Mornington-By-Mere – (70) Cathy’s Tale (Part 02)

Cathy had pledged after her husband’s death that she would never share her heart with a man again and she closed her heart to love for anyone other than the twins and Gillie.

There wasn’t much in the way of extended family and of those that did exist the Maddocks were only in contact with her brother Pete and his wife Clare and for Cathy that was enough.

Although she kept the world at arms length and the family were very happy there were always occasions when she had to let the outside world in.

Such as when the shower went on the fritz and she needed a plumber, so she had to call her brothers best friend David Plunkett.

A call that Dave was only to willing to answer, without a second thought, because Dave had admired Cathy from afar since he was in year seven.

Cathy was in the year above him but his friendship with Pete brought them into the same sphere on a regular basis.

Unfortunately he never managed to stay in her orbit long enough to make an impact but he always lived in hope of being noticed until the day when she married John Maddox and then he thought she was lost to him forever.

When John died suddenly after 7 years he saw a glimmer of hope but he had to sit on his hands while she went through the grieving process, but he didn’t know it would take over two years.  

So when he took the call from her for the plumbing job he thought maybe it was finally his time.

When the day came to look at the problem it was something of an anticlimax as he barely even got a glimpse of Cathy, and he only really got to see the step daughter Gillian who he thought was very protective of her stepmum when he asked where she was.

She also hung around him and his apprentice Owen a lot and Dave was almost certain that if Owen chose to make a play for her that he would have been warmly welcomed, but he wasn’t there to play matchmaker.

It was a similar story a month later when there was a leak in the kitchen and he only got to see Gillian so it wasn’t until three months after that when the boiler died that he finally managed to reaquaint himself with Cathy.

It was a day when he was on his own but it was not an altogether happy reunion as he found her colder and more distant than before and she had thawed very little by the time he reached the end of the job.

“Well that’s me done” he said as he packed his tools away 

“Is there anything else you need me to do before I head off?”    

“Um” she responded and then fell silent again

Dave waited for her to speak again but when she didn’t he said

“Ok, well if you have a problem you have my number”

But as he reached the door she blurted out  

“Yes, yes there is”

“Ok” he retorted and returned to the kitchen “what do you need?”

There was a long pause and then without looking at him she quietly said

“I want you to kiss me” Cathy said

“What?” he asked almost certain he had misheard

“I want you to kiss me” she repeated and he plopped down on a chair.