Driving Miss Catherine

Waiting is the worst when you’re with someone who is also waiting. The minutes ticked by as they sat in the waiting room, waiting. Cat had always thought a waiting room meant you were waiting for a doctor, but now it had a new meaning. She, and Seb, were waiting for results; results that could change their lives. She needed to know if she’d been knocked up by her crazy Finnish ex, although she was starting to wonder if he was really that crazy. She had her phone out and ready to send him a text as soon the doctor called her name.

Cat had offered to pay extra to get her results faster, but the lab refused her ‘donation.’ Eventually, she found her hand in Seb’s; somehow it made her calm down a little. She tried to be prepared for any outcome, yet she really couldn’t wrap her head around being pregnant. Even after Heikki’s letter, she was terrified. She tried to imagine getting up in the middle of the night to attend to a crying baby, or having to tell her dad….

Seb nudged her. “They called your name,” he said tensely. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Cat hesitated; as much as she didn’t want to hear this alone, she couldn’t drag Seb into this. This was her problem, and she was going to face it. She stood up and flattened out her skirt. “No thanks, I’ll go alone.” She took one last look at him before walking back to the examination room with the doctor.

She took a seat on the cold examination table and waited for the doctor to tell her her fate.

“We’ve gotten your blood work back, and your results were negative.” The doctor explained, unsmiling, or any other emotion.

“Negative, as in, not pregnant?” Cat asked, to clarify.

“Yes.” She replied, matter-of-factly. “As for the pill you wanted tested: it was not birth control as you thought; it was actually the exact opposite. I am surprised you didn’t get pregnant, if you were as sexually active as you say you were.”

“It was just once with…that other guy, and a few times in the beginning with my ex. There wasn’t much action in between, so I really couldn’t have gotten pregnant, could I?” Cat knew pregnancy was most likely to happen in the middle of a cycle, and she was at the end of her cycle now, so…

The doctor shook her head. “Once you stopped taking your normal birth control pills, your ovulation cycle changed. You could have been at risk any time during the last month.”

This hit Cat harder than she expected. She had never thought about the fact that Seb could have gotten her pregnant, and her heart raced as she remembered that in their rush they had forgotten to use a condom. Or, perhaps it was because Cat didn’t have any. Maybe she should buy some condoms?

Her doctor gave her a new prescription for birth control and recommended Cat get the morning after pill too, just in case. Still shocked at her sudden realization, she slowly walked back to the waiting room. Seb was anxious as ever, his foot taping against the leg of his chair. He stood up when he saw her, his face pulled in lines of worry and curiosity.

Cat smiled and shook her head, and relief washed over his face. He closed the short distance between them and pulled her into a hug. “I was really worried, Miss Catherine, that I was going to have to do some explaining to your dad.”

“That wouldn’t go well for either of us. ‘Um, dad, the chauffeur knocked me up…’ I’m pretty sure I would just run away and hide, rather than deal with his wrath,” she let him wrap his arm around her lower back as they strolled out to find the car. It seemed like hours ago that they frantically pulled in to the crowed parking lot. Once in the quiet of the car, Seb cleared his throat and began muttering awkwardly, possibly not in English.

“I’m sorry, what I’m trying to say is at least nothing bad happened, right?” He explained, and started to drive to the pharmacy to pick up Cat’s prescription. “Heikki didn’t knock you up, and you don’t have any lasting effects from whatever he gave you, so you were pretty lucky.”

“You said nothing bad happened….does that mean you don’t think it would have been bad if I had gotten pregnant, but not with Heikki?”

“I, uh,” he laughed nervously. “I mean it wouldn’t be as bad, since I’m not crazy and I wasn’t trying to impregnate you against your will, like he was. That was not my intention when I slept with you last week.”

That was the first time either of them had directly acknowledged the fact that anything had happened between the two since the morning after when he told her she’d yelled Heikki’s name. Talking about it wasn’t as awkward as either of them thought it would be, and maybe that was a good sign.

“Maybe we should go out tonight and celebrate,” Seb suggested.

“I don’t know if I want to go out; I don’t really feel like getting dressed up or anything,” Cat slumped back in her seat. “Although I wouldn’t mind getting drunk.”

“You know what we should do? We should visit Kimi again” Seb suggested. “Yeah, I was supposed to visit him today anyway, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you came along. Actually,” Seb added. “He asked about you the last time.”

“Really? I got the feeling he didn’t like me very much.”

“No, he’s just like that. I’m sure he’d like you if he knew you. So, what do you say?”

“Yeah, let’s visit him,” Cat shrugged. What could really go wrong?

When they got to his house a few hours later, Kimi opened the door wearing nothing but a towel. Cat thought maybe he had just gotten out of the shower.

“I’m just getting into the sauna, want to come?” He asked as Seb and Cat came inside out of the cold. Cat had never been in a sauna, but she was always open to trying new things.

“Sure, why not?” She looked over at Seb, and he hesitated before agreeing. Kimi led them through the house toward the back, an area Cat hadn’t explored when they first visited. He was limping a little, but he wasn’t using a cane any more.

“It’s still heating up, and I know Seb doesn’t like it too hot, so I’ll leave it around 80,” Kimi said as they reached the sauna. He pointed to a room to the side and said they could change and shower there. Kimi disappeared and left Cat and Seb alone.

“So, you’ve done this before?” She asked him and looked around the room. She wasn’t sure where she was supposed to change, since it was all one room. It was a nice, stone, shower room with a couple of shower heads on one wall.

“Yes, Kimi and I have been friends for quite a while, so we’ve been to sauna together a couple of times.”

“80 doesn’t seem that hot…”

“Celsius, my dear American.” Seb grinned and slowly began unbuttoning his shirt.

Cat’s eyes shot open. 80 degrees Celsius was flipping hot. As an engineering student, especially someone who had been studying in Europe for a few weeks, she should have realized he meant Celsius and not Fahrenheit. “Since you’ve done this before, maybe you can explain exactly what we’re supposed to be doing?”

Seb laughed as he tugged the rest of his shirt off. “Get naked and shower, and grab a towel.”

Cat looked around the room awkwardly. She was not used to showering in front of people, and Seb caught on to her dilemma.

“It’s okay; I’ve already seen you naked, I don’t care; and I know Kimi doesn’t care. It’s okay to be naked in a sauna; it’s not sexual or anything. Honestly, it’s too hot to care about that.” Seb laughed again and continued taking his clothes off. He had removed his shirt and pants, while Cat barely removed her socks. “Come on, it’s fine. Do you need some help?”

She shook her head. She didn’t want him helping her take her clothes off, again. But that’s not what he meant. “Kimi must have some alcohol around here somewhere…” he said as he looked through the shelves. He picked up a bottle and inspected it. “That’ll work.” He poured her a glass and handed it to her before pouring some for himself.

Cat took a sip, not sure of what she was drinking, and it burned her throat. Yup, that was vodka. She coughed and Seb smiled apologetically.

“Is that too strong?”

“No, it’s fine,” she coughed again and took another sip.

“I really don’t care if your underwear doesn’t match; I know some girls are very particular about that,” Seb shrugged, and drew a smile out of Cat.

“It’s not that, although I’m pretty sure they match,” she pulled her shirt away to check what color bra she was wearing, and suddenly laughed. “Why don’t I just take it off?” She set her almost empty glass down and pulled her shirt off before standing up to take her skirt off. “I bet they do match. Now that you’ve said that, I have to know. Damn it Seb! I bet you did this on purpose.”

“I might have.” He smiled and looked away while she slipped out of her skirt. “See, they do match!” He glanced to his left and realized Kimi was standing in the doorway watching them.

“My underwear matches!” Cat smiled when she saw him. He shook his head, as if to say ‘what the hell is going on in here,’ but he didn’t say anything.

“Uh, the sauna’s ready.” He gestured across the hall and looked at Seb.

“We’ll be right in. We just have to shower.” Kimi left, and Seb and Cat finally took off the rest of their clothes. They hopped into the showers, which were right next to each other causing them to accidentally bump into each other a few times. They each grabbed a towel and got wrapped up before heading across the hall. Kimi was sitting nearest the stove with a beer in his hand.

“I forgot to tell you, there’s beer outside if you want,” Kimi said as they came in. Cat and Seb both grabbed a beer and set down near Kimi, but not too close. There was enough space for them to sit a few feet apart. The heat hit Cat like nothing she’d felt before. She clutched her cold beer and tried to absorb its coldness.

Cat closed her eyes and let the heat settle in like a drug. She hadn’t been cold, but being warmed up was comforting. Slowly it erased her problems and left an odd calming sensation she’d never experienced before.

“It’s hot.” She stood up suddenly and wobbled a little. “It’s hot.” She repeated and took off her towel. She set it on the bench and sat on it, like Kimi had done, and finally decided to drink some of her beer. It wasn’t really cold any more, but she didn’t care. Seb and Kimi were talking about something, but she wasn’t listening. Cat had her eyes closed and was thinking about as little as possible. Slowly, random thoughts and images floated through her head until a coherent sentence came to her. She slid closer to Seb and put her hand on the bench between them.

“Is it okay if we hold hands?” she said quietly. Startled, Seb stopped talking and hesitated before putting his hand in hers.

“Of course, Cat.”

“You didn’t call me Miss Catherine,” she smiled.

“No, we don’t use titles in a sauna. Just like Kimi wouldn’t call me four time world champion, and I wouldn’t call him one time world champion,” Seb teased Kimi, but he didn’t reply.

“At least I had a valid reason for not driving this year,” Kimi finally said, and Cat felt Seb get tense.

“There were many reasons I couldn’t continue racing this year, you know that,” Seb replied quickly, and the subject was dropped.

“Are you ever going to race again?” Cat asked after a while. “I think that would be hot.”

Kimi snickered and Seb cleared his throat before replying. “Maybe it’s time for you to get out. Why don’t we go take a shower.” He led her out of the sauna and she carried her towel trailing behind her, no longer caring about being naked.

Cat tried to turn on the shower faucet, but failed, so Seb helped her. She found the soap and rubbed it over her arms before turning to Seb and, without asking, she started washing him. She started with his shoulders, and moved lower to his chest, and then his stomach, and lower and lower….until she was kneeling in front of him. She hadn’t thought about this, and she hadn’t planned it, it just felt natural; she took him in her mouth and sucked until she heard him moan. One thing led to another, and a few minutes later he was pushing her into the shower wall from behind, hitting all the right spots, until she was screaming his name.