming thick and fast this evening, and she was trying to get them all down.
“Okay.” David hauled himself up off the sofa and tossed the paper he’d been reading onto the coffee table. “History can wait. What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Wren said as she flicked the notebook over to a blank page and started to scrawl her initials over and over.
“Right.” David paused and glanced down at the page before giving her a skeptical look. “I’ll order something.”
“Do you ever cook?” Wren asked as she watched him saunter toward the phone and the collection of menus. His 501 jeans were riding low on his hips, and she admired the view as he lifted one side of his T-shirt to scratch his ribs. He moved with the kind of careless grace that she envied.
“I’ve been known to.” David nodded. “I’ll even cook for you some day.”
“Really?” That had Wren putting her pencil down and regarding David with amazement. “And when’s that going to happen?”
“When we’re celebrating,” David replied as he sorted through menus and held one up with a quizzical air. “Tempura?”
“Why not.” Wren waved in agreement. “Celebrating what?”
“Guess we’ll have to wait and find out,” David replied, stopping to drop a kiss on the end of her nose as he carried the phone back to the sofa.
It was too much. Wren got up from the table and followed David, sitting back patiently while he placed an order, leaning forward to put in a request, and smiling when he nodded and ordered extra pickled ginger before she could say anything. As soon as he got off the phone, she pounced. “What? Celebrate what?” She began to tickle him, giggling as David tucked his legs up into his chest in a bid to fend her off.
“Celebrating you, idiot,” he gasped before she let him go.
“Huh?” Wren was shocked into stillness. “What am I going to be doing?”
“What we talked about this morning,” David replied, pushing his hair out of his eyes and giving her a look of fond exasperation. “You can pretend you’ve forgotten about it all you want, but I haven’t.”
“Well,” Wren huffed, “there’s a lot to consider and—”
“And nothing,” David interrupted. “You’ve gotta take a chance on yourself now and then, sweetheart.”
Wren stared at David in amazement. “I wish,” she said at last, “that I could see myself the way you do.”
David stared back at her for a long moment and then pushed his glasses back up his nose. “You’ll need a prescription,” he drawled.
Wren gave a hoot of laughter that turned into a shriek when David lunged forward to push her back against the sofa cushions and began to tickle her in retaliation. Gasping with laughter, she looked at David’s broad smile as he pouted at her in mock sympathy while she writhed and squirmed in a futile bid to get away. She felt as if she was seeing clearly for the first time in her life.
~~~
“Find anything?” Michael appeared at Kate’s shoulder and put a hand on either side of her hips, peering over her shoulder as she chopped some bacon.
“Enough for a Spanish omelet,” Kate replied, turning her head for a quick kiss before she returned her attention back to the ingredients.
“Nice,” Michael said as he nuzzled her neck for another kiss.
“What, the omelet or my neck?” Kate smiled.
“Um, the middle one,” Michael muttered as he nibbled her earlobe.
“Good choice.” Kate smiled.
Michael sighed and rested his chin on her shoulder, softly grinding his hips against her bottom.
“Thank God, you don’t do that in the store,” Kate said
through her smile. “I’d never get anything done.” She could feel Michael’s lips curl into a tomcat grin against her neck. “Back up there, babe. I’ve got to finish this.”
“Woman,” Michael sighed as he released her. “You’ve got nerves of steel.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Kate said, moistening her lips with her tongue as she poured the egg mix into the pan and waited a moment before adding the other ingredients. She shot a sidelong look at Michael and cleared her throat. If he kept looking at her like that, dinner was going to be a burnt offering at best.
Michael strolled back into the living room and occupied himself by checking out Kate’s bookshelves. The books were in no apparent order that he could discern, and he found himself smiling as he saw Tudor history interspersed with travel, Spanish poetry beside Tolkien, even true crime beside … he leaned in closer and turned his head to read the narrow spine.
“The Teach Your Chicken How to Fly Training Manual,” he read aloud slowly, stepping back and shaking his head. “Kate,” he called toward the kitchen, “this chicken book here—”
“It’s from an art exhibition. Keep looking. There are some good ones.”
“M’kay,” Michael murmured, giving the occasional grunt of amusement while he explored the bookshelves.
“Dinner,” Kate announced a short while later as she set down the bowl and plates before returning to the kitchen to get the omelet.
“Find something you like?” Kate said as she sat down.
“Where the hell do you find these?” Michael looked away from the bookshelves, his face bright with curiosity.
“Secondhand bookstores, friends, Bear.” Kate shrugged.
Michael looked at her bookshelves again. If this was the kind of variety that she liked, then no wonder she had been hard pressed to find something to read at his place. An idea niggled at him, but he set it aside to discuss later.
“I’ve got to go book shopping with you sometime,” Michael commented as he put the book aside with slight reluctance and then noticed dinner. “Wow.” He nodded at the dinner offerings. “For someone cooking on the fly, that looks fantastic.”
“Wait until you’ve tried it,” Kate cautioned.
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