to the moon & to saturn | cate blanchett

chapter 8

The following morning, Elle headed out of the apartment bright and early to meet up with Cate at her new store location.

She got an Uber that dropped her off at the storefront, which was nestled in between a restaurant and a jewelry store. The store windows facing the sidewalk were made completely of glass, so Elle could see Cate standing in the center of the virtually empty space. She was wearing a white pantsuit and seemed to be in a heated conversation with a contractor.

The outside of the store needed a lot of work; the primary outward facing wall consisted of bricks that were dirty and faded, and the sign above the store was from the previous owner. Cobwebs surrounded the sign's letters as well as the bottom corners of the front door.

Cate noticed Elle as she was staring at the matted and torn welcome mat that did not look welcoming in the slightest.

"I meant to pick that up, but there's nowhere to dispose of it," said Cate, greeting Elle with a hug.

Elle's heart jumped as Cate held her and whispered, "I'm so glad you came, dear. It's been a rather frustrating process and I need you."

"Oh, no problem," said Elle, blushing.

Cate kicked one of the cobwebs with her heeled shoe and held the door open for Elle to walk through.

"This is a lovely space," said Elle.

It was empty except for a few random boards of wood, a broom, and two folding chairs, but it was spacious and a perfect blank slate for Cate to play around with. The only glaring problem was the wall color.

"The walls are orange," stated Cate.

Her list of problems didn't stop there. She continued to recite the various problems of the space, "The bricks are unsightly, there's cobwebs everywhere, the wood is rotting—"

"Hey, hey," said Elle, rubbing a hand up and down Cate's back. "Listen to me. Let's start with the wall color. That's an easy fix, right? Have you hired painters?"

"The painters are coming this afternoon. The walls will be white," said Cate.

"And the cobwebs are easily fixable too. I'll sweep them away right now. As for the wood, I don't really know what to do about that..."

"My apologies for eavesdropping, but we're going to tear all the rotted wood out this morning," said the carpenter.

"See?" said Elle, hoping her smile to Cate would be contagious. It was. Cate's worries dissipated from her face.

"Thank you, dear," she said, but then, "OH! But what about the bricks?"

Elle grabbed Cate's hand and led her outside.

"We could power wash it to get rid of the dirt, and then once it's clean, we could whitewash it. That would match with the inside color scheme, but of course, it's your store, so my ideas mean nothing," said Elle hesitantly, scared that Cate might not like her vision.

Cate looked the bricks over slowly and brought one hand to her face, running her thumb across her lips in deep thought.

"Whitewash," she whispered. "I love it."

She turned back to Elle with a curious head tilt. "Now, tell me Elle, where on earth did you learn all of this?"

"My mom," answered Elle. "She was big into interior design when I was younger."

"Well, I'll have to thank her for creating such a beautiful, creative, and thoughtful daughter," said Cate, heading back into the store.

Elle stayed outside for a few moments longer. She picked up the welcome mat, walked to the nearest community dumpster and threw it in. She knew Cate probably didn't mean anything by her comment, but Elle hoped that her mom and Cate would never meet. Elle didn't even know where her mother was; she hadn't talked to her since she started college.