“Get out of here. What school?”
“She has a degree in journalism from Columbia University.” Cathy twirled her fork.
“Wow, and she works freelance for gossip tabloids?” Anna asked.
“Hey, that’s where the money is.” Cathy shrugged.
“Can’t knock the hustle,” Madison said between sips of coffee.
“Not to mention she gave Cathy the scoop on Cybil.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me Cybil is shooting a movie in Baltimore. However, her shoot isn’t near Camden Yards. It’s in another part of the city.”
“So she made a special trip to Camden Yards to be near Marcus.”
“So it appears.”
“I wouldn’t sweat it. We’ll be in Tampa in two days.”
“And so will Marcus.”
“I know, guys. You don’t have to try to make me feel better. I’m not worried about it.”
“Good. So how about we order dessert then get the hell out of Dodge?” Madison said.
Cathy had avoided relationships for nearly three years for this very reason: They made her vulnerable. In this case, it also made her fodder for the gossip columns and entertainment news shows. Anna and Marcus knew better than to believe her.
After dessert they paid the check and went home. The evening’s events had made Madison more tired than he thought so he went straight to bed. Anna had some numbers to crunch on her laptop for a little while before turning in.
As for Cathy, she had the Yankee post game report on. The final score was 9-3 in favor of the men in pinstripes, which made her very happy. The only thing that would have made her happier was a call from Marcus, especially in light of the information she had learned about Cybil over lunch. Knowing that she was in town and was making it her business to see Marcus drove Cathy nuts. So to take her mind off things she committed a cardinal bedroom sin: She grabbed a Publisher’s Weekly from her office to read.
Just then the phone rang and in her rush to get it she slammed her toe on the desk. “Hello?”
“Hey, sweetie. Are you okay?”
Cathy sucked up the pain. “I’m fine, honey.” Cathy was relieved to hear Marcus’s voice. “So you guys won?”
`“Yeah. You didn’t see the game?”
“I have to catch the re-broadcast tomorrow morning. We had a little family situation.”
“Are the boys all right?” He was concerned.
Cathy was touched by his tone. “The boys are good. My cousin Madison had something happen and Anna and I were with him for the evening.”
“Oh, it sounds serious.”
“It was. You know he’s a divorce attorney, right?”
“Yeah.”
“He had some trouble with a client’s ex-husband. The guy was trying to hide money and property from the wife and Madison found it.”
“I bet that didn’t go over too well with the ex.”
“Not at all. The guy went ballistic and tonight was the last straw. He broke into Madison’s apartment and was still there when Madison got home.”
“Oh my God. Was your cousin hurt?”
“No, thank God. He knew something was awry and called the police before going inside.”
“Good. So they arrested the guy?”
“Yeah. We spent most of the evening at the police station. Then we stopped at the diner to get something to eat. It was too late to cook.”
“Sounds like you had an eventful evening.”
“Pretty much.” She sighed. “I am really looking forward to Friday.”
“Me, too. I miss you so much.”
“I miss you, too.”
“So you’ll be touching down in Tampa around one or two?”
“Something like that. Oh, that reminds me, I’d better set up a car rental.”
“I can take care of that for you. You want me to put it under your name?”
“Sure.”
“Is Avis okay?”
“Perfect.” She smiled even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “So how did you do tonight?”
“I went 2 for 4, not exactly a stellar performance.”
“I’m sure you performed quite well, you always do.”
“Are we still talking about baseball?” Marcus said coyly.
Cathy laughed. “Mr. Fox!”
“Well, are we?” he playfully insisted.
“That was the case a few minutes ago. Now I’m not so sure.”
“It’s not easy to concentrate on the topic at hand for me. I think about you all the time. After the game I can’t wait to call so I can hear that sexy voice I love so much.” He paused. “God, I miss you.”
“I think about you all the time, too. And I love hearing your voice. It’s so deep and sexy.”
“So, Ms. Chambers, should we talk about it now or later?”
“Talk about what?” She wasn’t sure what ‘it’ he was referring to.
“Us. We’ve talked nearly every night since I’ve been on the road but we have been avoiding a certain ‘L’ word and I don’t mean the show.”
“Thank God.” Cathy breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you meant phone sex.”
He laughed. “Have you ever even had phone sex?” “No,” she quietly answered.
“You’re kidding me. With your voice?” He was flabbergasted.
Unlike most people who explain why they had phone sex, Cathy had to explain why she hadn’t. “I know. I have the voice of a 900-telephone sex operator. However, in my own defense, I was celibate for such a long time that I decided I preferred the real thing.”
“When you put it that way, I get it.”
“Good. So now I don’t feel like too much of an odd ball. Anyway, honey, we’re off the subject you wanted to talk about.”
“Oh yes, the ‘L’ word.”
“Frankly I’m really surprised you brought it up.”
“Why?”
“In my experience, albeit limited, men don’t bring up this topic much. Or at least that’s what most women’s magazines say.”
“It’s time to get rid of the elephant in the room. We both said ‘I love you’ Sunday morning. Granted, it was said in the throes of passion, but nonetheless we said it.”
“I know.”
“It’s been on my mind ever since and I didn’t want you to think it’s something I take lightly or even say easily.”
“I didn’t want to bring it up just in case it fell under the category of spontaneous orgasmic utterances.”
“Was it a spontaneous utterance for you?”
“No.”
“It wasn’t for me, either. I love you, Cathy. I’m in love with you.”
She felt a tear roll down her cheek. “I’m in love with you, too, Marcus.”
“Sure you can’t change your flight to Thursday?”
“I wish I could but I’ve already booked the flight and I have a ton of things to do to get ready for the weekend.”
“I guess I have to take another cold shower and go 3 for 4 at bat.”
She laughed. “I’m making cinnamon rolls tomorrow morning.”
“We both have energy to re-direct.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Game time is 7:00 P.M. on Friday and you’re getting in around one or so.”
“Right.”
“I’d love to see you before the game.”
“I’d love to see you, but don’t you have to get to the stadium for the warm-up and pre-game?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“Okay. How about we play it by ear then?”
“Fine, I’m cool with that. We’ll play it by ear.”
“Good. Well, it’s almost the witching hour and you have an afternoon game to wrap up the series.”
“Right.”
“I’ll be watching.”
“I’ll call you after the game. I love you.”
“I love you. Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Okay, babe.”
Tonight was a first fo
r Cathy; she cried happy tears over a man. Marcus Fox had said he loved her. His simple confession of love wiped away a lifetime of heartache. Maybe God isn’t punishing me after all, Cathy thought.
CHAPTER 21
As promised, Cathy made cinnamon rolls first thing Wednesday morning. Her sister and cousin groaned and complained about their ‘nonexistent’ expanding waistlines. Out of the baker’s dozen she made, five were gone by the time she got out of the shower.
Cathy had a lot of ground to cover for the office, which was why she called in her trusty sometimes assistant David to work with her for the day. He was one of the few people who could work with her in her home office. Cathy had tried to be very civic and community minded by offering the opportunity to young people in high school but it hadn’t worked out. She could live with them singing the alphabet song to organize the filing system. What she couldn’t live with was that the filing would still be out of order and it would take her twice as long to get anything accomplished.
David Macmillan was actually an attorney who did a lot of volunteer work for different charitable and political organizations. He and Cathy became friends during the Democratic Convention in ’96. Deep down she thought he was going to eventually bring her the great American novel. In the meantime, he was a hotshot international corporate attorney who set his price and his own hours. At 6’4, a trim 200 pounds, with sandy brown hair and light brown eyes, he wasn’t hard on the eyes. He was off limits, however. He was married to his work.
There was a knock at the door at nine. He was as punctual as ever.
“Come on in!” Cathy shouted from the living room.
“Mmm, it smells wonderful in here.” He walked into the living room with coffee from Dunkin Donuts.
“There are cinnamon rolls in the kitchen, handsome.”
He gave her a peck on the cheek. “You look different in a good way. What’s going on, boss?”
“You don’t know?”
“No. That’s why I’m asking. I was in Europe for nearly two weeks. I just got back a couple of days ago.”
“Oh, that explains it.”
“Explains what? You’re killing me here.”
“Tell you what. Grab a couple of cinnamon rolls and I’ll fill you in.”
“Sounds interesting. I’ll be right back.”
When he returned, Cathy filled him in on everything that had happened in her little corner of the world.
He seemed astonished. “When you decide you’re going to date again, you don’t mess around.”
She laughed. “I couldn’t have found a better man if I’d planned it. No disrespect to you, my darling.”
“None taken. Are you planning any legal action against the newspaper for running that full of crap article?”
“E.D. called Frank about it. I haven’t heard anything since.”
“Tell you what. I’ll get in touch with Frank sometime this week or by Monday at the latest to see if we can get together to handle this for you. I can only imagine how you felt, retraction or no retraction.”
“It was awful and I’d like to put it behind me.”
“You should. But as long as you’re dating a high profile baseball player like Marcus Fox, there will be no rest until the end of baseball season, we can only hope then.”
“I love baseball season.”
“I know you love your Yankees.”
“I have to take the good with the bad.”
He looked into Cathy’s eyes. “You’re not just dating him; you’re in love.”
“Is it that obvious?” Cathy wondered if she had something written on her forehead.
“I knew there was something different about you. I guess I’ll just continue to pine away for you.”
She playfully tossed her napkin at him. “You are so full of it. You’re married to your career and if I’m not mistaken, you’ve had your share of beautiful women to keep you warm.”
“True. But none of them are as warm as you.”
Cathy scoffed. “That’s because I weigh more than 110 pounds soaking wet. Bones tend to get cold and I am in no danger of that happening to me.”
“You know I hate it when you talk about yourself like that. You’ve always been comfortable in your skin and that’s what impressed me the most about you.”
“Marcus said the same thing.”
“See. Great minds think alike.” He sipped his coffee. “So before we get into any more chatting, what’s the project for today?”
“We’re having a little power struggle problem.” “Beatrice and Sandra, right?”
“However did you guess?” she asked facetiously. “I take it she needs another little call from counsel.” “Would you please?”
As an international attorney David knew his way around contractual negotiations. Legal insiders referred to him as the terminator, so having him assist in negotiations was a real plus for all of the agency’s clients.
“Consider it done.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll give you a call to let you know how it went.”
“Cool. I’ll be around on Thursday but I’m leaving Friday for the weekend.”
David pretended to faint.
“Ha, very funny. It hasn’t been that long since I’ve taken a weekend off.”
“You mean a real weekend? Dropping the kids off at college doesn’t count.”
Why does everyone keep saying that to me? She thought about it. “Okay, you win. It’s been a long time.”
“If ever.”
“Now you’re taking it too far. Can you do me a favor and get Jennifer’s file from upstairs so we can work on making sure she’s straightened out before the publisher gets the materials? Thank you, darling.”
“Back in a minute.”
He sprinted up the stairs. Within a minute he was back.
He sat down and opened the files. “There’s a lot of stuff here.”
“I know. I want to get it in order.”
“Of course Jennifer has all this stuff, right? And this is your ‘just in case’ backup file.”
“I am very well aware of just how anal I am. You are too.”
He started sorting. “Ain’t that the truth?”
She threw a paper clip at him.
“Hey.”
They worked quietly for a few minutes.
“How’s your brother doing?”
He slowed down. “He’s okay. He has his good and bad days. You know the story.”
“Now ain’t that the truth?”
“Now who’s being a smarty pants?”
She chuckled. “All kidding aside, David, how are things really going?”
David’s younger brother had MS. A few years ago his relapses had become more frequent and each time he was left a little bit worse off. David made sure his brother had the best care possible. He was a good big brother.
“The doctor says he thinks the physical therapy is helping.”
“Good.”
“Brian wants to join one of the programs at the Y. I’m not so sure about it.”
“What did his neurologist say? I’m sure you asked him.”
“He think it’s a good idea for him physically and socially.”
“He’s right, you know. The programs are terrific and it will give him a chance to socialize.”
“How do you know about the programs?”
“I used to take Alex and Andrew to the Y for swimming and I saw the classes in session. It looked like great fun to me. My pilates instructor, Mo, works with MS patients too. She’s really good.”
“Really?”
“And she’s on the north shore, which isn’t far from you.”
“Jot down the name and number before I leave.”
“I will.”
“So the programs are good?”
“Oh yes. Since he’s in a wheelchair all he’ll need is someone to go with him.”
“Good deal.”
David and Cathy worked the rest of the morning and into the afternoo
n. She threw together a little pasta carbonara for lunch with mixed greens and apple fritters for dessert. She might not pay David with money but he was a bachelor, which meant he went months without a home cooked meal. This way they both got something good out of the deal. David had a date with one of his ladies, so they finished everything by the early part of the afternoon.
v
Cathy broke down and went to the mall a little later in the afternoon. If she had a choice, she preferred to shop during the week. Weekends at the mall were not her thing. She wasn’t crazy about playing chicken with her car in the parking lot. In light of her scheduled trip, Cathy felt the need to visit Victoria’s Secret to add a few more colors to her lingerie collection.
An energetic salesperson greeted her as she entered. She lingered over some pretty nighties and penoir sets, even though Cathy knew she couldn’t get her left boob in one, let alone the rest of her body. So on to the panty displays she went. Though she was not much for bikinis, she refused to put on old lady underwear. Cathy perused the table of high cut briefs, which were a little sexy for her size, and picked up ten pair. While she was standing in line she noticed two young ladies picking over the same display.
“Do they have any in extra small?” “They are some over here if you ladies would like to look.” The salesperson led them away.
“Thank God,” Cathy mumbled.
“I’m with you,” the woman behind her said.
Cathy turned around. “I don’t think I ever wore extra small, even when I was a kid.”
“They are so obviously PBB. Pre-baby bodies.”
She laughed. “I never heard that before.”
“Everything about them at that age is perky, from their attitude to their boobs.”
“I’m just happy the panties go up to a large and extra large. Big girls like the little pink shopping bag, too,” Cathy added.
The woman laughed and the cashier smiled. Cathy had been so centered on her size that she’d nearly forgotten that there were more women like her than women like Cybil. If there were more women like Cybil, Cathy thought, she’d probably be out of a job. Only in America could the media make women who are in the majority feel like second-class citizens.
v
On her way out of the mall Cathy slowed down long enough to notice there were a few new stores, including one for the younger plus size woman. She looked at the display window; it was good to see someone finally address this need. Girls needed to look like girls, young and pretty, not like little matrons. As she looked at the outfits, Cathy thought even she could get away with a couple of them.
Not His Type Page 30