Nick polished off the last piece of pizza and sighed happily. Next to him Kat was stretching out her limbs sleepily. He patted his legs and she put her legs across his with a grateful smile. They leant back against opposite ends of the couch.
“That was great pizza Nick.”
“The best.” He grinned and rested his hands on her legs. “So, why are you still single Kat?”
“Whoa, from pizza to relationships,” Kat laughed. “Great segue Carter.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t avoid the question.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were,” he said seriously.
Kat looked at him before sighing. “Ok, you win Nick. Kat pours out her heart.” He didn’t respond and she looked out of the dark window. “I got engaged to this guy last year. Found out on the eve of my wedding that he was fucking my so-called best friend. But he still wanted to marry me cos he loved me.” She laughed bitterly and looked at Nick. “I said a few things. Namely where he could shove certain things and disappeared.”
He looked surprised. “Disappeared?”
“I left the state. I couldn’t face seeing anyone I knew.”
“That’s when you came to Florida?”
“Yeah. Caught the red eye from San Francisco.”
“Were you born in San Fran?”
“No, Atlanta.” She laughed. “Can’t you tell by my accent?”
He shrugged. “I guess. But your accent is kinda muddled.”
“I did move a lot I guess.”
“Why?”
“My mom,” Kat sighed. “My dad died when I was 13 and I had a pretty cool life up until then. Then he died and my mom got into drugs. She’d get herself some pimp boyfriend, get in debt to him or her drug dealer and then grab me and leave town in the middle of the night.” Nick gently stroked her leg. “I guess I’ve got used to leavin’ when things get hard.”
“Wow Kat,” he whispered.
“Now you know my story,” she said. “What’s yours?”
“Uh, pretty tame compared to that,” he smiled at her. “Boring stable family life. Got into this job when I was 13. Fell out with mom when I was 18 cos I thought she was using me…”
“And was she?” Kat interrupted.
“Yeah, she was,” he looked at her sadly. “So I cut her out of my business life, and out of my life full stop for a while. But then I slowly let her back in and now she’s my mom again.”
“I’m glad. Everybody needs a mom.”
“Where’s yours?”
“She died,” Kat said abruptly. “So, girlfriends?” she changed the subject quickly.
“Sore point,” he chuckled wryly. “I’m sure you heard ‘bout my last one.”
“Tell me about her,” Kat settled back into the couch as he started talking slowly.
“I dated Mandy for around two years I guess. On and off. At first it was real cool and relaxed cos we were both young and stuff. We just hung out and did stuff together,” he smiled at the memory. “But then she started gettin’ jealous of the fans and accusin’ me of flirting when I was just doin’ my job. She’d get kinda abusive – callin’ me names and even hittin’ me some times. It took me a long while to finally get out of that situation. I guess she just got me beat down. It was Kevin who finally opened my eyes to how dumb I was bein’. I fucked up this routine and he heard me callin’ myself a fat ass. He kinda pulled me aside and went crazy. Told me to never think that and that Mandy was a psycho bitch and I deserved so much better. He wouldn’t let me go until I agreed with him.” He shrugged. “So I agreed and next day I changed all the locks.”
“Even to your heart?” asked Kat softly and he was quiet awhile.
“No, that took a while longer.”
“I know.” She reached out and took one of his hands in hers. “Believe me, I know.”