Imperfections (27 page)

He picks up the pen and paper Chloe was using and scribbles his number down for her. He pulls out his phone and she gives him her number and her phone rings. "Don't answer it, I was making sure you have my number twice. Lock it in, you'll be using it often. I'll pick you up at seven sharp. You won't be disappointed."

"I better not be."

"It was nice to meet you, Cat. I hope to see you again."

"I hope I see you again. Good luck on the date with the General here." He flashes me his infectious Colgate-winning smile leaving the table walking out the door. "You pick them up wherever you go, young, old, rich, poor."

"Not this time. As you can clearly see, he came over here and picked me up."

"He's cute."

"I know, but he's a little young…well, younger than the men I usually date. He's in college; that means, he doesn't have much in the way of finances."

"That doesn't matter, you like him. I can tell you do. He seems like a nice guy. You never know what could happen. He might be your Prince Charming."

"If I believed in fairytale endings. I'm a realist, real shit happens to real people. I create and write my own stories, they end the way I want them to."

"Cynical much?"

"Yes, all the time." She takes a sip of her Coke.

The waitress comes to take our order. Chloe orders a chicken salad with chili cheese fries and extra cheese. She says it balances out. Like her you get the good with the not so good. I order a cherry Dr Pepper with a chicken Caesar salad.

"So how are the rug rats you're teaching?" Chloe pushes away her half-eaten salad and takes a bite of her chili fry.

"My kids are not rug rats, they are very entertaining young individuals. I haven't started teaching yet. Mrs. Smith is due to go on maternity leave any day now then I'll take over the class for her until the end of the year."

"Good luck with that. I don't have that maternal thing like you and Isabel. Spending more than a day with all those kids would be torture to me. They'd fire my ass after the first day for drinking on the job."

"You would not." I laugh and wipe my mouth.

"Cat, wouldn't I?"

"Yeah, you would. You would be the last person I would call to babysit for me when I have kids. No offense."

"None taken. Speaking of kids, I saw your brother's wife Vanessa with your niece Sasha yesterday."

"Where?"

"They came into the store. She was shopping for a dress to wear to a cocktail party."

"Yeah, my parents, Jay, and she are going to a charity event tonight. I'm babysitting Sasha for them."

"Sounds boring. Why aren't you going with them instead of sitting at home changing shitty diapers?"

"I haven't spent a lot of time with my niece since I've been back. I like spending time with her and she's out of diapers. Besides, it's better than spending the night with my mother, forcing what she believes are suitable well-to-do gentlemen on me every time I turn around."

"That doesn't sound bad to me. All my mother forces on me is food and opinions I don't want or ask for."

"I'd take the food over the men any day."

"Have you switched sides?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you waving the rainbow flag? Since you've been back I haven't seen you go out on one date. The closest I've seen you come to a guy is Richard."

"I have not switched sides."

"It's cool if you're a lesbian now or if you're bi-curious. We've all been there, no judgment."

"I'm not a lesbian, bi-curious, or any other type of curious when it comes to my sexual preferences. I like men. I'm attracted to men."

"Okay, so why haven't you been with any?"

"Who says I haven't?"

"Have you?" she asks, putting her head closer to me over the table.

"Maybe."

"Who was it?"

"I can't say."

"You can't say? You would only be this secretive if it was someone I knew."

"It is someone we know and for that reason I'm not going to say anything else about it."

"This must be big. Is he big? Does Ava know? If Ava knows, then I should know too."

"I'm not going to say another word about it."

"Fine. Speaking of Ava, why is she cock-blocking?"

"What?"

"You heard me; she won't give me her cousin's number. I was feeling him; I think he was feeling me too. We could get together and feel each other out to see how good we can feel together."

My fork stops in midair then I put it in my mouth.

"Cat? Did I say something wrong? You're looking at me funny."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You look upset. You said Nick and you were only friends."

"We are."

"Are you sure you're not interested in being more than friends with him? If you were, I would totally understand, he's a hotty. I don't know how you made it this long without jumping him. I would have ridden that like a cowboy, Wild Wild West style, raw, bareback and all."

I almost choke on my salad. I can't stop coughing. Who chokes on salad? I'll tell you who, anyone having a conversation with Chloe from the things that come out of her mouth. She races from her side of the booth next to me. I go from being a choking victim to being assaulted from the blows she's administering to my back.

"Cat, are you okay?"

"I would be better if you weren't making my back black-and-blue!" I was able to croak out after dislodging the lettuce stuck in my throat. "More importantly, stop drawing attention to us." The few people in the café are casting concerned looks in our direction.

"I don't want you to choke to death, it would ruin my lunch."

"Thank you for being so concerned."

"No problem, what are friends for." Her phone rings. She looks at it and puts it back down. "I have to cut lunch short, the wicked bitch of the east has summoned me back to work."

"You're supposed to be off for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, well I'm an on call personal shopper. The money says I'm working, I'm working."

"Since when are you on call?"

"I've been promoted for the day. Apparently, an absurdly rich sheik has requested me to be his personal shopper for the day."

"Maybe this could be your mister right. He asked for you personally so he must be interested. Sounds like he's an older gentleman with lots of money. Sounds like your type."

She grabs her bag off the table, pulls out a twenty dollar bill and puts it on the table. "I don't think so. Men like him don't like women with smart-ass mouths that back talk. I don't like no man telling me what to do unless it's in bed."

"Are you sure? He could be a nice guy. He could be a modern-day sheik who believes in women's rights."

"The novelty with a woman like me wares off pretty fast with men like that.

"I like the freedom to do and say what I want to. If he takes me back to his country, I know what I'm in for. No, thank you! I've seen
Dateline
. I don't want my mother to have to smuggle me back out of a foreign country."

She's right; with her mouth, I know what she's in for too.

"You know what my plans are for the rest of the day. What're yours?"

"I'm headed home. I'm on babysitting duty, remember?"

She stands and slings her bag over her shoulder. "You should have chosen door number two, the cocktail party with all the men." She wags her eyebrows up and down at me.

I smile at the face she's making. "I'll talk to you later."

She kisses me on the cheek before she leaves. "Later."

I look out the window of the café after Chloe leaves. I try not to do it but I can't help it; I find myself thinking about Nick. I haven't seen or talked to him since the morning I left his house in a hurry to get away from him. The day after Ava went to see him she called me. She didn't have much to say, which is not like Ava. She didn't even try to force the issue of me and him getting together. The only thing she said was he wasn't as upset as she thought he was going to be. She hasn't said anything else about him since then. He hasn't texted or tried to call me. Maybe he's really upset with me for leaving the way I did. I know I should call him and at least give him an explanation for the way I left.

I need to be honest with myself. I miss hearing from him. I'm disappointed he didn't call me, I thought he would. I want to hear from him. I miss hearing his voice.

I change into my sweats and make myself a sandwich. I wonder what's on, it's six fifteen on Thursday night, let's see what's on. I flip through all the channels twice like something I want to watch is magically going to appear. It's like looking in the fridge over and over again when you're hungry. Nothing new is going to be there but for some reason you keep on doing it. I give up, I'm going to watch the news.

My daddy walks into the living room dressed in his tux.

"Hey, kit Cat!" He comes over and gives me a hug.

"Hey, Dad, you look good."

"Thank you, thank you. I had to pull it together tonight for a good cause—Sickle Cell Anemia. I don't go to too many of these things but your mother bought the tickets for a good cause."

"Where is your other half?" I brush a piece of lint off his shoulder.

"She'll be down in a minute. I didn't know you were here."

"I was in my room."

"I haven't seen much of you lately. I thought I would see more of you now that you're back."

Since Kate's moved back I find any excuse possible not to be here.

"I have both my girls under the same roof again and I hardly get to see the both of you in the same room."

Thank God. "Well, Dad, we're not little girls anymore; our schedules don't always coincide."

"No matter how busy you are you should make time for family. I was thinking maybe we should start doing every other week Sunday dinners again since you're home, all my kids will be there."

"We haven't had one of those since Chris and Jay went off to college." I brush an imaginary piece of lint off his jacket this time.

"Now would be the perfect time. Our family is growing. Jay would bring Vanessa, it seems like they're working things out. Kate could bring Nick, it'll be great."

"Oh great, sounds like fun times," I say enthusiastically. He hugs me again and I fake a smile for him. That is the last dinner on earth I want to be at. Talk about uncomfortable.

"What sounds like fun times?" My mother walks into the room dressed in a black-and-white above-the-knee strapless dress with the matching short sleeve shrug jacket. Her hair is pulled up off her face. She looks sophisticated. She's fifty-seven but looks ten years younger.

"I was telling Cat we should do Sunday night dinners again."

My mother walks over, air kissing me on the cheek so she doesn't ruin her makeup.

"I think that's a good idea, darling. Don't you, Cat?"

If my mother likes it, it's definitely going to happen. No way to get out of it. The doorbell rings. That's Vanessa and Jay.

Sasha runs straight to me jumping into my lap. "Auntie Cat!" She wraps her chubby little arms around my neck. I hug her back tight, she's so soft.

"Hey, baby, I missed you!"

In her cute little voice she says, "Miss you too."

She is too cute. She's exactly what I needed. She doesn't want a thing from me. She doesn't care who I'm seeing, we're just happy to be together. No guilt and no one's heart is going to get blown into a million pieces from us being together.

I take her little cheeks in my hands. "We are going to have so much fun tonight."

"Cat, don't corrupt my baby and have her up all night out on the town. Let's leave that to you."

"Hi, Jay." That little joke is because Mom was complaining about me staying out all night and not calling. Chris didn't get the text message Nick sent from my phone the night he picked me and Ava up from the club till late that morning. Vanessa and Jay give me a hug and I sit back down on the couch with Sasha's arm still around my neck. They look good together, like their wedding day all over again. Jay in his tux and Vanessa in a white-and-black off-the-shoulder cocktail dress. I'm happy they're working things out.

"Thanks for watching her for us, Cat. Jay and I were going to stay home until you offered to babysit."

"I didn't have anything more important to do than spend a night in with my favorite niece."

Jay sits next to me and Sasha. "She's your only niece."

Maybe not! "Yes, she is and I would rather spend the entire evening with her than sitting at a table with people I hardly know or care about." Being annoyed by my mother playing matchmaker.

My mom bends down to kiss Sasha on the cheek. Her lips barely touch her face, she's making sure to keep her makeup intact.

"We'll see you later, sweetheart, don't stay up too late. A lady needs at least eight hours of sleep to look her best. You don't want bags under your eyes. Make sure you pass this advice on to your aunty, she needs a little help. The way she's going she'll never catch a man."

I look at her and roll my eyes. "Really, Mother?"

"Yes, Catherine. You need to fix yourself up more. Between your hair, nails and makeup, you need my help desperately. Let's not mention your lack of knowledge when it comes to men."