Thanks for the feedback! And to answer the question about Orson...no, he's not going to be a real character in this. Just mentions of him, really. It's primarily Kathree friendship.

Chapter 7

"Hello?" Bree propped up the telephone between her neck and shoulder while simultaneously preparing lunch.

"Bree." Katherine greeted. It had been a couple of days since her initial breakdown, and while she had expected some sort of awkwardness to develop between the two of them, they only seemed to be getting closer.
"Katherine, hi." She added a dash of salt to her spinach soufflé. "How are you today?" Sometimes she felt as if she were treating Katherine like some sort of recovering addict. She always asked how she was doing on a particular day, rather than making a more general statement.

"Oh, about the same." Katherine answered truthfully.

"Did you sleep well last night?" The redhead questioned, twisting herself up in the phone cord as she opened up the refrigerator.

"Not terrible." The truth was that Katherine had actually slept very well, but didn't want to say anything in case it jinxed her good fortune. "Listen, what are you doing tonight?"

"Tonight? Oh, not much of anything." She turned down the stovetop, still focusing mainly on her cooking and only slightly on the phone conversation. "Why, what did you have in mind?"

Katherine smiled deviously on the other line. "Can you get a sitter for Benjamin?"

"I'm sure I can arrange that, but you didn't answer my question."

"Wonderful. I'll see you at seven, then." She swiftly hung up.

"Katherine!" Bree raised her voice, though she had already heard the click on the other line. "Great." She muttered, trying to convince herself that she was frustrated, though in reality she felt an unquestionable sense of anticipation.

Bree arrived at her neighbor's doorstep promptly at seven o'clock that evening. Naturally she didn't arrive empty-handed. She came with a freshly baked apple pie that she had whipped up in honor of the mysterious occasion.

"Would you stop with the food, already." Katherine ushered her friend inside. "I'm going to gain twenty pounds if you keep this up."

"Oh, don't be silly. I know you just throw everything out after I leave." She waltzed into the living room, Katherine following close behind. "Anyway, now that I'm here…would you mind telling me what the occasion is?" Bree took a seat. "Not that there needs to be some sort of an event. If you just need to talk, I'm here to listen."

"No, I figured we could both use a night off from talking. I mean, how much is there to say after a while?" Katherine took a seat across from Bree. "Tonight we're drinking." She grinned.

"Excuse me?" Bree felt herself stiffen up. This was not at all what she had expected. "Drinking, as in…alcohol?"

"Is that what the kids call it these days?" Katherine teased. "Yes, Bree. Alcohol. We could use it."

"I don't think that's a good idea, honestly." The redhead crossed and re-crossed her legs. "There's really no reason for it." She forced a smile, knowing how hypocritical she was being.

"Fine." Katherine nodded. "You know, you're right."

"Am I?" Bree looked entirely unconvinced. There was no way she could win an argument so easily.

"Oh, absolutely. You're much more rational than I am." She complimented. "Let's just have, say, one glass of wine?"

"Well, alright. I suppose just one won't hurt." Bree agreed.

"How did this happen!" Bree shouted in the midst of her uncontrollable laughter. She was referring to the pool of wine that she had spilled from the bottle while aiming for her empty glass.

"You just…" Katherine could barely speak through her laughter. "You completely missed the glass, what do you mean, 'what happened'?" She held her stomach, starting to feel it ache from laughing so hard. She and Bree were no longer sitting on the couch, somehow having ended up on the floor. They sat side by side, a bottle of wine in between them. Katherine had lost track of how many glasses she had, but knew that she'd reached her limit. Bree, on the other hand, kept on going.

"Pour me another." Bree was not slurring her words, but it was clear that she was far from sober. "Please." She smiled sweetly.

"Oh, but Bree." Katherine spoke in a high voice, mocking her friend. "You're only to have one glass."

"I've only had two…three…five?" She sounded like a first grader trying to solve a math problem.

"Five might be right. I can't keep track." Katherine smiled, stretching out her legs. "But what does it matter? Don't you feel so good right now?"

"Yes, but you should have made me stop." Bree giggled, playfully hitting her friend. "No, seriously." She tried to force a serious expression, but couldn't seem to stop smiling.

"But doesn't it feel good to laugh? I never see you laugh."

"I laugh!" Bree retorted, braiding a few strands of hair. "I laugh all the time." She carried on, all the while knowing that she had allowed her sense of humor to dry up considerably over the past few years. "And even if I didn't, I still shouldn't have drink…drunken…drank" She searched for the right word. "I shouldn't have had so much to drink!"

"For God's sake, lighten up."

"I had a drinking problem, you know!" Bree never would have disclosed this kind of information if she hadn't been under the influence.

"No you didn't." Katherine chuckled, assuming that Bree was just making another joke. "You didn't."

"I did." It was suddenly much easier for her to stop smiling.

Katherine put her glass down, feeling a pang of guilt in her stomach. "I didn't know." She defended actions. "You should have told me!"

"Katherine!" Bree giggled, placing her finger over her mouth. "I'm right here, you don't have to yell." She continued, "Don't worry, I wasn't some kind of alcoholic. I just had a few difficult months, that's all." Katherine didn't speak, but her body language was clearly encouraging Bree to continue. "My husband, Rex, had passed away and then the other man I was dating killed himself…and then of course my children despised me." She trailed off, realizing, even in her drunken haze, that she was saying too much. Bree cleared her throat, grinning once again. "But that's all over now!" She raised her glass. "So let's toast to that."

"Wait, wait." Katherine loosely gripped Bree's forearm, bringing it back down. She took the glass out of her hand and placed it on the ground. "That's a lot to take in."

"I told you, it's over! It's not for you to worry about."

"Nothing is every really over, Bree." She took another sip of wine. "You know that." She hesitated, "Do you miss your first husband a lot? Rex, was it?"

"We were having such a lovely evening." Bree reasoned. "Must we spoil it with all of this?"

"You're not getting away with that one. You made me talk; now it's your turn. Of course, I have an advantage seeing as we're both intoxicated."

"I…" Bree paused. "I don't miss Rex as much as I should." In a sober mindset, she would have rattled off her automatic response: Of course she missed Rex. She thought of him every morning and every night. He was the father of her children and he would always have a special place in her heart. But that wasn't the case tonight.

"Isn't that terrible?" She didn't leave Katherine any time to answer. "And the days I do miss him, I think it's more because he was the father of my children than because he was my husband." She stared at the ground, mainly because she couldn't focus her eyes on anything else. "Do you think I'm an awful person?" She posed the question she had been longing to ask ever since Rex had first passed away, but hadn't gotten up the courage until now.

Katherine took Bree's hand in her own, an act that she would not typically feel comfortable doing. "No." She replied. "I think you've just moved on."

Bree nodded silently, enjoying the feeling of acceptance and understanding that could only come from a true friend.

"And the one who killed himself…?" Katherine inquired.

"Ugh, George." Bree lifted her head and rolled her eyes. "Not tonight. I'd need about eight more glasses before telling that story."

"Fine." Katherine shrugged. "But you're not off the hook just yet." She smirked. "Tell me about Orson."

"Oh, I love Orson." The words came out before Bree even had a chance to think about her response. Alcohol reveals what the mind feels, and she was now regretting how much wine she'd consumed that evening.

"And yet you're separated." Katherine eyed her friend, who was now blushing.

"Katherine, he committed a terrible crime." She could have had twenty glasses of wine; Bree was not going to tell Katherine what Orson had done.

"Okay." Katherine could feel Bree's resistance. "Well, so did I."

"It's completely different, trust me. You did what you had to. He…he didn't." She gulped down any remaining white wine from her glass. "And you're not my husband!"

"So it would make it even easier to push me away! Think about it. If you were somehow turned off by what you saw that day and decided to shut me out of your life, I wouldn't stop you. I wouldn't sit outside of your house day and night begging for you to be my friend again."

Bree laughed. "I would hope not. That would be rather pathetic."

"My point is that Orson will do that for you. And he has been doing it. He loves you, he's a great father, and he treats you well." She leaned in closer, forcing Bree to make eye contact. "And you love him." She felt tears welling up in the back of her eyes. "Don't you dare let him go. If you love someone, and they love you…you don't just throw that away because you're too proud. If I could get Adam back - " She had to stop herself for a moment to regain composure. "Well, I would do almost anything. But he doesn't love me anymore and there's nothing I can do. He's moved on. But you…you have a man who loves you. Don't you ever, ever take that for granted." She felt her voice waver, her eyes now were glazed over with tears.

"Okay." Bree nodded, seeing how upset Katherine was getting. "Sweetheart, it's okay. Come." She gently took her into her arms. "Thank you." She was truly struck by Katherine's blunt honesty. "You're right. You're absolutely right." She meant what she said. She had put her pride on the top of her priority list instead of the man she loved.

"Besides." Katherine continued, still wrapped up in Bree's embrace. "Orson's perfect for you. What, with the argyle sweaters and his love for baked goods… I really can't see you with anyone else."

Bree laughed, pulling back and coming face-to-face with her friend once again. "Now you listen to me, okay?" She waited for Katherine to acknowledge her request. "Just because there isn't a man in your life doesn't mean you're alone."

"I know. We've been through this. You're only a fifteen second walk away, morning, noon, and night." She spoke as though she were rehearsing for a play.

"Well, yes. But I'm talking about your daughter." She took a breath. "She loves you so much, Katherine. Genuinely, truly, loves you. That's more than I can say for my own two kids." She smiled sadly. "So you're not alone. Husband or no husband, you've got all you need."

"I know." Katherine nodded. "Dylan's the only thing that's kept me going." She brushed away a few stray tears. "I would do anything for her. Really, anything." She felt herself chuckling, now. "Though I don't need to tell you that."

Bree smiled, glad the tension between the two of them was finally breaking. She shook the empty wine bottle. "No more?" She frowned, changing the subject.

"You already spilled wine all over my floor, I don't need you throwing up on it too." Katherine teased. "Besides, you have to get home eventually. Can't abandon your babysitter."

Bree tried standing up, tripping over her own two feet in the process. "Oh, the sitter. Right. Funny thing about the babysitter, actually."

"Hm?" Katherine raised her eyebrows.

"It's Orson."

"In your house? Right now?"

"Maybe." Bree felt herself blush.

"Well then, lets get you home before you sober up." Katherine grinned deviously, showing Bree the door.