Driving Miss Catherine

The Side Effects of Having Money

After an absolutely rapturous night at The Plaza, Cat awoke to the sound of Heikki arguing with someone on the phone in Finnish on the terrace. He was speaking quietly, but she was pretty sure she heard her name a few times. He glanced at her a few times, and realized she was awake and staring back at him. He was mostly dressed, sipping a cup of coffee, and holding a newspaper (which he immediately pretended he was reading). His shirt was unbuttoned, exposing the sculpted abs Cat had often pictured (although they were better in person). She blinked as her vision slowly came into focus and ran a hand through her messed up hair. Compared to Heikki, she must have looked like a wreck, at least that’s what she thought.

“Good morning beautiful,” he said as he came back into the bedroom. He poured another cup of coffee and handed it to Cat. “I’ve ordered some breakfast from room service, I hope you don’t mind. It’s on the terrace.”

Cat stepped out on to the terrace and set her coffee cup on the table before admiring the view of New York below. Heikki wrapped his arm around her waist, lightly tracing her hip bone with his thumb. He leaned over and lightly trailed kisses down her neck, and even though her head was screaming ‘yes’ she gently stopped him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked and she turned to face him. “We only have a few hours left together before I leave, and I might not be back for months….I just thought we could-”

“Maybe after breakfast.” Cat smiled and kissed his cheek before turning to see what he’d gotten them for breakfast. “Strawberry crepes? My favorite, how did you know?”

Heikki sighed as he sat down across from her and looked frustrated (Cat assumed it was because he wasn’t used to being denied). For a second, she thought he was going to say something else, but he smiled his usual smile and returned to the Heikki Cat was used to seeing. “You told me about your trips to France to visit your grandmother, and how much you loved the crepes her personal chef made for you.”

“Thank you, these are almost better than ones I’ve had in Paris,” Cat replied after taking a bite. The rest of the morning continued in this pattern: moments of tension interrupting Heikki’s usually serene and confident disposition. Cat thought it was because he was being shipped off to deal with whatever was happening between Russia and Finland, potentially war, and excused his behavior as perfectly normal. He was being more physical than usual, which Cat didn’t mind at all, so the next time he asked, she did not decline his advances.

It was 2:00 in the afternoon by the time all of that ended, and Cat and Heikki reluctantly started packing to leave. He had spent the whole summer here, yet he didn’t have nearly as many things as Cat would have thought. Cat had fit almost all of her stuff into one bag, but she couldn’t find one, very important, thing. She searched the room one more time before reluctantly asking Heikki if he’d seen it.

“Medicine? What kind? Was it in bottle?” He asked, brows furrowed in concern.

“No, it was in a square, um, thing, and it looks-” She caught something out of the corner of her eye and turned back to face him. He had something square in his pocket, and the corner of it was pink, exactly like the pills she was looking for. Cat reached forward quickly and snatched it out of his pocket, and stared up at him in disbelief. “-like this! What the hell was my birth control doing in your pocket?”

His face froze with an unreadable expression. His heart started beating faster, and he was sure his cheeks were turning pink. “It’s not what you think,” he tried to smile. He reached out to lightly stroke her cheek but she pulled away.

“Then what is it!” Cat yelled. She shoved his hand away and took a few steps back.

“I-I just…” his mind was going a mile a minute trying to come up with a good excuse. He certainly was not going to tell her the real reason he had it. “I thought maybe if you forgot something important that you would come back for it. And what else would you notice more than this…hopefully…” He gave her a slight smile and counted the seconds before her icy cold/terrified expression changed.