An Illicit Love

Chapter 16

Catie looked at Dave in amazement, quite shocked at how blind he seemed to be. She caught his arm and turned him back towards her, where his pacing had left him a short distance from her. “And you think,’ she asked said disbelievingly “that you are the only one feeling this way? You think I am so shallow, sharing these times with you and it means nothing? You think I am not going to think of you, long to see you long to touch you, kiss you, hold you?’ Catie ’s voice was breaking, as she continued, “Do you think I have undertaken this lightly? That this is a game to me and not a momentous, unexpectedly wonderful gift?”

Dave’s eyes were flooded with tears as he pulled her closer, and asked with a catch in his voice, ‘What are we going to do?’ Catie had no wise answer, because it was something she had asked herself countless times, and had still not been able to come up with an answer. Yes, what were they going to do? What were they doing? Where would it end - it was obvious to both of them that it wasn’t a casual, thoughtless flirtation. Dave and Catie clung to each other, her head buried in his musky smelling shoulder and tried not to think of the coming parting, albeit temporary, that loomed ahead of them.

Catie and Dave had to leave shortly after they had cleared the air, but it was with an infinitely lighter heart that she drove home. All was once again right with her world. Dave still cared.

At home, Catie acted normally and felt guilty about being able to do so. Bryan had somewhat grasped the fact that they were going to the ocean, where he could catch fish with his father, And swim and net small fish in sea pool. Kevin had shown Bryan a video of the ocean and his eyes had widened in wonder, not remembering the previous year’s visit. A list was begun on the kitchen memo board, and as Catie and Kevin thought of necessities that had to go with, the list grew. The very necessary and also the frivolous, and as the list grew, the parting from Dave that Catie was facing, became more of a reality.

At work, things continued as normal, if the new situation could be called normal. Every time Catie looked at her new watch - which Kevin had not noticed, no surprise there - it had moved forward and brought the day of departure on her annual holiday started closer. After work, when she trained at the gym, aware of Dave training close by, or when they met at the tennis courts, their moods fluctuated between the joy of being close, and the anguish at the parting which was looming.

With only a week to go Dave slipped a note at work. It asked whether she knew where the town’s plant nursery was. Puzzled, she replied that she did as gardening was a passion of hers. As it was his, and they had discussed this too. Wondering how it would feel to be able to form a garden together. Dave indicated that she meet him after work, where he told her that he had been thinking incessantly about how they could spend more alone time together, and if they met at the nursery before work, they could be together an additional twenty to thirty minutes every day. Catie immediately agreed, and they set a time for the next morning. How they were both going to explain suddenly having to leave that much earlier for work was a minor point – what counted, was the extra time they would get to spend together.