Page 83 of Cat Sloan is Swirling

Hattie looked up in surprise. “Sell the house?”

Cat nodded.

“Let me think about it.”

“What’s there to think about?”

“I don’t know. That’s a big step.”

Cat closed her eyes, trying not to scream or laugh. “Moving out was a big step, Hattie. We’ll sell the house, split the proceeds, and move on.”

Hattie narrowed her eyes. “Move on? Is that what you’ve done?”

Cat sighed. “That’s what you did when you moved out. You wouldn’t answer my calls or texts and had a girlfriend two weeks later.” Cat was through being nice. “You moved on. It took me a while, but so have I. The best thing to do would be to sell the house and end this once and for all.”

Hattie huffed. “Oh, so now you’re making the decisions.”

“Fuck,” Cat whispered.

The bell over the door rang and a customer walked in. Thank goodness, Cat thought. “I have to wait on this customer.”

Hattie stood up and looked back at the front door. “I’ll get back with you on the house…and everything.”

“You do that,” Cat said softly as Hattie walked away. How was I ever in love with this person?

Elena sat down in CeCe’s chair and met her gaze in the mirror. “Cat is talking to Hattie.”

“Right now?”

Elena nodded. “She came into the bookstore.”

“Do we…” CeCe trailed off and pointed to the door.

“No. Cat told me to come back after you finish with my hair.”

CeCe separated a few strands of Elena’s hair and applied color to it then wrapped it in foil. She continued the process while Elena watched in the mirror.

“Cat and I were talking and we really enjoyed yesterday.”

CeCe smiled. “We did, too.”

“Cat thought it would be fun to make it a regular thing and take turns choosing the movie.”

“What a great idea. I’ll tell Alexis.” CeCe sighed as she highlighted then wrapped another strand of Elena’s hair.

“She’ll be fine,” Elena said.

CeCe smiled. “I know she will. I was just thinking about her and Hattie. People don’t realize how great my little sister is. Just because she's quiet doesn’t mean she’s not fun. There were certain times during the year when Cat’s workload caused her to have to be at the office late. I think sometimes she didn’t want to go home to an empty house because Hattie wasn’t there. Cat was lonely.”

Elena felt her heart clinch in her chest.

“Hattie was in corporate sales. She met with clients oftentimes in the evenings. I guess she was wining and dining them. These meetings turned into parties and led to many late nights. What she didn’t realize is she could’ve taken Cat along with her and she would’ve helped her close the accounts.”

“Maybe she didn’t want her there.”

“Exactly,” CeCe said. “Hattie was too busy trying to impress clients instead of being with Cat. I know Cat tried to talk to her about it, but Hattie always said they would be all right.”

“That makes my heart hurt.”

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