Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Hours later, my mother is in the bed in my spare bedroom, and I am finally able to sit with Cat in the chair in my bedroom, her by my side, her hand on my leg and mine on hers. For a good hour, we sit there and talk about her father and her brothers. “Bottom line,” she says. “Nothing has really changed.”
“You talked to your father. That’s big.”
“We talked. That’s all that changed. But for your mother I think a change really is going to happen for her.”
“She says she’s leaving him,” I say. “She’s never said that before, but it’s hard to know where this leads when she goes back home Monday. My father always wins her over.”
“I predict that won’t happen this time,” Cat says. “She’s stronger than you realize. I read some books on the psychological factors of people staying in these situations because of my mother and my father. Basically what I learned is that, we as humans, radiate towards the familiar. The familiar is safe in our minds, even if it’s really destructive to our lives. We’re creatures of habit. But your mother came here, outside her safety zone with your father. To me, that says that she was testing the waters, seeing if she could leap to the next dock and still settle her feet firmly on the ground.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.” I pull her legs to my lap. “Moving to a completely different subject. Anything on your book deal?”
“Yes, actually. I have to make a decision by tomorrow night. They offered me five hundred thousand for the Jennifer Wright book and two hundred for an option book which is double what I got last book.”
“But the last book hit the Times.”
“Yes, for four weeks and it sold very well.”
“Are you happy with the offer?”
“Of course,” she says. “That’s a huge figure but you have to sign on as a consultant on the Wright book. That’s part of the deal.”
“Done.”
“Which means I need you to sign an agreement and take at least two hundred thousand of the money for yourself.”
“I don’t need that money, Cat.”
“If we break up—”
“We’re not breaking up,” I say. “That’s not part of the equation. But here’s my counter offer. I’ll sign the agreement and if you want me to take the money, I’ll put it in savings account for us to use on whatever. Together. Agreed?”
“I don’t think—”
“Take it or leave it, Cat.”
“Okay. Deal.”
“Good. Now. Next item on the agenda. Move in with me.”
“I—You want me to officially move in with you?”
“Yes. I know you love your apartment, but—”
“No. Yes. I like it here. The apartment isn’t the issue.”
“Then what is it?”
“We’ve only known each other a short while.”
“We’ve lived together almost the whole time. I’ve never even considered living with someone.”
“Why me? What makes me different?”
I slide my hand to her face. “Because you’re everything, Cat.”
“I repeat. We’re new.”
“And that means what?”
“I can’t be everything.”
“And yet you are. That’s the only explanation I have to any objection you give me. Move in with me. We’ll do a trial. Keep your apartment. If you end up unhappy, you know you have it.” I roll her to her back and settle over her. “Say yes, Cat.”
She rests her hand on my face in that way she does that undoes me and I have no clue why. It just does. She does. “Reese,” she whispers.
“You’re killing me here. Say—”
“Yes. Yes I’ll move in with you.”
And there it is. Her undoing me all over again.
Chapter thirty-four
Reese
Sunday starts with Cat and I standing at the island in the kitchen, drinking coffee, when my mother joins us and announces that she’s leaving my father, as if she didn’t announce the same thing last night. “But I’m not leaving my job at the university, or my home. I called him and told him to be gone when I get back.”
There’s the part she didn’t give us last night. She told him to leave. She just seemed to need to say it all out loud again. And she never wavers. She is strong about her decision, and there are no more tears. I make a few phone calls and line her up an attorney, and by evening, my siblings have talked to all of us, Cat included, about ten times. Cat and I cut them off when we take my mother out for a nice dinner. The night ends with Cat accepting the book deal and with her in my arms, in our bed.
Come Monday, since I have to be to work, Cat sees my mother off to the airport and then heads to her place to pack up some things, to bring what she needs. I arrive at work, and my secretary, Maria, a forty-something and a smart mouth, is mumbling in Spanish, which she still, after four years, doesn’t know I understand. I enter my office and sit down, and she appears in my doorway, her dress bright red and blinding. Everything about Maria is bright and bold. “You won. You’re a badass. All that stuff. Moving on. The press is calling constantly. Are you doing interviews at all?”