Chapter Sixteen

By Friday night Tia was more than exhausted. She'd dealt with one major problem after another. Some days were just like that. It was almost seven and she was just getting home. She wanted to crawl into her pajamas and lay on her couch all night.

"Hey Tia, how was your day?" Catherine was carrying bags of groceries into the elevator.

"Hectic and long. Where's Maddy?"

"She's at Grandma and Grandpa's tonight."

"How was your day?"

"Surprisingly light for an emergency room. Hey, I picked up some fresh smoked turkey. You want to have a sandwich and a cup of soup with me?"

"Sounds perfect, let me get out of these clothes."

"Great, 1 need to get out of my uniform."

"I'll be down in about twenty minutes."

Tia glanced at her mail as she entered her apartment. Kicking her shoes off in the hallway where they landed on a sweatshirt, Tia headed for her bedroom and struggled out of her clothes. She pawed through her drawers and pulled out a pair of sweats and a tee shirt, slipped her feet into a pair of sandals, and headed for her kitchen. Rummaging around in her cupboard, she located a bottle of wine. Stuffing her key into the pocket of her sweats, she headed downstairs to Catherine's.

"Catherine?" Tia knocked and entered the apartment.

"I'll be out in a minute, make yourself at home."

"I brought some wine."

"Perfect."

"I'll open it and pour us some." Tia entered the immaculate kitchen. It always amazed Tia how neat Catherine's apartment was, despite having a young child running around. Maddy's room was a typical young girl's room, filled with special items that Maddy valued. Even Maddy's room was neat. But the rest of the apartment looked like a designer had put it together. Unlike Tia's, which was in need of a cleaning intervention.

Catherine entered the kitchen wearing a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, her face scrubbed clean of makeup. Tia was surprised at the huge rush of attraction she felt for Catherine. It came out of nowhere and she's been unprepared for it. Hiding her reaction, she smiled at Catherine.

"Here's your wine."

"Thanks." Catherine took a sip and then placed her wine on the counter. "This is delicious, thank you for bringing it. Let's make dinner, I'm starved."

The two of them quickly threw together sandwiches, soup, and some chips. They visited quietly as they worked together, creating their meal.

"Let's eat in the living room, I have the fireplace going." Catherine suggested, as she carried their plates into the other room.

"I'll refill our wine glasses." Tia followed Catherine into the living room moments later.

They both sat on the couch and began to eat. The silence of the room comfortable and pleasing as they both started to relax. "This is just what I needed, a good meal and pleasant company." Tia smiled at Catherine.

"I know what you mean. You're one of the few people I can just relax with and be myself. I don't have to entertain you. I hope that doesn't sound rude."

"Not at all, I feel the same way. All day long I have to watch what I say and do. I just get tired of being careful all the time. I don't have to protect myself around you. I can just be me."

"Exactly. Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure."

"Do people at your company know you are gay?"

"My boss and the management team do. I told them before I took the job. I'm sure some of my co-workers have figured it out. I don't announce it at work, but I don't hide the fact that I am gay."

"Has it ever been an issue?"

"I think it's less an issue then my being a Hispanic woman, and a tiny one at that."

"You've been discriminated against?"

"Many times, but so has everyone else. I just don't dwell on it. What about you?"

"I work in a predominantly female field. Men are discriminated against all the time, and I am sure minorities are treated unfairly. I've been treated differently because I am a single mother."

"I think we all get discriminated against. I'm not sure that that we'll ever stop all discrimination until we start showing respect for everyone, regardless of our differences."

"I think you're right. Is it difficult to be a gay woman in a large corpora-lion?

"I think less so now then it used to be. It's hard to attend office parties alone. I would love to be able to bring a partner with me, especially since everyone else brings a significant other."

"Would you bring a woman partner if you were with someone?"

"I don't know, but I would like the choice. If I choose to be with a woman for the rest of my life, I would want to include them in all aspects of it."

"It must be hard."

"Probably not any harder then being a single mother."

"I wouldn't change a thing. Maddy's my life. I think if I was braver I would have had Maddy on my own instead of getting married."

"At least your ex-husband doesn't make it difficult."

"No, he's a nice man and a good father."

"You're very lucky."

"I know."

"I have friends who just had a baby by artificial insemination. They tried to adopt, but it's very difficult, especially if you're two lesbians."

"I'll bet. That's very cool that they had a baby together. I'd love to have another baby. Maybe I should look into artificial insemination."

"You don't want to get married again?"

"Not if I can't find passion. I need that in my life."

"I know the feeling. It's better to be alone then not have that."

"So why aren't you seeing someone?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're beautiful, smart, sexy, and single. Why aren't you seeing someone?" Catherine grinned at Tia.

"Thank you for that, but contrary to that statement, not everyone I meet sees me that way. Besides, it's difficult to meet women when I work long days, and rarely go out. They aren't going to show up on my doorstep."

"I know that problem. I'm so tired of blind dates with friends of friends."

Tia giggled as she spoke, turning to face Catherine. "What was your worst blind date?"

"I'll tell you mine, if you share your worst."

"Deal."

"Okay, it was with the brother of a woman I used to work with. She bugged me for months until I caved." Catherine grimaced as she spoke. "She told me he was a successful software programmer, and that he was good looking, with a great personality."

"Ah ha, the old great personality line, it'll get you every time."

"Yep, and I still went on the date. He picked me up after work for dinner and a movie. I should have known something was up when I had to climb into his extremely old and dented car from the driver's side. The passenger's door was broken, not to mention he was wearing a stained sweatshirt and torn jeans."

"You're kidding?"

"No, and I was wearing a dress." Catherine groaned as she relived the very embarrassing evening. "Boy, was I overdressed. He drove to a tavern in Fremont because he said it had great food. It didn't, and it was dark and smoky. He then proceeded to get into an argument with the gentleman seated next to our table about the Internet."

"A date from hell."

"It got worse. We missed the movie so we stayed at the tavern, where I watched him play pool. He didn't like to compete with women, so I wasn't allowed to play. Finally at eleven, I asked him to drive me home. He got a little angry because he wasn't ready to leave, so I took a taxi home."

"That's horrible." Tia couldn't help but grin as she listened.

"The worst of it was his sister got mad at me for being such a rotten date for her brother."

"I can't believe it." Tia was close to laughing.

"Okay, that's my worst date. Now, it's your turn."

"My date wasn't anything like that."

"Come on, you aren't going to get out of it, start talking."

"Okay, okay. A group of women were going to go out for dinner and a little dancing. I went along and was to meet one of the women's friend, who was visiting from San Francisco. We met at Salty's and I saw her for the first time. She was wearing jeans, a white men's tank top with no bra, and a black leather jacket, oh, and motorcycle boots."

"Uh oh."

"She was an extremely large woman, very heavy set, with hair shaved close lo her head. The first problem we had was when the waitperson called us ladies. This angered Jan beyond belief and she berated the young waitress until she was in tears."

"Why?"

"The term ladies denigrated her as a lesbian."

"What did you do?"

"I asked her to let it go."

"Did she?"

"Yes, but only as a special favor to me. I think that's how she put it. The whole dinner was like that. Everything was a political argument. She monopolized the conversation, and offended just about everyone. Let alone calling unwanted attention to our table. It was so embarrassing."

"I hate that."

"So do I. We finally left to go dancing, and when we arrived at the club she grabbed my hand and told me to come with her. She called me baby."

The horrified look on Tia's face made Catherine laugh. "What did you do then?"

"I pulled my hand back and told her I wasn't her baby. She told me she knew I was a fern, and since she was a butch, we were perfect!"

"And..."

"I told her she could shove baby up her butch ass and I left. Needless to say, we didn't go out again."

"That sounded horrible." Catherine grinned, choking on laughter.

"It was." Tia began to chuckle. "But, I got over it."

"Looks like we need to be more discriminating when it comes to dating."

"If I get any choosier, I'll die before I have one."

"True and no dating means no sex."

"Yup." Tia sighed heavily. "What are we going to do?"

"It's too bad I am not gay, 'cause then we could go out with each other." Tia choked on the wine she was sipping and her eyes grew big. "I'm sorry," Catherine paused. "Did I-did I embarrass you?"

"No, not at all, you just surprised me."

"Why? Because a straight woman thinks you're attractive?"

"I guess." There was more to it than that but Tia wasn't sure what to say.

"Don't you look at attractive, straight women?"

"Of course I do, but I certainly don't look at them as a potential date. First of all, it's futile, and second of all, it's dangerous."

"Why is that?"

"Well, what if, hypothetically, I found myself attracted to a straight woman and we become friends. If I tell her I am attracted to her, or heaven forbid, I should make a pass at her, she would probably get very angry. She would never be able to be a friend of mine, because she would always worry that I might have inappropriate feelings for her. I would lose either way."

"I see your point. But if someone cared enough about you to be your friend, they would be flattered."

"Easy to say, but hard to do, that's why I don't cross the line when it comes to straight women."

"I certainly wouldn't react that way." Catherine's eyes were large and serious as she looked at Tia.

Tia's heart beat loudly in her chest. She wasn't sure what Catherine's eyes were telling her. "So if I told you I was attracted to you, you wouldn't be offended?"

"On the contrary, I would be flattered, and extremely honored." Tia and Catherine stared at each other silently for several minutes before either one of them spoke. "Tia, I value your friendship, and I care about you. You're becoming very important to me, and I don't want to lose that."

"Catherine, I care about you. I would never do anything that would damage our friendship."

"Good, now that we have that settled, do you want to watch a movie? I rented a couple today."

"Sure, what did you get?"

"Two action adventure ones."

"I love action adventure."

The two of them settled in to watch the movie but Tia was still a little thrown off by the earlier conversation. She wasn't sure whether she had just admitted to Catherine that she was attracted to her. She hoped not. It would only cause a lot of problems. She knew from experience. The rest of the evening slid by easily, and it was after midnight before she headed for home.

"Don't forget, Maddy and I are expecting you for dinner tomorrow night." Catherine reminded her as she walked Tia to the door.

"You're going to get tired of me." Tia smiled.

"Oh Tia, I don't think that will ever be a problem." Catherine grinned and hugged her quickly.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Catherine." Tin was shocked at the raw lust she felt for Catherine from the apparent innocent hug. She was in big trouble. She had no clue what to do about it, except stop seeing Catherine, and she didn't want to do that. She needed to get her act together.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14