Catherine couldn’t shake the look of vulnerability etched on Jules’s face as she gave her full disclosure. That, and the shape of her smile, the taste of her kiss.Unhelpful.
“So,all along Jules was the same person you’d been messaging online? The one I’d warned you about getting too close to because they were probably-most-definitely an axe-murderer?” Penny collapsed back into the plush cushions of her sofa with a whoosh of a laugh. “Bloody hell! I mean, you couldn’t make that up.”
Catherine buried her face in her palms and nodded.
“Although, actually it’s a bit like that movie.”
“What movie?” Catherine asked through her fingers.
“Er… Tom Hanks and the cute blonde woman.” She squeezed her eyes shut and clicked her fingers, “You’ve Got Mail.”
“It’s nothing likeYou’ve Got Mail.”
“It is a bit.”
“No one is falling in love with Meg Ryan or saving an indie bookshop from a greedy corporation.”
“No, but you spent months exchanging cute messageswith a woman you didn’t know you were already connected to. And now, she lives above you and wants to bone you.”
“Penny!” Catherine tried and failed to hide her grin behind her empty glass. “You’re supposed to be helping me figure out what to do about my stalker-cum-neighbour situation.”
Penny gulped down her last mouthful of wine and sat up to refill their glasses.
“Babe, I’m trying to help you re-frame it. You met someone online, had a genuine connection with them, and they turned out to be a real living, breathing, as-gorgeous-as-the-sun woman… and you don’t want to date her because?”
“Because what she did was very intrusive. She sort-of-stalked me and drew me into talking to her…”
“And then turned out to be better than anything you could’ve even dreamed up, no?”
Catherine lifted her shoulders, but she had to admit Penny was right. In the ridiculously short time she’d known Jules, Catherine’s overriding feeling was that she wanted more: more time, more information, more of everything and anything Jules had to offer.
“I mean, she’s really hot! She can sort-of-stalk me whenever she likes.”
Catherine hit Penny’s arm. “Penny, stop. Be serious for once. It’s a red flag. If a patient came to me with a situation like this, I’d tell them to run a mile.”
“Okay, fine.” Penny shrugged. “She didn’t need to ‘fess up to you, but she did. That’s got to go in her favour.”
“Yeah, but that was only because we almost slept together.”
“She still didn’t need to tell you. She could have had her wicked way with you, and you’d have been none the wiser.”
“Hmm.” Catherine pressed her lips together.
Penny held up her hands. “Admittedly, what she did at the start was a bit creepy, but she had her reasons. She came to protect her mum and stayed for the sparkling conversation. We’ve all done our fair share of weird shit, right?”
Catherine blinked.
“Okay, you’re an exception. But you know from your job that most people do weird things.”
“Yeah, and then they go and get help.”
“I think you seriously need to ask yourself whether you’re just getting in your own way again. Like, are you so intent on looking out for red flags you’re dismissing all the green ones?”
Catherine sipped her wine and slowly nodded as Penny’s words settled in her mind.
30
EVERYTHING, ALL AT ONCE
