Turns out you can't control your heart
Catherine didn't think that her heart could ever beat any faster than it had just a few seconds ago. Vincent had slowly approached her making her back towards the kitchen counter, intensely looking into her eyes, and when she finally didn't have anywhere left to go he had leaned in to kiss her, ignoring her frantic rambling and listening to her body instead. But then Heather had interrupted them.
And Heather was still standing there with that stupid grin on her face, apparently waiting for an explanation. Cat stared daggers at Heather, her heart beating even faster than it had just done before. Catherine didn't dare look at Vincent who had frozen next to her. Catherine had played out this scenario in her head thousands of times, it had in fact become her worst nightmare: Vincent being discovered because he let his guard down around her. Granted, it was 'only' Heather who had run in on them but Cat knew it would be very difficult to explain that 'the new man in my sister's life' was not something to broadcast to the whole world. How could she have been so careless?
She should have taken Vincent out onto the balcony or into her room as soon as she entered the apartment. But she had been so glad to see him, overwhelmed really, because finally that night everything that had happened over the last few weeks made sense. It still left her with a raw feeling, but she got it now: Vincent had repeatedly tried to explain how he had just tried to do the right thing for everyone involved but Cat had not been able to believe him. She had thought it was a lame excuse. Only when Alex had told her face to face that she thought Vincent had long outgrown his first love and only loved her, Cat, did it finally hit her. His feelings for her really had not changed. And she could trust him.
Vincent still hadn't moved. Catherine slowly turned her head towards him and tried to catch his eyes. He was intently staring at the floor. She had to do something, get him out of there before Heather asked more questions. "I think you should go, it's late anyway," she said, lifting her trembling hands onto Vincent's chest. He finally looked at her. She couldn't help but smile at him. "I think my sister wants to talk to me." "Hmm, OK…" was all Vincent was able to say and he was starting to turn to go towards the balcony door when Catherine grabbed his arm. "Let me walk you to the front door, OK?" He nodded ever so slightly and Catherine could read in his face that he was mentally cursing himself for moving towards the wrong door. "Go, just go… I'll be fine," Cat whispered to Vincent as she shoved him out the door. "I'll call you in a little while!" She didn't wait for Vincent to turn and leave before slamming the door in his face. Worrying about what the expression on his face meant, she turned to face Heather who was still standing in the same spot but had crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking very much like a parent who has just caught their teenage kid sneak back into the house at 4am.
"I'm waiting…" said Heather. "Well," Catherine didn't really know what to say, "looks like I got myself a valentine date after all." "And how come you didn't tell me about this date?" "It's not like we planned to even spend the evening together… It just happened…You're the one to talk, you agreed to go on a date with Joe's brother about 17 seconds after you met!" Cat tried to defend herself. " But that's me, not you! You don't do this, bring guys back to your flat not before you've been to theirs for at least a dozen times… Unless! Unless he is 'ass'," Heather said, as the penny dropped. "And… I think I've seen him before," she continued, spinning around and rushing into her bedroom. Cat took of her coat and went to the fridge to get herself a beer – she felt like having something a lot stronger but beer was all they had.
"That was Vincent Zalanski!" Heather said triumphantly. Catherine spun around and saw her sister waving a photograph at her. Cat's heart missed a beat: it was a picture of herself and Vincent dancing at the wedding. Yet another instant of their lives when they had been so absorbed in one another that they hadn't even seen the photographer. Cat swallowed hard. "So what?" was all she could come up with. "Look, I'm going to bed. I have the early shift tomorrow and then we can talk about this– and about your date with Darius— after work tomorrow. "You're not getting out of this one, you know that, right?" said Heather and then, as she walked back to her room, she started singing in a monotonous voice: "Catherine has a boyfriend, Catherine has a boyfriend…," giggling to herself like a twelve-year old.
As soon as she had closed her bedroom door, Catherine rang Vincent. He immediately picked up: "Hey! How are you doing?" Catherine heard the worried tone in his voice. "Hey," she said, smiling into the phone. "Are you smiling?" Vincent asked, surprised. "Yeah, why? Are you watching me?" Cat answered. "No, I can hear it in your voice." said Vincent. "Where are you?" "On my way back to the warehouse, why?" Catherine sat down on the bed and took her shoes off: "Too bad, I was hoping you'd hang around… you know, to finish what we started!" "Catherine," Vincent breathed into the phone, "what did your sister say? How did she react? Who will she tell?" "Well, she was surprised at first but I think she's kinda happy for me. We're going to talk about it tomorrow evening so I have time to think up a somewhat coherent story about how Vincent Zalanski exists although I said he didn't exist." "Vincent Zalanski?" "Yeah, turns out Heather has a picture of the two of us dancing at the wedding – she recognized you from that picture." Catherine could hear Vincent inhale sharply. He grunted. Cat wished she could be at his side to reassure him that she was fine and that she was going to protect him, no matter what. "I'll think of something, Vincent, trust me." "OK." He didn't sound convinced. "I need to ask you something," Catherine ventured on.
"Vincent, what happened to your super hearing? How come you didn't hear Heather come down the corridor?" Vincent took a few second to reply: "Yeah, I was wondering about that myself. I guess I was too distracted… taking you in with all my senses… I blocked everything else out without even realizing it… Does that make sense?" "It makes complete sense to me, all I could hear was my own heart," Catherine replied and closed her eyes as the memories of him moving towards her not so long ago flooded back. "You know, I think that's the most amazing compliment anyone has ever paid me… but I also think that it's something we have to be really careful about!" she said, shaking her head to get rid of the image of Vincent being so close to her. "Yes, I know," said Vincent. "I can't remember seeing or hearing a photographer at the wedding, either, and I am usually really good at taking in everything around me. And Heather, I don't know how I let her sneak up on us like that… I'm sorry, Catherine, I should never have come over tonight knowing that Heather was in the flat!" "No, Vincent, I'm glad you came. So glad. And I'm sorry, too. I should have taken you to my room straight away – I don't know what I was thinking! Or maybe I was thinking too much…" Catherine's voice trailed off. It felt so good to speak to Vincent without trying to keep him at an arm's length.
"I missed this. Talking to you like this. I missed you," she suddenly said before she could help herself. She smiled again as she could hear Vincent's growling voice, almost a whisper: "Catherine, you're really making this difficult for me… How am I supposed to go back to the warehouse, let alone get some sleep now?" "I don't think I'll be able to sleep much either – see you on the fire escape in fifteen?" Cat said and quickly hung up before Vincent could reply. She jumped off the bed, slipped out of her clothes and quickly jumped in the shower, a thousand butterflies in her stomach at the thought of Vincent coming back to her so soon.
