Sun & Moon

“Rules,” Catalina said loudly, clapping her hands together. Jonathan and Patrick were looking at Catalina and Erin from down the long table. There were a few people watching. Catalina assumed it was their interest in Jonathan and Patrick, though there were more than a few stars at the party, including some baseball players. “Watch your elbows, two re-racks, on fire after two cups, girls blow and boys finger, bounce shots are two.”

Patrick tossed the white ball up in the air and caught it lightly. He was looking at Catalina with a newfound determination in his eyes. She was absolutely determined not to let him get the best of her. “Fine. Slapping away bounce shots are a go, back to back cups are an automatic roll back, if a team drops the ball in their own cup on accident it’s game over.”

“I’ve never heard of that one.”

Patrick grinned. “Worried about it?”

“I’m great at handling balls.”

The smile left Patrick’s face, replaced by surprise. Jonathan choked on the beer he was drinking, having to wipe the small amount that ran down his chin. He pointed at Catalina. “You’re going to get Kaner in trouble.”

“Actually, it’s my job to get him out of trouble.”

“Enough talk,” Patrick announced, narrowing his eyes at Catalina. “Jonathan and Erin can go eye to eye first.”

It took a few times. Jonathan and Erin couldn’t sink either ball into the other teams cups. Catalina and Patrick also went a few rounds before Patrick sunk one in. Catalina begrudgingly rolled her ball across the table to him. He scooped it up, lips quirked to the side, smug.

Jonathan took the first shot of the game. The ball bounced off the edge of a cup in the second row, making a distinct sound at the contact. Erin caught the rebound, rolling it in her hands and making a face at him. Jonathan rolled his eyes and moved so Patrick could shoot.

Catalina watched him. He used his entire body for a single shot, bending in the knees slightly and springing forward as he tossed the ball in a neat arch. It bounced on the table with a ping. Catalina reacted quicker than the ball, swatting out her hand and smacking it away from the lid of the cup. Patrick let out a frustrated growl.

“Your rule,” Catalina purred, picking up the ball from the ground. “Not mine.”

“So that’s how we’re going to play.” Patrick nodded. “I like it rough.”

Erin looked exasperated, glancing back and forth between Patrick and Catalina. Jonathan just raised his eyebrows and looked in the other direction, clearly not knowing what to do with the pair shooting innuendos back and forth.

Catalina didn’t really mean most of them. Yes, sleeping with Patrick had crossed her mind more than once. In fact, Catalina had a couple enticing dreams about it. Yet, the comments and the teasing weren’t out of Catalina’s desire to get him into her bed. It stemmed from seeing him squirm, from watching him come back at her with the same amount of fire.

When she was younger, Catalina’s teacher had told her that Catalina had a combative complex and an obsession with making people feel like they were ten steps behind her. Catalina didn’t disagree, but she never did it to be mean. Catalina only challenged those who could challenge her back, competitive to a fault.

Throughout the years, Catalina had gotten better. Living with Erin had always made it easier. Catalina was never purposely combative with Erin. Erin challenged Catalina to back off and to be soft, a good combination of roommates being stubborn and patient.

All of that went out the window with Patrick.

Erin and Catalina both missed their shots. Catalina tried not to display her irritation at her missed shot. Maybe she was a lot rustier than she had thought. She hadn’t played in a few years- she never expected to play again, surely. Yet for some reason she was sure she would have been sinking in the shots.

Patrick’s next shot went in. He and Jonathan both let out loud cheers, giving each other solid high-fives. Patrick looked at Catalina, leaning on the table with both hands. He gave her a wolfish grin. “Drink up.”

Catalina dug the ball out of the cup and flicked off the beer. She lift the cup to her lips and tilted her head back all the way, opening up her throat. She swallowed the contents in a single take. Removing the cup from her lips, she used her tongue to lick the foam, never looking away from Patrick. She saw his knuckles tighten on the table and she smiled.

“Did I have something white on my mouth?”

Patrick grimaced. “Shoot the ball, Catalina.”

“Actually, it’s Erin’s turn.”

“Yeah,” Erin agreed. “Because you two seem to have forgotten that Jonathan and I are also playing. Oh, the lovely throws of rivalry.”

“Throw the ball,” Patrick and Catalina said at the same time.

Erin made her shot. Catalina smacked her on the rear and pointed at Jonathan as he picked up his cup. Some of the bystanders cheered for Erin, teasing Jonathan. He just waved them off, smiling across the table at Erin. The chemistry between Jonathan and Erin was at the complete other side of the spectrum from Patrick and Catalina. One was nice and flirty, the other was tense and fiery.

Rolling the ball in her fingers, Catalina tossed it. It sunk into the cup, Patrick and Jonathan both groaning and rolling the balls back down the table towards the girls. Patrick knocked back the contents, slamming the empty cup on the table and looking between Catalina and Erin.

“Lucky.”

Erin threw the ball and made it in. Catalina screamed and threw a fist up. “Skill,” Erin shot back at him. “Don’t underestimate the power of college boys- I'm on fire, by the way.”

Catalina elbow Erin lightly. “Look at their faces. God masculinity is so fragile.”

As the game progressed, Catalina thought that Patrick was going to combust. He and Jonathan took the lead only once before Catalina and Erin hit their stride. Catalina found the perfect distance to throw from the table and made sure that she repeated the same process. Erin was on the same page, making most of the cups.

It wound down to three cups left for the girls and one left for the boys. Catalina tossed the ball and made it in. She when wild, yelling like a banshee and high fiving Corey Crawford who showed up when his teammates were at three cups. He, of course, took the girls side. He insisted that he would love to cheer on his teammates, but he had to be about girl power.

“Calm down,” Patrick said, the bitterness in his voice making Catalina chuckle. “Erin has to make it in or we get to shoot one more time.”

“Fine,” Erin quipped.

Erin took her position. Both Jonathan and Patrick were yelling at her, waving their hands over the top of the remaining cup to distract her. Catalina knew something that they didn’t, though. Erin was a teacher for young children who were loud, threw fits and tried to distract the entire class all day long. Two hockey players were nothing to her.

Erin threw the ball, landing it in the final cup. Catalina beat her hands on the table wildly while Patrick let out a loud curse and Jonathan shook his head, grinning from ear to ear at Erin. She pointed in their direction. “Game, set, match. Sorry boys.”

Jonathan walked around the table to Erin, kissing her on the cheek and putting and arm around her. Corey joined them in conversation, leaving Catalina alone for a moment. She turned and looked at Patrick, who had wandered over to the cooler already and was grabbing a beer out of the ice.

Glancing around, Catalina didn’t know anyone else there. Andrew and his girlfriend were supposed to be somewhere, but other than that, Patrick was the only person in the house that Catalina knew. Naturally, she drifted towards him. He was leaning on the balcony by the metal bucket of iced beer. Catalina picked one up and cracked the top on it.

“Are you going to hate me forever now?”

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Down below, there were many parked cars and some people on the street. It was cold. Catalina had just noticed just how cold it was, the wind biting at her skin. She hugged her jacket closer and took a swig of the beer. She wasn’t drunk yet, but the warmth from drinking was starting slowly. She had a tolerance to beer, and it would take more than a few to get her going.

“No,” he said, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Just for a week.”

“Hmm, a week.” Catalina looked up at the sky. The moon was a thin crescent, the stars invisible. The city lights made seeing them impossible, not that she could ever see them in Miami. “Somehow I will have to figure out how to survive with your sexual repitore.”

“Hope your good with your hands.”

Catalina laughed and elbowed him lightly. “Seriously, sorry we beat you.”

“Ah,” he shrugged. “What’s a blow to my ego? I’m sure I’ll get it back.”

“That’s the spirit.” Erin looked over her shoulder at Jonathan and Erin. “I guess one thing we can both actually agree on is that we did good with that.”

“So far.”

Catalina turned back to him. Her smile was gentle. “So far.”

Silence fell between them for a moment. Catalina tried to hid her hands in the sleeves of her jacket as much as she could. The condensation from the beer and the cold winder were turning the tips of her fingers red. They were on the verge of going numb, which actually may have been better than what they were currently enduring.

“So,” Patrick said. He leaned one elbow on the railing of the terrace and turned so that he was facing her. Catalina mimicked the movement, cocking her head to the side. The wind caught her hair slightly, blowing it over her shoulder. “I feel like if we’re going to be spending time together, I should know at least something interesting about you.”

“You don’t think I’m interesting already?”

“Oh you’re interesting enough. But I feel like I only know your face. I don’t actually know anything about you other than you’re from Miami, how you got the job and that your blood type is AB positive.” She gave him a look. “I hit you with my car, I know some of your medical history now.”

“I think that’s illegal?”

“So is bribing the police station to stay quiet about my arrest.” Catalina narrowed her eyes. Patrick looked down, his lips pulling upwards slightly. “Of course, only if you did it monetarily, is it illegal.”

“They owed me a favor.”

“But you didn’t owe me one.” Patrick licked his lips. “I know you said it’s your job, to make sure your clients don’t take the fall hard. I’ve just never seen someone so quick to twist what happen in my defense. It was…”

“Refreshing?” Catalina offered dully.

“Kind,” he corrected. “It was kind. Despite the moral ambiguity of it, you were right. It’s your job, but you’re good at it. You really don’t want someone to get in trouble, do you?”

“Everyone is bound to get intro trouble sometime.” Catalina leaned on the railing with both elbows and looked over. She thought it was easier to talk to the pavement three stories down than the baby blues. “More often than not it’s over something stupid. I told you when I met you, I don’t like when people pay for one mistake.”

“That’s the thing, you know it isn’t my first one.” She glanced at him. He was seriously riding the topic. She had no idea what his fascination was with it, but it was starting to make her nervous. It was like he was trying to convince Catalina that he was guilty of something, but she didn’t understand what. “I’ve been in trouble before.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re guilty of something?” Catalina asked finally. “You should just say what it is that is weighing on you like an anvil, Patrick.” He blinked in surprised, opening and closing his mouth before pulling his brows together. Catalina stared. “What?”

“You just said my name.”

“I did, congratulations on having good hearing.”

“You’ve never used my name before.”

Catalina shrugged. “Maybe just not in front of you. Now would you tell me what it is about my job that has you so wound up? I can’t change my profession.”

“It’s nice when you say, it.” It was Catalina’s turned to look confused. “My name, I mean. It sounds different when you say it, your accent makes it sound smoother.” Catalina stiffened slightly. Patrick noticed and hurried on, “My point is, how do you pick and choose who you think is worth protecting? It seems like a hard job. It can't be just about people being a client.”

“It is a hard job, but people always prove their worth. I try to be as transparent with the public as possible. I will never lie to them. But I try to protect those who I think are worth it.”

“And what did I do, to earn such loyalty?”

“If I remember correctly, the first time we ever met, you were looking at me in a hospital room.” Patrick let out a noise that told Catalina he remembered well, and not fondly. “I don’t know what the first thing you ever said to me was, because I was high on medicine. But I do remember what I saw when I woke up.”

“And what was that?”

Catalina’s smile was gentle and honest, a rarity for her. “Someone who would never intentionally do something to hurt someone, and someone who needed forgiveness. Sometimes we don’t get to apologize for the bad things that we do, whether they’re on accident or on purpose. But it doesn’t always mean we should be condemned for them, especially when we are people who care.” Catalina shrugged. “You really care.”

Patrick was silent and nodded his head. Catalina let him think about what she said, finishing of the rest of her beer. He chuckled to himself then, making her look at him and wait for him to speak. “You are really fucking smart.” She tilted her head an Patrick looked at her. “Seriously, beneath all those innuendos and coy grins, you are incredibly smart.”

“Thanks.” She said and he smiled at her. “Thanks, Patrick.”