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The intercom bell rings across the penthouse, interrupting Cat’s phone call. Frowning, she excuses herself, looks at the time on her phone and mutes the device, before poking her head out of her home office.
“Carter, sweetheart, could you get the door for me?”
“Sure mom,” Carter answers right away, pausing his video game and placing the controler on the couch next to him before getting up, glancing at his watch. “It’s after 8pm … Are you expecting someone?”
“No, not at all,” Cat shakes her head. “Kara’s away on a business trip and she’s supposed to come home in three days but she’s got a key, and she can fly in … Anyone else knows better than to drop by unannounced.”
Carter chuckles and shakes his head as he moves toward the foyer.
He’s nineteen now, and the shy young boy he used to be gave place to a young man with messy dark blond hair he never seems to comb. Gone are the round and childish features of his face as he finally inherited her sharp and angular bone structure.
The only thing that didn’t change are his eyes, as blue as a morning sky, and sparkling with that same depth he had when he was just a child, a mixture of intelligence and intuition.
The true novelty; the dark blond scuffle he insists on growing on the lower part of his face, a shadow that softens the sharpness of his jaw.
Cat sighs, a recurrent occurrence whenever she realises Carter is all grown up now, and returns to her call.
Ten minutes later, she hangs up and lets out a muffled curse, staring at her phone as if a look could fix the mistakes made by the printing department.
“That bad, uh …”
She startles at the sound of Carter’s voice, having not heard him come into her office. He looks amused, and his eyes are alight with humor. She glares at him, in vain.
She has never been able to really impress her son with that kind of look. He was sweet enough to let her believe it worked, when he was a kid, but once he hit fifteen he stopped pretending and just waited until she gave up.
“Who was at the door?” Cat eventually asks, tidying some papers on her desk and shutting off her computer.
“No one,” Carter replies, shrugging. “But something got dropped on our doorstep, with a card saying it’s for you.”
Cat frowns, mentally reviewing the people who know her home address and are allowed to send her gifts. One name stands out and she groans, earning a curious look from her son.
“It better not be from Lois freaking Lane,” Cat mutters as she exits her home office. “Where did you put the package?”
“Isn’t it Lois Kent now?” Carter muses, gesturing toward the kitchen. “I mean, you went to their wedding …”
“She’ll always be Lois Lane to me, and I don’t care much for Kansas,” Cat retorts, glancing back at her son. “Besides, I only went because Kara asked me to be her plus one.”
“Should I mention that you were individually invited, and not as Kara’s plus one?” Carter smirks, but when Cat glares at him this time, he backs off. “Alright, alright. The package is on the kitchen island, and I have a feeling it’s not from Lois.”
Cat crosses the living room and moves into the kitchen space, before stopping in her tracks.
A huge bouquet of flowers is sitting on the counter, with sheaves of white and pale pink lilies arranged in the middle of green leaves.
It’s beautiful, elegant and refined, exactly the kind of flower arrangement she loves.
“See, not from Lois,” Carter says, coming into the kitchen to pull out a wine glass from a cupboard. “Have you read the card yet?”
He gestures to the small envelope placed next to the vase, with Cat’s name etched in a beautiful handwritten calligraphy. She recognises the penmanship immediately.
“It’s from Kara,” Cat says, softly, as she steps forward to grab the message. The smell of lilies is starting to flow in the room, soft and yet heady. “This bouquet is beautiful.”
“It is,” Carter nods, reaching out to turn the vase and study the flowers under every angle. “She’s got taste, I almost expected daffodils or something just as Disney-ish.”
“What do you mean you almost expected?” Cat frowns, narrowing her eyes at her son, who is suddenly looking everywhere but in her direction. “You were in on this?”
“I don’t want to ruin the surprise, please read the card before grilling me,” Carter says, letting go of the flower to pour wine in the glass he’s got out. Once it’s done, he places the glass in front of his mother and adds “I’m gonna go play for a little while.”
Cat doesn’t answer, and instead starts to open the envelope.
The note inside is handwritten on a square of thick paper, the kind used to invite people at weddings or charity events. It’s elegant, not quite white but rather eggshell and the margins are highlighted with a gold lining.
“Happy six months to us, my love.
I can’t wait to come home to you.
I love you,
Yours, always
K.”
Cat only realises she’s grinning when her cheeks start to hurt a little.
She grabs the bouquet, the note and brings everything in her bedroom. She carefully puts the vases atop the decorative vanity, the one she nevers uses, and brings the note to her nightstand to place it against her lamp, figuring that it’ll become a bookmark in a few months.
Sitting on her side of the bed, she grabs her phone and clicks on Kara’s pictures in her contact.
It rings three times before Kara answers.
“Hi Cat!”
“Hello Darling,” Cat replies, softly. “Thank you for the flowers, they are beautiful.”
“Ah, they got there in time! I was worried,” Kara answers, sounding relieved and happy. “Did you get the note as well?”
“Yes, I got everything, and I can’t wait for you to come home too,” Cat smiles fondly. “By the way, did you enroll Carter in this? He said something about half-expecting daffodils, or something straight out of a Disney movie …”
“That’s rude!,” Kara protests, but Cat hears the laughter in her voice. “I mean, I did think about roses, but he threatened to throw them out the moment he saw them …”
“He would have been right to! Roses, darling?” Cat deadpans, rolling her eyes. “Besides, you made me watch this ridiculous movie with Lena Headey and Piper Perabo, where the florist explains what lilies mean …”
“Hey, that movie is not ridiculous,” Kara declares, very seriously. “It’s an amazing film, soft and sweet and with a happy ending, don’t bash it.”
Cat laughs but doesn’t insist, knowing how important that movie is for Kara, and Alex as well.
“How is your trip going?” Cat asks, changing topics. “Did you get a chance to interview Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez yet?”
“Tomorrow, I got a full hour with her at 9am,” Kara says, sounding excited. “I struggled a little to land an interview, but when she heard her assistant block me out, she reached out herself and scheduled the meeting directly with me.”
“Excellent!” Cat approves, knowing such a high-profile interview will do wonders for CatCo magazine. “Oh, by the way, Alex called, she can’t make it to lunch next week, so we’ll have to reschedule.”
“She texted, yes,” Kara confirms, and Cat hears the sound of a liquid being poured. “I was thinking we could use that free time to take Carter to the science exhibit he wanted to check?”
“That’s a good idea, he’ll be over the moon about it,” Cat nods, making a mental note to check with him if he’d like to go on this specific date. “His flight back to Boston isn’t until the fourth of September, we still have a few good five weeks together.”
“About that,” Kara replies, pausing for a moment before coming back to the line. “What do you say we spend some time in the beach house, before the summer ends? I know you don’t like to go there while it’s high season, but it’s pretty isolated and the beach is private, and we don’t even have to deal with traffic because I can fly you there.”
No one would bat an eye, not since Cat unveiled Kara as Supergirl to the whole world.
It’s been a journey after that day, but nowadays it was old news and the world was more interested in climate change, politics and survival.
“That’s a good idea, I can take a few days off when you’re off as well, and we can spend some time in the beach house,” Cat approves. “Just, let me run this by Carter, he might have other plans for his summer. I know he’s supposed to spend some days in the Hamptons, with his friend Sam, and his father is taking him for a few days right after, they have plans in New York.”
“I’ll be home in three days anyway, we can make plans then!” Kara explains, before muffling a yawn.
“Tired, Supergirl?” Cat teases.
“Yeah, it’s been rainy and gray in Washington, so I’m saving whatever reserves of power I have left for emergencies … Also, politicians are the most exhausting people I know.”
“You don’t say,” Cat sasses. “That’s exactly why I left the White House.”
“I thought it was because Olivia had to step down from her role as president …” Kara muses, muffling another yawn.
“That didn’t help, especially since the useless tool that came after was a total personalization of the white male privilege … you sound exhausted though, I should leave you to rest.”
“I admit, I’m falling asleep,” Kara gives up and openly yawns this time. “Talk to you soon?”
“Indeed Darling, talk to you soon. Sleep well,” Cat says, tenderly. “Thank you for the flowers and the note, and happy six months to us.”
“I love you,” Kara adds, and her voice is soft and sweet, almost shy.
Six months into the relationship, and Kara was still a little afraid it’s all a dream, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It baffled Cat that Kara, a superhero that could fly, who was bulletproof and could shoot lasers out of her eyes, froze people with a sneeze, would be so shy, almost insecure, about their relationship.
“I love you too,” Cat replies, before hanging up.
She knows that if she stays on the phone, they will keep talking until it’s early morning and Kara will be exhausted for her interview with AOC.
She glances at the bouquet, at the note, smiles and leaves her bedroom to talk with Carter about the summer plans.