Driving Miss Catherine

Summer Nights

Cat was in a serious dilemma. The past few weeks, she had fallen hopelessly for Heikki. They had been on countless romantic dates, ranging from casual (a day at the beach) to formal (a night at the opera, which Cat loved, mostly because Heikki wore his military uniform.) It was almost like a fairytale, but like all fairytales, it must have an ending.

As she rode home from her latest adventure with Heikki, Seb noticed she was a little quieter than usual. “Is everything all right?” He asked, glancing at her. She looked a little sad, just staring blankly out the window.

“Heikki’s going back to Finland soon,” she sighed dramatically, as if it would somehow make it better. “Maybe I’ll just follow him back to Europe…. That kind of makes me sound stalkerish, doesn’t it?”

Seb grinned, although it could have been mistaken for a grimace. “It might be construed that way, although if he felt the same way, then I’m sure he’d find it…adorable, or something.”

Cat detected a not-so-subtle tone of boredom/irritation in his reply and it sent another prickle of anxiety down her spine. Instead of being annoyed at his tone, or insulted, she was, in a way, scared. Scared and excited, and a little confused. Despite being blindingly in love with Heikki, there was one thing she had slowly become aware of over the past few weeks. She’d come to the conclusion that Seb had some kind of feelings for her, but it was complicated. Like, he felt guilty about liking her.

Cat assumed it was because he worked for her father and he felt it would be wrong for him to have feelings for his employer’s daughter, so she just tried to ignore it.

But she couldn’t. She was slowly, and regrettably, realizing that she perhaps had the same feelings for him. It was different from the way she felt about Heikki. With Heikki, it was an intoxicating, fluttering kind of euphoric attraction that was almost like a drug, a subtle lightening. He always knew the right thing to say when Cat felt insecure or when she was awkward (which was pretty often), and he always had something fun or romantic planned. The best part was that her father already liked him. A lot. Perhaps a little too much.

Cat’s feelings toward Seb were still a little ambiguous. It was like he was her best friend, but it was more than that. Even before she knew he was a famous racecar driver, she got butterflies whenever she got in the car with him, and it wasn’t because of the way he drove.

Currently, they were racing through the outskirts of the city after Cat and Heikki’s final date, Cat was lost in thougth, replaying their last few moments togehter.

Heikki had waited until the end of their date to tell her, he said he didn’t want to ruin it. They were taking a walk after getting dinner at a nice restaurant (which she’d paid for), though she didn’t mind paying for him, especially when he wore his uniform, like he had tonight. She hadn’t expected him to be wearing it, but she obviously wasn’t going to complain.

“I thought you were wearing black tonight; if I’d known you were going to wear white I would have worn something that matched better,” Cat joked, noting her black dress.

“Cat, you look beautiful no matter what you wear,” he took her arm in his and led her down the sidewalk. “Why don’t we take a walk, it’s a nice night.”

They walked slowly, enjoying the warm August night. It was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday evening, the city seemed to be asleep. Cat was thinking about how amazing her summer had been, almost like a dream, when Heikki interrupted her thoughts.

“Cat, I want you to know how much I regret having to tell you this,” he paused, and swallowed, as if he was fighting back his emotions. Cat’s heart started to beat so fast it leapt up into her throat. “I swear, this was unexpected, I would have told you sooner if I’d known, but I have to go back to Finland this weekend. My leave has been cut short and I have to return to the Navy,” Heikki sighed, “So I can live on a boat for a few months.”

Cat fought back tears for a second before breaking down in choking, unattractive, sobs. As if on cue, Heikki handed her a neatly folded handkerchief and comfortingly wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want it end so soon, but this situation with Russia has changed things and a lot of officers are being called off summer leave early,” Heikki explained, but Cat only heard one thing. She knew something had been happening between Russia and its neighboring countries, that wasn’t what surprised her.

“Did you say ‘end?’ You mean we’re-” Cat broke down in another fit of crying, unable to finish her sentence. She was going to say ‘breaking up,’ but she wasn’t entirely sure they were actually dating.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that,” Heikki quickly explained, a hint of panic in his voice. For a second, his façade broke, and if Cat had been looking, she would have seen the worry lines temporarily exposing the ‘real Heikki’ behind his outer shell. “I meant our time together, for now, is ending, that’s all. I thought I had a few more weeks of summer to spend with you before I had to leave.”

“Will I be able to see you again before you leave?” Cat looked up at him, not caring that her mascara was probably running down her face.

“I hope so, but if not, there’s something I’d like to do before I go,” he said as he wiped a few drying tears off her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her cheek lightly and gently held her face in both his hands. “I don’t know when, or if, I’ll be able to see you again. This situation with Russia is….tricky, and it could get a lot worse. I’m not trying to scare you, or anything,” he added when Cat took a sudden, short, breath, eyebrows raised in concern. “I don’t know what’s going to happen; we could go to war, or not. You never know with Russia.” He smiled a half/uncertain grin that Cat returned.

“And what is it you want to do before you leave?” Cat asked.

She saw a brief moment of hesitation in his eyes before he leaned down to kiss her on the lips. “Well,” he said as he pulled away, “First, I’d like to make sure that I’ll be able to call you my girlfriend when I telling my friends about the amazing girl I met over the summer,” he smiled that dazzling white, prince charming smile that made Cat melt a little each time.

“Of course, what else would you call me?” Cat smiled back at him.

“And secondly, if I’m going to have to go off to war, I want to spend at least one night with my girl,” he said, and looked down at her with a hint of something in his eyes Cat hadn’t seen before.

Her cheeks reddened slightly and she had to clear her throat before responding. “I think that could definitely be arranged.”

Heikki slipped something in her hand and leaned in to whisper in her ear before kissing her on the cheek, “Meet me here at 8:00 tomorrow night.”

He gave her a confident, yet mischievous smile before slipping into the building they had stopped walking in front of. Cat look up at the building and realized she was standing (rather awkwardly, in the middle of the sidewalk), in front of The Plaza. She’d been here several times for various functions, and although she’d never stayed here, she knew it was one of the most expensive hotels in New York City. 

‘How the hell is he paying for that?’ Cat wondered, when a hilarious thought snuck into her head, and she actually laughed out loud. What if her dad was paying for it?

“What’s so funny Miss Catherine?” Seb asked with a grin, standing next to the car with the door open, waiting for her.

She blushed, “I didn’t realize you were there. How long have you been watching us?”

“I just got here, don’t worry,” He winked as if to say ‘your secret’s safe with me,’ although he was one of the people Cat didn’t want knowing. Her dad would probably be happy if he knew what she and Heikki were up to, although Cat wasn’t entirely sure herself what that was. Without another word, Cat climbed in the car and they took off into the warm August night. Seb was chattering about something, Cat wasn’t really sure what, because her mind was far away. She looked down at the card Heikki had pressed into her hand before leaving and it was, as she thought, a room card for The Plaza. She looked out the window, blankly, as she tried to think over everything that’d happened that night, and if tomorrow night really meant what she thought it did. 

Whatever it meant, she was going to spend the entire night with Heikki, and whatever they did she’d love it because she wasn’t going to let the fact that it could be their last time together ruin it.