Your Eyes Tell Me What I Need to Know

For the first time since she made a fool of herself by kissing a man who had feelings for another woman, Katrina was feeling happy. It had more to do with who was sitting across from her at the restaurant than anything else. After ignoring her call for the fifth straight day, Shannon took the liberty upon herself to find out what was going on. Knowing that the soccer season wasn’t underway so Katrina not answering her cell phone made Shannon worry. Knowing that there was nothing important keeping her in LA for the moment, she took a chance and came to New York to see her friend.

When Katrina opened her door, she was shocked to see Shannon with a bag at her feet. When she explained why she was there, Katrina felt embarrassed to tell her. But just like so many times before, Shannon was able to coax her into spilling what happened. That was two days ago. And last night the girls laid on Katrina’s bed and watched the first game of the season for the New York Rangers. Every time Hank was on the screen, Shannon looked over at her friend and noticed her eyes were locked on him. Katrina was upset when the Rangers lost to the Penguins; it wasn’t what she wanted to see. That was when Shannon decided that the two of them were going to head out the next night. And that’s where they found themselves.

Walking into the restaurant with Shannon behind her, Katrina grabbed her white clutch bag from under her arm and walked up to the hostess. Before she could tell her how many was in her party, she heard the door open again and she heard a voice that she hoped she wouldn’t run into for a while yet. “Kitty?”

Katrina closed her eyes and her eyes looked down at her new black peep toe heels that matched her dress that fell to right above her knees. It had spaghetti straps and a slit in the back. Taking a deep breath she looked up and turned around and saw Hank standing there. He was standing in front of two others. “Hank.”

“You know her?” one of the guys with him asked.

“Yeah,” Hank said not breaking eye contact with Katrina. “Sean Avery, Ryan Callahan this is Katrina Anderson.”

Shaking their hands politely, Katrina gave them a smile before looking over at Shannon. “This is Shannon Boxx, we played together in California.”

“Oh, so you’re the soccer chick that he was talking about making things right with on the way back from Pittsburgh,” Sean said. “At least that’s what I heard. I wasn’t there.”

“It was nice seeing you again Hank,” Katrina said. “And it was nice to meet you guys as well, but we are having going to go eat.”

“Why don’t you ladies join us?” Ryan suggested speaking up. “That way we can get to know one another even more.”

“We’d love to.” Shannon told them as she spoke up before Katrina could turn them down.

With a nod of her head she put up five fingers, letting the hostess know that their party just grew by three. Grabbing the menus she asked everyone to follow her. Katrina felt a hand on the small of her back and she went stiff knowing that the hand belonged to Hank. He knew her going stiff was because of his hand placement, but he didn’t remove it. Once getting to the booth, Katrina slid in first and Hank followed. Shannon sat opposite of her and Ryan sat next to her and Sean took a chair outside of the padded seating.

“Can I start you off with any drinks tonight?” the waiter asked as he came up to the table.

“I’ll have a martini.” Katrina ordered as her phone went off.

Picking up the clutch out of her lap, she opened it up and grabbed her phone. She had a new text message. Hitting the ignore button, her phone went off again. She bit her lip from laughing when she saw it was Shannon texting her from across the table. Opening the message, she looked around the table. No one was paying any heed to her; they were all looking at their menus. He’s hot.That’s all it said. She had to keep from rolling her eyes. Thinking quickly, Katrina replied back to her friend.

Putting the phone back into her bag, she picked up the menu and hoped this wasn’t as weird for everyone at the table as it was for her. She wished she had picked a different place to eat. Never did she think that she would run into Hank here, hell she didn’t even know he was back in town. Sure he called, but that didn’t mean she talked to him. It just didn’t feel right, at least not yet. Especially since there was someone special in his life and although she wished it was her, it wasn’t.

Katrina couldn’t but wonder what she had that this mystery woman didn’t. What made her worth his time? Especially since she apparently didn’t live in the state of New York. It was because of Hank that Katrina was adjusting to life in New York. Sure she missed California, but that was her past and New York was where she was to be until further notice.

“So Katrina, where are you from originally?” Ryan asked her.

“San Diego,” Katrina smiled. “Born and raised.”

“So your parents like that you get to be on TV and stuff?” Sean asked.

“I don’t know,” Katrina said. “My mom took off one day and I’m not sure who my father is. I was raised by my grandparents. And they’re no longer around.”

The table went silent after that. The waiter came back with drinks and the appetizers the others ordered while she was messing with her phone. It felt like she was back in her first day in New York. She was acting like she didn’t want to be anywhere near the restaurant. After everyone ordered, Shannon took over the talking when she noticed that Katrina was no longer up for conversations of any kind. By the time dinner was over, Katrina was ready to go home and curl up in bed and watch a movie or channel surf until she fell asleep.

After everyone was outside, Katrina looked to see Shannon agreeing to something with Sean Avery. She really didn’t feel like going out, not one bit. “Shannon are you ready to go?” Katrina called as she walked away from the doors with her white double breasted trench coat on over her dress.

“Actually,” Shannon said as she walked over to her friend and gave her a hug. “I’m gonna go to a club with Sean and Ryan. Wanna join us?”

“No, I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“No,” Katrina smiled at her friend. “Go and have some fun. I’ll catch a cab back to my apartment.”

“I’ll give you a ride.” Hank said walking up behind her, keys in hand.

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll be fine.”

“Katrina, let him take you.” Shannon told her.

“I’m a big girl; I can take care of myself.”

“Humor me?” Shannon asked of her.

“Nope,” Katrina smiled. “So go and have fun.”

“Can you give us a lift to her place?” Shannon asked, looking at Hank. “I don’t feel like taking another cab since someone doesn’t own a car.”

Hank nodded his head and got into the drivers’ seat of his car. Shannon opened the front door of the SUV to allow Katrina to get in. As soon as she saw she was in, she gave her friend a kiss on the cheek and locked the door and closed it. With a smile and a wave, she made her way back to the other boys as Hank pulled away from the curb where the valet brought it to him.

“You didn’t have to trick me.” Katrina said as she stared out the window and crossed her arms. “It’s not a nice thing to do.”

“That was all your friend Shannon’s doing,” Hank told her, a small smirk on his face. “You don’t need to waste money on cabs if you have someone you can trust to give you a ride home.”

“Whatever.” Katrina said, not looking at him.

The drive was silent. Katrina wouldn’t look at him and Hank didn’t want to say anything to set her off. That was the last thing he wanted to do. Parking on the street, Hank insisted on walking her up to her apartment. Katrina didn’t try to fight him off, she knew that he was being a gentlemen and that was his way of showing he cared. When they reached her door she moved her hair over her shoulder before turning her back to him so she could unlock the door. Once she opened it, she turned back and looked at him.

“Thank you for paying for Shannon and my dinner,” Katrina said. “And thank you for walking me up here.”

“Kitty,” Hank sighed as he moved a piece of hair out of her face. “I think we should talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Katrina said not meeting his gaze. “I did something stupid and it won’t happen again.”

“Can you please look at me?”

“I can’t look at you because when I do it reminds me how I made a fool of myself with you,” Katrina said. “So maybe it would be best if we don’t talk anymore.”

“I can’t do that,” Hank told her, grabbing hold of one of her hands. “Your friendship means a lot to me Katrina. I need a friend right now.”

She had been so set in her decision, but the moment she looked into Hank’s blue eyes, she was a goner. Katrina could feel the tears in the back of her eyes. “Would you like to come in?” she asked, barely above a whisper.

Hank nodded to her to go in first, but he didn’t drop her hand as they walked into her apartment. “I’m gonna put something more comfortable on and then we can talk, okay?”

He nodded his head and Katrina went to walk to her bedroom. She took a deep breath as she closed the door. She tossed her purse onto her dresser before squatting down to open the bottom drawer. Pulling out the top pair of pajama bottoms, she tossed them on the bed before opening the second drawer from the bottom and grabbed a tank top. Slipping out of her shoes she kicked them to the wall before unzipping the dress. Stepping out of it she tossed it towards her hamper. Taking off her strapless bra she replaced that one with the sports one on her bed. Then she put on her pajama pants and then the tank top. Making sure the room was okay in case for some reason he ended up coming in.

Walking out of the room, she saw him sitting on the couch.

“I’m gonna put a movie on if you want to watch.” Katrina told him as she went to the door and locked it. She put the keys in a bowl.

“You don’t want to talk, do you?”

“Not tonight, I don’t,” Katrina told him honestly. “I just want to lay down and forget the bad part of my day.”

“Is that why you and Shannon were out tonight?” Hank asked.

“Yes and no,” Katrina said as she grabbed a movie from the shelf of movies. “She leaves tomorrow and she wanted to go out and I wanted to forget.”

He nodded his head and followed her back to her room.

“If you want to get comfortable, that’s fine.” She told him.

Hank smiled at her. Katrina was one of the few people that didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable or bad while they were in her home. As she was putting the movie in and setting the TV up, Hank took off his belt and jacket and placed them on the chair in the corner of the room. Then he took his shoes off and placed them by hers. He got onto the bed and laid down before undoing the top few buttons on his shirt.

Crawling on the bed to her side, Katrina lay down with her back to Hank as the movie started. “What are we watching?”

“National Treasure.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“Then watch,” Katrina smiled when she felt him give her shoulder a squeeze. “I love this movie.”

Halfway through the movie, Shannon came home. She heard the movie playing in Katrina’s bedroom so that is where she made her way to. Walking in, she saw her friend asleep along with Hank. Taking out her phone, Shannon took a picture of it before walking over to Katrina’s dresser and grabbing her purse and taking a picture with her phone as well. It was a cute picture. Katrina had her head on his chest and he had a protective arm around her, making sure that she didn’t go anywhere.

One night like this wasn’t going to solve anything, Shannon knew that, but she also knew the day Katrina had and so it was more than likely they came back wanting to talk and did no such thing. Walking towards the living room, she grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and walked back towards the bedroom. She placed it over them before making her way to the guest room where she had been staying. It was going to be hard to leave tomorrow, but knowing that there were at least two people truly looking out for her friend, made going back easier. And when the soccer season came around, she’d have something to really distract herself with, but she also was hoping that she’d find a nice distraction in Hank.

She ended up at a club with Ryan and Sean and although she did dance and drink, she quizzed them about Hank. Not just anyone would pass her test and she needed to know that he was truly trustworthy. But she wouldn’t know that until she got to know him herself, but that would just have to wait for her next visit. Getting ready for bed herself, she knew that Katrina would want to spend the holidays with family, but Shannon was hoping that she would spend it in New York so that she could gain memories of her new friends that she was learning to trust. It was going to be a long process, but in the end, Katrina would be happier for it.

Turning off the light in her bedroom, Shannon got under the covers and closed her eyes and waited for sleep to take over her tired form. She was curious as to what Katrina would do when she realized what happened last night.