“If it makes you feel any better, I agree with you.” Alex picked up his head.
Bristling, Kat frowned. “Why do you want to make me feel better?”
“Because in case you missed it, I’m forty-six and unmarried with no children. I’ve been through my fair share of speculation and set-ups.” He shook his head, rolling his eyes.
Breath hitched in her throat. He didn’t know how much it meant to her that he’d just said that. That he’d understood her. That he’d made her feel like she was not alone, that she was not the only one fighting this battle every day.
It was a powerful moment.
Finally, after all these years, somebody got her. Somebody understood where she was coming from and where she wanted to go and accepted that.
Alex continued talking. Although New York City was sprawled in front of her eyes, the only thing she could see right now was Alex’s face. “The ideals that we deeply believe in, I don’t think we can change them. And I don’t think we should change them, either.”
“Yeah.” Kat hit her head against the silver blob of metal, when she straightened.
When she looked ahead, she realized her eyes were blurred with water.
You’re probably the only woman in the world who can get sentimental over something like this.
The reaction caught her by surprise, but before she could ponder, her phone started ringing. The caller ID showed ‘Sister’.
That wasn’t a call she could miss.
“My sister’s calling. Mind if I—”
“Go ahead.” Alex bent down, taking his turn at the binoculars.
Kat moved a few steps away to avoid disturbing him.
“Kitty Kat.” Her sister’s over-enthusiastic voice blasted into her ears like a chorus of trumpets.
“I told you to stop calling me that,” Kat barked at her sister. “And why’re you up in the middle of the night?”
“It’s afternoon in Melbourne.”
Kat inhaled. “Sorry, I forgot you’re playing at the Australian Open. How’s it going so far?”
“I won my first game!” From the loud thud of feet, Keira was jumping up and down in joy. “Can you believe it? Coach is real pleased with me.”
“Congratulations. That’s amazing. I’m so proud of you,” Kat gushed, moving the phone to her her other ear.
Keira had always been immensely talented at tennis, but she’d never played a tournament as big as the Australian Open before. Kat was a bit awed that she’d won her first match.
“Watch out.” Alex turned back over his shoulder when she bumped into him.
His voice was exactly what Keira needed to launch into an ear-piercing squeak. “Kat, why’re you with a guy? I mean, OMG, you’re with a guy? A guy?”
Kat hid her embarrassment under layers of fake calm. “Shut up. He’s a colleague.”
“A colleague who’s sleeping with you? Because otherwise what would he be doing with you at your house past midnight?” Keira’s voice held unbridled hope.
Heat sizzled Kat’s cheeks, even though Alex couldn’t hear anything her sister was saying.
“I’m not at home. I’m somewhere else,” she mumbled, keeping her voice low.
“His home?”
Kat grunted. “The Empire State Building.”
“You’re with a guy on the Empire State Building at two am. That sounds alarmingly like a date, sis. I’m curious. Is he hot? Cute? Rich? What’s his name?”
There she went, jumping to conclusions.
Kat swept her out-of-control red hair behind her ear. “Let’s talk about your game. Tell me the score. How badly did you beat...whoever you were playing against?”
Unlike her father, she could not be bothered to keep tabs of who Keira was playing against.
“No, let’s talk about this guy. The game’s over and I’ve won. You know what? Bring him to dinner. I’ll be home in a month and I want to see him. I bet Mom wants to, too. She doesn’t say it because she doesn’t want to hurt you, but like the rest of us, she hopes you won’t die alone.”
“Keira, stop it,” Kat chided.
“I’ll stop. Just let me talk to him. One minute. I want to hear his voice. Please, please, please. Let me, let me, let me.”
Keira talking in triplets was not a good sign. Usually, this meant she kept going on and on until she got what she wanted. Which right now was talking to Alex.
“Okay, one sec.” Kat gave in, knowing she couldn’t win. “Alex, do you mind just saying a quick hello to my sister?” She needed an excuse. “She...supports you for mayor and she has a few questions.”
Bullshit. Keira didn’t know enough about politics to support anyone or ask questions.
“’Kay.” Alex nodded.
“Her name’s Keira. I’ll turn on speaker mode.” Kat gave him some details to put things in context.
“Hello… Keira.” Alex hesitated.
“OMG, he has such a sexy voice. I think I’m melting.” Since Keira’s volume rose in proportion to her excitement, it was approaching deafening decibels now. “Good catch, sis.”
Alex couldn’t smother his laugh and Kat couldn’t help her face from exploding into a splotch of red. This gave mortifying a new meaning.
“Thanks. I’ll take it from here,” Kat said, salvaging whatever dignity she had remaining.
Turning off the speaker, Kat shouted at her sister. “What are you doing? Why are you embarrassing me? I told you he’s a colleague.”
“Come on. How long are you going to hide it?” Keira remained totally unapologetic. Sometimes, it was hard to believe that Keira was fourteen because she acted so immature.
“I’m not hiding anything. And you’d better not go around spreading rumors. Alex is a public figure and he doesn’t need any trouble.”
“See, you’re protecting him. That’s a sign,” Keira insisted.
“It’s not a sign. It’s your imagination running wild.”
Keira made a screechy sound. “I’m gonna tell Dad. He’ll be overjoyed.”
“No, he won’t. He’ll know you’re making it up, because when he calls me I’ll tell him that you are.”
“You called him Alex. Common name, but I think Max will be able to trace him.” The Max Keira referred to was a professional hacker and one of her best friends. Don’t even get her started on the kind of people Keira associated with.
“Ugh,” Kat’s annoyance boiled. Keira could become really fixated on trivial things sometimes. “I’m hanging up because I can take no more of this. Good night.”
“It’s afternoon here—”
“Good afternoon.” Kat stomped her foot, huffing.
Alex’s gaze was pinned on her, like he’d been watching her for some time.
Get down to the explanation.
She tried to be cool about the whole thing, which required acting abilities beyond her range. “Sorry. My sister’s really immature. I keep hoping she’ll grow up, but she’s reverse-aging instead.”
“How old is your sister?” Alex kneaded the back of his neck.
“Fourteen. There’s a huge age gap between us. My parents had her after I went off to college and they got lonely. I joke about it sometimes. I mean, if I’d gotten knocked up at eighteen, I could’ve been her mother.” She lifted her head to the sky. “But I became her sister instead. Which is wonderful, because like I was discussing a second earlier, I don’t want to be a mother.”
“I remember.” He cocked his head and checked his phone. “Breaking news. The Senate just passed the stalled startup visa.”
“Really?” Kat stuck her nose into his phone’s screen. “Wow. How did that happen?”
“I wish I’d been there to witness it,” Alex commented.
Before she knew it, they were somehow discussing Alex’s time at House of Representatives, the situation in Syria, the Chinese economy and the new healthcare reform making its way through Congress.
Talking to someone about such issues wasn’t something she’d ever imagined herself
doing, but now that she was doing it, she couldn’t believe how amazing it felt. Liberating.
All her life, she’d felt odd for caring about things nobody else cared about. Dinner-table conversations in her family usually revolved around Keira’s career or her parents’ plans, not national policy. And with her friends Bella and Ashley, it inevitably ended up being about girly stuff. Politics was something most people stayed away from, not embraced.
But like her, Alex was also concerned about world issues, which was unsurprising since he was in politics, but also surprising in a way, because Kat had never expected there to be so much in common between them.
“I think we should go.” Minutes later, Alex tapped her. She’d started spacing out in the midst of talking about the disastrous GOP presidential debate.
Nodding, Kat got behind him, slinking away from the observatory.
There was a lone, sleepy lady in the elevator when they got into it. Wishing them a happy trip, she pushed the button that would send Kat and Alex back to the lowest floor.
“Are you free on Sunday?” Alex’s voice cut through Bjork’s lyrics playing on the car stereo once they were on the road. They both decided to be safe and take a cab.
“I am. Why?” Allowing herself to engage in wishful thinking, Kat wished he’d ask her out, even if only for coffee.
His hand found hers and thought he barely touched her, Kat’s cells came alive. “Do you want to volunteer with me?”
“For your campaign?” Disappointment was layered in her voice.
“No, at a group home for young boys. I help out over there every Sunday, with a bunch of other volunteers, but we’re short of people this week. I’d understand if you want to spend your Saturday doing something more interesting—”
“Count me in.” Without another thought, Kat squeezed his palm.
Today was the day of impulsive actions, after all, so what was one more?
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
I want to see you again. Even as she thought it, she knew that after she saw him again, she’d want to see him again. And there wouldn’t be an excuse for seeing him so many times.
In a highly unexpected move, Alex caressed her wrist. “Thank you.”
Once again, Kat felt that odd warmth from earlier. Except this time, it wasn’t between her legs where it tingled.
It was in her chest.
The panic calls started at six am the next day. The first to call was Bella, since only Bella watched six am news.
“Kat, what happened? I saw you on TV and… I couldn’t believe it.” Bella inhaled, teeth chattering. “Are you okay? Were you hurt? Did you go to the police? Should I come over now? I should probably come over.”
Kat rubbed her watery, sleep-deprived eyes. She’d gotten home at three am, so she’d had barely three hours of rest. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’m leaving for work soon.”
Good thing Bella had called her and woken her up, or she’d have overslept.
“You don’t sound good. Were you crying all night? Why didn’t you call me? Oh, my goodness, I feel so guilty for not having called you last week. If I’d checked up, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Tripping over the bedsheet, Kat managed to somehow land on her feet. “Stop guilt-tripping yourself, Bell. You were busy and you had better things to do. How was your trip to London?”
“It was great. I got you loads of souvenirs. But that’s irrelevant. Tell me what you need. Kleenex? Food? My warmth? A life sentence for your molester? My cousin’s a lawyer, you know…”
Kat hissed. “I need to brush my teeth, shower and go to work.”
Finding her way to the bathroom, Kat picked out her pink toothbrush from her even-brighter pink toothbrush holder. Yup, she had a hidden girly side, which she was totally entitled to.
“Can’t you take a day off? We’ll watch movies and eat tons of ice cream. It’ll make you feel better,” Bella continued. Bella’s only way of dealing with adversity was ice cream and movies.
“I can’t take another day off work,” Kat mumbled, squirting toothpaste. “And hang up now. I have to brush my teeth.”
“You’re not going to cry your eyes out as soon as I hang up, are you?”
Her head felt heavy and her eyes wanted to return to the darkness of sleep, but she soldiered on, connecting the toothbrush with her teeth. “Have you ever seen me cry my eyes out?”
Bella considered for a second. “Fair point, but even if you’re usually unemotional, this is a serious issue. I can’t predict how you’d react.”
“I’m all right,” Kat drawled, followed by a yawn. Lazily, she spat out some of the foam in her mouth.
“All right is not a strong adjective.” Bella growled.
Slightly dizzy, Kat caught onto the side of the basin for support. “You’re going to nitpick me over adjective choice?”
“I need to make sure you’re not saying things you don’t mean.”
“Okay, I’ll try again. I feel so great I’m going to start shouting from the rooftop any minute. Did the metaphor do it for you?” Gargling, she spat out the toothpaste, along with all other residue, and swiped a towel over her wet mouth.
“You have a really bad sense of humor. But, if you say you’re okay, I guess I have to believe you.”
“Bye. I’ll see you on Saturday at Ashley’s.” Taking advantage of the natural pause, Kat hung up. Then, she set the phone on the cabinet above the basin and washed her face.
Showering, she decided to stop by her parents’ place on the way to work. Not because she wanted to clear things up with them, but because she just wanted to see them.
A girl in a big city could get homesick easily. Usually, Kat didn’t encourage herself to think like that, because she’d achieved this independence with great effort, but once in a while, it was okay to admit that she wasn’t all that grown up after all.
Her parents were ready and primed for her arrival when she walked into their house at eight-thirty.
The best thing about her mom and dad was that they remained cool and unaffected, no matter what the scale of the disaster. With her mom’s health issues, they’d seen the entire spectrum of bad and sad over the last few years, making Kat’s problems look tiny in comparison.
So when her dad greeted her at the doorway, he did it in his usual style—by pulling her into an unabashedly parental hug before she could fully squeeze in through the door. “Hey, what a surprise.”
Kat wasn’t a sentimental girl, but when her cheeks touched his T-shirt and she inhaled the comforting scent of him, her eyes misted. Yes, she was thirty-two but she was still attached to her parents. “Your mom and I just finished listening to you on the news. I didn’t know you’d colored your hair red.”
“It’s recent.” She gave her hair a proud shake. “Did you hear about Keira’s victory at the Open yesterday?”
“Very proud of her. She’s playing Holst today. I bet she’ll win again.” Her dad rattled off some statistics about Keira’s opponent for the day.
Since Keira had begun to play at a professional level, her father had become the most avid tennis fan. Five years ago, he couldn’t have named a single tennis player except Roger Federer.
Kat skipped into the living room, where her mom’s back was pressed into the couch and she stared into the distance.
“Who is it?” Her mom looked right through her.
Kat should be used to it by now. It had been ten years since her mother had lost her vision, but it stabbed her heart even now to know that the eyes that had looked at her since childhood couldn’t see her anymore.
“I’m here.” Kat hugged her mother and again felt the same jolt of affection she’d felt earlier, accompanied with a dose of something stronger.
Kat tried hard to fight the guilt that always accompanied her visits home. Over the years, she’d been seeing her parents less and less and they were getting older and older. Once, she’d have moved back here in a heartbeat to stay close to her
mother, but with her career becoming busier, she didn’t have the freedom to do that anymore.
“Lovely to see you, sweetie.” Trying to make out where Kat’s forehead was using her fingers, her mother kissed her. “But don’t you have to go to work today?”
“I made a detour on the way to tell you to not worry about whatever you see on TV. You’ll seeing a lot of me on TV today.”
“We weren’t worrying.” Her father dropped onto the couch. Now she was flanked by her parents. “But do explain.”
Relaying facts was her professional specialty, so Kat got onto it.
“Two weeks ago, a drunk man was trying to molest me on the subway,” Kat began. Lines were already starting to etch themselves into her father’s forehead. “But nothing happened. Don’t worry about it.”
“You didn’t get hurt anywhere?” Her mother’s voice quivered.
“I’m telling you I didn’t.”
Worry didn’t abate from her mom’s face, even though her words indicated otherwise. “You know best. You’re a big girl now. You can take care of yourself.”
Pressing her lips to her mom’s ear, Kat whispered, “I’m okay. Promise.”
An outright lie. But nobody would find out.
Her mother’s chest deflated. Had she been holding her breath all this while? “If you need something, sweetie, you can talk to us anytime. In fact, why don’t you stay with us for a few days? With Keira gone, her room’s vacant. You can take it.”
“Keira doesn’t like anyone in her room while she’s gone,” Kat reminded.
“But it’s been so long since you stayed over. You don’t even call us much anymore.” Her mom sulked, triggering her guilt.
Yeah, she neglected her parents a lot. Most weeks, she forgot to call them. They were lucky if they got a call from her once a fortnight. Obviously, she was not winning any trophies for the best daughter in the universe, but it was disturbing how distant she’d become.
She loved her parents. More than anybody else in the world. But like all grown-up children with professional lives that took over everything else, she wasn’t good at showing that affection.
In my Arms Tonight (NYC Singles Book 2) Page 7
