Moving On

Chapter 15 - Part 2

Kate stared at the clock and smiled, glad that she'd cleared her paperwork in less than an hour. She leaned back in her chair and took a sip of coffee, smiling as she thought about the night before.

She sighed softly, wishing that the night hadn't ended and that she had more time to sit and indulge in the memories.

But she had to clear Evelyn's paperwork as well.

All of Kate's receipts were always neatly kept. They were all properly categorized and arranged from the earliest to the latest date. Anyone could look at them and settle the accounts without trouble.

Evelyn, however, always dumped everything into a wooden box.

Evelyn never had a clue about which receipts were for which projects, so Kate would have to go through the various projects and countercheck against the amount before she could assign the receipts to the proper projects. And only after all of that, could she begin to settle the accounts.

Putting her files away, she headed over to Evelyn's office. She knocked softly on Evelyn's door.

Evelyn looked up at her. "Good morning," she chirped. "Done with your paperwork?"

Kate nodded while she eyed Evelyn suspiciously. She was never this chirpy in the mornings.

"Sit. Chat. Tell me, how did last night go?"

"Great, sort of." She moved over to the couch and sat, then stacked up the magazines that were strewn across the coffee table.

"How was it sort of great?"

"I don't know. Everything just seemed to fit between us. Everything feels so right around him," she answered, smiling blissfully as she thought about their conversations and their dance.

"And the mansion?"

She sighed. "Thanks."

"I'm only saying it because I know you'll start rationalizing things when you're on your own."

Kate pushed the stack of magazines to the center of the table and obsessed with fanning them out evenly.

"Look, forget about the mansion. All your relationships last longer than a year. Besides, I don't remember ever seeing you talk about Benjamin or anyone like that."

"Like what?"

"Like a love-struck idiot?" Evelyn grinned as Kate glowered at her. "Everything just seemed to fit between us," Evelyn mimicked what Kate had said in an annoyingly sweet voice.

"Stop it."

"He's good for you. You don't know how to protect yourself. He can protect you."

"I grew up taking care of myself. I do fine."

"No, you grew up taking care of other people. You don't do too well on yourself."

Kate folded her arms and observed Evelyn for a while. "And the two of you are pretty alike." She strode over to Evelyn's desk and took the wooden box with all the receipts.

Just then, a commotion outside drew their attention.

"Ugh! Seriously? As if I don't have enough things to do today," she complained when she saw Joanne trying to barge into her office.

"Really, that girl never learns," Evelyn said through clenched jaws.

"Eve, please."

But Evelyn was already out the door.

She hurried after Evelyn, hoping and praying that nothing disastrous would happen.

"Hey! She's here," Evelyn hollered across the office, capturing everyone's attention.