Chapter Eleven
Kate woke up to the smell of greasy fried deliciousness. Her mother stood in front of her waving a McDonald’s bag in her face. “Time to get up! I brought you breakfast.”
Crawling her way into a sitting position, she remembered she had crashed on the couch right after Jared took off. Her mother had not tried to converse once the detective had left. Wordlessly, she had kissed her forehead and thrown a blanket over her before heading off to bed. Kate had not bothered undressing before falling asleep and was in the same clothing she wore the previous night.
On the other hand, Kate’s mom looked as if she’d been dressed and awake for hours. She was showered and wore a blouse with a set of pearls and Capri pants. Kate eyed up the fast food bag she held with excitement, but then sensed her stomach lurch. The debauchery from last night was threatening to make her stomach rebel. Falling back into the couch, she let out an overly dramatized groan.
“Now, now,” her mother said, taking her by the hands and lifting her back up. “Nothing cures a hangover better than fast food and cola.”
“I think I’ll just lay here and die if you don’t mind. Feel free to go on with your day. Maybe if you have the time, throw a blanket over my corpse at some point.”
“Well, when you drink your own weight in alcohol…” her mother started.
“Please, don’t, Mom. No lectures,” she mumbled while wrapping her arm around to cover her eyes.
“Fine, but you should be grateful your mother is forgiving and is not going to dwell on her daughter suddenly becoming a lush.” Her mom removed the sandwich from the wrapper and set it out next to Kate’s drink. After a second’s hesitation, she asked her, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Talk about what? How I basically threw myself at a guy with a girlfriend and made a complete ass monkey out of myself?” Kate took a long gulp of soda followed by a huge bite out of her sandwich. Thinking about Jared made the urge to vomit even stronger. “I mean, what’s wrong with me?”
“I may be biased, but you’re perfect. You can’t blame yourself for falling for him,” she reasoned. “There’s this old quote from a French philosopher named Pascal. ‘The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.’ I think the sentiment applies to your situation.” Her mother gently patted her leg.
Kate swallowed hard and tried not to cry again. “I don’t understand why I even like him. First of all, he’s old. He freaking calls me kiddo for god’s sake. His work wardrobe is in serious need of an improvement and he’s dating Malibu Barbie.”
Her mother didn’t say anything and Kate had a sense she wasn’t very convincing. She lamented, “I should’ve known he would never be interested in someone like me.”
“Maybe it wasn’t all one-sided? Maybe he threw signals your way which made you suspect something could happen?”
God, her mother was the worst, Kate stewed silently. She was supposed to sit here and trash him with her. Not make her think Jared maybe liked her, but rejected her anyway. Cringing, she recalled how she basically admitted everything she was feeling for him. The damn alcohol had made her break through her reserve and she had practically begged him to give her a chance.
“I don’t know, he never came out and said he liked me. I want to die every time I think about how he told me one day I would find someone and that someone wasn’t him. If I’m honest with myself, I want more than anything for it to be him,” Kate said morosely. She softly added, “I mean he’s obviously gorgeous.”
Her mother gave a slight smile. “Obviously.”
“But it’s more than that. He made me feel special—like being psychic didn’t make me a total freak of nature. It felt good to be admired for a change instead of having to deal with the accusations of being a fraud or something worse. He actually told me he wouldn’t care if I saw into his head because he had nothing to hide from me.”
She felt her eyes well up with tears again. It was impossible to imagine meeting another man who would be open to accepting her second sight as something to marvel over. “I should just face it. I’m destined to be alone forever.”
“Honey, I wish there was something I could say to make this feel better. Getting your heart broken is painful and you may feel you won’t get over it. When your dad left…it felt like the day of reckoning had come and the world would end. Yet, each day brings you hope and you learn to live without that person.” Taking Kate’s hand, she gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Awesome, Mom. Now I definitely want to jump off a bridge.”
“My point is, nothing’s wrong with you and you’ll get over this,” she said and came to sit next to her daughter on the couch.
Kate rested her head against her shoulder. Her mother was comforting and it felt good to have someone take care of her. “I don’t think Jared intentionally meant to hurt you. You may be psychic, but I can read people well. He seems to be one of the good ones and probably was trying to do the honorable thing and not take advantage of you.”
“Mom, you’re supposed to be convincing me of his suckiness,” Kate bemoaned. “I think it will be too hard for me to see him. I still want to help with Cori, but maybe you could be in contact with him if I envision anything? I think I’ll die of embarrassment if I come face to face with him. I know I’m totally in the wrong here and he never led me on, but I can’t deal.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to him? I know it’s complicated since he has a girlfriend, but maybe you could be friends and down the road if anything changes…”
“No, it’s better to stay away. You should know I can’t face any type of conflict better than anyone. That’s the reason I’ve been holed up here since I woke up from the coma.” She shoved the rest of the sandwich in her mouth and slurped up the soda. Surprisingly enough, the food did seem to be settling her stomach.
“Maybe it’s time to stop hiding, Katie,” her mother said gently.
She gave her mother a half grimace and half smile. Clearing the wrappers off of the table, she placed them in the empty fast food bag. “Thanks for breakfast, Mom. I’m still kind of wiped and don’t feel like spending the day looking like a run-over hooker.”
“Ok, but I’m here if you want to talk,” her mom said. Kate nodded and left to take a shower and to sleep the rest of the miserable day away.