Chapter 29

KATE GRABBED MY HAND as soon as class was over and dragged me to the cafeteria to meet Melody. We’d spent the past two hours trying to draw without looking at the paper. It was one of Doc Henredon’s favorite exercises. The goal was to free our hands to follow the mind’s eye rather than what the physical eye saw. Mercifully, he used a still life setting as a model rather than a live model. We were all exhausted and in possession of another half dozen drawings that Doc never looked at and showed nothing about our artistry as far as I could tell. I had grown to have a lot of faith in Doc and knew he wouldn’t let us down. This was the only art class I’d have this term and I wanted to make the most of it.

We got to the cafeteria and had Cokes before Melody arrived. She rushed up to us and kissed us both. The college doesn’t actually have a policy regarding public displays of affection as I’ve heard some do. I’m pretty sure that if those kisses had gotten any hotter, though, someone would have reported us for something.

“I can’t wait to have you come over this weekend,” I said to Kate. “I feel like we were interrupted at a bad time.”

“Tony said a lot happened over the weekend, but he won’t tell us everything because he says most of it is your story to tell,” Melody added. “I’m dying to hear.”

“Oh. Well, about that,” Kate said. “I ... um ... won’t exactly be able to come over this weekend.”

“What? Why not?” I heard myself almost shout. Oh shit! That was totally inappropriate. What did I think was going on? Did I imagine I owned Kate’s weekends now that we’d had an intimate—if not profoundly sexual—weekend? “I’m sorry,” I stammered out. “That came out a lot different than I intended. It was just a surprise.”

“I want to be with you,” Kate mourned. “I really do. I’m bummed, too. But Saturday morning this week is my volunteer time at the Food Bank. We get all kinds of things in that have to be sorted and shelved. And with the holiday this week, things are going to be crazy as people restock what they can. Saturday afternoon is the Tent City coordinating team meeting. You’re going, aren’t you, Tony? On top of that I’ve got a huge project for my studio practicum that I wasn’t planning on. I expect all my paintings for the exhibition to come from that class and I can’t afford to mess up the first one. I’m sorry.” Kate was near tears and it was obvious she was as upset about not being with us this weekend as Melody and I were. We both scooted in on either side of her.

“It’s okay, Kitten,” I said. “We’re not mad about it. We’re just as disappointed as you are.”

“We’re all in school, after all,” Melody said. “I’ve got assignments due next week that I have to work on, too. I’m pretty sure that if you were with us for the whole weekend, I wouldn’t want to do any of my work.” She kissed Kate and hugged her tightly.

“I’d really rather be with you than anything else,” Kate said. “You know that, don’t you? You know I love you?”

“And we love you,” I said. “That’s why we’re disappointed when we can’t spend time with you. But we understand.”

Melody was biting her lower lip and I knew what she was feeling. I was hard as a rock and now our timing was all off. We weren’t going to have Kate with us this weekend. Somebody was likely to explode.

“Oh. About the following weekend,” I said. “It’s our birthday.”

“Not until Sunday,” Kate said.

“Well, I don’t want to wait until Sunday to celebrate when we’ve got the whole weekend, right? But I’ve got a portrait sitting with a new client that Clarice just got me. I need chaperones. I thought that since Lissa and Clarice went last time, maybe you two would like to be my chaperones this time,” I suggested.

“That’d be fun. Are you painting a sexy woman?” Melody asked.

“No. I have a lovely Indian family. You both have to be where at least one of you can see me at all times.”

“Okay,” said Melody.

“I’d be willing,” Kate said.

“You can’t imagine how much I wanted to hear that,” I grinned at her. She gave my arm a hug.

“Well, I have to get going in order to get as much time on my project as possible,” Kate said. We got up from the table.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I said. “I offered our guest room to Wendy tonight. I saw her at lunch and she really looks exhausted. Says she doesn’t have a good sleeping situation at the moment. I don’t know where she’s staying, but I told her to just come over after work and get a good night’s sleep.”

“That’s nice,” Melody said. “Let’s stay up and make sure she’s eaten.”

“Oh, Tony!” Kate said. She wrapped her arms around my neck and planted a wild kiss on my lips. I was staggered. “You are so thoughtful. Thank you for taking care of her. Things have been really rough lately.”