hairdo.
Gina said, “It’s…it’s our new method for getting rid of those really stubborn kinks. We learned it at the APTA conference last summer. No pain, no gain.”
Cate rolled her eyes at her sister, knowing that Aunt Flo loved anything that sounded even remotely hip.
Aunt Flo rotated her shoulders, getting into a slow rhythm. Then she lifted her arms and said, “Well, why the heck didn’t you try it sooner, doll. You know I play bunco at the church hall this afternoon with the ladies of Saint Mary’s. They’re probably waiting for me right now.”
“He totally wants to see you, Cate,” Gina interrupted.
“Tell him I’m with a patient. Tell him to come back tomorrow or next month or next year,” Cate told her sister.
“You’re not with a patient anymore. I feel grrreat! Just like Tony the Tiger. Who is it that wants to see you so bad and you don’t want to see?”
“I thought you had a bunco game to get to.” There was no way Cate would tell Aunt Flo that Rudy Bellafini was in the building. It would be all over the neighborhood in the time it took for Cate to exhale, which she had forgotten to do.
Gina broke in, “I put him in room three, Cate. The guy can barely walk. Maybe you should at least talk to him.”
“It’s bad luck to turn a potential patient away, especially somebody who can’t walk. Anything could happen. Your sister herself could be struck down.”
“All right, already! I’ll talk to him,” Cate said, trying desperately to hold on to her composure. She turned to her aunt. “The ladies of Saint Mary’s are waiting.”
“Heck, they sure are. Oh, well, I’ll get the skinny from your father tonight at dinner. Now go. You don’t want to keep the poor man waiting,” she said as she shooed Cate away.
As Cate walked down the narrow hallway to room three, her stomach felt a little queasy and her knees didn’t want to bend the way they were supposed to. Her palms were sticky, and suddenly her whole body broke out in a cold sweat.
When she reached the dreaded door number three, she paused in front of it to regain her composure and fix her hair. And what about her makeup? It had to be a mess by now. And the sweater she threw on earlier, it had holes in the right sleeve.
She rushed back to her office, thinking that she needed a complete makeover before she could see him. That she required a new do from Rose Marie at The Hairs End, or a new outfit from Gloria’s Dress Boutique, or maybe a couple sessions with Frank Nudo, the shrink at the end of the block, before she could say one word to Rudy Bellafini. Or Father Joe, he would know how to handle the situation. Or Henry…no, not Henry, he was only good with dead people.
She wished she could talk to Gina, but Gina was busy at the front desk…that in itself was possibly a good thing. She didn’t need Gina knowing that she was in a pathetic panic to suddenly re-create herself.
As if…
She picked up the phone, ready to call her father—of all people—just as Rudy Bellafini appeared in her open doorway. He looked completely helpless and miserable while leaning on his crutches. He crumpled himself into the black chair next to the door and sat down, letting out a long, pathetic moan.
3
“YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL , Cate. Time’s been on your side, dude.” He gave her the once-over, like he was sizing her up for some TV reality show and he was the latest bachelor. “I don’t see a ring on your finger. I thought for sure you’d be married with five kids.”
Cate raised an eyebrow. “And I thought for sure you’d be on your fifth wife.”
“Not likely.”
They stared at each other for a moment. This was not a good beginning, Cate thought.
Rudy continued, “Okay. We should get started right away. You’ll need to cancel all your appointments for the next few weeks. Maybe longer. I need you to concentrate on me. I’m in pretty bad shape, here, and I can’t afford to be down for too much longer. I’ll pay whatever you want, just so I know that I’ll have your undivided attention. Whatever you need in the way of equipment, you got it. Just let me know what it is. This whole thing has to be kept a secret or, believe me, your life will turn into a nightmare, as well as mine. Here are my medical records, dude.” With some effort he tossed the large manila envelope on her desk.
She was a dude now? Cate didn’t know how to respond to dude.
He continued, “I think that about covers it. Dude, I’m really hurting, but that room I was in is way too small.” He took a breath and pushed himself up from his chair with an obvious grimace of pain on his face. “You have anything bigger?”
Cate was actually dumbstruck by the burst of orders that he’d flung in her direction. She couldn’t react properly to the magnitude of his arrogance. She didn’t quite know how to respond to her new charter, so she sat back in her chair and watched as he hobbled out of the office apparently expecting her to follow, but she didn’t.
She waited for the shock of him to wear off. Perhaps then she would actually be able to think.
“Hel-lo. Anybody in there? Which door do I go through?”
Her brain finally came around as he reappeared in the doorway. “The front door, dude. And don’t let it hit you on the way out,” she said, flashing a sarcastic grin.
For a brief moment she had considered shuffling him off to one of the other therapists who worked for her, but she couldn’t justify dumping his snotty self on anybody.
“Don’t kid around, Cate. I’m in a lot of pain here. The sooner we get started the sooner I can get my life back.”
“You can get back to your life right now,” she said. “Don’t let me get in your way.”
“What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you hear my offer?”
“I heard it, but I’m not for sale.”
“I’m not buying you. I’m buying your services.”
“I am my services, and as long as these two hands are attached to my two arms, I’m not for sale.”
Rudy hobbled back into the office and sat down again, gently. His breathing had increased, and he looked unsettled, but his arrogance had defined the moment. If she could physically kick him out of her office and onto the street and watch him hit the pavement with a thud, she would at least feel as though they were once and for all even.
But she couldn’t.
He was taller than she had remembered, and maturity had thickened his body. Not that he was fat, he had merely turned into a man, with deep-brown eyes, darker than she remembered, and thick black hair, blacker than she remembered. It’s not that she hadn’t seen him on TV and on magazine covers, or cereal boxes over the years, but to see him up close again was just different. He actually looked even more handsome in person, and that bad-boy arrogance she thought was just for the media was actually real.
Too bad.
“Look,
