“But I should’ve been sure,” she said softly. “You’ve done nothing but treat me with respect over the last few weeks, and you’ve never given me any reason not to trust you.”
“Well, I should’ve made it clearer that there’s been no one else since I met you,” I replied. “Seriously, don’t sweat it. And for the record—I definitely wasn’t on any sort of coffee date this morning. Those pictures you saw were from six months ago.”
She smiled, and I reached over and squeezed her hand. “So…about Josh,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “How did you get involved with someone as smarmy as him?”
Kate let out a dry laugh. “It’s not as romantic as it sounds,” she said, looking away. “He’s one of the assistant producers on my show. He kept hanging around, sending flowers to me and my secretary, Pammy.” Kate paused and threw me a grimace. “I know, he screwed her.” She winced again. “I should have known when Pammy was always a little too happy in the mornings. I think she wanted us to break up.”
“Sounds like a real piece of work,” I said as I navigated the car into my driveway. “So how did you get together?”
Kate shrugged. “You’ll hate me for saying this, but I was lonely. Lizzy was off at college, and I’m not that close to our parents. Geographically, I mean. All of my friends were either engaged or getting married and I just felt so alone. And here was this guy who never left me alone, who always brought me lunch and flowers...” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “I mean, he was intense. I kind of liked that, I thought it meant he wasn’t going to flake out on me. But obviously I was wrong about that. Once we started dating, he really took off. We’d only been together very casually a few times, and then he kept pressuring me to do things. I just didn’t know what to do; he wasn’t respecting my boundaries. I’ve been hurt before, and I need to take things slow. Well, usually, anyway. I guess you’re different,” she added with a wry smile.
“I’m guessing he didn’t take that well?”
Kate laughed humorlessly. “No, he didn’t. The morning after I broke up with him, he showed up with flowers and chocolates. He apologized for fighting with me and promised that everything would be better, and that I didn’t have to worry because he wasn’t angry with me anymore. Isn’t that rich?”
I whistled. “Damn, he’s a manipulative little bastard,” I said. “I’m guessing that wasn’t the last you heard of him?”
Kate shook her head again. “He started emailing me all the time, calling me in the middle of the night, threatening Pammy to hold me up in the office, and then he’d mysteriously stop by when I couldn’t get out of going to dinner or drinks. Finally, I thought I’d managed to shake him. But then he showed up on my doorstep, drunk at three in the morning, and I knew that I wasn’t getting rid of him without a fight.”
“Christ,” I said, gripping the wheel and steering the car into my driveway. “Back in the day, I thought a bloke knew when a girl didn’t want him around. But I guess Josh went to a different school of thought.”
Kate didn’t reply. She didn’t laugh; she only nestled further down in the seat. “This is a mess,” she said softly. “I had no idea things would wind up like this.”
As I turned the car off, she slipped out of the passenger side before I could comfort her. It was chilly outside and I saw she was shivering as I let her into my flat.
“Feels like ages since I’ve been back here, even though it was just this morning,” she said. “Thanks, Jay. I appreciate this so much.”
“Not a problem. Come into the kitchen,” I told her. Grabbing my computer, I put some water on to boil for tea and booted up the laptop, sliding it across the counter to Kate. I caught her staring at me with big, guilty eyes.
“You do so much for me,” she murmured, sliding onto a stool at my bar. “Thank you.”
I was silent as she booked her return ticket. It took her longer than I thought, and she frowned at the screen the whole time.
“Get everything squared away?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. I couldn’t get a flight until the day after tomorrow, though,” she said. “Some kind of weather issues keeping planes grounded for the moment. I guess all that fog that’s been hanging around in the mornings is the culprit.”
I frowned. “I’m sorry. I hope that gives you enough time to get back and speak with your producers.”
Kate nodded again; her expression was grim. “Me too,” she said. “Me too.”