Read Online Catching Caitlin by Amy Isan - Free Book Online

started
sizzling, the smell of smoke and coals rose into the air.
    I pointed at the grill.
“Was that just plain hamburger you pulled out?”
    “No, I had already rubbed
and mixed in my spice blend. I couldn’t say I made mean burgers if I just made
plain-jane ones, could I?” He inhaled deeply, before stepping back and joining
me in the balcony chairs. He reached over and grasped my hand.
    Hand holding felt so
intimate. There was this sense of comfort to it, a sense of security.
    The burgers were delicious. I only had to take one bite to know that Hugh didn’t screw around
when he made claims. The meat was perfectly juicy, a bit of spice accented each
bite, with a good fulfilling flavor.
    After finishing my first,
I picked up my second burger a little embarrassed at how much I craved it.
    “I knew you’d want two.
No one can have just one of my burgers.”
    As I started into my
second burger, it dawned on me. This house was the one Hugh had with his wife.
Maybe that’s why the decorations were so much more lavish. Did she run away
with another man?
    I checked Hugh out again,
seeing if I could detect what could cause a woman to run away from him. I
couldn’t.
    ***
    W hen we finished eating,
I offered to take the plates in, since I knew he’d want to clean his grill.
    While I washed the plates
and scrubbed the cutting board, I stared at the sea-shelled backsplash. What
kind of person was she?
    Was the blonde woman in
the picture his wife, or someone else? A mistress? I felt my back pocket,
checking to see if the picture was still there. It was.
    I dreaded confronting him
about it for some reason. Maybe I was scared of the answer.
    He came in as I finished
washing up, and opened a cabinet.
    “Would you like a toddy,
as a dessert?”
    I nodded. He casually
moved to retrieve two glasses and pulling down a bottle of scotch.
    “How do you know I don’t
want something softer, like wine?”
    “Because of the way you
drank on the airplane. You aren’t into light drinks. You can handle the hard
stuff.”
    Hugh handed me a half
filled glass of coffee. I watched as he poured another for himself. It was a
bit strange drinking with him. He was already drinking when I met him in high
school, but I always stayed sober and dry. Now that we were drinking together,
it felt weird.
    He held his glass up, and
toasted; “To rekindling old passions.” We clinked our glasses together, and
downed them simultaneously.
    I wrinkled my nose. I
forgot I hadn’t had a chance to shower since yesterday, and it was starting to
catch up with me.
    “Mind if I use your
shower?”
    “By all means,” he said.
“There should be a clean towel in there.”
    “Perfect.”
    I set the glass down on
the counter, and wandered in his bedroom. My mind was still burning. Who was
his wife?
    ***
    I closed the bathroom
door, and immediately noticed that there wasn’t any lock on the handle. The
shower wasn’t the whole square box affair I was used to: it was tucked behind a
distorted glass wall, no door keeping anyone from walking in. The only thing
that kept the water from running all over the bathroom was a small lip of marble.
    Needless to say, it was
extravagant. Light filtered through the glass and jumped all over the stall,
giving it an comforting atmosphere.
    I pulled the picture out
of my back pocket, thankful to see that it wasn’t kinked or creased in any way.
Maybe I was just jealous of the woman in the photo; after all, it wasn’t like
Hugh had a picture of me hidden deep in his office drawer. I hid it back
inside my jeans and carefully placed them in the corner of the bathroom. I
slipped out of the rest of my clothes, and made my way behind the glass wall to
the shower.
    There were two shower
heads, each one on opposite walls. I guess you could get quite soaked if you
really wanted to. Maybe for a partner? Did people actually do that?
    I turned the tap, and
water sprang out of the shower head, a firm pressure to it. Steam quickly