“You’re a woman that’s been strong for too long.”
Kathleen looks up at my words with her plump bottom lip trembling, looking as if I’ve just given her the world.
She clears her throat. “The last few years have been harder than I could have ever thought possible. My mom had a stroke, and she’s in the nursing home now.”
“Kat,” I breathe, taken aback.
“My brother has no one but me, and I barely finished high school, though I still had good grades by the end of it,” Kathleen tells me, dull-eyed and weary.
“So, no University of Georgia then?” I know it’s crossing a line, but I have to know.
“Your sisters told you that they saw me at orientation,” she says, though she doesn’t look too surprised. “I asked them about you while they were there.”
“If you remembered me all along, why did you pretend like you didn’t?”
Though I don’t expect her to give me a clear answer, I still want to know. Kathleen seems so distant since last I saw her. But in this hour where the night blossoms into the morning, anything seems possible.
“I was embarrassed,” Kathleen shakes her head, wiping a tear from under her eye. “I didn’t want you to see me the way I am now. I know that you expected more. And it’s been a few years since I last saw you.”
Her admission takes me aback.
I can’t believe that Kathleen would think I would judge her for her choices in life as if I had any sort of need to. I really admire her for who she is. I have never met someone so determined to keep their family safe.
“No one would have blamed you if you had chosen to give up and let someone else take responsibility after your mom fell ill,” I tell her gently. I reach a hand up to brush softly over her jaw, reveling at the feel of the pale, soft skin there.
“There was no one else,” Kathleen whispers, turning her face into my hand. “I should get in there. Carlos is already threatening to cut my hours as it is.”
“Let me pick you up after your shift,” I tell her, and it’s the very least of what I want to do for her. “You don’t need to take the bus. I’ll be here when you’re done.”
Kathleen’s eyes go big and round. “I uh…I have to go to the library after I’m done. My brother needs some books for his fall reading list, and I promised him I would.”
For some reason, this woman already has me wrapped around her finger. She could ask me to pick her up from the surface of Mars, and I wouldn’t hesitate.
“What about your brother? Will he be home alone? He can come too,” I tell her, ready to accept every single piece of her life, good or bad, in spades if I have to.
Kathleen shakes her head. “He’s staying with a neighbor in the building. I was going to just come home right after the library and spend some time with him.”
“I’ll do whatever you need me to do,” I tell her.
When Kathleen presses her lips to mine, there’s a surprising sort of urgency to it, and I can’t seem to get enough.
CHAPTERFIVE
Kathleen
The taste of Eddie Snow’s kiss is on my tongue, stuck in my memory.
I tuck my cardigan on the rack by the back door, pushing my purse under it where it’s hidden. This part of the city isn’t a place where you leave your valuables out.
Carlos’ prominent belly meets me before he does, coming around the corner in a stained white wife beater and a crunchy-looking plaid shirt. He looks greasy, like always, and there’s a half-used cigarette tucked behind his ear. I wonder if he knows that smoking half of a cigarette doesn’t count as trying to quit smoking.
He brushes right by me, mumbling to himself before he finally turns around.
“You,” Carlos exclaims, pointing a thick finger in my face as I push my notepad into my apron. “Next time, I want you here on time, girl. Go on and take tables four and five. There’s a family at five and a woman at four that hasn’t ordered at all yet.”
There’s a stack of plates on the counter, and Carlos doesn’t wait for my answer before he leaves me to it. Table four isn’t even close to my section, but I grit my teeth and set my mouth into a painfully bright smile, even though I’m so tired.
I stop short when I realize who is sitting at the table in the early morning light from the window. I swallow hard and don’t stop, making my way to the table.