REPRESENTED (14 page)

              She arrived at the address Cindy had given her using her GPS.  They lived on the outskirts of town in an old farmhouse.  Karin was surprised to see chickens and a peacock strutting around near the front door as she knocked.  Cindy answered the door and welcomed her in.  Karin handed her a bottle of red wine “they say that is one of the best grown locally” she said.

             
“Oh, that’s great” Cindy replied wondering how the evening was going to go.  Seth had been absolutely surprised by who she had invited to dinner and not really too pleased.

             
Karin greeted an excited Carrie.  After having lunch together and sharing a strawberry sundae they were now the best of friends.  Karin hadn’t been able to finish her own sundae so Carrie had helped her.  Cindy hadn’t appreciated the sugar rush her daughter had all afternoon but it had been a one-time thing and Carrie hadn’t stopped talking about her Aunt Karin since.  Seth had been pelted with questions about his little sister that he would sooner have not answered but Carrie’s enthusiasm he hadn’t wanted to squash.

             
“Hello Karin” Seth said in his own way.  He had mixed feelings about this little sister of his.  They had only seen each other a handful of times in the last two decades.  He didn’t know her and what he did know he hadn’t liked.  They lived at opposite ends of the country so they didn’t run into each other often.  This woman in his front hall conflicted with the girl he had known so long ago, the pesty little sister that he remembered.

             
“Hi Seth, how are you” the elegantly dressed woman asked.  She was a surprise to him.  The scruffy T-Shirt and jeans girl he had known was long gone.

             
“I’m good, how are you?” he asked. This was not the woman he thought he knew through family gossip.

             
“I’m good, I guess they told you I bumped into them at the store today” she smiled and he was surprised at that too.  She had totally changed, and grown up.

             
“Yes, Carrie has talked about nothing but” he grinned.

             
“Here, let me take your coat” Cindy said as she helped Karin off with a rain coat that revealed an even nicer suit underneath.

             
They talked about superficial things through dinner and with Carrie there they came back repeatedly to even more superficial things.  Had anyone known Karin they would see how uncomfortable she really was.  She explained so that Carrie could understand what she did for a living.

             
“I heard you live in New York?” Seth asked eventually.

             
“I have an apartment I own there but I still have my house in Milwaukee” she explained.

             
“Why do you still have that?” he asked annoyed as though that didn’t make sense.

             
“My stuff is still there” she explained as though it may perfect sense.             

             
“That’s a pretty expensive storage unit” he pointed out.

             
She nodded and had to agree.  She tried to go home to Milwaukee once every two weeks or so but it was extremely difficult and expensive.  “It’s the boy’s home for as long as they want it” she knew that excuse about the expense wouldn’t hold with this penny-pinching brother of hers but it was the best she could offer.

             
The dinner went fairly well until somehow Karin mentioned ‘her girlfriend’ and her brother immediately got tense and irritable.  She wasn’t going to apologize, the fact she was gay she knew bothered her brother’s, they felt like it was some kind of threat to their masculinity or something but she wasn’t going to let it bother her.  She knew who she was, she wasn’t sorry for it and if they didn’t like it, it was their problem, not hers.  She ended the night soon after that but it was Carrie’s bedtime anyway.  She gave Carrie one of her business cards and wrote on the back her personal cell number as well as her email address.

             
“When you’re older you can call me or email me if your parents think it’s okay” she told the precocious little girl.

             
“Okay!” the little girl said excitedly.  No one had ever told her to email them before.

             
“It was very nice to meet you again Carrie.  I hope to hear from you occasionally” she told her awkwardly.  She knew she probably wouldn’t but then who knew.

             
She gave Cindy a similar card and a hug as she took her leave nodding to her brother in goodbye.  It had been a pleasant evening but she knew at some point something would ruin it.  Carrie fortunately hadn’t been aware of it but Cindy and Seth certainly had.  Karin suspected Cindy didn’t care about the fact that she was gay but apparently Seth still did.  Why did it matter?  It didn’t affect his life....

             
Karin was finishing up the book signing for her client Beth Mathews and was reminding her of the time for her lecture at Portland City College when she was surprised by a hard hug from Carrie.  “Well Carrie, this is a surprise” she said astonished as she looked up and around for Cindy.  She saw her standing and watching not too far away.

             
“We found you!” Carrie said as though she had been hiding.

             
“That you did, and I’m so glad you did!” Karin said as she bent down to be at more of an eye level with her niece.  “I thought I wouldn’t see you again before I left” she smiled.             

             
“We came into town to shop and I remembered you were going to be at the bookstore!” Carrie said excitedly.

             
“Well, I’m so glad you did” she repeated unsure at this unexpected visit.  She got up and taking Carrie’s hand walked over to Cindy “this is an unexpected surprise” she said.

             
“She insisted, especially after we drove by the store.  She has a pretty incredible memory” Cindy said apologetically “I hope we aren’t interrupting your work?”

             
Karin shook her head “No, actually I was just finishing up.  Would you two be able to go to dinner?”

             
Cindy went to decline but Carrie beat her “can we go to the shop?” she meant the coffee shop where they had their ice cream sundae’s the previous day.

             
Karin smiled and asked “how about another restaurant?”  She knew that Cindy was kind of stuck but then anyone who let a six year old manipulate her into coming into the store to say hello to her aunt deserved it.

             
Carrie asked “can we go to Chuck E Cheese?”

             
Karin laughed “I don’t think I’m dressed for Chuck E Cheese” she indicated the skirt suit she was wearing “but you think about somewhere else and discuss it with your Mom while I finish up.”

             
Karin went over to talk to Beth one last time and assured everything was set she left to return back to Cindy and Carrie.  Cindy had a concerned look on her face “is there a problem?” she murmured over the little girl.

             
“Seth was planning on meeting us for dinner” Cindy said looking uncomfortable.

             
“Well, I could make some excuse” Karin said trying not to let the observant six year old hear her as she looked at children’s books.

             
“She would be very disappointed” Cindy answered.

             
Karin shrugged “she will get over it, I don’t want to piss my brother off more than he probably was last night” she said astutely.  She wasn’t unaware of how her being gay or the mention of it upset him.

             
“No, he needs to grow up” Cindy surprised her by stating “she doesn’t have a lot of family, its time she got to know you.”

             
That was how Karin found herself eating at a nice restaurant with her brother, his girlfriend, and their precocious six year old who seemed to have warmed up to her aunt admiredly.  Karin didn’t mention her ‘girlfriend’ again and this seemed to relieve her brother somewhat.  She found herself agreeing to take Carrie to an indoor play park the following day before she left for Seattle and she was only surprised that her brother let her.  Cindy agreed to meet her there and pick her up afterwards and Karin spent an enjoyable morning with her niece getting to know her better.  As she drove herself toward Seattle she thought about her brother and his family, he was such a hypocrite in so many ways.  She honestly loved women and didn’t hide it.  He couldn’t even marry his girlfriend and they had been together at least 15 years.  Their six year old daughter deserved the security of that but then maybe they had more than some people did.

              “Hey, where are you?” came through her Bluetooth as she toodled up the highway.

             
“I’m on the 5 freeway headed for Seattle.  Where are you?” Karin asked knowing Cassie’s schedule already.

             
“We are on the bus headed for a few small towns and then New Orleans, then on to Tallahassee” she informed her.  There were a lot of boring hours in a bus when you toured.  She thought about Karin so much it almost physically hurt.  She still wished she had slept with her in San Francisco she wanted her so bad.  Talking for hours on the phone was nice and they had really gotten to know each other over the week since San Francisco.  Hours on the phone was nice, they knew a lot about each other, or thought they did, but it wasn’t the same as taking it to the next level.

             
“That’s nice, how was Texas?”

             
“Kind of slow, the electricity wasn’t there” Cassie wasn’t happy about the luke warm response they had gotten in Austin.

             
“Maybe its time for a change, shake them up” Karin advised.

             
“So what have you been up to?” Cassie asked to change the subject.  This woman challenged her in so many ways, she didn’t want career advice, she wanted this woman!  On so many levels though she realized that Karin was good for her, she knew what she was talking about, she was always right, Cassie wasn’t sure she was ready for a change and then realized she really was, in her personal life definitely, in her professional life, maybe.

             
“I had lunch, dinner, and dinner again with a very pretty girl named Carrie” Karin informed her.

             
“Oh really?” Cassie asked.  She felt instantly jealous and then thought, she didn’t have the
right
to be jealous.  They weren’t exclusive.  They hadn’t talked about this.  Karin was a free agent, and she hadn’t said she wouldn’t date others.  She hadn’t mentioned she was dating anyone though, but then Cassie hadn’t thought to ask...

             
Karin grinned.  She sensed what Cassie was thinking.  “Yes, it was really pleasant.  She got so excited to see me.  We shared a strawberry sundae at lunch.  Her mother thought it was funny.”

             
Cassie was confused.  Her mother?  “What?”

             
“I ran into my niece at a department store and her mother and I had lunch with them together, I was invited to dinner with my brother and then we met up again for dinner the following night before I left for Seattle” she could have stretched this out but she didn’t want to upset Cassie, their relationship was too new for that.

             
“Oh, I didn’t know you had a brother up there, you never mentioned it?”

             
“We’re not close, it was a fate thing.  I wouldn’t have called him if I hadn’t run into my niece and her mother” Karin informed her.

             
“Why not?”

             
Karin shrugged, it wasn’t a big deal “my brother doesn’t like me.”

             
“Why doesn’t he like you?” Cassie thought this was sad and she couldn’t fathom it, she was close with her own brother.

             
“Because I’m gay.  He thinks it’s a phase or something.  I don’t know.  We never discussed it.  His daughter likes me and is probably driving him nuts asking a million questions now.”

             
“He doesn’t like you because you’re gay?” Cassie sounded sad.

             
Karin shrugged “it’s okay, I’m past it” and tried to change the subject.

             
Cassie was feeling very bad for her new friend.  She now knew she was close to her son’s and spoke to them frequently but she didn’t know about her brothers.  She knew she had two of them now.  She let the subject drop for now.  It just proved Karin’s point that they didn’t know each other as well as she would like.  She hated it that Karin was always right...

             
Seattle was good and Karin was pleased with it.  From there she flew to Milwaukee and checked on her house there.  Her cats were skittish that first day but soon warmed up to her.  She checked the automatic feeder and waterer and filled both.  She noted that she needed to buy more cat food.  She filled her fish tanks which were down a few inches as the water evaporated into the dry air of the house and she watered her plants.  If she was gone longer than two weeks a friend or one of the boys usually came in to do this for her but she came home often enough to do it herself.  Her brother was right, this was an expensive storage unit but it was also home to her and her boys and had been for many years, she wasn’t ready to give it up yet.