Part 2MOVING IN
"I can't believe I missed Zoe. I mean, it was one minute." Jessie says with a sigh as she followed Grace into her posh New York penthouse as the elevator door opened. The same guy from the hotel service helped them that morning with Zoe's luggage that morning now helped them bring Jessie's big luggage inside. When he put it down the carpeted living room floor, Grace smiled at him and handed him a ten dollar bill, and the guy turned around and left.
It was only now that Jessie noticed how amazing the loft is. Grace and her friend Katie had obviously indulged themselves. They have great wood furnishings, which Jessie loves 'coz it gives a homey feeling to the place, and they have dim lights, giving the place a really cozy feeling.
"Are you feeling okay?" Grace chuckles, seeing Jessie's jaw drop literally as she looked around the house.
"Oh my God…" Jessie gasps, in a good way. She had spent so much time studying and working in Boston to become one of America's finest doctors, and hadn't had time to visit her stepsisters' in New York, until now. Well, she isn't really here to visit. She's here to do what else? Work again. Too bad Zoe had to go away.
"So, are you hungry or something?" Grace turned to Jessie, but Jessie is still busy drooling around the amazing loft, she's barely listening to her. Jessie had obviously fallen in love with the place immediately. "What a stupid thing to ask. Of course you're hungry, you've spent hours in the plane. What do you want to eat? I'll order." Grace smiled at her. Finally, Jessie heard her.
"Oh, the usual." Jessie smiled back, her usual meaning vegetables. She's not exactly a vegetarian since she eats occasional hamburgers and steaks, but she prefers eating veggies, she always say it's a more healthy diet, well, the doctor that she is, or a future pediatric surgeon for that matter. "This place is great."
"Yeah, I can tell that's what you've been thinking with the look on your face." Grace replied amusedly while picking up the phone.
"Business must be going really great." Jessie imagined how much Grace must be spending just to have that place. Grace dialed a number and listened as the phone on the other line ring.
"It pays the bills." Grace said in modesty. Then somebody picked up on the other line and she heard a female voice. Grace then placed her order and hung up. "Katie pays the bigger share anyway. Well, she's the one who was too eager to have this place in the first place, and she has the bigger room, so that's just fair. Don't look so amazed, you have a great place at Beacon Hill." Grace was referring to Jessie's Boston apartment.
"HAD." Jessie emphasized. It was hard to let that apartment go. She had lived there for so long and been attached to that place. But she had to move, so she had to let it go. "Breath of fresh air." Jessie whispered to herself.
"Huh?" Grace barely heard her.
"I said it's a breath of fresh air. Not that New York actually has fresh air. I mean, this is something different. I've spent so much time at hospitals. I didn't know what feels like home anymore." Grace heard Jessie sigh. "But this feels like one." Jessie looked up at Grace and smiled.
"Well, you ARE home, Jess." They hugged.
"Thanks Grace."
"You're welcome." Grace picked up Jessie's luggage and dragged it upstairs. It wasn't really heavy and only contained a few of Jessie's clothes, her MP4 and her money. Jessie helped her, and they brought it up to Zoe's recently vacated room. Like every corner in the penthouse, it was painted red, to Jessie's liking.
"Like it?"
"Love it." Jessie smiled at Grace, then she sat on the edge of Zoe's bed.
"But I'd definitely miss Zoe… Especially the midnight moaning and all…" Grace trailed off and grinned. Jessie winced at Grace, and Grace rolled her eyes. "What, she's had a lot of nightmares." She said innocently and then burst out laughing. Jessie snatched a pillow from the bed and threw it at Grace's direction, and to her embarrassment, it hit her hard in the face.
"You really are crazy." Jessie laughed with her.
"What can I say, we're sisters." And the two burst out laughing again.
Meanwhile, at the Coffee Park… Tad was inside his office, sitting in front of his computer, busy studying the figures in the interim income statement that he prepared. He looked up when somebody opened the door without knocking. It was Ira.
"We're gonna run out of table napkins if you don't go out there and stop her right now." Ira said seriously.
"What?" Tad frowned. He has no idea what Ira was talking about.
"Katie's on her favorite table doodling on table napkins." Ira sighed. He had been watching Katie since she'd arrived. She hadn't said a word. She just ordered espresso and isolated herself from everyone, at the corner of the place, doodling.
"She's doodling?" Tad asked incredulously and got up smiling. Ira nodded. It was amusing, really, seeing Katie all smiles one minute and then serious the next. Something's up with Katie, but he doesn't know her as much as Tad does. So, instead of walking over and giving her a dose of his help, he decided to just pass the responsibility to Tad. He has his own burdens to think about anyway. Ira watched as Tad left the room to join Katie at her table.
Tad had been standing near Katie's table before she even noticed he was there. He looked down at the latest table napkin Katie was vandalizing, she was drawing a pair of eyes,.
"What a waste of talent. You think that's gonna sell?" Tad chuckled. Katie finally looked up and jumped at her feet. She gave Tad a big hug, to his utter surprise. The sat opposite each other, and he watched as Katie plastered that weird goofy grin on her face. Then he noticed, there were already 4 empty cups of espresso on the table. "You finally dropped the caffeine diet, I see." Tad said grinning, but Katie ignored her bestfriend's mockery.
"I've got to find her." Katie looked up at Tad, smiling widely.
"Find who?" Tad frowned. Katie looked funny acting weird and giddy. That isn't her.
"This girl." Katie picked up the table napkin and showed her sketch to Tad. It was only now that he paid attention to it. It was a very beautiful pair of eyes that seemed kind of familiar… Really familiar.
"That's not a girl, that's a pair of eyes." Tad said sarcastically. Katie rolled her eyes.
"Do you believe in angels?" Katie leaned closer to Tad. Tad did the same and leaned closer to Katie.
"Are you stoned?" Tad said seriously, stifling his laughter. Katie smacked him hard on the head. "Aww!"
"I was asking you a serious question!" Katie said in exasperation.
"About angels?! Since when did you start talking like that? Dude, do you even believe in angels? What's up with you?" Tad rubbed the part of his head where Katie hit him. It really hurts.
Katie gave him a brief look, then looked down at the table napkin again. She can remember those pair of blue eyes so vividly as if it were right in front of her right now.
"Are you in love with this girl or something?" Tad asked her suspiciously. Katie basically had to stop moving. She stared at him. "What? It's a valid question! You never acted about anyone like this." He added as he felt Katie's eyes boring through him.
"Like what? I'm acting like what?" Katie glowered at him.
"Like THAT! I don't think the caffeine should be blamed for all those smiles, the angel talk, the doodling and the dancing---"
"What dancing?!" Katie scowled at him even more, in a threatening way, but Tad isn't a bit intimidated.
"You've practically been dancing in your seat since I came, you looked kind of funny." Tad laughed. Katie hit him in the arm. "Aww! Are you trying to get me hospitalized?!"
"You have insurance." Katie snatched the table napkin from the table and grabbed her bag.
"Leaving already?" Katie nodded. "Got to go find the lost love of your life, aren't we?" Tad grinned, then wiggled his eyebrows. Katie shot him a venomous look.
"For the record, I am not in love with someone I just saw for like five seconds."
"Yeah, right, that's why you're here doodling her eyes." Tad mocked her, which earned him another hit in the arm. "I should get a restraining order." He joked.
"You do that." Katie grinned. They fell into short silence, and Tad spoke again.
"So you've seen this girl for five seconds?" Tad asked in amusement.
"Yeah." She smiled, remembering that beautiful smile again.
"And now you're wasting all of your time and energy to find her again? What for?" Tad was actually hopeful. Katie never had a serious relationship. Her conquests are all just… Conquests. It was fun, yes, it's okay to play around while you're young. But as time passes by, the possibility grows that Katie might end up alone. He doesn't want that to happen, not with Katie. Katie's a really great person and she deserves to be with someone. Okay, given that Katie's the cause of the problems in all the relationships she'd been through being the philandering idiot that she is, she still deserves to be happy. Not that she isn't, but her constantly changing relationships is not making her completely happy. Maybe she just hasn't found the right one. But Katie isn't open when it comes to that. She has the tendency to shut people off. And that's the problem.
"I don't know, I just want to find her." Katie shrugged.
"There's got to be a reason, right?"
"Yeah." Katie grinned. "My new king-sized mattress." She joked, winking at Tad.
"You are such a pig, Katie. Get out of here before I kick your ass for these people to see."
"Oh, more like the other way around. We both know I'm better in the ass-kicking thing." Katie chuckled.
"I hope she breaks your heart." Tad joked. But he meant half of it. She's got to learn, someday.
"Sorry Tad, but I'm better in the heart-breaking stuff too." Katie flashed her most charming smile and walked out of the café. Tad sighed. Maybe Katie is really hopeless.
Jessie and Grace stayed up late talking and catching up with each others lives. Even Tad dropped by but didn't stay to give the stepsisters some time to bond. He knew how close they are and didn't want to intrude in their girl talk anyway. Besides, he has some paperwork to finish for the Coffee Park that night. The stepsisters went barhopping, giving Jessie a dose of New York's night life, which by the way, Jessie didn't have in Boston (I'm talking about the LIFE part of it). Jessie's not really much of a party girl, but enjoyed hanging out with Grace. It was 2 in the morning when they were able to come back to the penthouse unit, and Jessie had to drive since Grace had a lot of drink. She kept mumbling about how much she hate her insensitive, philandering roommate right now, who couldn't even find time to meet Jessie. But actually, Jessie didn't mind.
When they reached the penthouse unit, Grace made a run for the bathroom and practically puked all over. Unfortunately for Jessie, she had to clean everything up, since Grace couldn't do it by herself. She practically fell straight into sleep the moment Jessie had helped her change her clothes and laid on her bed. Jessie couldn't do anything but shake her head, smiling. Then she headed to Zoe's former bedroom, which is now hers, took a quick shower, changed into her clothes, and fell into sleep.
It was 5 a.m. when Katie went back to the penthouse she's sharing with Grace. She had spent last night hanging out at a club, dancing and hitting on every gorgeous blue-eyed blonde girl she saw, trying her best to focus her attention on someone else instead of brooding about a certain blue eyes. Well, she got lucky. She ended up sleeping in the bed of Kaitlin Saunders, one of New York's and Ford Agency's top models. Sexy and gorgeous, Katie couldn't seem to have enough of her last night. But right after she fell asleep in the arms of her newest conquest, those beautiful blue eyes started haunting her again, in her dreams. And then she woke up. When she couldn't fall back to sleep, she gathered her clothes scattered all over the expensive carpeted floor of the model's apartment and strode off without letting the sleepy model that she's gone. Katie don't intend on seeing her again.
And that's been kind of a routine for Katie: Katie flirts with a beautiful girl, Katie goes home with her, Katie takes off without planning on showing up ever again. It's always less complicated if she sticks to that routine, or so she always thought. Joanna Franco is the only constant date she's had. It was never serious with her, it's just... Uncomplicated with her.
Joanna doesn't mind Katie's philandering ways, as long as she isn't around when Katie does her thing. It's the only way to keep Katie. She's always away for tours and stuff anyway.
Sure, Katie likes Joanna, they were friends, and their relationship now couldn't be characterized as something more. It's more like friends with benefits. Physically, they are perfectly compatible. Joanna has been her security blanket, someone to spend time with whenever she feels alone. But emotionally? They are disaster together. Katie's only in the relationship for the physical part, but lately, Katie found herself longing for something more, though still, she's in denial about. It puts a too much of a cramp to her too-hot-to-care personality.
And now she's here, in her expensive penthouse unit after spending the night with a gorgeous model every guy must be dreaming about. She thought Kaitlin Saunders could make her forget those pair of crystal blue eyes, but she was wrong. She had a feeling those pair of eyes would haunt her forever if she doesn't see them again. At the same time, the possibility of seeing those pair of beautiful eyes again somehow scares her. She didn't know exactly why, but that fear enveloped her heart all so sudden, it made her tremble. Her desire to find the girl who owns those pair of blue eyes matches her desire now not to find that girl ever again. She was trapped in a dilemma that doesn't even make sense.
Katie sat on the couch for a while, string in space, feeling alone inside the dark penthouse apartment. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket, and found something inside.
The table napkin she'd been doodling in at the Coffee Park yesterday. Reluctantly, she unfolded it, and looked at her drawing of the pair of eyes as if it were staring back at her. She let out a deep breath.
This is hopeless. Katie thought.
Katie got up from her seat and headed to a small room, which is her workroom and where she keeps her paintings. She's in the mood to paint. Instead of going to her room and changing her clothes, she just took her jacket off and sat on her high chair, facing a piece of canvass which seemed prepared for what Katie was about to do. She scanned her collection of paint brushes and chose the one the she thought would do justice to what she plans to paint. She began painting, it wasn't clear. An ordinary person wouldn't really recognize what's she's painting at the moment, but it's Katie's way of expressing her feelings right now. It's a mixture of everything.
Hours passed, and it was already 7 in the morning. Jessie woke up. She had a nice sleep, one of the best she's ever had actually. She missed her loft at Beacon Hill, but realized that this is better. Besides, Grace and Tad are here.
She will be starting her internship in 2 days. So, she has enough time to adjust and settle down, and may be explore the city before she starts working again. She planned on going out to buy things later that day, and hoped that Grace would have time to go with her. She's still not familiar with the city.
After brushing her teeth, she left her room and walked around the penthouse to be able to appreciate the place more. She fell in love with the place instantly. It just makes her so happy being here.
She tried to find Grace, but her stepsister is nowhere near to be found. Grace's room was empty. She must have left for the Coffee Park early. Feeling her constant need for caffeine, Jessie went to the kitchen to find Grace's stash of groceries but to her disappointment, found no traces of coffee or whatsoever. Sighing, she left the kitchen to check if Grace's roommate is already home but found no one inside the other bedroom either.
Jessie walked back to the living room, looking for the cordless phone to call her stepsister. Before she could find it, she found something else on the coffee table: a piece of a table napkin with a pair of eyes drawn expertly on it. Wow, Grace's roommate is good. Jessie thought. She looked at the sketch more closely and her jaw drops. Too good. She thought, upon realizing whose eyes those were. Strangely, it resembles hers.
She was thinking about calling Grace already, but still intrigued, when she heard a humming coming from upstairs. She remembered seeing a door beside hers, and Grace mentioned that it was the "doorway to Katie's hell hole"or something. Maybe roommate Katie is already home.
Upon climbing the stairs and walking up to the other room, she realized that the door was open, and the humming is getting louder and louder as she walked nearer.
Jessie reached the door and peeked in. She saw many framed pictures inside, some of it was hanged in the walls, but most were rested on the floor. There's just not much space to hang it in. Jessie isn't really an art person. She appreciates art, but never really had the passion for it. The only painting she has was the one Zoe bought for her on her 21st birthday, 'coz her stepsister thought her loft at Beacon Hill needed some decorating. But today, upon seeing these amazing paintings, Jessie stood in awe, and wondered why she never put in much time in looking at astonishing pieces such as these.
Jessie walked further into the room. After making a few steps, she saw the back of Grace's roommate who was currently drawing furiously on the sheet on canvass in front of her. She wondered why, but her heart began beating faster that it normally would. And it took her a while to find her voice, especially when the girl turned around and saw her.
"Hi." It was what Jessie could manage to say at the moment.
Somehow, hearing that beautiful voice sent shivers all over Katie. She froze, got off the high chair, and made baby steps to Jessie's direction.
And for the first time in her life, Katherine Singer was speechless.