6Katy sat at her desk thinking about how quickly the week had gone by. Luckily, since Tuesday, she had been able to avoid contact with Darren. He didn't even show up yesterday and judging the time – Katy peered up at the giant digital clock that hung on the wall above Darren's office – she probably wouldn't see him today either. The thought made her happy and sad at the same time.
On one hand, it was Friday; if she didn't have to deal with him today, then her weekend would already be off to a great start. On the other, Darren being gone would mean he could be sick. She told herself that her concern for his health was only for selfish reasons – if he got sick, that means that she could be getting sick, too.
"Who am I kidding?" she asked herself while rolling her eyes. "He's probably not sick; he probably booked a last minute trip to the Caribbean."
She winced at the bad memory the thought invoked; she and Darren were supposed to go to the Caribbean once, but that was a long time ago – a time when she thought he was a decent human being. She had been excited about that trip, too; despite being a somewhat successful assistant promotions director at a top-five publishing house, she'd never traveled outside of the country.
Katy sighed and looked at her computer screen, 2:04. She drummed her fingers on the desk and pulled the computer's keyboard towards the edge of her desk. She typed in her e-mail account's username and password and scrolled through the list of messages, checking to make sure she hadn't missed anything. There had to be some deadline that she was missing. Darren not being at work to distract her had allowed her some productivity, but she didn't realize that she'd been this efficient. There was no way she could jet out early today – she needed to be in the office in case Lynda Gale needed something immediate once she arrived into town. She began toying with the idea anyway; perhaps if she made herself go straight home, then she would be able to accommodate the writer from there. Lynda's flight wouldn't land until 3:30 – surely, she could make it home by then.
"Miss Harris," her intern said lightly obviously not wanting to disturb her, "you have a delivery here."
Katy looked up at the beautiful Tiger Lilies in Sarah's arms; Joey should have given up by now, this just wasn't healthy behavior. She groaned inwardly and fought the urge to roll her eyes. She asked Sarah to place the flowers on the edge of her desk, and then Katy turned her attention back to her computer screen until her intern left.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small white piece of paper contrasting against the beautiful orange coloring on the flower's petals. Wondering why this bouquet had a message when the others hadn't, she reached into the bouquet and pulled the card out, smiling as the written words registered into her brain.
"Apostrophe wanted you to have these; he wants you to know that he's very sorry for ruining your other ones." Katy felt a wave of excitement run through her as she flipped over the card and saw that Matt and written his phone number on the back. He was obviously flirting with her; Matt Stanowitz had an interest in her. She didn't even hesitate before picking up her headset and dialing the seven numbers listed on the back of the card.
"You got the flowers I'm assuming," said the voice on the other end, with an obvious smile.
"How did you know it was me?" Katy asked incredulously. "You didn't know my phone number."
Matt laughed on the other end and Katy thought he had the cutest laugh that she'd ever heard; it was hearty, but light, and nowhere near obnoxious. "I have caller ID," he responded. "I did a little research about you and found out where you worked."
He said it so nonchalantly, as if he knew that google-stalking was creepy, but he could care less. He possessed a certain air of confidence about him that Katy found refreshing. "I see; well I am assistant director of promotions. I can't be that hard to find." She smiled back into the receiver.
"Well you haven't said if you liked them or not; Apostrophe is on pins and needles wondering if he can ever be forgiven."
Katy couldn't stop grinning at Matt's unbelievable charm; she officially had a crush. And that was rare. She hadn't had a crush on anyone since…Well, either way; it had been a very long time. She promptly informed him that all wasn't lost and that she and Apostrophe were back on good graces.
"So, Katy," he transitioned. "Are you free this weekend?"
Katy caught her breath – this was it. She didn't like to be presumptuous, but she was positive this was Matt asking her on a date. She fought the urge to scream "yes" into the transmitter and instead, opted to grab her smart phone and look at her calendar first; there was no sense in double booking. She weeded through her itinerary, deciding that if it weren't mandatory, she would reschedule; no way was she passing up a date with Matt Stanowitz. Ashton, Todd, and her therapist would understand – they would have to.
"A client is doing a book signing tomorrow morning, but other than that – yes."
There was a brief silence on the other end and she froze. Had she assumed wrong?
"What about you?" She promptly followed up. "Did you have any big plans?"
"I got invited to this thing tonight," he said apathetically. "It's probably going to be pretty boring."
Katy nodded to herself; yep, she'd jumped the gun and gotten her hopes up for nothing. Here Matt was, just trying to strike up conversation and she was reading too much into it. "I see," she responded, desperately trying to mask the sound of disappointment in her voice. She almost regretted mentally casting her friends aside for a date that wasn't going to happen; what kind of person did something like that?
"It would be a lot more entertaining, though, if you agreed to come with me."
She leapt out of her office chair and victory danced around her cubicle. "I would love to!" she exclaimed, almost a little too enthusiastically.
Matt chuckled, "you don't even know what it is yet; it could be a funeral for all you know."
Katy paused; how was she supposed to respond to that? A wave of crimson red rushed into her cheeks and she was so glad that she wasn't looking at him right at that moment. "I think it's safe to assume that you wouldn't drag me to a funeral." She said it, but wasn't so sure. Matt Stanowitz was an edgy writer – crashing a funeral wouldn't be completely out of the question for someone like him.
"Actually," he said. "It's more of a post-memoriam after-party, if that makes any sense to you."
"Wait, hold on," Katy fought to control her train of thought. He'd literally just invited her to a memorial service. "Are you trying to say that you want me to go to a party to celebrate a dead guy?"
"There'll be an open bar."
Katy looked around the room she was standing in; she had never seen anything like it before. It almost looked as though Liberace had designed it. Wall-to-wall white carpeting, which she felt was a pretty impractical choice, a huge hanging chandelier and purple velvet floor-to-ceiling curtains kept distracting her from what was actually going on around her – an Irish wake. An extremely elaborate one, albeit, but it was an Irish wake nonetheless.
She glanced over at Matt, her date for the evening, and took a sip on the drink in her hand. He was engaged in a deep conversation with someone that she didn't know about a topic she didn't know about – she used that as her queue to duck out and go to the bar. He was right, this thing was boring; she still didn't quite grasp why he'd asked her to come in the first place. Had she missed something? Were memorial services a new first date trend amongst 20-somethings? Now that she really thought about it, noone had even mentioned the deceased at all.
"What are you doing here?"
Katy jumped up, almost spilling her fresh drink on her barely worn Rachel Roy silk chiffon dress. "What the fuck?" she whispered angrily through her gritted teeth. "Why are you sneaking up on me, Darren?"
She looked him over; she would be the first to admit that he cleaned up nicely. Instead of the bed-head he often sported at the office, Darren had actually combed and styled his dark hair appropriately. Interestingly enough, the charcoal suit brought out the grey hues in his blue eyes that Katy never knew existed; although, she quickly reminded herself that there were a lot of things that she didn't know about him. She didn't want to either, not anymore.
"I wasn't sneaking up on you," Darren responded calmly. "I have been standing here for a few minutes; you were just too fixated on Matt Stanowitz to notice."
Katy scoffed. "I wasn't fixated on anyone; he's my date," she had no idea why she even bothered explaining herself to him. "I was waiting for the appropriate moment to join back in on the conversation."
"Why would you even want to join that conversation," Darren stepped in front of her, forcing her to break her only visual contact with Matt. "They're probably talking about real estate and jazz music."
Katy rolled her eyes and tried to step aside, failing as he countered her move with one of his own. "Darren, move."
"Are we ever going to talk about what happened?" he asked with a smirk.
"Excuse me?" Katy took another swig of her delicious cocktail. "This is neither the time nor the place to talk about that, not that I would ever want to."
Darren sighed. "Then I'm afraid I can't allow you to pass."
"I'm not playing around," she sidestepped quickly, but not quick enough. "I want to get back to my date." Kate quickly looked around his broad body, trying to catch a glimpse of Matt and the group he'd been talking with. She started to grow impatient when she didn't see them anymore.
"You do realize that you're saying 'I want to get back to my date' at a wake, right? Who goes to something like this and even brings a date?" he asked incredulously, alerting Katy to the fact that he was actually offended.
She stopped for a second and thought about his question. It had been rather strange that Matt asked her to accompany him to someone's memorial service – even if it resembled something more of a high-society soiree. A part of her even thought he'd been joking. Hell, as soon as they walked into the grandiose banquet hall, she laughed to herself thinking how quirky and funny he had been making her think that. However, when she saw the giant blown up posters of "Winchester Bankman the Third," she realized exactly what she had walked into.
Even so, where did Darren get off criticizing anyone?
"Maybe he needed me for moral support," she finally responded. When she heard him scoff rudely, her blood began to boil. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" She asked, acting oddly defensive over a man that she'd only recently met.
"Wrong with me?" he whispered lowly before grabbing her by the arm and pulling her over to a less crowded area of the room. Katy tried to move her arm out of his grasp, but her efforts only ended unsuccessfully. "You're here, at my grandfather's funeral, on a date."
Katy's eyes softened, instantly feeling guilty; how had she been so oblivious and stupid? She'd known that his mother's maiden name was Bankman – she should have put two and two together. That's why he'd missed work; no wonder he was acting so offended. She sighed, and tried to think of something, anything, that she could say to justify her being there.
"Don't start feeling bad about it now," Darren cut into her thoughts, obviously noting the change in her expression. "I don't need your pity or sympathy. I like you better when you're feisty."
"You're right," she said, ignoring the blatant playful smirk plastered across his face. "I shouldn't be here and I apologize. If I must be honest, though, I had no idea where I was going until I got here. Regardless of the fact that you want to dehumanize yourself by seeming flippant, I am sorry for your loss. I know how close you were to your grandfather…I remember –"
"It really isn't important, Katy," Darren said as she watched him fight the urge to run his fingers through his gelled hair. "I just wanted to talk to you about –"
"There you are!" Darren grumbled as the jubilant voice of a tipsy Matt Stanowitz cut off his statement. "I was beginning to wonder where you had run off to!"
As Katy smiled and greeted him, she noticed Darren's face had hardened. She tried not to notice as she tried to spark conversation between the three of them – she didn't want Matt to become suspicious and think that she and Darren were involved romantically in any way. Eventually, after an indeterminate amount of useless small talk, Darren finally excused himself from the conversation, leaving Katy alone with her date.
"What do you say we get out of here," Matt suggested, sparking Katy's interest. "There's a new restaurant in town that I've been meaning to try."
Katy quickly shut her apartment door and let out a squeal of happiness.
She began to reflect on the evening; her night with Matt had been great- no, amazing. Aside from the whole wake debacle, which Matt didn't see or even realize was an issue, their first date had been picturesque. One of Matt's co-workers – the NYTimes food editor to be precise – had recommended that he try this new restaurant in Clinton (Hell's Kitchen) and it had actually been quite good; she wasn't a "foodie" by any means, but she could enjoy a nice and pretentious meal from time to time.
Conversation revealed that they both had a considerable amount of shared interests and ideals. The topics of their discussions weren't anything terribly fascinating; most of them were generic "get to know you" things, but Katy still found herself enthralled with everything that he had to say. She hadn't brought anything up about a book deal during dinner and career drive aside, she was wondering if she even should. This relationship, although still in a minimal state, actually had the potential to go somewhere.
"Hello to you, too."
Despite the familiarity of the voice, Katy screamed and jumped around frantically; she slapped her hands over her heart. "Fuck's sake, Todd!" Her breathing gradually steadied, allowing her to form an actual sentence. "You scared the shit out of me; what the hell are you even doing here?"
"It's Friday night, remember?" Todd said, standing up from his spot on the couch. "I didn't know that our standing plans had been cancelled."
Realization hit Katy like a ton of bricks – she'd forgotten to text Todd. She inwardly cursed at herself and slapped her hand to her forehead. "Todd, I'm so sorry…"
Todd told her not to worry about it as he walked over to the door and started to grab his coat. Katy rushed back over and threw herself in front of the door. "Please don't go, Todd; I'm so sorry. I want you to stay."
Todd raised his eyebrow. "I even tried texting you – you didn't answer. I just wanted to stick around to make sure you weren't dead." Katy quickly fished the cellphone out of her handbag to assure him that he must have texted the wrong number because she never got a– three new text messages.
"Crap."
Todd ran his fingers through his hair and hung his jacket back on the coat rack. "You didn't even realize that your phone had gone off," his eyes searched over Katy's body taking in her hair, makeup and wardrobe. "I take it you had a date tonight?"
"I did!" Katy squealed. She jumped up, hugged her friend in excitement, and dragged him back over to the couch. "With Matt Stanowitz; he sent a bouquet of flowers to the office and then just…asked me out."
Todd listened with feigned interest as she continued to recount her evening; it wasn't that he didn't care about her date – he just didn't particularly want to hear about it. Katy knew this too, but her brain was too muddled with excitement to care. "He wants to go out again on Tuesday; isn't that exciting? Todd!"
"Yeah, yeah – I'm happy for you Kat. It sounds like you really like him." Todd nodded with his words. "I hope he's deserving of you."
"Oh Todd," Katy said, leaning her head against his shoulder. "You're always so protective of me; you don't need to worry this time. Matt is great – I'm sure of it. And we have so much in common, ya know? At least, so far."
Todd just nodded and rested his hand on her back.
"Speaking of people that are great, have you talked to Ashton lately?"
Katy felt Todd's body stiffen and caused her to sit up. "Todd?"
"Katy, I wish you wouldn't try to set me up with other women – it's weird."
"How is it weird? You two would be perfect together!" Katy believed it to be true. Ashton found Todd to be very attractive – with good reason – and Ashton wasn't hard on the eyes herself. Every time the three of them would hang out, conversation between them seemed to flow easily and honestly, Katy believed that Ashton would be the only woman that wouldn't feel threatened by her and Todd's close friendship. When Todd rolled his eyes, she forced herself to ignore the gesture. "Well, you would."
"We don't have anything in common, Kat, and you know it."
"Well, maybe if you talked to her one on one a little bit more and got to know her, then you would see that you do have a lot in common." Katy defended. "And stop calling me Kat."
"I don't want to date her," Todd said with a sigh. "And you don't want me to date her either; you just don't want me to date another woman like Caroline."
The mere mention of her name made Katy cringe; since Caroline exited the picture years ago, she remained a stain on Katy's memory. "She who's name shall not be spoken." She supposed that Todd did make a valid point. A bulk of her attachment to the idea of her two best friends getting together romantically stemmed from the fact that she didn't want to lose Todd to another woman that she didn't think she could compete with.
Not that she felt superior to Ashton, because she didn't.
"Katy, you forget that I know you – sometimes better than you know yourself. I wonder if that's a good thing or not," Todd laughed at himself. "You're pretty sick in the head."
"Todd Morgan," Katy said through gritted teeth, faking her anger with him. "I hate you."
Todd smiled.
"Can't even have a serious conversation with you," Katy huffed. "You always have to change the subject or twist it into a cynical joke of some kind."
Todd shrugged and gave Katy a lopsided grin. "I just assumed the conversation was over with – what else do I need to say other than 'I don't want to date Ashton'? It's just weird for my ex-girlfriend to set me up with her new best friend when things obviously didn't go over well with the last one."
"Caroline was different," Katy defended. "I shouldn't have let my guard down with her and obviously my Arkansas naivety got the better of me in that situation. Plus, she turned out to be a royal bitch, but without her, we never would have dated in the first place." Katy smiled. "I mean, surely being with me wasn't that bad."
"Well, I guess she got you away from Darren – that's something to always be thankful to her for."
Katy felt a small pang of disappointment with his statement; she knew that his feelings about Darren weren't something for her to take personally, but the words still stung. "Yeah, I guess."
"Katy, you know what I meant."
"I do," and she did. Todd adored her and she knew that he wouldn't say or do anything to hurt her intentionally. "It was just a shitty situation, that's all."
Todd's face softened and he took her into a light hug. "I'm sorry, Katy; I can be a real jerk sometimes. Forgive me?"
"Always."
"Good," Todd pulled away from their embrace and stood up from the couch. "Don't hate me, but I have to leave now."
"Why? Just stay here," Katy insisted. "It's cold; we can snuggle!"
"As tempting as that offer sounds," Todd said as he walked toward the apartment's door for the second time that night, leaving Katy to trail behind him. "I'm second-chairing a case tomorrow; I need my beauty sleep."
"How come you didn't tell me sooner?" Katy asked, curious about the case as a whole.
"You didn't ask," Todd's eyes flirtatiously sparkled. "Don't worry, I will tell you all the juicy details on Sunday. You won't forget about me this time?"
Katy stretched herself and gave Todd a quick peck on the cheek before shoving him out the door. "I won't forget. Now get out of here Cinderella, before your coach turns back into a pumpkin."
"Goodnight Katy."
Author's Notes: It's totally been a while since my last update – to the few that you actually reading and keeping up with my story, I am so sorry that I was on hiatus for so long. I hope that my finally working on (and planning to finish) this story will make it up to you all. As always, I very much appreciate constructive criticism as well as raving reviews. I'm very curious to see what everyone thinks about the different leading men in Katy's life. I know I didn't divulge too much about Matt yet, but trust me, everyone will get to know him better soon enough. :)
Thanks for all the support; you all rock!