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HUNTER
One benefitof being burned to a crisp is that you no longer care about the heat. I leave my crappy apartment at six in the morning looking to clear my head. The sun hasn’t fully risen, yet heat waves roll down from the brightening sky like meteors in a shower.
I don’t bother with sunscreen, nor a hat, deciding I deserve the discomfort and pain that is sure to follow. I’ve been wrong about everything. I thought Catherine would appreciate my brilliant plan, see the real me, and realize that I’m more than a maintenance man living in a crappy apartment trying to make ends meet.
Her sense of drive is evident to a blind man, and I thought she’d recognize that trait in me. She didn’t, and it’s my fault. While she was dropping the pretense and showing me her true self, the one that I’ve fallen for, I failed to do the same. Even if I felt I was being my true self, I held back secrets from her under the guise of not wanting to overwhelm her. I should have known she is not the type to be overwhelmed. No wonder she ran away from me.
It has me reconsidering everything I’ve attempted here in Arizona.
I cross Market Street and spot the Johnson Deli. Catherine raved about the sandwiches when we biked at the mountain and I’m hoping an early morning coffee and a buttered roll will help mend some of the loss I feel.
The bell chimes above the door and I walk in.
“Hunter?”
I turn to spot the beaming smile of Adrienne.
“I thought that was you, what are you doing here at this hour?” she asks, not hesitating in her approach, a warm hug.
Catherine must not have told her about our breakup yet. She leans back with a tired smile, makeup free.
“I could ask you the same. Are you just getting in from a late Saturday night?”
She giggles. “I wish. Flower shop duties. I have to check on the irrigation system in the green house before the sun rises. Stephanie is meticulous about it ever since it broke last year. We rotate early morning check ins, especially this time of the year. If the plants and flowers aren’t watered overnight on schedule, the sun will destroy half of them. Happened once in the before times and Stephanie never misses an opportunity to remind us.”
“The before times?” I find myself asking.
Her laugh returns and she pulls out her phone from her back pocket. “Before the internet. She likes to tell us horror stories of life in the prehistoric times.” Adrienne swipes and holds up the phone. “I have an app and we have cameras and everything to monitor. Reminders, alarms, and three other types of automation which Stephanie doesn’t fully trust. She still insists that we come down personally and check as if this is last century or something. I complained once to my sis, and she applauded Stephanie’s sense of diligence. The two of them big believers in the trust but verify principle of life.”
I crook my brow.
“You know belts and suspenders. The type that solves a math problem a million times but still checks their work.”
I nod. “I can see that. Someone who delivers excellence always has a high bar for standards.”
“Yeah, but sometimes I wish she’d put the pencil down and trust herself. She doesn’t have to be perfect every time. It’s okay to take chances, not have all the answers, to mess up and struggle.” Adrienne looks over her shoulder as her number is called. She nods at the worker who places her order on the counter. “My sister and I FaceTime on a regular basis. I wanted to do a TikTok duet with her, you know a side-by-side dance video. It was impulsive, it would have been silly, but it would have been fun.”
“Would’ve been?”
“Yeah, she shot it down. She wanted to research the dance, wanted to change outfits, wanted a week to practice the routine. Of course, the following week she nailed it. She was perfect. I still had a great time making fun of her approach but it’s a lot of unnecessary pressure she puts on her shoulders. That’s why I’m glad to see you.”
“Me?”
Her bright eyes swirl, a similar swirl as her sister. “Yeah. I could tell by being around you that you calm her down. You’re smart, someone who seems like they are a planner as well. Someone who strategizes three, four moves ahead. A partner that Catherine can relax around knowing she doesn’t have to have all the answers all the time - that between the two of you everything will be covered. You’re the type of guy she’s always needed, you’re the right guy for her.”
A bell chimes and we both turn to the worker who pounds on the counter bell a second time calling out my number. My head full of thoughts that I failed to hear the bell. “Wow. I appreciate the kind words Adrienne but how can you say any of this? We spent a few hours together.”
We stride together to the counter. Adrienne scoops up her order and I do the same. “It doesn’t take long to see what a person is about,” she starts and sips her coffee. “I saw you with her, the glances and looks when you thought no one was watching. How you knew how important it was to Catherine that you and I form a connection because it was important to her. How you protected her from reliving a hurtful memory every time she comes to the flower shop by giving her a new one.” She lowers her coffee in front of her, the bright smile returning. “But most of all it was the look she gave you when you weren’t looking. Her heart already knows. All she has to do now is let her head complete the fifteen gyrations it will put her through to verify something her instinct already knows to be true.”
My hand crinkles on the paper bag, distracting me from asking the question I know I have to. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
Adrienne reaches out and taps me on the forearm, juts her neck to the side for us to step away from the counter. We stride toward the line of refrigerators filled with juice, water, and sodas. She steps into my personal space, not wanting a syllable of what she is about to disclose leaking out.
“Because I know in her heart Catherine wants to come home to Mesa. She’s felt it for some time. But like I said, her head needs to run its verification routine. You have the ability to tip the equation. You are the right guy, the type of guy that she will allow herself the permission to return to Mesa for. Bring my sister home to me.”
I have no response and Adrienne doesn’t expect one. I remain dumbfounded as I press my back to the cool glass of the refrigerators.
Adrienne smirks over the top of her coffee as she steals another sip and tosses a wink in my direction. “Looking forward to seeing you around. For future reference, on Sunday morning after checking the system, I shoot unrehearsed, unscripted TikTok in the green house with the sunrise in the background. Feel free to bring Catherine along anytime.”
I have no words, the image of Catherine and her sister dancing unrestrained with a rising sun in the background is the stuff dreams are made of. It’s everything I sense Catherine needs in her life. Back in her hometown, spending time with family and living life with an uninhibited joy. But these are just my assumptions.
The only person that can decide what Catherine wants is Catherine. And the only way for me to find that out is to talk to her. As much as Adrienne may believe in us, I’m struggling to reach that same level of confidence. We’ve both gone back and forth in this push, pull fake romance - experiencing highs and lows. Trusting and not trusting.
But this last encounter ended differently. My dishonesty hurt her. She was clear about not contacting her again. A mountain stands between us. I’m not sure even the sky-high hope that Adrienne possesses is high enough to clear it.
Catherine may not want me to call her, but I need to figure out a way to address the damage I’ve done. Adrienne is correct about one thing. I am a strategist. My mind swirls in search of solutions and lands on a whammy of an answer. It is risky, it will put everything I’ve done up to now in jeopardy and I probably should vet it with Dad, but I don’t have time. I will just have to follow my instinct for once and take a leap of faith.
