Hate Mates

9 | good times, bad times

good times, bad times

One year later:

"Excuse me?"

Cate looked up from the leftover champagne that swirled in the bottom of her glass to see an aged woman in a fine dress staring at her with beady green eyes. The woman was wrinkly, pale, and had a cane held in one hand on which she balanced herself.

"Yeah?" she inquired of the lady.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help but notice that you have been sitting here alone for some time now," the lady observed, tapping the end of the cane over the polished floor of the five-star restaurant.

"Oh no. I'm not alone." Cate shook her head, straightening her spine. "My date just went to the men's room about..." She took a look at her watch which showed 8:20 on its frame, making her smile fall."...about fifteen minutes ago."

"I saw," the lady remarked with a nod.

"He ditched me, didn't he?" Cate bristled at the thought before voicing it. "What can I say..." She furrowed her eyebrows, gesturing to the woman for a name.

"Lindsey," the lady replied.

"Lindsey, yeah. It's karma." Cate shrugged. "Why don't you sit, Lindsey?"

Lindsey took the chair her date, Norman, had vacated a while ago, excusing himself for the men's room. She had been so distracted by a swirl of memories that she hadn't even noticed that her date was gone for quite some time.

"A girl like you doesn't look like she'd believe in all that kismet shit," Lindsey commented, leaning back on the chair. "That's for people like me. For you, he was just an ass, I believe."

"He wasn't, Lindsey. He was a chatty man with good looks. I fucked this up by constantly talking to him about my ex-coworker," Cate confessed, not having the moral to lie to a woman who had actually taken pity on her.

"Poor girl. What happened with your ex-worker?"

"He rejected me to follow his dreams. Now he's famous and I'm still not over him."

"Was he that good?"

"The best, Lindsey, and not just in bed. He was my eleventh...and my thirteenth heartbreak."

Cate's face fell as her heart sank with the recall of Ryle. It had been a year since she last saw him. He had called her many times but she didn't have the courage to pick it up to hear his voice. The thought that he was so far pierced her heart every moment. So she had spent the year indulging herself by focusing all her attention on her work, going on a string of blind dates set by her mother, and amidst all that, lost her father to cancer.

He had died a peaceful death, surrounded by his family like the Queen of England was. His last breath was in her sister's arms while she was just the other daughter he remembered to love.

"You got rejected thirteen times?" Lindsey's eyebrows touched her hairline as she exasperated.

"Ew, no..." Cate scrunched her nose. "I mean he was my all over thirteenth heartbreak. I'm a sensitive woman. My heart is fragile and it gets broken easily."

"Sweet child," Lindsey chirped empathetically. "It's hard to find a sensitive person these days. Look at my son — sent him to London to study and he completely forgot about his poor Mum."

Cate caught the Scottish accent in her tone, watching the lady upturn her lips while she gazed dazedly at the floor. "Sorry to know that, Lindsey."

"It happens," Lindsey sighed. "Tell me more about this ex-coworker. What dreams did he follow?"