“You don’t need to. As long as you’re happy and Ben’s happy then we’re all happy. Go have fun tonight. We like Chanel. She’s really cool! And her arms are serious!”
“I KNOW!” Catherine gushed and hugged her daughter tight.
Sophia left to join the others and the moment she left Catherine slipped her panties off. She was wearing the white dress again as Chanel had promised to wear the black one. They were completing the date that had been interrupted by Shakir.
Slipping her shoes on, she rushed down to the lobby and saw Chanel talking with Gabriella though the rest of the group was exiting the front door. Gabriella waved at Cat then followed her family out.
“You look lovely!” Chanel said to Catherine who did a double take when she got closer to the brunette.
“You’re wearing make-up? For me?” Catherine said in surprise and smiled as a thrill went through her.
Chanel blushed and looked away then looked back and nodded with an anxious smile. “Is it too much? I don’t wear it… ever.”
“No! It’s perfect! You’re gorgeous!” Cat grinned.
Chanel relaxed and found herself getting lost in those amazing blue eyes. She tore her gaze away. “Shall we go?”
Catherine looped her arm through Chanel’s and they walked out to the street and caught a taxi. The ride to the restaurant was short but neither was wearing shoes meant for long walks. The restaurant was on the top floor of a small high rise building facing a marina. They were led to their table overlooking the yachts. Candle light lit the tables and glittered off their dresses.
Chanel was suddenly nervous. She hadn’t been on a date in years. She’d pushed all thoughts of romance from her head. She didn’t know what to say.
“Have you always wanted to be a cop?” Catherine began, seeing Chanel begin to lock up. The woman smiled and relaxed.
“No, but I knew I didn’t want to be a model like my mother wished for me. She was very… insistent. I think her tenacity is what makes me a good detective. I love a good mystery. It is a puzzle to be solved. You just have to find all the pieces.”
She looked at Catherine with chagrin. “Unfortunately, you have not seen me at my best. My grief blinded me from everything but Ben’s superficial resemblance to the description we had of Rapava. My first exposure to him showed his intense and violent side. It was enough to convince me.”
Cat looked at the candle on the table and asked her next question delicately. “Speaking of your grief, are you still seeing Isabelle when you look at me?”
“No! Not anymore. You do look like her and sound like her but you don’t behave like her at all. I can’t see her in you anymore. Your personality is so explosively energetic! There so much joy in you! It takes my breath away!” Chanel stopped when she realized she was gushing. Her face burned with embarrassment.
Cat was looking at her across the small table. Her eyes glittered in the candle light. “I was trying to figure out why you make me feel the way you do. I’ve never been attracted to a woman before. Well… besides Gabriella who’s a special case as the woman is… the goddess of love. I love her dearly! But with you, I feel like a giddy schoolgirl all over again. I just realized why.” She looked at the brunette in wonder.
“Are you going to make me guess?” Chanel chuckled nervously, feeling a little giddy herself.
“It’s how you look at me. Your eyes look at me but I can tell you’re seeing me wake up next to you in the morning, walking arm in arm along the beach, picking vegetables in a market together, folding bedsheets only to end up rolling in them, making love…” Chanel was lost in the blue again.
The waiter arrived and Catherine silently cursed his crappy timing.
They ordered some wine and both chose a salad, neither wanting to be weighted down with a heavy meal.
“Where were we?” Chanel said once they were alone again and Catherine smiled.
“I think I was saying something about the weather,” she teased.
Chanel smiled and shook her head at the blonde.
“Seriously, I’d like to get to know you a little better before we get too caught up in the moment. I can be a little too impulsive I’m told,” Cat said with a wince.
“I’d like that too.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Catherine asked.
“No, it was just my mother and I. No other relatives at all. My mother was banished from her family when she became pregnant with me. She and they cut all ties. She changed her name and while she felt the need to let me know there was a family out there who despised her and by association me, she never told me her original name so I don’t know who they are. My mother took that secret to her grave. She said they didn’t deserve to know me. That was just one of the things that drove me away from her.” She shook her head with the old painful memories. Catherine put her hand on Chanel’s and she felt a little better. “How about you?”
“I had a brother. John. Followed in my dad’s footsteps and joined the army. Died in a stupid accident. I miss him. My dad was the one who taught me to shoot. We had a falling out when I got married and it’s only recently that we’ve begun speaking again.”
Chanel started. “You’re married?”
“Widow. My father hated the man I chose to marry. He was smarter than I was about Ashraf. Saw him for what he really was. He died in a plane crash with a bunch of young prostitutes. Proving my father right again.”
There was a moment of silence until Chanel got the nerve to speak again.
“I feel awkward asking this but how did you meet Ben?” Chanel asked cautiously.
Catherine smiled at the memory. “Ben was living in the house next to us when we moved in. He got married and brought his wife and her sick mother to his home. We didn’t see too much of them as we were all so focused on our own lives. When his wife left him Ben… fell apart. He began to drink and sat on a lawn chair in his driveway everyday watching the road like she’d come driving back to him. His beard and hair grew out and with his size he looked like some kind of crazed mountain man. But he was just sad.”
The wine arrived and they toasted each other.
Catherine continued. “Then there was the awful day a man drove into the neighborhood and tried to abduct Miriam. Ben was outside and prevented him from driving away. He pulled the man from his van and was shot three times in the abdomen. Gabriella got Miriam out of the van then Ben broke the man’s neck with his bare hands. He collapsed and was in the hospital for months. Gabriella was in love with him from that time on. When he got home he cleaned himself up and stopped drinking. Got his muscles back into shape. He was so hot! Still is! He was also so shy and such a nice man. Always helping out in the neighborhood but quiet and still sad. I was smitten with him but I knew Gabriella was as well and we were both married anyway. When the accident happened and so many of our husbands died on that plane it was our turn to fall apart. Ben was there for us. Just being a decent man. Protective. Supportive. Generous to a fault and selfless. The best neighbor!”
Chanel was frozen. “Your husbands all died on the same plane. With prostitutes.”
Catherine sighed. “Yes, you probably saw it on TV. The Ashburn Court Tragedy.”
“Even in Europe that story made the rounds. I’m sorry for the pain you went through,” Chanel said squeezing the blonde’s hand and received a smile in return.