Obsessed With You

by Jennifer Ransom

  Cathy decided she did want to talk about it. She told Lindy everything—about the woman who called her, about the photo, and about how Aaron had gone to play golf on a crucial day in their relationship. She even told her about the birthmarks.

  “How did she get your cell phone number?” Lindy asked.

  “I don’t know,” Cathy said. “I’ve never been able to figure that out. Unless she got it while Aaron was asleep or in the bathroom or something.”

  “Assuming that he was really with her,” Lindy said.

  “Right, assuming that.”

  “Do you think he did cheat on you or was somebody out to get him?”

  She was about to answer when Neil came in with a tray of fish fillets. She and Lindy busied themselves with dropping the spoonfuls of batter into the pot of grease and flouring the fish. Neil got a beer and went into the living room. They heard him turn a football game on.

  Cathy whipped up some fresh tartar sauce and everything was ready. As they sat around the kitchen table eating, Cathy said, “We’ve talked about everyone but Zachery. What’s he up to?”

  “You dated him, didn’t you?” Lindy said.

  “All through senior year,” Cathy said. “Of course we weren’t as cute as you and Neil were.”

  Lindy giggled. “We were cute,” she said.

  “And you still are,” Cathy said.

  “Zachery has a trucking company,” Neil said. “He’s made a lot of money from what I hear. We see him sometimes out at the bars.”

  “You should come to the bars with us sometime,” Lindy said. “Sometimes they even have bands.”

  Cathy was exhausted by the time Neil and Lindy left close to eleven. It had been a full day, and she had managed to stop thinking about Aaron through most of it. She slept soundly for the first time since she’d been back home.

  *************************

  On Sunday Cathy followed the sandy path to her grandfather’s house. It had been several days since she’d seen him and she missed him. Eileen was at the stove when she walked through the kitchen door.

  “Hey, sweetie. I hope you’re here for lunch. I’m making beef stew.”

  “I’m definitely here for lunch,” Cathy said. “I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been meaning to call you about your job offer, but I’ve been so busy painting the house.”

  “That offer’s good anytime,” Eileen said. “I can always use you and since it’s part time, you’ll still have plenty of time to do other things. But whatever you want to do is fine by me.”

  “That’s very generous of you, Eileen. I’ll just play it by ear for now, then.”

  “Lunch ready yet?” Grandpa said from the hallway before he was even in the kitchen. “Oh, hey, honey. I didn’t realize you were here.”

  “I’m staying for lunch,” Cathy said.

  A couple of hours later, Cathy walked back home with a full stomach. She had eaten well in the last twenty-four hours. She thought she might skip supper or just have a bowl of soup. It was her choice because she didn’t have to ask anyone else what they wanted to do. Her choice. That was the plus side to being single. She decided to concentrate on the plus sides of it, since that’s what she was living anyway.

  On Monday morning, Cathy jumped out of bed with purpose. She put on some old jeans and a raggedy T-shirt and started painting her bedroom in a dusky green color called Sea Glass. Thankfully, the bedrooms and bathroom had been covered in sheetrock decades before so she didn’t have to deal with the damned slats. Standing on the tall vintage stool from the kitchen, and was able to reach the high places. The cutting in went fairly smoothly with only a few errant strokes on the ceiling. She painted for two hours and when she was done, her room sang songs from the sea. She shoved the bed back into place and lay down on top of the white chenille spread, exhausted.

  Neil came by later that afternoon to inspect her work.

  “Don’t worry about that paint on the ceiling,” he said. “We can cover it up.”

  Cathy painted the other bedroom Oyster Gray on Tuesday. She was driven to paint and get as much done as possible before Thanksgiving on Thursday. On Wednesday, she painted the bathroom a color called Coral Reef.

  And then on Thanksgiving, she rested. She and her grandfather went to the B and B for Thanksgiving dinner. The tables in the dining room had been reconfigured into two long lines of tables placed end to end. Guests and locals filled their plates at the buffet before sitting around the table. Eileen had placed tiny pumpkins and gourds throughout the centers of the tables and lit white candles. It was a beautiful fall feast. Cathy was proud of herself that she only thought about Aaron twice during the day, once when she filled her plate and thought about the dinner she had made the year before and once when she returned home to her empty cottage and wondered how he had spent the day.

  The weeks through the holiday season didn’t exactly fly by, but they were filled. Cathy finished painting all of the rooms, including the kitchen and the cabinets. Neil stopped by some days to help her out. Sometimes, Lindy was with him, sometimes not.

  One day, close to Christmas, Cathy went to Lindy’s shop. Wooden wheelbarrows and various planters full of poinsettias sat outside by the front door. Inside, it was so colorful with vintage fabrics and furniture that Cathy didn’t know where to look next. Lindy rushed over to her. She was always excited to see Cathy, always so full of life. Cathy really envied that quality in her.

  Lindy showed her around the shop and then took her upstairs to show her the apartment where she and Neil lived. It was a cozy love nest, decorated completely in vintage. Cathy knew that Neil and Lindy didn’t have much money, but it didn’t seem to matter.

  Back downstairs, Lindy motioned Cathy to a little tea table and said she’d be right back with some tea and cookies.

  When she returned a few minutes later, she set a flowered teapot on the table and poured the tea into matching cups.

  “I’ve got some news,” Lindy said. “You’re the first to know.” She held out her hand. The diamond on her finger flashed in the well-lit room.

  “I’m so happy for you!” Cathy said getting up and giving Lindy a hug. “Have you set the date?”

  “We’re thinking in the spring or early summer. Neil doesn’t want to wait. He said he let me get away once and he’s not taking that chance again.” She giggled. “He proposed last night and we’re going to tell our parents tonight. But I wanted you to be the first to know since you’re our best friend.”

  Cathy was best friends with a couple. That was unusual, but she never felt like a third wheel around them. She felt she was somehow a part of their relationship, as weird as that idea was.

  “I’m honored that you told me first,” Cathy said. She felt tears in her eyes and willed them not to fall.

  “Hey, girl,” Lindy said. “I didn’t mean for this to upset you.”

  “I’m not upset,” Cathy protested. “I’m so happy for you both. You’re my best friends. You’ve helped me more than I can say.”

  “I’ve been thinking about the things you told me,” Lindy said. “And some things just don’t add up.”

  “Like what?” Cathy asked.

  “Like how she got your cell number when you said it wasn’t public.”

  “I told you how that might’ve happened.”

  “Yeah, I know. But it doesn’t seem like you really think Aaron was capable of cheating on you.”

  “I thought he wasn’t, but I had no choice but to think he was after everything was said and done.”

  “Right,” she said taking a sip of her tea.

  “We’re going to Pandora’s on New Year’s Eve,” Lindy said changing the subject. “Wanna come with us?”

  “What’s Pandora’s?”

  “It’s a bar on the coast. They’re going to have a band and there’ll be dancing and everything. We can bring in 2014 in style!”

  “Okay,” Cathy said. She didn’t have anything better to do and it would be good to be distracted from thinkin
g about Aaron and their New Year’s Eve the previous year. They had spent the evening at an expensive hotel restaurant before returning to her townhouse to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Later, while they were making love, Aaron told her he loved her for the first time.

  “Earth to Cathy,” Lindy said.

  “Oh, sorry,” Cathy said. “That sounds like fun.” She suddenly felt so lonely.

  On the drive back to the cottage, she thought about her sapphire engagement ring she had left on the bathroom counter. Had Aaron now sold the ring? What had happened to it?

  She was crying by the time she pulled up to the cottage. Unfortunately, Neil’s truck was there and he was leaning against it. Cathy tried to compose herself and paste a smile on her face.

  “Hey,” she said getting out of her car.

  “Hey. I came by to give you some news.”

  Cathy burst into tears. She was so ashamed of herself for doing that, but she couldn’t stop it.

  “Hey, now,” Neil said. “What’s wrong?” He put his arm around her and she cried big tears against his chest.

  “Let’s get you inside,” Neil said leading her toward the door. “I’m going to call Lindy to come over. You look like you need to talk.”

  “No! I don’t want to ruin Lindy’s big day,” Cathy said.

  “I see she’s already told you,” Neil said. “She never could keep a secret.”

  Neil sat Cathy on the couch and called Lindy.

  “Hey, babe,” he said into the phone. He called her babe, too. That made Cathy cry even harder. She didn’t even hear the rest of Neil’s conversation with Lindy.

  “She’ll be here in a few minutes,” Neil said. “I’m going to get you a glass of wine while we wait. Got any wine?”

  Cathy motioned toward the kitchen.

  Neil came back with a glass of wine for her and a beer for himself.

  “I’m sorry, Neil,” Cathy said. “Everything just sort of hit me all at once. I’m really happy for you and Lindy. Very happy.”

  “I know you are,” Neil said. “It’s gotta be hard to see us get engaged, though. We should’ve thought about that.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have.”

  A few minutes later Lindy burst through the front door without knocking. She took one look at Cathy and dropped her purse on the floor to run sit by her on the couch.

  “I’m sorry, Cathy,” Lindy said. “I was so happy about our getting engaged that I didn’t think about your feelings.”

  Cathy decided then and there that Neil and Cathy were the best friends she had ever had. The both of them were saints, angels on earth, or something like that. And they were so right for each other. She’d never seen a better pairing.

  “I’m ecstatic for you both, really I am,” Cathy said. “I don’t want you to feel responsible at all for my falling apart. It’s my own history, not yours.”

  Lindy put her arm around Cathy’s shoulders. “I’m here to listen if you wanna talk,” she said. “Or we’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want.”

  Neil stood up. “I need to run an errand,” he said. “I’ll see you later, babe, and you too, Cathy.”

  After Neil shut the front door, Cathy said, “Lindy, I’m okay. I don’t want to ruin your happy day with my tears that have nothing to do with you.”

  “You couldn’t ruin my day if you tried, sister,” Lindy said.

  So Cathy told Lindy about the last New Year’s Eve and about her engagement ring on the bathroom counter. “Last New Year’s was the happiest day of my life, to have Aaron say he loved me. He could have a lot of women, a lot more sophisticated than me, but he wanted me. Me.” She held her hand up to her chest. “I believed him.”

  “I happen to think you’re a good judge of character,” Lindy said. “I don’t think you believed in him for no reason.”

  “I’m confused about everything,” Cathy said.

  They talked a few more minutes before Cathy shooed Lindy out to get ready for her big night of telling the parents about their engagement.

  “I’ll be seeing you soon,” Lindy said at the door. “And you don’t have to go with us on New Year’s Eve if you’re not up to it. You can think on it.”

  Cathy had experienced some sad Christmases in her life. After her father died, then her grandmother, then her mother. The holidays seemed to be more about loss than anything, and now she was feeling it again. She didn’t get a tree for her cottage, but she half-heartedly helped Grandpa decorate a tree and attended a tree-trimming party at the B and B. She kept it together, but just barely. She was glad when Christmas was over. She’d be even happier when New Year’s came and went.

  On New Year’s Eve morning, Lindy called to ask Cathy if she was going out with them.

  “I think I will,” she said. “I’ll try not to be too much of a drag.”

  Lindy laughed. “If you fall, we’ll catch you,” she said.

  Pandora’s was crowded when they arrived around ten. The band blared from an area in the corner and people were practically wall-to-wall with drinks in their hands and pointed hats on their heads. They stood at the bar and ordered drinks—beer for Neil and margaritas for Cathy and Lindy.

  “Neil’s going to keep his drinking down so we can have fun,” Lindy shouted in Cathy’s ear. Was there ever any end to Neil’s good-heartedness?

  They stood at the bar for a few minutes to get their bearings. The band played songs by The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, then newer ones by The Dave Matthews Band and Jason Mraz.

  “Do you mind if I take Lindy out for a dance?” Neil shouted in her ear.

  “Of course not! Please do!” Cathy said. She felt bad that Neil felt he had to ask her if it was okay if he and Lindy had a dance. But she knew he didn’t want to leave her alone unless it was okay.

  Cathy looked around the bar while they were gone, but it was so packed she couldn’t see much. She could definitely hear. The band was loud. Someone near her left a barstool and she grabbed it. She was staring at the bottles of liquor on the wall when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

  Lindy stood there all smiles with Zachery on her arm. “Look who I found,” Lindy shouted.

  Cathy smiled at Zachery and he smiled back at her. “This girl’s crazy, you know,” he said motioning at Lindy.

  “I know that,” Cathy shouted.

  Neil came up beside Lindy and took her off for another dance, leaving Zachery and Cathy alone, if you could call it that in the crowded bar.

  “It’s good to see those brown eyes again,” Zachery shouted.

  Cathy just smiled. It was too hard to talk. Zachery was looking very fit. He had been good looking in high school, but had grown into a very handsome man with nice brown hair and the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Somehow, she had forgotten his eyes until that very moment.

  “Let’s dance,” Zachery said, putting his drink on the bar. He led her to the crowded dance area and took her possessively in his arms. Since when did Zachery learn how to dance? But he had learned, and he moved her around like an expert through several songs. He twirled her and held her close. He leaned her down and pulled her up. Cathy was surprised to find herself laughing, all night long.

  Zachery stayed with Cathy and Lindy and Neil. When the countdown to midnight started, he leaned down and kissed Cathy at the stroke of midnight. She kissed him back.

  Chapter Nine

  Aaron stared at his three computer screens that told him what was happening in the stock market. It was his business to know that, for his clients and for himself. He traded stocks for his clients, but he traded options and stocks for himself. He was good at it, like everything he’d ever done in his life. Except for Cathy.

  After Cathy left, Aaron kicked himself for leaving to play a golf game on that last morning. If he hadn’t made business his priority, Cathy might still be there with him. They had a big struggle to get through over the woman who was calling her, but he believed he would have gotten to the bottom of that. His leaving that morning made it
impossible for anything to be worked out.

  His mother cried when he called her to tell her the wedding was called off. She knew him better than anyone, and knew he had waited to get married until he found the right person. When she asked him what happened he told her the truth. She was too straightforward of a person to accept anything else. He respected her too much to lie to her about it. His father, too. His parents had given him the gift of character, and it didn’t matter how much money he made or didn’t make, his character was all that mattered.

  He called all of his friends and family members who were going to attend the wedding and told them the news. It was painful and difficult to avoid their questions. But he did it. He also cancelled the trip to Jamaica, which pained him more than anything. Aaron was a seasoned traveler, but Cathy was not and she had been excited about going to Jamaica.

  After he’d done his job, canceling everything he was responsible for, Aaron took off the rest of the week—the week before the wedding—and the following week, which would have been his honeymoon.

  The house he had bought was empty and vast, but he had nowhere else to stay. It seemed ostentatious to him now, a big status symbol just because he had the money. He wondered if Cathy would have been happy there in the long term. It was a beautiful house designed in his favorite style, but was it Cathy’s favorite style? Had he pushed the house on her? He wasn’t sure now.

  On what would have been their wedding day, Aaron texted Cathy. She didn’t respond back to him and that didn’t surprise him, though it hurt him to his core. He drank scotch until he passed out. The rest of that honeymoon week was pretty much a blur to him. He slept, he drank, he ordered take-out, he drank, and he slept.

  When he returned to work at the end of October, he was aggravated to see Halloween decorations on the secretary’s desks and hanging in the hallway. He was further irritated to see the annual ceramic pumpkin full of candy on Marsha’s desk as he passed by. Marsha smiled at him when she saw him walking her way, but he bypassed her without eye contact. He felt bad about that later.