Chapter 25: The Puzzle and the Cat, Part II

March 1980, Hovås/Göteborg, Sweden

I woke early as usual, but just enjoyed being in bed with Katt. When she woke, she hopped out of bed and pulled a robe out of her closet and handed it to me.

“There’s a spare toothbrush in the bathroom. Go have your shower, then we’ll have breakfast after I have my shower.”

I quickly showered and brushed my teeth, and went back to Katt’s room. She went to shower and came back a few minutes later. She dressed, and I got a very good look at her sexy body while she did so.

When she finished, she grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen.

“Good morning, Steve. Good morning, Katt,” Inger said. “Steve, do you eat a Swedish breakfast?”

“Yes, I do, thanks.”

She served me a bowl of filmjölk and I added sugar, then cornflakes. I buttered a couple of pieces of toast and added some ham and cheese. A few minutes later, Håkan came to the table.

“Good morning Steve. Good morning Katt,” he said.

“Good morning, Håkan,” I said.

“Good morning, Dad,” Katt said.

We ate and talked about their upcoming move to the US.

“Will we see you in the US?” Håkan asked.

“I live in Ohio. That’s pretty far from Colorado, but I’d like to see Katt, so I think the answer to the question is ‘yes’.”

“Good. My daughter seems to have taken a liking to you, and she seems happy,” Håkan said.

“You’ll actually be there before I will. I’m here until July and you’re leaving in June,” I said.

We finished breakfast, and I told Katt I needed to head back to Hovås because I would need to meet my friends at the bus stop. She said she had to get to practice anyway, so that was fine. I said that I’d bring my bag back with me and could stay the night again. I’d need to discuss with Eva about seeing Katt every weekend, but I suspected that Eva would be OK with it.

I took the bus to Hovås and changed clothes, packed a bag, and spoke with Eva. She agreed it was fine if I stayed on Fridays and Saturdays as long as it was fine with the Sundströms. I said that it was and explained about their upcoming move to the US. We talked for a few minutes and then I left for the bus stop to meet Sofia and Tomas.

“Petra decided not to skate with us today. She doesn’t have anyone to skate with and felt kind of left out,” Sofia told me.

“Oh, that’s sad. Can’t she invite someone to skate with her?”

“She could, but she doesn’t want to. There isn’t much we can do about it. She’s made her own decision.”

Sofia was right. There really wasn’t much I could do for Petra at this point. Petra would have to look after herself.

“What’s with the bag?” Sofia asked.

“I’m going to stay in Västra Frölunda tonight.”

“With the ice dancer?”

“Yes.”

“Interesting,” Sofia said with a slight smile.

“She just wants to fool around; no strings attached.”

“Like Petra? I didn’t think you went for that!”

“It’s a bit different. Katt only had one lover before me and she’s happy with just having me when she can. You needed me to be exclusive, but Katt doesn’t. She knows I’ll see Pia a few times before Katt and her family leave for the US.”

“She’s going to the US?”

“Yes, to train and compete. They’ll be in Colorado, which is about 1800 kilometers from Milford, so there’s a chance we can see each other, but it’s not close enough for it to happen often if it does. She’s also a very different person from Petra. Unlike Petra, Katt wants to do things with me besides sex. Petra never really did. I think she was skating with us to try to get me back in her bed and after last week, she gave up on it.”

“So it’s not just sex with you and Katt?”

“It’s not, but she’s adamant that we not worry about the long term because we’re so young. She says that the future will take care of itself.”

“So the only difference between Katt and me is that I needed you to be just with me, and she doesn’t.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “And you know what? That’s fine. You have to worry about yourself and what you need. Speaking of which, how’s it going with the guy in your class?”

“Jöran? It’s going slowly, but that’s fine.”

“You could invite him skating with us. I’m sure Katt would skate with me.”

“You’d be OK with that?”

“Of course! I want you to be happy and if he makes you happy, then I’ll be happy. We’ll still be friends and I hope you’ll still want to get together some evenings each week.”

“Oh yes! There’s plenty of other times to see him than those three evenings!” she said giddily.

“Sofia Katsaros, were you worried about me?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to mess up our friendship. I can take my time with Jöran.”

“It won’t mess things up between us,” I said. “I’m happy for you!”

We arrived at the rink, and Sofia and I skated hand-in-hand. I saw Anna-Carin skate up to Tomas, and they kissed and then skated hand-in-hand as well. We went for our usual coffee and I explained to Tomas that I wouldn’t be taking the bus back with them and next week I’d meet them at the rink with Katt.

When we finished our coffee, I walked them to the bus stop and hugged Sofia goodbye and she gave me a very soft kiss on the lips.

“Thanks,” she said. “See you on Monday at your house!”

I walked from the bus stop to Katt’s house and rang the bell. Inger opened the door and invited me in.

“Katt says you’ll be staying Fridays and Saturdays until we leave on June 8th.”

“Yes. Thank you for your hospitality. I know Katt appreciates it.”

“Yes, she does. We spoil her, as you can tell. She pretty much gets what she wants, but she’s always thankful.”

I chuckled, “I know what you mean about her getting what she wants.”

Inger laughed, “She told me what it took to get you to do what she wanted. I’m surprised she let you get away with that as long as she did!”

“Is she always like this?” I asked.

“Oh yes!” he said with a smile. “She’s headstrong and knows exactly what she wants. Ask Mikael sometime. Or Johanna. But she has the potential to be a top skater, and she works very hard at it, so we let her do pretty much whatever she wants with her life.”

“Thanks for explaining. I’m always a bit uncomfortable with parents in a situation such as this. Back home, things are, well, different.”

“Yes, we know. Håkan’s company sent an advisor to talk to us and she explained a lot. We’ll have some adjustments to make.”

“Oh, that’s for sure! Thanks again!”

“You’re welcome. Katt’s in her room. Go ahead. Treat the house as your own.”

“Thanks!”

I walked into Katt’s room. She was sitting at the desk working on math homework and listening to the radio. I tossed my bag on the floor.

“Hi, Katt!”

“Hi, Steve! Come kiss me, then sit down. I need to finish my math.”

I walked over to the desk and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, then grabbed my book from my bag and sat on the chair.

“That’s it? Just a quick peck?”

“I didn’t want to distract you! Finish your homework, then you can have a better kiss!”

“Argh! You are going to be difficult, aren’t you?”

“Always! You won’t always get your way with me! I’m no pushover!”

She sighed theatrically and went back to her homework. I sat in the comfortable chair and read. I was reading «Bilstaden», a Swedish translation of the Arthur Hailey book, Wheels.

About forty minutes later, she closed her book and got up from her chair and came over to me and sat in my lap. I put the book down on the floor and put my arms around her. I gave her another quick kiss.

“What was that? You promised a good kiss, Steve!”

I chuckled, “That was a kiss. Was it not good enough for you?”

“You know darn well it wasn’t!”

I pulled her to me and we softly kissed and our tongues tangled gently. I moved my hand to her chest and cupped her small breast, squeezing gently. I broke the kiss.

“Better?”

“Yes. That will do for now.”

“For now?”

“Yeah, I’ll want a few more of those later. Actually, I’ll want a lot more of those later!”

She curled up in my lap and leaned on me while we talked.

“Next week, do you want to join us for skating?” I asked. “Sofia’s going to invite her friend Jöran, and Tomas has his girlfriend Anna-Carin.”

“You’re sure? It won’t cause problems with your friend?”

“It won’t. I suggested that she invite Jöran and said I’d ask you. I’ll still see Sofia two or three evenings each week for our talks.”

“Then yes, I’d love to!”

“I’ll be in Helsingborg to see Pia in April, from the 18th to the 20th and in May from the 16th to the 18th.”

“I told you that wasn’t a problem! But thanks for letting me know the dates. My last night here is June 7th and you better be available!”

I chuckled, “Do you have something special planned?” I chuckled.

“It could be months before I see you after that, so yeah, you could say that!” she giggled.

I just shook my head, “With the distance, your training, and competition, it could be tough to get together.”

“I’ll find a way,” Katt said firmly. “And don’t go thinking that this means I have some strange designs on you. I know how your mind works. Anything along those lines is after my skating career! It would be tough to have a husband or even a regular boyfriend and practice and compete, let alone have a baby.”

She was spot on, of course. My mind did go to those places because of who I was and my experiences with Becky and, to a lesser extent, Joyce. And really, it had all started with Birgit. Making love with her had brought the idea of a soulmate and life partner from some future possibility to a present reality. I had viewed everything through that lens.

Katt, like Jennifer before her, was telling me to stop doing that because it made me act in stupid ways. It was tough to put that out of my mind, especially given what had happened with Karin and what she was asking me to do. For now, all I could do was wait until I saw Karin and we could talk things through.

“That does make sense. I guess I’m just a convenient guy, then.”

“No, you’re far more than that,” she said sweetly, then sounded more business-like. “But I have my goals and I need to focus on them. If you haven’t noticed, pretty much everything takes a back seat to skating, and that includes my personal life. You’ve only seen my morning skating sessions, not the three hour ones after school or the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions.

“It’ll be worse in Colorado. Mikael and I will be training pretty much full-time. It’s the only way we have a chance to compete and do well. We’ll have tutors because going to school is nearly impossible with the kind of schedule we have to keep. That’s why it’s actually a good thing you’re nearly 2000 kilometers away. I wouldn’t have enough time for you if we were closer.

“But there will be times when it will work — just after major competitions when there’s a bit of downtime, for example. It won’t be as often as I would really want, but it would be as often as is practical. Does that help you understand why I think the way I do? Why I can’t worry about anything other than ‘right now’ with a guy? And given what I need, you are the perfect guy. Well, assuming you can get the idiot notions out of your head that you have to worry about stuff that’s not going to happen for at least five years and shouldn’t happen for about fifteen!”

She was making complete sense, actually. She was driven and determined to get what she wanted and achieve her goals and wasn’t even going to think about anything else seriously until she had achieved them. Even though I hung around with really smart girls who were self-confident and strong-willed, I’d never met one as determined as Katt with a clear focus on what she wanted. That explained why her parents basically let her do as she wanted — she’d never do anything to compromise her skating future.

“So I’m supposed to hang around the phone, wait for you to call me to come have sex with you, then fly home and wait around again?” I chuckled. “Sounds like a kept man!”

She smacked me lightly on the shoulder and giggled, “It does sound like that, doesn’t it? I’m sorry. I know you won’t always be available when I want you to be, but I hope you’ll at least be available some of the time.”

“All I can do is try my best.”

“Well no kidding. That’s all anyone can do. But making things happen is my strength. I do get what I want.”

“I think you may have met your match. You wanted me in your bed five months ago. I’d say you failed miserably!” I chuckled.

“Yes, on the timing, but not on the final result. Though I’m not happy about missing five months of incredible sex when I didn’t need to just because you’re an idiot!”

“We’ve covered that one. My battered and bruised ego can’t take it anymore!”

“You appear to have the least amount of ego I’ve ever seen in a guy who wasn’t a total wimp.”

“I was joking!” I chuckled.

“I know, and while you don’t have a huge ego, you are hiding some things from me that appear to be deeply troubling you. It’s not anything you’ve said or done directly, but you seem really gun-shy for a guy who can screw like you do. There’s something to this story that I’m missing.”

“Yes, there’s a lot you’re missing. A whole lot. Let’s just say I have a tremendous amount of emotional baggage that I bring along to every relationship. I’m working through those things, and I’ve even had some professional help in the past, but mostly I just need a close friend or two to talk to. That’s what Sofia is — a close friend that I can talk to and pour my heart out to. The same goes for Suzana, my host sister. Back home it was Jennifer, who was my best friend and my lover, my friend Melanie, who used to be a lover, and my little sister.”