“I like to get pretty sometimes. I’ll admit I haven’t had much of a reason to–or time–lately, but it's fun,” I said. “We should order. I’m starving.”
I tried to escape the topic.
“So, you’re having sex with him, right?” she asked. Katie definitely wasn’t subtle.
“What do you mean?” I asked, playing dumb.
“Knock it off, Arya. You know what I mean. And don’t get me wrong, I’m a hundred percent here for it, if you are.”
“Okay, I sort of did once…and almost a half.”
“Oh my God, you actually did? Wait, what is almost a half? Okay, tell me everything,” she demanded. “Wait, wait, we need mimosas first. We’re going to do this properly.”
The waitress showed up at the table with the mimosas I had already ordered for us. We placed our food order, and Katie practically shooed her away.
“Okay, tell me everything,” she said after taking a sip.
I told her everything. I told her about our date, the amazing sex after, the awkward next morning, the amazing afternoon, the awkward phone call eavesdropping. And I told her what I knew about Regina and their relationship and his mom.
“Wow,” she said, taking everything in.
Our food had arrived several minutes before, but neither of us had touched our plates.
Katie popped a French fry in her mouth as she thought about everything I had just told her.
“So, was it good, at least? The sex?” she asked, with a bit of a lower tone. I laughed. It was a typical Katie follow-up question.
“The best I ever had,” I admitted, easily.
She leaned in just a bit.
“Is he big? He looks like he’d be big,” I cracked up.
“You can’t ask that, Katie!” I laughed. “But, yeah, he’s big.”
“So, is this going to be official, or is it just casual?”
I groaned. That was the million dollar question.
“I don’t know. It’s all a bit confusing and things are so weird now. I really don’t know what is going on.”
“Oh jeez, it sounds like you’re now in a situationship.”
We both laughed lightly.
“How does Tristan feel about Regina coming to visit?”
“He seems okay with it, mostly for Shiloh’s sake. It doesn't sound like he's interested in anything more than a co-parenting friendship with Regina. He never talks about her with me, and he was really insistent with his mom that he didn't want to talk about her. I just don’t know if I can deal with all the drama. They’ll always be family and his mom made it clear she wants them together. How is he going to fight that in the long run?"
“That’s your trauma talking. Not everyone is a complete idiot, like some people you have dated. Some men actually know what they want. Tristan seems level-headed and assertive. He really seems like the type of person whose word you can actually trust,” Katie said, making me feel a little better.
“And besides, men marry women their mothers don’t approve of all the time,” she added.
“I know that, but I would just like to have no drama in my life for a change. I can’t just hop from one dramatic relationship to the next. I just want to feel safe for once.” I felt a bite of sadness. I’d never had one good, healthy relationship before.
“No relationship is perfect. Paul had an amazing mom, but he’s still a piece of shit. There will always be a downside to every relationship,” said Katie.
“You’re so right,” I said, sighing at my ridiculous behavior. “I really like Tristan. Thanks for your reassurance; I want things to work out between us. I don’t really know what that means right now, but I don’t want to let people like his mom come between us.”