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Kara is Cat’s assistant and as such a part of her job is being around when her boss meets with either of her ex husbands. Generally this is the less important part of the day: They exchange pleasantries, they talk about the kids and are all smiles and politeness (or as polite as these kind of things can be considering Cat’s wit and personality)
Some might find it boring but even in these “dull” moments Kara learns so much about the woman behind the covers and the news and pretty much everything that is Kara’s world.
There is this unspoken angle to the lives of influential people where they simply are themselves and that fact somehow banishes the mundane out of anything.
A perfect example is here, right now as Cat and her ex, Arthur, talk over what is essentially nothing.
Arthur is a kind man, polite but every bit as fearsome as Cat, a quality that endeared him to his now ex-wife to the point that Cat gave marriage another go.
While most people would just sit there awkwardly and make small talk while they give their mutual child the benefit of a good impression on how to deal with a failed relationship, Cat and Arthur are sitting there and making small talk about some finance issue that is above Kara’s pay grade when out of the sudden, for some reason, Arthur makes Cat laugh.
Laugh, at what Kara knows is a subject Cat particularly despises.
Laugh that beautiful laugh of hers that shows off those beautiful shards of pure white that cost thousands of dollars in consultations and treatments that Kara has to write down in the agenda months in advance.
Cat’s laugh is something that is quite unique, another marvel that Kara can’t believe she’s privy to and it’s this easiness that they still have between them that makes her blood boil.
She can’t reconcile the images she has in her mind with what she’s been told about the man (both men actually): Cat always talks about them as vermin, these things she did in her youthful days that now she regrets. But she talks to them so easily and gently even that you’d sweat she’s just another housewife, all things considered.
Kara’s met plenty of housewives, almost was one herself before she caught him cheating on her with a co-worker with bigger breasts, and she can see both things so easily on Cat: The powerful woman in control of the world, the Queen of All Media in her Throne of Electronic and Printing Power; and the housewife with the little jests and the wine-drinking habit that is worried about her son’s upcoming soccer match.
They do have their bad moments and it’s in these that Kara looses herself the most. Kara can’t help getting angry at them and jealous of them for having such a wonderful life partner and squandering it.
Arthur a freaking secretary and before him, Lionel with some Instagram “model”. The mere thought turns Kara’s blood into burning oil that burns and scalds her back to reality and with a sonorous exhale, she goes help Carter with his homework and for a while all thoughts about her bosses’ exes are gone.
Courtesies are exchanged and pleasantries spoken and above all things Cat is bored beyond the comprehension of most, perhaps everyone (herself included).
She can’t believe that that they were married.
Sure, he’s funny and his constant barrage of jokes, jests and witticism are a welcome distraction from everyone’s general idiotism but Cat really must have loved him back in the day because all she can think of nowadays whenever they’re together for a day is ‘What a shallow man’
Arthur is nothing but jokes that are just adaptations of the Marx Brothers word plays and the occasional pop culture reference that while it does fit, it’s massed produced and just so common and dull once you know there’s nothing behind it but an opportunity to say it, as if he was just a machine barely clever enough to know when to talk and what to say to keep people amused.
That new wife of his is his perfect match. They’ll give a title to anyone willing to put up with the debt these days and Cat thinks the world is doomed as she sits alone in her office until she hears laughter and the source of the laughter makes her re-consider.
The world is good, the universe has hidden marvels and one of them it’s the little moments of unwatched happiness that motherhood lets her be privy to.
She doesn’t do enough motherhood and Kara is a constant reminder of that.
Carter loves her and Cat (much to her own horror and further confusion) loves her too.
Not just in the way one loves a quiet butler, but in the way lesbians and bisexuals love each other. Her therapist has ingrained to her the need to acknowledge ones feelings and has done his best to get Cat to speak about them but this is simply something she will not do.
She’ll admire Kara, her human Golden Retriever, and she’ll love her as much as the line in the sand that is their working relationship will let her. But tell her? That is simply a thing Cat won’t do.
She knows better, being the Queen of All Media. A something like Kara and her being together would just leave too much blood in the water for anyone to use. Against her, against Kara, and worst of all: against Carter.
Even through the thinly veiled homophobic attacks from the likes of the Cheneys, Cat could keep her composure and strike them back to their ranch in the middle of Wyoming. But the mere thought of anyone even saying something about Carter just breaks her and she both loves and hates it.
Cat downs her Whisky and enjoys the burn in her throat, indulging in the little pleasures physical sensations leave in her body before sighing and getting out of her office.
It’s late, it’s the holidays and Kara must have her places to be and her people to see.
Cat may let him stay up late in Christmas, but today is not Christmas and as such, Carter needs to sleep. A task particularly hard to get done when the person that’s supposed to put him to bed is a child herself.
Her mere presence kills the laughter in the room and with a hushed “Good Night, Kara” Carter settles in and just waits for his mom to say her own things.
Cat tries her best to be motherly and be what her own mother wasn’t and they talk for awhile while Kara watches like some guardian dog of sorts that will destroy anyone that dares shatter this moment of bonding between mother and son.
They talk for half an hour but Carter’s mind is simpler and there isn’t still that much of a story teller in him. He’s got the makings of one, but he get excited easily and with that all sense to most his stories gets lost to Cat, who’s too used to not paying attention when someone rambles on and on.
They bid their good nights and at least she tucks him in properly and kisses his brow like any good mother would before leading Kara out of his room.
They walk in silence until they’re at the door and then Cat asks, having learnt to read her assistant.
“What is it?”
“I-uh” Kara looks like she got caught eating Santa’s cookies and Cat bites her cheek at just how cute that looks “It’s nothing”
“It’s in your mind, so let’s not say that”
“I just-” Kara swallows and Cat has to blink back the lustful thoughts that flood her mind of what she wishes to do to that neck if the person that owned it were in her bed “They really don’t deserve you. Either of them”
“Reason why I divorced them, Keira” Cat deadpans in an attempt to bury this conversation quickly but Kara just loves to talk.
“Yeah, but-I think even the remaining civility between you and them is just too much”
“As do I, but…” Cat trails off as the thought of ‘what the hell am I doing?’ comes to her. Her mouth takes a live of its own and carries on “I feel I should. I don’t know why but I feel I should still talk to them, as if my therapist had mandated that to me.”
“You’re too good for them” Kara smiles and Cat actually feels the need to squint at the sight of that sunny smile of hers.
In the end she rolls her eyes and that’s when she sees it.
“Is that-mistletoe?”
“The maids must’ve put it there when they were decorating” Kara, in a moment of brilliant deduction, says Cat freezes at what’s supposed to follow.
“Should we even-” Cat doesn’t even finish the sentence. That’s how paralyzed she is by this situation.
“I don’t mind. Not one bit”
And with that Kara kisses her and Cat is pleasantly shocked when Kara goes for the lips instead of the cheek or any other more decorous place.
Cat doesn’t notice at first when they break apart that she follows Kara as she withdraws until she has to lean back to stand properly.
“I-uh”
“We-I”
They’re both useless at this and Cat just says screw it and kisses Kara again.
They take their time and don’t dare to go further than just joining lips but that in and of itself is all it takes for Cat to say.
“I can’t wait for the Holidays to be over so you can come back”
Kara blushes and cutely bites her lips
“Me neither”