“Just promise me you will think about it.” I nodded and hugged her again.
“Now you can’t leave until Stephen gets here to get this crap,” she said with a nervous smile.
“You mean Riley isn’t man enough to fetch his own belongings?” I asked incredulously. “That guy has a lot of nerve, doesn’t he?”
She laughed coldly, “Hell no. You are right—he’s not much of a man, now that I think about it. I wonder if I ever loved him. I sure loved the musician but I don’t know that I ever actually loved him. But it is better to know now before I married him. Imagine how pissed I’d be if I had a couple of kids to take care of after that jerk left.”
“You are definitely better off knowing now. I’m not leaving you with Stephen coming over here. What time is he coming?”
She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Text says around 12:30. Not soon enough for me. I’m ready to chuck his crap out.”
“Tell you what, I will go down to the corner market and get what I need to make some lunch. I don’t even have to look, I know you don’t have food in your refrigerator,” I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. “While I am cooking some pepperoni pasta, you can take a look at some of those travel packages you were talking about. You need to make up your mind if you plan to go to Greece or the Bahamas—I guess you could do both!”
Kate’s face brightened and she looked happier than she had in the past twenty-four hours. I grabbed my keys and promised that I would be right back. I sat in the car, reading Bullet’s note again. Would it be worth it to call him or go see him? Did I even want to know what the “real story” might be? I wasn’t sure yet but that had less to do with him than it did me. I needed to be honest about how I felt about him. I put the car in gear and drove the two blocks to the corner market. I could have walked it but I liked the peace and serenity of my car when it came to thinking about life.
I found a parking spot easily enough. Sundays were apparently slow days. I was glad for that. I strolled the aisles and looked for the ingredients I needed: pasta, heavy cream, parmesan, veggies and pepperoni. This was Kate’s favorite comfort food. I thought about a bottle of wine but decided against it. The two of us had had enough drinks for a while.
I made my purchase and climbed back in the car. How did I feel about Bullet? I could not deny that I found him physically attractive—times ten. I liked talking to him most of the time. He had a quick wit and knew I appreciated music. I liked him, but I wasn’t sure about anything. Did I like him enough to take the time and make the emotional investment it would require to make it work? Was I even sure he wanted to do that? One thing was for sure, I wasn’t going back to the office. I didn’t want to think of what Page had told me about how he had slept with everyone all over the place there. It might be a lie but then again, it might not be. No, if we were to talk, it would be somewhere and not in a public place. I’d think more about this later.
I went to Kate’s place and began working on our meal. I guessed we both needed a little comfort food. I put the pasta on to boil and worked on the sauce. I sautéed some garlic in butter, added the heavy cream and the parmesan. To our surprise, Stephen arrived early and he wasn’t alone—Riley was with him. I turned the burners off and walked to the front door to stay with Kate. She had her game face on and she wasn’t taking any crap at all.
“Kate, I don’t know what to say. I love you but…” Riley tried to apologize but she wasn’t having any of it.
“Please stop lying to me and yourself. If you loved me this would not be happening right now. To be honest with you, I don’t think you know what you want. All I know is I am taking myself out of the equation. This wasn’t your decision, it was mine.”
He hung his head and grabbed a box. Stephen had the nerve to say, “Something smells good” as if we’d invite him to lunch. I wondered again if there was a brain in that blonde head of his.
“Are you kidding me? I don’t want you stepping foot in my house. You can wait outside. Thanks.” He tried to argue but she didn’t look at him.
“She said thanks but no thanks so outside.” I backed up my friend. Stephen waited in the hallway and I pushed a few boxes out the door. He and Riley took turns retrieving the boxes. With the last box, Riley stood outside the door pausing, thinking about what to say to Kate, the woman who loved and believed in him.
“Don’t bother,” she said and slammed the door. She tapped the security code into the box and set the alarm. “And that is that.” She looked at me amused.
“Are you okay?”
“Are you kidding me? I feel like a new woman. The sky is the limit now. No more musicians for me—no offense. Hey, is lunch ready?”
I went back to my meal and put the finishing touches on it. When it was done, we sat at the table diving into the dish as if we had not eaten in a week. After a few bites, Kate brought her laptop to the table and pulled up some of those dream destinations she was talking about. As I suspected, she had decided on Greece. After flipping through some of the photos of the scenery and the people, Kate laughed. “Okay, so maybe abstinence can wait until after my trip.”
“I figured as much. Go have fun but be careful.”
“I’m going to wait to book this Mediterranean cruise. After you talk to Bullet, you let me know if I need to book it for two or just one. And for the record, I will be okay if I go solo. You know I am a lone wolf at times.”
“So you seriously think I should talk to him?”
“Yeah, I think you should. Put a period on it if you can.”
“I’ll think about it.” I promised with a weak smile.
“Great. I’d like some more sauce. That’s delicious!” Despite her own pain, Kate cared about me. She was a true friend. I felt very lucky to have her in my life. As we ate, she flipped through more travel sites and I thought about Bullet. How would I handle this? Obviously, I would talk to him but I was going to do this differently.
“You know what Kate. I have an idea.”
She looked up from her pasta and said, “You should go get us some wine?”
“Absolutely not, I think we need to leave the wine alone for a while, don’t you?” She sighed and crinkled her nose at me disapprovingly. I didn’t want Kate climbing into a bottle to find peace. She had done that once before during freshman year. It had been a difficult time in her life too but I think she was stronger than that now. “No I was thinking that I might pay Bullet a surprise visit at his home. See how he really is. They say you can tell a lot about a person by what’s in their home. I guess I want to know who he really is, not who he wants me to see. Does that sound crazy?”
She shook her head and wiped her mouth on a napkin. “Not at all! I think that is a great idea! Do you have his address?”