I Found My Heart In San Francisco: Karma Part 24

"Oh! Now I understand why you're calling," Catherine said. "Well, again, I appreciate that you're trying to do something kind, but you're hardly the best corroborating witness that Jim could have. I don't know you, and I have no reason to trust you. But even if I did trust you, that incident was just the last straw for us. It wasn't the main reason I decided not to go forward."

"But you were working towards reconciliation until that happened," Kayla reminded her. "So it had to be an important reason."

"Ms. Horwitz, I'm just not going to discuss the details of my marriage with you. This is an intensely private matter."

"I know that," the young woman agreed. "Really, I do. I'm only calling because I'm worried about him, Mrs. Evans. Surely you have enough feeling left for him to be concerned about him, too."

Catherine didn't say a word. She let the silence continue until Kayla realized that she was not going to get a response. "He has a very good heart, Mrs. Evans," she said quietly. "When we broke up, he wanted me to go back to San Francisco. He was very worried about how it would look if you knew I was still here with him," she added. "It's my fault that this happened, because I convinced him that it would look very bad for me to be sent home after just a month. I was totally selfish, and he's the one who's paying for it now."

It sounded like she was crying, and Catherine found herself responding, against her better judgment. "How old are you, Kayla?" she asked gently.

"Twenty-six," she sniffed.

"Jim and I have been married since you were four years old," Catherine revealed. "In all of that time, many, many things have transpired that have coalesced to destroy our marriage. I a.s.sure you, you had little to do with it."

"But, Mrs. Evans, if I'd just gone home like he wanted me to..."

"Kayla, I don't mean to be unkind, but if our marriage were important to you, you wouldn't have begun your affair. The same is true for Jim. It's a little disingenuous of both of you to have a s.e.xual affair and then claim that you want to help salvage the marriage. The way to save it would have been to keep your hands off each other."

"I know," she said, her words obscured by her tears. "I'm so ashamed of myself."

"You deserve some blame for your actions, Kayla, but you didn't make a vow of fidelity to me. In my opinion, Jim wronged you, as well, by dragging you into this mess."

"No, no, it was me," she sobbed. "I was the aggressive one. I just thought we would have a quick fling. I don't know why, but I found him so attractive, Mrs. Evans. It's my fault."

"Nonsense. I've had many men show interest in me during our marriage. It's very easy to refuse advances if you don't want to accept them."

Kayla was quiet for a moment, then said, "I guess there's enough blame to go around. We don't have to fight over it."

"Yes, we all have some level of culpability," Catherine agreed. "But the partic.i.p.ants are still just Jim and me. I appreciate what you've tried to do, Kayla, and I won't mention your call to Jim if we speak."

"Thank you, Mrs. Evans. I know you'll have a hard time believing this, but I'm truly sorry for what I've done."

"No, I can believe that, Kayla. I hope, for your sake, that you never find yourself in my position. It's not very pleasant to always feel second best in your husband's eyes." Catherine shook her head, angry with herself for asking for this young woman's sympathy. "My mind is made up. Jim and I will not be getting back together. You have my explicit permission to start seeing each other again."

"Thank you," Kayla said, her voice shaking again. "You're treating me with much more courtesy than I deserve."

"I'm trying to move on, Kayla. Holding on to my feelings of rancor for you, or even Jim, will only inhibit that process. I'm just taking care of myself."

"I hope you take good care of yourself, Mrs. Evans. You seem like a very kind woman."

Catherine smiled in spite of herself. "I have my moments. Take good care, Kayla. I hope things go well for you in Washington."

"Thank you again, Mrs. Evans."

"Call me Catherine," she said, then placed the phone back onto the cradle.

After Ryan's basketball practice on Wednesday, the two young women sat in the otherwise empty O'Flaherty house, and tried to plan the rest of their day. "Do you have anything you want to do today?" Ryan asked.

"I have everything I want right here," Jamie stated decisively, climbing onto Ryan's lap to rest her head on her chest.

After a moment, Ryan wiggled her eyebrows as she asked, "You know what would be fun to do?"

"Okay," Jamie said absently, standing to pull her sweater over her head.

"Not that," Ryan laughed, but she couldn't resist the urge to tickle the bare tummy that revealed itself. "I thought we could call Jennie's housemother and ask how they were fixed for Christmas."

"You mean the house?"

"Yeah, the house and the kids. My guess is that most of them won't be remembered by their families at all."

"And..."

"And I thought that since we're not exchanging gifts, we could try to make this a memorable Christmas for people who really don't have everything they need."

"Oh, honey, that would really be sweet. I'm going through withdrawal a little bit since I agreed not to buy presents for you and your family, and it would really make a difference for those girls to have someone go out of their way for them."

"I think the kids need a ton of things. So let's call Sandy and get a list, and then go shopping."

"You're on, Tiger."

The six girls living in the house needed just about what Ryan a.s.sumed they would: nearly everything. Sandy provided sizes and color preferences for each girl, and related that she had not had enough extra money to provide a Christmas tree, either. Jennie was at home, so after talking to Sandy, Ryan spoke with her and arranged to take her and anyone else who wanted to go to pick out a tree after dinner that evening.

When she hung up, she turned to Jamie and said, "I think we can nearly make this a one-stop shopping experience."

"Sure we can if we go to a mall," Jamie agreed. "Which one should we go to?"

"No malls," Ryan decreed. "Let's go to Costco!" she said with a wild look in her eyes.

"Costco?"

"Baby, you haven't lived 'til you've been to Costco!"

PART 10.

THE EARLY AFTERNOON traffic allowed them to reach the ma.s.sive discount store fairly quickly. Ryan immediately made a beeline for the junk food, and ordered two hot dogs for herself. Jamie took a pa.s.s since she'd had a nice healthy salad while Ryan was practicing, but she enjoyed watching her lover demolish the jumbo-sized hot dogs, nonetheless. The food was located outside the building, and when Ryan was finished, they went to the front door, where she pulled out her membership card and flashed it at the man guarding the door.

"You have to belong to get in here?" Jamie asked in amazement as she looked around the ma.s.sive warehouse-style s.p.a.ce. The floors were concrete, the walls were stamped steel with no insulation, and the open plywood-sheet shelving went almost to the ceiling, making it the least attractive store she had ever been in.

"Yep. When I was little, I thought it was pretty cool that we qualified to join something," Ryan laughed. "Little did I realize that the membership requirements were only to keep out people with absolutely no visible means of support!"

"What do you buy here?" Jamie asked as she looked around suspiciously.

"Lots of stuff," Ryan replied. "I buy my socks here, and sometimes sweats and stuff, household and personal products, tires, liquor. The best deals are on things like food, though."

They were walking down an aisle containing gargantuan boxes of cereal and jams and jellies, and Jamie started to ask, "Ryan, who on earth would buy..." but then she realized with a start that the O'Flahertys were the ideal consumers for such items. "Did you buy all of your food down here when you were growing up?"

"Yep. We would go through one of these boxes of cereal in a week," she said proudly, holding up a box bigger than Jamie could imagine eating in a year. "You couldn't get too attached to a particular brand though, because Da bought whatever they had that week. He would come down every two weeks or so, since we didn't have much storage room. He'd prowl the aisles and plan our menus around what was available. I guess that's why I learned to eat anything that was put in front of me," she said reflectively. "But after Brendan left home, and Rory was gone so much, we dropped down to a more normal scale. Da still comes down before every family party, though. We really like the meat they sell here, and it is a very good bargain."

They were browsing through the clothing tables where Jamie saw some cute pastel T-shirts and sweats, and she sorted through them to find the appropriate sizes for the girls. Ryan came back to the cart with bags and bags of white athletic socks. Each bag held six pairs, and she carried at least six bags. "So many?" Jamie asked.

"Two bags are for me," she admitted. "I throw all of my socks away once a year. Then I buy two bags of these, and I'm set."

"No wonder your socks always look nice. I thought you just did a fabulous job with the laundry!"

"No, my socks take a beating, and I truly hate to get blisters, so I make sure they're always nice and fluffy. The best way to do that is to cycle through them every year. Do you want socks too?"

"Sure, I could use some." She examined the bag of good quality socks and exclaimed, "These are less than a buck a pair!"

"I know, babe. That's why I throw them out after a year."

"Jesus! I sometimes pay $11 for a pair of Thorlos!"

"Stick with me, sweetie and I'll show you where all the bargains in the bay area lie!"

"Do you think the girls need jackets?" Jamie asked as she surveyed two tables full of lightweight winter jackets.

"Well, Jennie didn't have one on at the last basketball game, and it was cold out in my opinion, so my guess is she doesn't own one." There were three different styles of coats available, and each came in two color choices, so they picked one of each to provide some individuality for the girls.

"I think we need to get them something fun, don't you?" Jamie asked as they left the clothing area. "They're still kids, after all."

"That's why I wanted to come here, to tell the truth," Ryan revealed. "Do you feel generous enough to buy them a couple of computers?"

"They don't have them?" she asked in amazement.

"Nope. Not a one in the house."

"Absolutely!" Jamie agreed immediately as they found the electronics area. Jamie started to load six of the laptops into the cart, but Ryan stopped her.

"G.o.d, Jamie!" Ryan cried. "I think two is plenty."

"Let's get three," she begged. "Two girls to each one seems like a better ratio."

"All right, but only one printer for the whole group," she said firmly.

"Okay," Jamie conceded, "but only if we can get them a flatbed scanner, too."

"Deal," Ryan decided. "Then let's get out of here before we go broke!"

Luckily, the store accepted American Express, since they would not take Ryan's debit card for such a large purchase. As they waited for the manager to come approve the charge, Jamie opened her mouth to speak, but Ryan cut her off with a, "Don't you dare say, 'I told you so'!"

"Who, me?" she asked with a face full of innocence. "Even though I did tell you so," she added as she danced away from Ryan's attempted pinch. Standing a safe distance away, Jamie said, "Many stores are funny about debit cards, hon. I was just trying to protect my little punkin by getting her an American Express card."

The manager asked for another form of ID, but she was eventually satisfied that Ryan was who she claimed to be. As they pushed their two groaning shopping carts to the car, Ryan smiled at her partner and said, "It is nice having a charge card, Jamie. It let me pay for the doctor when I had to take Jennie down, and it let us do this. Thanks for being so thoughtful."

"You're welcome," Jamie smiled at her. "You know what I was just thinking of?"

"Huh-uh," Ryan replied.

"I was just thinking of coming here when we have our big family. I want to need those ma.s.sive boxes of cereal, too!"

"Baby, if our kids have O'Flaherty genes in them, we could need to come here if we just have one!"

"I hate to even suggest this, but we should stop at Target," Ryan said with a sick look on her face.

"That's another place I've never been," Jamie admitted. "But why do you look like that?"

"Going to Target the week of Christmas is a little like going to the marketplace in New Delhi the day after Ramadan," she warned.

"Have you been to New Delhi?" Jamie asked in surprise.

"Well, no," Ryan said seriously. "Why would I go once I heard about the lines?"

The Target was located not too far from Costco, and Jamie was surprised when Ryan went to the farthest corner of the ma.s.sive lot to park.

"Why way out here?" she asked as she hopped out.

"One - we've got an awful lot of things in the back, and I don't want anyone to peek. Two - there's a cart return right next to us so I don't have to schlep the cart far. Three - there aren't any cars next to us to ding my doors. Four..."

"Good enough, babe," Jamie interrupted. "I sometimes forget how much thought you put into every decision you make."

"Hey, being careful got me the best girlfriend in the world, so don't knock my methods."

"No complaints," she agreed as she grasped Ryan's arm with both hands and pulled her close. "You don't mind if I hold on to you in public, do you?"

"I prefer it," Ryan said as she leaned over to kiss the top of her partner's head.

Jamie had, in fact, been to New Delhi, and after seeing the crowds she thought that perhaps Ryan had not been forceful enough in her warning. "My G.o.d, this is total mayhem!"

"Yeah, but the biggest crowd will be by the toys. Let's head straight for the Christmas decorations and hope they've got something left."

Their luck was holding because just as they arrived a clerk came out with a large hand-truck full of tiny white and multicolor lights and sparkly ornaments. Jamie suggested they use either multicolored lights with only one color of ornament, or go with multi-colored ornaments and white lights.

"I'm glad you're here," Ryan mused. "I would have grabbed three of everything and hoped for the best!"

"No, honey, you have to plan this too. I think it might look most festive to buy every color ornament and go with white lights."

"Okay," Ryan said as she started throwing lights into the cart. When she started grabbing a couple of boxes of each color of ornament, Jamie interrupted again.

"They've got three different sizes, babe. Buy one of each so the tree has more depth."

"Huh?"

"If you vary the size of the ornaments, it creates an optical illusion and makes the tree look bigger." Ryan shot her a dubious look, but did as she was told. Keeping with the Evans family tradition, they bought enough lights to illuminate CandlestickPark, but Jamie a.s.sured her that they were required. Some delicate multicolored garland was added to the now full cart, and they headed for the clothing area.

They decided that they'd buy a pair of jeans for each girl, and a pair of dressier pants as well. After a small debate, they also agreed on two blouses, three bras and seven pairs of panties for each. Ryan went to fetch another cart, then stopped for a box of popcorn, leaving Jamie fully in charge of the selections. When she returned, popcorn half eaten and a semi-guilty smile on her face, Jamie patted her side and said, "This isn't your favorite thing, is it?"

"Nope. It's bad enough buying clothes for myself. Buying them for others is torturous."