“Absolutely nothing. I’m off today,” she said.
“Good. Want to come over? We can drink six bottles of wine, eat to the point you can’t fit out the door and gossip until our jaws hurt and our tongues are ready to fall out of our faces!”
“Oh, now that sounds like a good time if I’ve ever heard it,” she said with a laugh.
“Good. Come over. We can go to the market and pick up stuff to cook. Something ho
rribly unhealthy and fattening. Oh, and grab a few bottles of wine. If you want, we can do our hair and paint our nails and all the other stuff women do,” Katherine teased.
“We’re women—not teenage girls. Women drink, talk about sex and watch movies that make them cry,” she lectured.
“Fine, teach me the ways of the woman, oh wise one,” Katherine said in her best man voice.
“I’ll be there in an hour and you better be ready to tell me everything. I want all the juicy details of where you’ve been and why you fled like a thief in the night,” she said in a firm voice.
“I will. Hurry up. I’m going to jump in the shower,” she said, before hanging up.
She was excited. She couldn’t remember the last time she had ever gotten so excited over the idea of hanging out with a girlfriend. It had been so long, she wasn’t sure if she remembered how to do it. She thought back to the first time Talia had come over and how nervous and apprehensive she had been. She didn’t have to be like that anymore. She could be honest and tell the truth about who she was and where’d she been and why she had almost nothing in her apartment. It was freeing and liberating. Life was definitely on an upswing, she thought as she made her way into the bathroom to shower and get ready for her day with Talia.
Talia showed up at her place an hour later. The moment she opened the door, Talia threw herself at her. Their friendly embrace was an emotional one. By the time they pulled apart, they both had tears in their eyes.
“I was terrified that he’d gotten you,” Talia whispered.
“I’m sorry to have made you worry,” Katherine said, closing the door and locking it.
The threat wasn’t over yet. She needed to watch her back until Tim had gotten the details of what she had on him.
Talia took a seat on the loveseat while Katherine carried in two cups of coffee.
“You promised me wine,” Talia joked.
“Coffee first, then wine.”
Talia sipped the coffee and looked around the living room. “It looks the same.”
“I didn’t pack anything. I only took a few changes of clothes,” Katherine explained.
“You’ve done this several times? You just get up and leave it all behind?” Talia asked with amazement.
Katherine slowly nodded her head. “I’m only telling you this because I don’t plan on leaving again, but I only take one suitcase and my giant purse. Usually, I have to take the bus and I can’t take a lot, especially if I’m going to be doing any walking.”
Talia shook her head. “I can’t imagine just picking up and starting over. When you said it before, I guess I imagined you with boxes of stuff and unpacking and all that.”
Katherine gave her a faint smile. “Nope. Just me and my trusty suitcase. I’m sick of running. I’m sick of putting together a home only to have to leave it all behind. I’m not going to run anymore. I’m going to stand up and fighting back.”
“Amen sister! Let him hear you roar!”
Katherine giggled. “I plan on it. I want to thank you, Talia. It is you that gave me the first glimpse of what a normal life could be like. I honestly had never allowed myself to really have a friend before. Meeting you and hanging out with you, it was exactly what I needed. It showed me I could have a life again.”
Talia’s head cocked to the side. “I’m sorry no one else showed you that before me.”
“It takes a special someone to push past my barriers and to make me listen. You did that.”
Talia burst into laughter. “You were a bit of a tough nut to crack.”
“Well, thank you for being so patient with the new girl at work and forcing me to hang out with you,” Katherine said, truly grateful to have been shown the light.
Talia drank her coffee. “You’re going to be happy, Kat. You are. You’ve been through the worst of it. I think Ben is an absolute dreamboat.”