Kathleen Ehrlich-Cohen (faultorvirtue) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2011-03-01 01:16:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | elizabeth bennet, fitzwilliam darcy |
Who: Kathy and Eli (with an appearance by Benedict's voice mailbox, Georgie and a kitten)
What: She's got some splainin' to do.
Where: Reliquary
When: Monday evening
Monday, and Eli had returned from the Thornewood and was watching Georgie chase a kitten around Reliquary. It was a small thing, white and fluffy, and Nana had found it in the cold and dragged it inside a week earlier. Eli was fairly certain the creature, which Georgie had named Earl Gray, wouldn’t be going on anywhere. He considered worrying about a health inspection, but he had too many other things on his mind. Isobel and her recklessness, EIT and Preston. He really needed to check on Blake’s nose, and he very much wanted a break for the madness of life in Seattle.
He reminded himself of his conversation with the Evie the previous day, and when the bell on the door jingled he looked up, intending to get Kathy’s attention before she wandered into Georgie (and the kitten’s) tea party.
Kathy had been very adept at avoiding her neighbor, she rarely had to resort to such tactics as ducking into hallways, or looking out her peep hole before she went outside (okay she did that once or twice) into the hallway. She wasn’t going to deny that it had been a grand old time up until she’d panicked and ran, but now she had to suffer the consequences of her awkward moment.
She’d worked a full and exhausting day, and was anxious to get home by the time she walked into Reliquary. Eli caught her attention first and rather than be bombarded by Georgie right off the bat, she assumed he had something to tell her. She approached him and smiled, “Cute kitten, we’re not taking it home,” she said giving him a playful smile.
“Are you planning on telling me what happened with your suitor?” Eli asked, glancing over at Georgie and the kitten without refuting the claim about not taking the kitten home. “Or is it to be a secret for the rest of our natural lives?” he asked her, his expression a knowing one that he didn’t bother to hide in any way whatsoever.
Her eyes narrowed just a bit as she looked him over. Hm. He knew something alright. “Something tells me I don’t need to,” she said curiously. “But it’s not a secret, I was a little too tipsy, got a little too familiar, remembered our daughters were asleep down the hall and took my leave,” she said a bit quieter, she didn’t need to broadcast it. She was full of shit, but she didn’t feel the need to let him on everything right then. Besides, he already looked suspicious. She was sure of it.
Eli merely quirked an eyebrow at her. “I’m told there was sniffing and running. Would you like to recast that tale you just told me?”
She highly doubted Benedict was spinning this yarn, so that left only one possible culprit and she ‘harumphed’ just a bit, “So much for sleeping daughters,” she grumbled just a bit. “There wasn’t sniffing and running,” she paused. “I flirted, quite poorly I’m afraid, told him he smelled nice, then he got all,” she tried not to smile, that didn’t work at all, “Sexy and there was some kissing and then...I panicked. But I did not run. I left. Quickly, but I did not run.”
Well, this sounded more promising than sniffing. The smile alone was indicative of something that was, he suspected, not planned out somewhere on paper or in her head. He pulled out two tea cups, and he poured her some water and fetched two teabags that contained the kitten’s namesake, and he nudged the cup toward her with the sugar bowl. “Go on. why did you panic?”
She went about steeping her tea in her cup and sighed a bit, as if she was mulling over truth or a white lie. Which she was. “I have to preface this by reminding you that it’s February in Seattle, I don’t date, and I wasn’t exactly prepared for this change in plan,” she said before she leaned forward a bit and lowered her voice even more, “There were some personal grooming issues, I hadn’t shaved my legs in well over a week and if I hadn’t stopped then it would have gotten very embarrassing. But since I stopped so abruptly, I panicked even more, walked the wrong way down a hallway, almost forgot my daughter and then just...Have spent the last week hiding from him.” There. She’d copped to it, now hopefully she could crawl into a hole and die at some point.
He didn’t laugh. He didn’t. He cracked a smile, and he somehow managed to contain the laughter that wanted to burst forth. He thought perhaps his eyes watered with it, just a little, but he managed. “As fate has it,” he said, very deadpan and very serious, “I never shave my legs before sex.” He smiled at her, then, a real grin, wide and just a little entertained. “If the man is interested in you, he isn’t going to mind the state of your legs, Kathy. Plus, he’s no idea why you ran. Most likely, he thinks you thought he had halitosis, or some such thing.”
She gave him a pointed look, he was smiling, but he wasn’t laughing. It was good he wasn’t laughing or else she might have to kick him. Just a bit. She rolled her eyes when he said he didn’t shave his legs before sex, and thought once again a well timed kick might be warranted after all. “I mind,” she said then. “I want to be silky smooth and well groomed, and preferably not drunk the next time this happens, if there is a next time,” she said leaning her head in her hand propping her chin up. “Trust me, he doesn’t think that, I’m sure he knows it’s all me, I wouldn’t have kept up the necking on the couch like a sixteen year old if there had been anything wrong with him at all. Things were going just fine until I remembered my little problem.”
Eli didn’t reply. Instead, he merely reached for the phone on the counter and set it in front of her. “Ask him to dinner.”
She looked at the phone, then back at Eli, then back at the phone and shook her head, “No,” she said simply. “I’m not going to chase the poor man. I think that if he’s still interested he’ll let me know.” She said seriously. “He can phone me, he can come knock on my door, he can do anything he wants, I did what I set out to do, I had a minor hiccup, but it isn’t as if he’s ever been beating down my door. I’m always initiating contact, asking him to lunch or asking him out for a drink. He can phone me.” She said sighing a bit, maybe she sounded unreasonable, but she didn’t feel altogether unreasonable.
“You ran out the door in a panic,” he reminded her. “Almost forgetting your child in your haste to get away.” He sighed, relenting somewhat. “Ask him how his day was, then, and allow him to do the remainder,” he suggested, nudging the phone forward again.
She sighed, he had a point. But that didn’t mean she had to like it. At all. But she was fairly certain he wasn’t going to let this go quickly. She cleared her throat and picked up the phone and dialed, it rang three times and went to voicemail, shit. “Benedict, hi it’s Kathy, I hope you’re doing well, just calling to check in, see how your day went, hope it was good. I hope you’re well, and that your week has started off alright. Nothing important, no need to call back, just calling to check in, haven’t heard from you in a bit, so I hope you’re doing well,” it was at this point that she realized this was the worst message in the history of the world, and she blurted out, “Talk to you later bye.” And hung up quickly. “I get one free night of babysitting for that, on a date night too. I suffer, you suffer,” she said to Eli and tried not to hit her forehead on the table. Good Lord.
Eli was smiling, and this time he wasn’t even making any attempt to hide it. And by the time she put the phone back on the receiver he looked quite proud of himself for having accomplished what he had. Any man who received that message and did not realize the woman on the other hand was nervously crazy about him was a daft pillock, and somehow Benedict Sablier did not strike him as a daft pillock. “If he doesn’t return that call by evening, I will eat my shoe,” he said, still smiling. “And I’ll even drink your weak excuse for coffee,” he added, smugly taking a sip of his tea.
“Get the ketchup ready,” she said in answer to him eating his shoe. “And I’ll send over a pound and a half of our breakfast blend first thing in the morning, I’m sure.”
He held out a hand for her to shake, even as Georgie noticed her mother and came running over with a kitten in her arms.
She shook his hand and turned around just in time to get a face full of kitten and she took said kitten and gave it a few pets, “He’s lovely darling, did you have a good day?” she said leaning over and kissing Georgie on the forehead. At that point Georgie owned the conversation and Kathy grinned between Eli and Georgie and listened to everything that had happened.