Life Or Something Like It by Annie Lyons Page A

felt as if she were floating above her life, out of control. It was as if someone else was pulling all the strings.
    ‘Hey, don’t worry. You trust me, don’t you?’ he asked, sitting back and touching her on the shoulder.
    Cat felt the warmth of his touch and knew she had no choice. ‘Of course.’
    He kissed her on the top of the head. ‘That’s my girl. I can’t manage without my Kit Kat and I’m going to do everything I can to get her back.’
    Cat smiled and pulled away. She knew Jesse was doing his best but she still hated the feeling that there was nothing she could do to change things.
    The living room door flew open and Alexandra stood there, wide-eyed with renewed fury. ‘Ding-ding, round two,’ murmured Jesse to Cat. He turned to his wife with a look of smiling innocence. ‘What is it, my darling?’
    ‘Let me just say that we will not be using that catering firm again,’ she said, gesturing with her head towards the hall. Jesse and Cat got up and followed her out of the room.
    They could clearly hear the sounds of frantic sexual activity coming from the downstairs bathroom. Rob’s urgent cries of, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, that’s it, yeah, yeah,’ were increasing in frequency and volume before a prolonged, ‘yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah,’ brought an end to proceedings. Cat and Jesse looked at one another and started to giggle like snooping teenagers. Alexandra stared at them both before throwing up her hands and flouncing up the stairs, uttering a stream of colourful Spanish expletives.
    Jesse nudged Cat. ‘Sometimes it’s a blessing that I don’t know what those mean,’ he giggled.
    Cat laughed. She loved moments like these; this was what she missed. She felt closer to Jesse than she ever had to any man she had been romantically involved with; they knew each other so well.
    Moments later the lock on the bathroom door clicked open and Rob appeared, his face pink with exertion. He seemed surprised at the welcoming committee waiting for him but as soon as he saw their amused faces, he laughed. The waitress appeared behind him, doing her best to straighten her uniform. She was mortified to see her employer standing before her. This made Jesse and Cat laugh even harder.
    ‘I don’t remember telling you it was going to be
that
sort of party,’ chuckled Jesse.
    Rob held up his hands. ‘Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. It’s been a while,’ he said.
    The waitress blushed and darted back to the safety of the kitchen. Cat turned to Jesse. ‘Well thank you for a most entertaining evening,’ she laughed, kissing him on the cheek. ‘Rob, I would say it was a pleasure but I think the pleasure was all yours.’ She grinned. Rob looked sheepish.
    ‘I’ll call you next week and let you know how it goes with Donald,’ said Jesse, escorting her down the steps of the house and into a waiting taxi. ‘Have a good weekend.’
    ‘You too.’ She smiled. She climbed into the taxi and watched Jesse until he became a waving dot in the distance. She turned back and looked out of the window, watching as the houses sped by taking her closer to home. The weekend loomed large; normally she would have been working on a campaign or attending an event. In her newfound role as weekday nanny, Cat realised with rising anxiety that for the first time in her life, she had two days ahead of her with absolutely nothing to do.

Chapter Seven
    ‘Earth to Cat. Are you receiving me?’
    Cat glanced up from her egg-white omelette to see Ava waving a forkful of cubed watermelon at her. ‘Sorry, did you say something?’
    Ava shook her head in disbelief. ‘Sweet potato, I’m worried about you. You don’t seem yourself today. I mean I know you’ve got all this crap with work but still, there’s something different about you. I can’t quite put my finger on it.’ She sat back and regarded her friend with a practised eye.
    ‘Sorry,’ repeated Cat. ‘I’m just a bit distracted.’ She took a bite of her omelette and looked