It Just Had to Be You

Chapter 5

Catalina

I check my phone for the fourth time. Scott is fifteen minutes late already and Ms. Jeffries is growing impatient. He did the same thing last week. This is our second appointment, and this is the second time he's been late.

"I don't think he's coming," I'm about to stand up when he bursts through the door.

"It's nice of you to join us, Scott," Ms. Jeffries says, sounding slightly irritated.

"Sorry about that." He looks at me. "Peter saw you come in here, so I had to walk to my car and pretend I was leaving until he left, and then I came back in."

I sigh. The lengths he will go through to keep this a secret and his reputation intact.

"So, how has it been going?" Ms. Jeffries asks as Scott sits down.

"Bearable, I guess," Scott replies. "We're kinda getting into a routine now. Kitchen and bathrooms every day. We do upstairs Mondays and Wednesdays. We do downstairs Tuesdays and Thursdays. We change bed linen every Friday. And we do laundry every alternate day. Laundry has become my favorite."

He turns to give me a naughty look and I narrow my eyes at his subtle taunt. Despite my efforts to remove all underwear so Isa can wash them separately on the weekends, I somehow overlooked my black lace thong and I was mortified to find it hanging off his forefinger yesterday afternoon. The memory causes me to flush with embarrassment and he's trying so hard not to grin. Ugh! He's deplorable.

He seems satisfied with the annoyance he sees on my face and turns back to Ms. Jeffries. "I feel like a regular, old housewife...trapped in a stud's body."

Ms. Jeffries ignores his sarcasm and pushes on. "And how are you two getting along?"

"Fine," I answer absentmindedly.

"Uh...not fine," Scott corrects me. "She's so goddamn moody. One minute she's okay, then the next minute she's pissed off about something and she won't even tell me why she's upset or what I did to upset her."

"I'm upset because I don't like being around you. Every word that comes out of your mouth makes me hate you more. It's pretty straightforward. What's so hard to understand?"

"It's not like I enjoy hanging out with you either. You think I like cleaning? No, but we have to do this for two and a half more months. It would be nice if you could just tone it down a notch. I don't want to constantly be in a hostile environment."

My eyes nearly pop out of my head. "You don't want to be in a hostile environment? Did you forget what you and your friends did to me for the last three years, you entitled snowflake?"

"So, you're just going to hold a grudge forever?"

Ms. Jeffries interrupts at this point. "Scott, it's not about holding a grudge. Catalina is going through PTSD. What happened with her father has obviously deeply traumatized her, but don't discount the damage you've done. You have belittled her and called her names. That affects her confidence, her self-esteem. She's not just going to wake up one morning and be healed and that's what you're expecting. She has a lot of resentment toward you and that isn't going to go away anytime soon."

"She can resent me all she wants," Scott counters. "Can she just put it aside for the period of time I'm at her house?"

Ms. Jefferies exhales a heavy breath. That whole speech just went totally over his head. It may be that he can't comprehend any of this because he's just a spoiled rich kid, but I have another theory. I am a hundred percent certain that his parents fell asleep while fucking, which resulted in this dude only having half a brain. I can't think of another possible reason why he can't grasp this simple concept.