Chapter 17

The rest of the ride back was pretty quiet - my fault, I suppose. I don't know why I had been so shy about mentioning The L Word - it wasn't like I got the impression that Kathryn was homophobic or anything like that, and her reaction had been pretty neutral, really.

I suppose I'd always been in the habit of being 'in' at work, just by default - well, not 'in' per se, just... neutral. And neutral, of course, meant straight-until-proven-otherwise.

And it's not that I wouldn't come out to my work if I felt it was relevant, but it's wasn't. Except that now Kathryn had confused matters with this unexpected friendship thing, and I would never be closeted with my friends. So which category did she belong in for my purposes?

I still hadn't really figured anything out by the time we pulled up outside my flat, though my stomach was now roiling with a mixture of hunger and nerves. Kathryn stuck the car in neutral, turning to look at me somewhat expectantly. "That was great. Check your calendar and let me know when you're free for next time, yeh?"

"Oh, um, great." I realised that didn't sound overly enthusiastic and hastened to add, "I'm really not that busy other than work, so you know when I'm free as well as I do, basically."

"All right, well, I'll see when I can get another rental, then."

This time I knew my smile was more genuine - I'd just thought about how great it was going to be to be back out on the water again. "Great," I said, this time with feeling.

Kathryn smiled at me fondly, and I was struck by how attractive she looked, her hair still tousled from the wind, her tanned cheeks slightly pink. "I hope you have a good rest of the weekend - any plans?" she asked then.

"Recovering from this, I imagine," I replied with a tired roll of my eyes.

She chuckled and nodded her understanding. "A good hot bath and you'll be right as rain."

"Mm, sounds lovely - if only I actually had enough room for one of those in my showerroom," I said, making a face. "I suppose I could get a barrel from somewhere and boil a whole lot of water..."

"Oh, you poor thing. You're welcome to come round to mine and use my bath - it's big enough for three people. Not that I've tried," she added, smirking.

"I, um..." It wasn't what she'd meant, of course, but naturally the foremost thought in my mind was now that of sharing a bath with Kathryn Sinclair, and I felt the tips of my ears grow hot. "I'll bear that in mind," I said eventually.

"Good! Well, I suppose I'll see you on Monday, then."

"I'll look forward to it," I said, immediately feeling like more of an idiot than ever. "See you then."

 

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