A 'SUB' REQUEST (Cate Blanchett x OC)

Chapter 16: A courageous step

I spent the weekend at Cate's. As Sunday morning rolled around, I kept refreshing the front page of Us Weekly for the moment of truth. 

Boom! It updated.

"Meghan Markle Signs with UTA..."

"See Kaley Cuoco, More Pregnant Stars Cuddle with Pets..."

"Shop Kendal Jenner's Teeth Whitening Pen and Other Products..."

And one last one - 

"Stars - They're Just like Us!" 

I clicked on that one and read every single word. No mention of me or Cate whatsoever. I drew one long sigh of relief. Cate came over and put her chin on my shoulder: "See? I told you she was all bark and no bite." 

Right, I didn't tell Cate that it was all because I blackmailed the father of her children. 

"Can we please go to the beach now?" Cate suggested, taking a sip of her chamomile tea. 

"Sure." I concurred. It was a beautiful day in May, and a sliver of the purest sunshine spilled into the living room from behind the closed shades. I went upstairs to change out of my sweatpants and into a bohemian-style sundress. There was freedom in the air, and I couldn't wait to breathe it all in. As I stretched and opened up the shades, I saw a dark, menacing cylinder pointing at me right outside my window down below. 

It was the lens of a camera, held up by a short man in a fluffy vest and khaki shorts. I cried out, instinctively covering my face with my arms. As I peaked out again from behind my hands, I saw him scurrying away quickly and hiding behind one of the bushes. 

Cate came to the rescue just in time and closed up the shades. I was panting on the bed, distraught. 

"You'll get used to it, love. They're normally gone by sundown." 

I caught sight of four more paparazzi photographers outside the window that day. They were like cockroaches, always lurking in a corner but perfectly willing to remove themselves from your presence upon your discovery. Cate and I decided to go out later that day at dusk, forgoing the sun-soaked luxuries of the beach and opting for a quiet walk in the hills instead. 

Nighttime with Cate was heavenly. We'd hold hands, shoot the breeze, and she'd even manage to sneak in a kiss or two on my cheek here or there. Our friendship and intellectual connection have not waned since our brief chat about relationship status. But for the few times I'd visited her after that, we had not had sex. 

Something about the particular events of that day, however, left us both feeling a bit fragile and emboldened. And to have even this small part of the day completely to ourselves felt especially meaningful. So I brought up the topic again. 

"I've been rethinking your proposition." 

"And...?" 

"It's a yes," I said demurely, "I want to be your girlfriend. Partner. Whichever one feels right."

We agreed on monogamy, taking turns spending the weekend at each other's place, and no PDA during the day. Meeting each other's close friends was a non-issue, since neither of us had any besides each other. I would meet her kids during the summer, and she would meet my parents over Thanksgiving. 

"And plenty of lovemaking," she sighed, "this past week without it has been torture." 

"That can be accommodated," I responded with feigned seriousness, and I felt her smile next to me in the dim moonlight. 

However, when we returned to the house later that night, sirens were heard all around our house, and our phones started buzzing nonstop with news headlines. 

-----

The surreal combination of events that transpired over the next couple of days were greater in magnitude than any drama that Hylda Queally could concoct in that petty little head of hers and would've overshadowed any scoop that she dared publish about us. It was May 2020, and all news outlets were all focused on one thing and one thing only: a powerful and mysterious pandemic that spread quickly all over the globe and taking thousands of lives in its tracks. And by some strange force of coincidence, the Black Lives Matter protests flared up all across America, resulting in early afternoon curfews and empty streets in LA. 

When Cate and I woke up the next morning, we felt an eerie sense of isolation that soon morphed into a calmness that was much needed for both of us. As I peeked outside the shades, it was jarring to find that for the first time, there wasn't a voyeuristic eye gazing back at me. Everyone would start working from home this week, and LA was turning into a ghost town. Our house was an island, me and Cate completely removed from the outside world. 

It felt amazing to open up all the windows at 8am in the morning and let the sun in. A gentle breeze swept through the living room, bringing in a hint of fresh grass, wood chips, and summer.

As social distancing measures were in place, our trips to the outside world would end with us spraying disinfectant all over each other. In the afternoon, when we were researching whether my neighborhood or hers had more positive covid cases, she said: "I'm tired of all this hassle. I just want to do this lockdown thing with you. As a couple."

"Hmm?" I said absentmindedly, my eyes still darting over the covid heat maps I found online.

"Move in with me?" 

This time I was much more unequivocal, "Okay, I'll get my stuff this afternoon." 

"Perfect."

"This lockdown could last for months...what are we gonna do with all this time?" 

Cate stood up without even glancing at me, walked to the open sunlit windows and closed them, drawing the shades over them tightly shut. "I know what I want do right here, right now." 

"What?"

"You," she said, turning around and gracefully picked up her phone, "It's 3:07. I'm gonna make you scream my name by 3:09." 

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