#cm chronicles

She looked in the mirror. She had inadvertently chosen to wear an all-black ensemble, which she determined was fitting, shrugged, and left for the Persona office.

“Okay, you look like you’re going to a funeral,” Isabella chirped when she saw her in the break room smearing cream cheese on a bagel.

Izzy had a coffee cup in her hand, her shiny red nails matching her lipstick. She was wearing a red dress, too.

“It’s winter,” Cate shrugged. “You’re allowed to wear black in the winter. You, on the other hand…”

“I love Valentine’s Day!”

“That seems … odd.”

“What, because I’m single? Come on, Cate, that’s reductive.”

“Valid.”

“Speaking of, though, what do you and Henry have planned?”

“Well considering this is a corporate holiday invented to sell candy …”

But Cate trailed off. Isabella was looking at her with head cocked, eyebrows raised.

“Okay fine,” Cate admitted. “I wish he were in town, but he’s not, so we’re not really doing anything.”

“I mean you don’t have to do nothing. There’s such a thing as phone sex, you know.”

“Isabella!” Cate turned red. “We both decided not to make it a big deal.”

“Tell that to the enormous bouquet in our office.”

“What?!”

But Isabella was already strutting down the hall in her red high heels.

Cate started after her, stopped, turned to grab her bagel, and hurried after her.

Their office was a little cramped since Cate had asked Leslie to move another desk in for Isabella, but they loved it. Cate’s side was still predictably fangirly, her Mysteries of Udolpho poster now flanked by several photos of her with Luke Valancourt himself - something she often had to pinch herself over. Isabella’s was minimal, with pink peonies in a vase that usually left the room with a faint sweet smell.

Today, however, the peonies were extremely overshadowed by the three dozen red roses taking up a majority of Cate’s desk. They were deep red, fragrant and in full bloom. She gasped a little.

“They showed up right before you did,” Isabella explained. “The delivery guy was kind of struggling to carry them. He was also pretty cute ...”

Cate ignored Isabella and picked up the card.

“To the only girl I’d miss while playing a superhero, with love from the real Luke Valancourt,” she read out loud.

Isabella made exaggerated gagging sounds.

“That’s enough from you,” Cate said sternly.

“Oh, I’m teasing. You know I’m over the moon about your relationship. I ship it. Even if Henry thinks I’m a garbage person,” Isabella said with sincerity.

“He does not!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Isabella blew it off. “If I worried about that, I’d get wrinkles. Listen I was thinking we should go to lunch today? Take advantage of a Valentine’s drink special … or two?”

“Done.”

After lunch, Cate finally looked at her phone. She was a little tipsy, because Isabella was insatiable, but sobered up when she saw that Eleanor had called her sixteen times. She hit “call back” so fast she suspected she’d bruised her thumb.

“Eleanor! What is wrong? I saw you tried to reach me!”

“Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to call you. Like, properly. With faces.”

“What’s going on?”

“Just get up to your office and get on your computer.”

“Okay, you’re freaking me out a little …”

Cate gestured to Isabella to follow and charged toward the elevator and down the hall to their office. Isabella giggled, trying to keep up with Cate’s frenetic pace.

They rounded the corner, and there, in all his tall muscular glory, was Henry.

Cate screeched.

“Sorry, Eleanor,” she remembered the phone. “But I think I know why you called.”

“You do?” she sounded shocked.

“Oh, he’s here now!”

“He’s … what?”

“Henry! He’s here! I better go … thanks for calling!”

“Wait!” Eleanor shouted. “That’s not why I called. Henry is there? Okay, I guess we can tell you together!”

Cate was torn between tossing her phone and kissing Henry right there in the hallway, and waiting to hear what Eleanor was up to. Isabella sidled up and unlocked the door.

“Hi Henry,” she said pointedly.

He nodded at her. She rolled her eyes and went into their office.

Cate settled for pointing at the phone, shrugging, giving Henry a hug and then switching to speakerphone all in one fluid motion that made her look a little more spazzy than usual. Henry chuckled a little.

“Ok Els,” Henry said. “What is going on?”

“Leah! She proposed!”

“What?!” Cate became extremely shrill. She heard someone down the hall shut their office door. “When? How? What is going on?”

“Can we come by tonight and tell you everything?”

“We can’t wait,” Henry said and then gently took Cate’s phone. “But we have to go now.”

He hung up the phone, and looked into her eyes. They stood like that for a moment, then he reached down and held her chin while he gently kissed her. She stood on her tippiest tiptoe, straining for a deeper kiss. Her hands went to his chest, while his pulled her in closer. Short of lifting her off the ground, this was as close as they could get. And while he had become fairly expert at that, he wisely resisted doing so in her place of work.

Finally, and yet too soon, they broke apart.

“So, you got my flowers?” Henry said, his eyes twinkling at her.

She hit him.

“I wish you’d have told me you were coming. I wouldn’t have dressed for a funeral!”

He laughed. They kissed again.