They sat across from each other at the kitchen table. Mort calmly held a cup of hot coffee in between his hands, gazing at her with a small smile. "What did you say your name was?"
"Katie, Katie Doyle. What should I call you by?"
"Mr. Rainey would be alright, Miss Doyle."
"You can call me Katie, Mr. Rainey." She said with a smile. Katie felt she was very lucky for getting this job so soon. But why? Why hadn't someone else gotten the job? He seemed polite. Mort Rainey was also undoubtly handsome. Softly tanned skin, messy, but at the same time neat hair, and the most gorgeous deep brown eyes she had ever seen. Yes, Katie could melt at someone's eyes, it was her 'thing'. Looking into his, she was surprised she wasn't in a puddle all over the floor. Katie could feel her cheeks burning, the foolish smiled wouldn't leave her face. She quickly dropped her eyes down to the cup of coffee.
Mort looked down at her full cup of coffee, "Don't you like it?"
"I'm not much of a coffee person... Tea though, I like hot tea."
"Hot tea?" He questioned as he looked out of the window to the lake, "Haven't had that in ages." The last time he had it was with Amy, when the sun was just starting to rise. Why did his thoughts keep falling back to Amy? Mort looked back to Katie, "Well how about you start tomorrow? Come by around ten, ten-thirty."
She nodded, beginning to stand up, "Yes, Mr. Rainey."
"Oh. I need some things from town. Could you stop and get them for me? Just bring them back with you tomorrow?"
Katie nodded again, "Yeah, no problem."
"Alright." Mort gave her a grin then stood up, "Wait here for a minute." He walked out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and into his room. Mort stood there for a moment, wondering where his money was. He knew he had just seen a fifty dollars a few hours ago. Slowly, Mort began to walk around his room, searching. "Ah ha." He said softly, looking to the table beside his bed. Mort grabbed it, and walked down stairs, putting the money on the counter.
"I want... a few bags of Doritos, twenty-four pack of Mountain Dew..." Mort racked his brains, what else did he need? "Some milk, bread, and whatever else you think I need... and some hot tea." He added with a smile.
"So that's a few bags of Doritos, pack of Mountain Dew, milk, bed, whatever else I think you need, and some hot tea?"
"Exactly."
"What kind of hot tea?"
"Whatever your favorite kind is, Katie."
Katie smiled, "Alright..." She grabbed her keys off of the table, "Then I'll see you tomorrow, ten-thirty." She told him, walking to the door.
"Until then... Good bye."
"Bye." Katie gave him a last look then walked out of the door.
Mort leaned his head against the screen door, watching Katie drive away. There. He knew it. He didn't need Amy. She could easily be replaced.
"What, exactly, do you mean by replaced?" A voice asked him in his head.
"Replaced... There aren't that many different meanings for the word 'replaced' ,is there?" He snapped back with a scowl.
"Oh, sure, Amy can be replaced, true enough. But then do you want dear, young Katie to be put in Amy's spot. Do you want to wake up to her face each morning?"
Mort quirked his brows, thinking. "It'd be nice, I suppose."
"You'll get lost in your stories again, though. Katie will feel unwanted and unloved by you... She'll find someone else that can treat her better than you can."
At this, Mort let out a growl as he whipped around to see a form of himself, standing there, regarding Mort thoughtfully, his hands folded together. "It won't happen!" Mort yelled at him.
"It will, you know it will. She'll find someone else, and you'll find out. You'll barge into their cheap motel room with a gun."
"THE GUN WASN'T LOADED!"
"But you wanted it to be. You wanted to kill them. And eventually, you did."
"I did not kill them!" Mort shouted, holding his head in his hands.
"Where do you think they've went? Do you think it was all a dream? They're dead." He looked over Mort's shoulder, outside and let out a sigh. "Just fire her before you do anything you'll regret...Katie's back. You forgot to give her the money."
Mort hastily looked out the door to see Katie's car pulling up in front of the house. When he looked back, to himself, there was nobody standing there.