Catherine walked in her house after a dinner meeting that had gone late and found Jackie asleep on the couch, an open book clutched in her hands. She smiled at the site of her as she dropped her things down on the chair. She cleared a spot on the coffee table that was covered in Jackie's books, and sat in front of her.
"Wake up sleepy head," she whispered in her ear, smoothing her bangs back.
Jackie woke up frantically, "What time is it?"
"Almost 9."
"Ugh, I have so much to do, I can't believe I dozed off."
"Are you hungry?"
"Uh, no. I'm good" she said as she sat up and yawned, flipping through her book. "How was your dinner? You're back late."
"Long" Catherine replied, as she made her way into the kitchen and turned on the coffee pot, knowing it was going to be a long night. "Coffee?"
"That would be glorious."
When she came back in after changing her clothes, she grabbed two mugs from the cabinet and filled them with coffee.
She set one in front of Jackie before grabbing her lap top out of her bag and joining her, she too had a bunch of work to get through.
"So, tell me more" Jackie said as she blew into her coffee and took a long sip, sinking back into the couch.
"Just boring department talk about plans for next year. How much work do you have left?"
Jackie puffed her cheeks with air, "A lot."
This became their new norm. Jackie basically hadn't left since Saturday night, so they spent their evenings hard at work. An hour would pass and they wouldn't speak, both completely engrossed in their individual work, but they were right next to each other and that's all that mattered. Subconsciously she knew they were both too fearful to lose any of the time they had left together, so this is how they were coping.
The next night played out the same way.
"Five nights in a row, isn't Hannah getting suspicious?"
"It's near the end of the semester, we're both really busy," she said shortly. After Catherine teased about their busy actor lives, Jackie rested her head on her lap and studied her script as Catherine read, both catching the other's glimpses throughout the night until Jackie finally grabbed Catherine's book from her hand and lowered it. "Come over to my place Friday."
"Okay?"
"I wanna do something special for you."
Catherine wasn't sure what that meant, so smiled suspiciously.
"I'm going to make you dinner."
"You cook?" Catherine asked in a surprising manner.
"Very funny," Jackie glared at her. "Okay no," her face softened into a smile, "But I'm going to try."
"And what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Just because. I was just thinking and realized you're always the one cooking for me so, I figured it was my turn. And we haven't been to my place all week."
"Okay," Catherine smiled.
That night Jackie buzzed her up to her apartment. When she opened the door, she had an apron tied around her waist and an oven mitt on her hand. "Hi" she greeted her, kissing her on the cheek. "Come in," she waved the mitted hand as she moved around frantically. "Sit down, get comfortable. Wine?"
"That would be lovely," Catherine laughed.
Jackie came back out with a glass of wine in her free hand.
"Do you need help?"
"No, no. Stay right there, I've got this" she gleamed. "Don't move a muscle!" She pointed a finger.
Catherine smiled as she noticed the candles lit around the room and the table neatly set in the adjoining dining room. The sounds of pots clanging and the steam of water hitting the burner amplified from the kitchen, so she rose from the couch to go see how things were going. When she peaked around the corner she saw Jackie carefully arranging the food on the plates as she clumsily handled the pots. She was caught when Jackie suddenly spotted her. "Catherine!"
"I'm sorry!" She laughed, as she made her way closer. "I couldn't stay away. You look too adorable in that apron" she said, pulling at the strings.
Jackie laughed sheepishly as she looked down at her attire. "Go sit," she demanded, pointing at the dining room table. "It's almost done."
"So much demanding tonight!" Catherine teased, as she grabbed the finger she kept pointing with. She did what she was told though, letting go of her finger and giving her a kiss first.
"Close your eyes" Jackie instructed, as she balanced the plates on her arms. Catherine couldn't help but giggle at how serious she was about this all.
"Okay, open!"
"It looks delicious!" And it did. Catherine was impressed to find baked chicken, roasted asparagus, and a medley of other vegetables covering the plate. "Cheers" she held out her glass, but Jackie's was empty.
"Hold that thought..." Jackie said, as she hurried to the kitchen to fetch the bottle of wine. After they toasted, Catherine attempted to cut into the chicken but it was tough. Really tough. Not wanting to hurt Jackie's feelings, she pressed hard down on her knife, trying her best to elegantly cut through the meat.
"I think I over cooked the chicken" Jackie said, as she too began to struggle cutting it. Once they were both able to free a piece, they crunched into its burnt skin. "Dangit!" Jackie sighed in frustration.
"It's still good," Catherine assured her, hoping to make her feel better. She moved onto the asparagus which was incredibly chewy. When she looked over at Jackie, she saw her gnawing on a piece. When they met eyes, she couldn't stop the laugh from bubbling out of her throat.
"This is awful." Jackie said, looking defeated. "I tried my hardest." And she had. Catherine knew she had spent the better part of the day trying to make this meal perfect.
"No it's not."
"Yes it is, you don't need to be polite."
"I'm not, it's still good enough to eat" she said, as she picked up another piece of chicken with her fork.
"Don't eat that," Jackie said as she watched.
Catherine flashed her a broad grin as she drew the fork closer to her mouth.
"Catherine, stop! It's terrible!" She laughed as she grabbed for her arm to stop her, but she put the piece of chicken in her mouth and began to chew. Jackie stood, "I'll get the take out menus" she sighed, as she grabbed her plate and Catherine's on the way to the kitchen.
She pounded her foot onto the garbage can pedal, scraping the food from their plates. Catherine could tell she was upset so stood and came from behind her as she rinsed the plates in the sink. Pushing the hair from her neck aside, she kissed it softly. "Thank you for cooking... and all of this."
"Ha!" Jackie scoffed as she threw a towel in the sink. "You call that cooking?"
"Hey" Catherine said, turning her around. "It really wasn't that bad." Jackie's face was down, embarrassed, and Catherine was grasping her wrists. She moved her hands to her face so she'd look at her. "I really appreciate you doing this all, it means a lot."
A small smile finally started to develop on Jackie's mouth.
"Why don't we just skip to dessert? It's the best part anyway," she grinned.
"I didn't make dessert..."
Catherine smirked and leaned in to kiss her neck.
"Ohh," Jackie laughed.
"Is the apron still around?" Catherine whispered.
"Shut up!" Jackie began to laugh, but Catherine pressed her lips against hers, smothering it.
As Jackie leaned against the counter, Catherine knelt down, looking up at her slyly as she lifted her shirt up and began kissing her side. Jackie gripped the counter as her lips slowly moved to her abdomen and she began unbuttoning her jeans. Just as she got them unbuttoned, Jackie's stomach let out a loud growl.
"I'm sorry," Jackie laughed. "I'm starving. This night is turning out to be a total bust," she continued to laugh as she covered her face.
Catherine moved her hands to Jackie's hips and laughed as she rested her forehead on her. "Why don't we order some food first."
The last two weeks had been a whirlwind of nothing but bliss, a happiness unlike before. Before they snuck around campus and town enjoying each other only physically, which still left a void of what had been. Them at their happiest was made of moments like these, moments that had filled the last two weeks. Moments of doing nothing, small moments but incredibly meaningful ones.
After hearing Jackie was going to be moving her things into a storage locker while she was gone, Catherine was surprised to hear that she had already started packing when they were on the phone one day.
"I actually can't come over tonight, I need to start packing." She said on the phone.
"Oh, okay."
"Why don't you come over? I can order in take out."
"I'll let you know, depends how much work I get done." But Catherine found herself unable to get through her work. It had been the first night in weeks that Jackie hadn't been by her side on the couch, and she wasn't keen on the feeling it left her. Within an hour she found herself on her doorstep.
"Come in!" Jackie called out.
When Catherine walked in, all of the breath inside her escaped at the sight of cardboard boxes filling Jackie's apartment. Jackie was kneeling near the couch taping up a box labeled Decor as she looked up at her. "How was your day?" She smiled, seemingly unfazed that this far off idea of her actually leaving was now becoming a reality.
"It was good."
"Can you hand me that marker over there?" Jackie pointed to the table as she rose to her feet.
Catherine picked up the Sharpie as her eyes skimmed the dining room lined with boxes of dishes. A dull, aching pain began surrounding her heart and running down into her gut. "Wow, you've been productive."
"I have to be, I don't want to have to worry about this during finals."
When Catherine handed her the marker, she said she had to go start on her bedroom. Catherine followed her down the hall and sat on the bed as Jackie began going through her clothes. "It's so hard to decide what to bring to Europe since I'll be there through different seasons."
Catherine felt her throat restricting and couldn't restrain the tears from forming in her eyes. This was all to much for her as she began to feel the time slipping between them at an alarming speed. She was helpless at stopping the anxiety it was causing, not having any control over the situation. It was like a train running full speed ahead. Just last week Jackie was cooking her dinner here, now two-thirds of her apartment was packed up in boxes. With Jackie's back to her, busy at work, she quickly wiped the tears away that had began falling.
"You're quiet today," Jackie said as she turned to face her, a shirt pinched under her chin as she folded it. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Catherine forced a smile.
Jackie looked back at her concerned, she must have seen the tears. "No you're not." She dropped the shirt in a box and made her way over to Catherine's side of the bed. She sat next to her and placed her hand on her knee. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Catherine shook her head. "I'm just tired" she said with a smile.
Jackie cocked her head, implying that she knew she was lying.
"Talk to me" she said, as she gently rubbed Catherine's knee. "Tell me what's wrong."
"What do you think?" Catherine said softly, her voice breaking a little as she directed her eyes to the boxes.
Jackie followed her gaze. "I'm sorry" she sighed, staring at them as well.
Catherine felt her eyes beginning to well up again so turned her head towards the wall when Jackie looked back at her.
"Catherine..." She laughed sympathetically, as she got to her knees and wrapped her arms around her.
"Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. I just wasn't expecting to see all this when I walked in, and it's a lot to take in."
"I know, I'm sorry" Jackie apologized again, as she gave her a tight squeeze before letting go. She wiped a tear that had slipped down Catherine's cheek. "I shouldn't have told you to come over. I don't know what I was thinking."
"That you're excited about going to Europe and filming this movie, and now I'm putting a damper on it."
"I'm just as sad as I am excited though. I don't want to be away from you, especially now."
Catherine didn't say anything, she felt a little ridiculous getting so emotional over some boxes.
"How about you go pick up some food instead and take it back to your house, and I'll stay the night there. That way we're away from all this, just give me a half an hour to finish up and I'll meet you back there."
"No, that's silly. I'm fine."
"I'm not. You're right, this is all a little too much now that I've had time to digest it. Please? I want to go to your house," Jackie pled as she kissed her hand.
"Okay," Catherine smiled.
Jackie walked her down to her car and Catherine began to feel embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she winced as she turned to face Jackie when they got to her car.
"You have nothing to be sorry about, it actually means a lot to me that you're this upset about seeing my stuff packed up. Now I know you'll miss me as much as I'll miss you."
"Of course I will."
Jackie leaned into her and hugged her tightly against the car. Catherine wrapped her arms around Jackie's neck. When she let go, she ran her hand down her arm until they held hands. As Jackie began walking away she felt their hands begin to separate.
"I love you."
Jackie froze in the middle of the street and looked back at her. "Why are you making it so hard to leave you for 30 minutes," she said with a smile.
Catherine pulled her back over to her and kissed her. When they parted lips, Jackie's eye's suddenly diverted past her and the beaming grin on her face slowly disappeared as she let got of her hand. A grim looked now appeared on her face, "Hannah" she whispered.
"What?"
"Hannah!" She called out behind her as she ran past, clipping her shoulder.
When Catherine turned, she saw Hannah running away from them on the opposite side of the street, Jackie following behind after her.