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One year later.
Parisian sun beat down on Kate’s face. She turned up her nose and let it wash over her skin. European sunshine didn’t burn the way it did at home. For the first time in her life, she had a tan. A soft whine made her reach under the table and scratch Kiwi, her French boodle, behind her velvet ears. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Kiwi whined again, flicking her small ears upward.
“Naww, you’re hungry, aren’t you? You won’t be waiting long, baby. Daddy will be here soon.”
The café waiter, dark and handsome as a cliché, reappeared and picked up Kate’s coffee cup. “Puis-je vous apporter autre chose, mademoiselle?”
“Non, merci. Tout était délicieux.”
“Je suis très content de l'entendre.” The waiter beamed down at Kiwi. “Quel beau petit chien!”
Kate smiled, rubbing her puppy behind the ears. “Merci, elle a six mois aujourd'hui.”
“Merveilleux. Eh bien, faites-moi savoir si vous avez besoin d'autre chose.” The waiter gave her another wide smile and strode away. Kate quietly marvelled at how well her French was coming along. She was still far from fluent, but ordering was a cinch and casual conversation was almost possible.
“A little more practise and people might stop glaring at me for being a filthy tourist,” she whispered to Kiwi, who looked utterly unimpressed. Very French of her. Kate scratched her silky back. “It’s okay, sweet pea. If you’re good, Daddy said—"
“What did Daddy say?”
Kate turned to see Ty, tall and golden in navy slacks and a white shirt. He carried a black laptop back and looked drained and slightly sweaty. She smiled at him. “Daddy said he’d buy me a pony. Or did I not hear that right?”
Ty grinned. “Give me a hug.”
Kate did, inhaling his cologne and sweat. “Bad day?”
“Just busy.” His hand slid down to her ass. “You look gorgeous.”
“Thanks. Do you want to get food?”
“Soon.” He pulled the chair across from hers out and sat down. “What have you been up to?”
“Working.” Kate indicated the laptop bag at her side. “It’s crazy how much stuff I can do remotely.”
“Glenda offered you a full-time position yet?”
“No, but I think she would if I asked.”
“Maybe I should work from home,” Ty mused. “Spend more time with you?”
“We’d have sex all day and accomplish nothing.”
“So? Why do you get to relax at home and I have to work in an office where everyone giggles whenever I say, ‘solar power?’”
“Because you love being grumpy,” Kate reminded him. “And because you stopped coming to night classes when Madame Pollachi said you don’t articulate your vowels properly.”
“Stupid Madame Pollachi...” Ty beamed at her. “Hey, I have good news.”
“Go on?”
“The Belladonna Club’s officially vetted my ass. We’re in.”
Kate squealed, making Kiwi yelp.
“Oh my gosh, sorry, Kiwi!” She patted the little dog as she gaped at Ty. “Seriously?”
Ty gave her a satisfied smirk. “Oh yeah, we’re in.”
Kate laughed out loud. They’d applied for a membership at the Parisian adult club three months before. The vetting process was expensive and almost more complicated than applying for a work visa, but she and Ty had loved the elegant venue and airtight privacy Belladonna offered.
“This is such good news!” Kate grabbed Ty’s hand. “I knew we were going to get in.”
“I didn’t.” Ty yawned, stretching his arms over his head. “Either way, it’ll be good to start socializing with people I don’t work with.”
“Don’t we do that by Facetiming our entire friendship circle every week?” Kate asked.
“No, you do that. The Barbie Trolls see more of you and Kiwi than I do.”
“Yeah, but Georgie and Ian are coming to stay with us next month.”
“So?”
“So, they’ll bring more socialising and Australian spirit with them,” Kate said. “Ian’s the biggest bogan going around. He’s like, all five members of Hilltop Hoods condensed into one guy.”
Ty laughed. “I hope you can handle it. They could have gotten their own place, you know, but you insisted they stay in the spare room...”
“It’ll be nice to have people in the house! Like being at camp together, but with better food.”
“That’s called living on campus at uni, and I lived on campus with Georgie in the nineties. It was a nightmare. Cat hair and feminist literature everywhere...” Ty gave a fake shudder.
Kate flicked his shoulder. “You’ll get over it. Consider it practise for when Rapunzel, Tam, Casey, and Gilly show up.”
“Hmmm.” Ty picked up Kate’s water glass and drank from it. He was bringing himself around to ask her something, but now that he didn’t drink, the asking tended to take longer. Kate sat and waited for him to speak. When the glass was empty, Ty put it down carefully. “How’s Rapunzel?”
Kate’s chest tightened, her internal screws wrenching tight. “She’s hurting.”
“Because her and Deidre are...?”
“They’re not back together. They’re still talking, but it’s over. Deidre moved out last weekend.”
The lines in Ty’s forehead deepened. “Did he show up to help her move?”
The screwdriver turned, sending fissures of pain down Kate’s front. “No, Rapunzel told Deidre she didn’t want him near the house.”
Ty nodded grimly. “Good. Baby, I know it can’t be easy, but none of this is your fault.”
“I know, it just sucks.”
“It does.”
Kate rubbed Kiwi’s ears, staring out at the street without seeing. “It’s just hard. In the least self-pitying way possible, it is my fault that Rapunzel and Deidre couldn’t make it work. Telling her what happened with Mr. Peter—Kane—screwed up her and Dede’s relationship before it had a chance to start.”
Ty’s mouth thinned at the mention of Mr. Peterson, but he didn’t say anything, just laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“What do you think I should do?” Kate pressed.
“Nothing you can do, baby. You can’t take Rapunzel’s breakup on. The paths that led to that were laid down a decade ago. By him.”
“I know.”
“Rapunzel’s a bright, attractive woman. She’ll meet someone else. Someone who’s dad didn’t groom her best friend.”
Kate made a face. She still wasn’t comfortable with the language around her childhood experience. It was difficult to parse the good things from the complex. The fact of Mr. Peterson’s gross betrayal and that he’d never touched her sexually or made her feel uncomfortable when she was a teenager. That he had been her friend—or at least made her life easier to bear. It was all tangled up in her mind, but being in Paris and attending regular therapy was helping. She and Dr Esther Kolbe had been seeing each other for almost nine months, picking through not only the Mr. Peterson thing, but a lot of painful emotional patterns that had sprung up from her childhood. It was hard work, but Kate felt stronger than she ever had before.
“Are you okay?” Ty asked. “About Rapunzel and the rest?”
“Yeah. Being in Paris helps—knowing I won’t run into Mr. Peterson when I go home or see him randomly in Melbourne. And that there’s new things to see and do.”
She and Ty looked around, taking in the cityscape. Kate felt Kiwi brush against her leg, and it was like her heart was pouring golden light. It was cheesy, but the nicest things were cheesy. Kate turned to Ty and kissed him. He kissed her back, light and sweet, a hand rising up to cup her cheek.
“You’re right,” Kate said.
Ty tucked a hand behind his ear. “I’m sorry, what?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re right.”
“Ah, but I’m so frequently right. You’ll have to be more specific.”
Kate swatted him. “You’re right about Rapunzel. She is amazing, she’ll meet someone else. And even if she doesn’t, she’ll be fine.”
“Exactly.” Ty bent down and petted Kiwi. She gave an excited yip.
“We should get going,” Kate said. “I promised her snacks when you got here.”
“Of course. She’s going to be the fattest little kiwi in the world, isn’t she? Where do you want to go for dinner?”
Kate closed her eyes, breathed deep. “To the steakhouse over on Perielle Street.”
“Done.” Ty smiled as though he knew how far she’d come. And maybe he did. There were few secrets between them these days. Few places they hid from each other or pretended they couldn’t see. They stood and joined the fast, fashionable people striding along the pavement. As they walked, Ty kissed the side of her head. “When they called to let me know we’re in at Belladonna, the guy asked if we were married.”
Kate smiled up at the sky. “What did you say?”
“That we’ve been a committed relationship for almost six years and our marital status isn’t anyone’s business but our own,” Ty said, sounding like the middle manager he was. “Why, what did you want me to tell him?”
“I don’t know, isn’t it our secret?”
“It certainly is.”
“And is it something you want to change?”
Ty shrugged. “Not really. I couldn’t give a fuck.”
“Could you ever?”
Ty pulled her closer, tucking her into his side. “Of course. But people grow up, Middleton. Get mature. Start to act their age.”
She laughed, turning her face up to the sun once more. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s been a long time coming, Mr. Henderson.”
“I’ll give you a long time coming.”
She groaned. “Didn’t you just say you were mature?”
“I say all kinds of shit.” He kissed the top of her head again. “Let’s go eat steak.”
Kate was about to agree when a thought struck her. “Before the steakhouse could we go down to the river and watch the sunset?”
“Your wish is my command.” Ty took Kiwi’s lead from her, kissing her lightly on the mouth. “I love you, baby.”
Kate smiled. “I love you, Daddy.”
And they walked hand and hand toward the river Seine, Kiwi trotting at their heels.
The End
