Later that day, Mitch knocked on the door of the loft and entered the staircase, slowly walking up in order to give Amy time to prepare herself for his visit.
"You know you should have one of those little traffic light things they have on offices down the stairs", Mitch started talking as he reached the baby gate on the top. "It's hard to hear if you're okay with someone coming in or not - unless the door is locked."
Amy was in the kitchen, a cloth of some type on her shoulder, and looked a little distracted as she kept moving dishes around. Lyndy was seated in her chair as she chewed on blueberries. She watched Mitch curiously, recognizing him, but not sure about what he was doing here.
"Sorry, what's that?" Amy asked, looking a little embarrassed she hadn't really paid attention to what Mitch had been saying.
"Ah, nothing", Mitch replied with a smile. "This a bad time?" he waited behind the gate.
"No, I just..." Amy sighed. "I am making dinner and I was handing Lyndy some milk, but I tripped on a toy and spilled the milk all over me and it got everywhere - the counter, the cabinets, the floor... I think I got it all cleaned, but..." She gestured on her shirt that was soaked.
"Why don't you get cleaned up, I can look after the food you have on", Mitch suggested, seeing what he assumed to be a sauce on the stove. The smell of it lingered in the air.
"Are you sure?" Amy asked.
"Of course", Mitch said, then walking in and taking over, freeing Amy to get clean clothes. He walked over the stove and looked what she was making. Spaghetti and a pasta sauce. Alright, nothing too complicated, Mitch thought.
He turned down the heat as it looked like the sauce was pretty much done already and ready to bubble out of the pan. He then took a clean spoon and checked the taste, finding it a little bland, so he immediately turned to look what kind of spices Amy had in her spice rack.
Meanwhile Amy got herself a clean bra, top and a flannel shirt from the wardrobe and went to change them to the bathroom.
"You know some of these spices are out of date. Or well, most of them", Mitch talked from the kitchen, adding some of them in anyway since it wasn't as if they had gotten bad, just a little more bleak over time. "I thought you were into herbs", he added, since he had once been taught by her about them and knew Amy liked to drink herbal tea.
"Well, I am... but not while cooking, I guess", Amy admitted from the bathroom.
"You don't like cooking?" Mitch asked.
"It's just a necessity for me, not a passion", Amy shared.
Mitch nodded. "I see."
When Amy was done changing her clothes, Mitch was ready with the sauce and he now turned off the heat completely.
"Grandpa got back from the hospital", she shared.
"Yeah, I saw. Went to say hi to him too before I came here", Mitch told her. "Seems like he's doing fine."
"I guess", Amy said, coming to drain the spaghetti. "He's thinking about retiring."
Mitch looked on his left where Amy was standing over the sink as he kept mixing the sauce. "Really...? He didn't mention about that."
"Yeah... I guess maybe he was - or is - planning to tell you and dad later", Amy figured now, wondering perhaps she shouldn't have said anything, but then again Mitch would have found out anyway at some point. "I mean, I guess it makes sense and I'm glad he's taking better care of himself, but I'm just... I don't know. Suddenly everything's so uncertain again, you know", she added, sharing her feelings.
Mitch nodded, understanding where Amy was coming from. "So, did you talk about it? Like, what's going to happen with Heartland if he plans to retire?"
"Not yet. I feel like it's better to give it couple of days. I think even though he's made the decision, he still needs time to adjust. Maybe I do too. I feel like we'll be continuing to do things like we have while he was in the hospital, for now, at least, but when the summer comes, I don't have you here to help me - or dad. We have to figure out something", Amy admitted. It could be that she would be taking over now, more than before. "I know it's selfish of me to think like this, but... I was just about getting started with my business plan with Cassandra. We've been talking about me having that clinic with cold salt chambers and theraplates on my property... And I don't think we can have those here because you know how it is with Grandpa; nothing's allowed to change. But at the same time, I don't want to let him down either if he asks me to take over..."
"Hmm, yeah", Mitch said. "Maybe having couple of days to think things through is a good thing. And who knows what he even decides."
"Everything just has the worst timing these days, it seems..." Amy said as she started piling the pasta on Lyndy's plate so she could slice it up into smaller pieces. That way it would be easier for the girl to eat.
Mitch wondered if this was a cue about the reason why Amy had invited him over. "Everything...?"
Amy glanced at him, noticing the look on his face and knew how to interpret it right away. "You know what I mean... I don't mean they are all bad things, just that... I can't seem to enjoy peace of mind more than 5 minutes at a time."
"I get it", Mitch said, knowing that just when things had started getting more balanced for him as well, it seemed like the flow was suddenly slowing down and he was hit with some curve balls. "So, are we going to address the elephant in the room...?"
"Lou's coming tomorrow. We have to", Amy said, putting some food on her own plate as well. "I've been thinking... and I want to tell her about what happened."
Mitch was surprised. "Do you think that's a good idea...? I mean, we don't even know... what this is, or if it's anything."
"Well, I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I just know that I can't keep it from her either. Especially because I don't know how long she'll be staying. Every time I've been in a situation like this, not telling hasn't done me any favors. So... what else can I do than tell her..." Amy explained. "It's not like I can just disappear forever from her life. She's my sister."
"I get what you're saying, but..." Mitch sighed. "I just feel like if we would have been given couple more days, we would have known better what this is... or could be. If anything", he explained, feeling like now they were pressured to make decisions.
"I know... But we don't have couple more days", Amy pointed out. "But at the same time... I feel like no matter how this will go, I don't want to leave her blindsided. She'll known at some point something's changed between us, whether I tell her or not. I'd rather she heard it from me. Or us."
Mitch nodded. "Do you want to tell her alone or together?" he asked.
"Telling together might be... I don't know, too aggressive, or something?" Amy figured. "Like we've already paired up in some way."
"Yeah, that's true", Mitch said. "So you talk to her first... and then I will?"
"Might be for the best."
"So... what are we going to say?" Mitch asked. "I feel like we should at least be on the same page in some way, even if this is still kind of... open-ended."
"Well", Amy began, already feeling nervous, "I was hoping I could have her alone, maybe when she's in a fairly good mood, if possible, and then share that we kissed."
Mitch listened, trying to imagine it in his head, but all she could see was Lou exploding. There was no way she was going to take it well, even if they had been broken up for a long time now, over a year.
"Then she'll be shocked, I assume, and I'll just explain that we've gotten closer and it just felt kind of... natural for us in that moment", Amy said, wondering if maybe that was too much explaining. Did Lou really even had to have the details? But at the same time, leaving her with "we kissed" felt like too little, especially because she had already assumed they had been involved months ago. Somehow Amy wanted to prove her wrong, even when she had not completely been wrong.
"And if she asks if we're seeing each other, what will you say?" Mitch asked, because if he knew Lou at all, she wouldn't just assume it had been only a kiss.
"That we haven't really talked about it yet", Amy said.
"Should we... talk about it...?" Mitch asked carefully, looking at Amy. Maybe they had to make that decision sooner or later, so why not now while they were on the subject.
"Well, what do you think about this...?" Amy asked, turning to face him. "Us, I mean."
"I have nothing to lose, so it'll be easy for me to say I'd like to go forward. And I hope that I've expressed that to you already... The fact that I like you and I enjoy spending time with you. But I don't know if that'll be as simple for you..." Mitch pointed out. "So... what do you think?"
"Well... Should we go on a date... or something and see how that feels?" Amy asked, wondering how it all worked. She had never really been good at this and with Ty, everything had just sort of fallen into place because they had been hanging out so much anyway. But this was an adult relationship, she and Mitch were living in different places and they both had their own lives and things like this had to be coordinated more.
"Maybe?" Mitch asked. "Like a coffee, or something?"
"Yeah. Coffee might be nice", Amy agreed, feeling the butterflies again. All this nerve-wrecking waiting had made her guts turn, but now that she was focused on Mitch again, it was easy to feel excited about life and what could be.
"Alright", Mitch smiled, feeling relieved. "How about... this Friday? Carlson's on Macleod? Say... at six?"
Amy went through it in her mind. "I'll talk to Jade, see if she can babysit."
"Okay, let me know what she says", Mitch said. "And Lou, too", he brought them back to the ground.
Amy nodded. "Of course", she replied, with more seriousness.
"Mommy, I am hungry", Lyndy said from the table. Both of them looked her way. She had already eaten all her blueberries and had the violet stains all over her mouth and fingers, and was now waiting for more.
"Of course, more food coming right up", Amy promised, turning back to their plates. She added the sauce on top of them.
"I should probably get moving. The Dude Ranch guests are waiting", Mitch excused himself. "I guess we'll take a rain check on that Maverick training session?"
"Yeah. Sorry, the day's just disappeared somewhere", Amy apologized. It seemed like there were not enough hours in a day when trying to combine work and being a mom.
"It's fine, I get it", Mitch smiled. "Let's try again tomorrow?"
"Okay, sounds good."
"See you."
"Yeah. See you", Amy said.
Part of her wanted to give Mitch a kiss on the cheek, but at the same time she didn't want to do it in front of Lyndy - not yet, at least.
Mitch's eyes lingered on Amy a little longer as he retreated to the stairs, wondering if this was the calm before the storm. He felt safe here in this sheltered space with her, but knew that there were external things that would soon burst their bubble. In a way he didn't want to leave the warmth of this, but at the same time he knew it was going to be inevitable.
"Have a good night, both of you", Mitch said as he started getting back down.
"You too", Amy said, looking after the man and feeling a glow in her chest. Even if Mitch had not been here more than maybe 10 minutes, it still felt like he had made a big change in her mood.
For a moment she had felt like more than just this person who just pushed through everything, hoping to juggle all of the things she needed taken care of. There had been this comforting feeling of relief while they had been interacting. She didn't know exactly where that had come from but it had made her feel more content.
"Alright, honey, let's eat." Amy then focused back on Lyndy as they both were sat down. She helped the girl get started. "You really were hungry, huh?" she noted with a smile as Lyndy seemed like she was loving the food.
When Lyndy was drinking milk on her own, Amy took a bite from her own plate in the midst of feeding, and then realized maybe Lyndy wasn't just hungry, but she was eating the food so happily because it tasted so much better than she had expected.
"Oh... This is actually good", Amy said out loud, wondering what Mitch had done with it to make it so delicious.
