Iss Me Cate

I'd like to start off by saying thank you for your patience. What with the holidays and work I've been having a hard time working on this story.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.

I've had a long standing love of Irish lasses. Their eyes, complexion, smiles have always warmed my heart, and a few have broken it.

Constructive criticism as always is welcome in the comments, others will be dealt with in the usual manner.

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Our trip to Cork started early the next morning with a taxi to the station. Cate was able to catch up with her sister Shannon before hand so we could ride the train from Dublin together.

"Ye can go on up and kiss the Blarney Stone like a true tourist." Shannon poked fun at me after we were underway.

"I've been warned that it's a bad idea." I said laughing.

"Do ye not want the gift o' eloquence that's promised?" She said teasing.

"He knows how to use his tongue quite well enough, thank you." Cate interjected, a smartly.

My eyes went up as I looked aside to where Cate sat, and it quickly dawned on her how that particular statement sounded. Her face began to blossom into a deep pink color as her sister laughed heartily. Cate gave her a little thump in the shin with the side of her foot and Shannon laughed even harder. I just smiled and sat back with my cup of coffee. I didn't doubt for a moment that my cheeks might be a bit pink too.

The girls chattered like magpies catching up on all the news of each others lives. Cate told the story of how we met, making it sound much sweeter than I ever had. Shannon's eyes lit up when she glanced at me with a look I thought might be jealousy. Cate didn't bring up the Chad incident and went back to Thanksgiving day and her call to me. She even choked up a bit when she told her sister about me being her knight in shining armor. I saw Shannon roll her eyes and smile at me.

"Has she been like this the whole time?"

"Yes, I'll let you know if it gets tiring." I glanced to the side and noticed Cate's scrunched up, disapproving face looking at me. I knew she wasn't mad in the least but hunched my shoulders protectively just in case. She seemed satisfied with that and we all chuckled. Shannon began relating her escapades over the past year, and true to Cate's description she did sound a bit like a gypsy. Staying with different friends for a few months at a time, getting gigs playing in pubs and clubs here and there. I used the rare sunshine coming through the window as an excuse to squint. Shannon sat across from Cate on the inside seat rather than at the window like me. Her hair was a deep auburn and fell to her shoulders. The trademark freckles splashed across nose and cheek above a wide mouth which spread into a grin as they chatted. They had similar faces but where Cate's was paler by contrast with her much darker hair, Shannon's appeared warmer probably from the red in her hair. Their eyes were similar too, scrunched up at the corners when they smiled. A thought that made me smile a little. Shannon's looked a little more green than blue, but that could have just been the light.

I looked out at the landscape as we passed, rolling land which still held a lot of green, with occasional patches of brown and bare trees. I smirked as I spied a far off slope with grey-white spots I assumed were sheep. How much simpler life must be without all the trappings of city life, schedules, spreadsheets, classes and meetings. I pictured Cate here in a tweed coat and knee high boots chivying animals in a pen, a dog bounding past, her hair flying in the breeze, her cheeks flushed from the cold. The look suited her, despite her sharp intellect and expansive knowledge, she seemed suited to life in the slow lane as well. At least she did in my mind at the moment. I tried to picture her in a power suit working in some glass and steel tower of a corporate office building, and though I could picture it, she didn't appear to be happy in my vision.

"Would that be alright with you?" Cate asked gripping my thigh.

"I'm sorry, I was off day-dreaming. What was it you asked?"

She smiled knowing she'd caught me unawares. "To go 'round the pub to hear them play tonight."

"Oh yes." I smiled at her then at Shannon. "I was hoping for it actually."

"If you don't mind me taggin' along a bit longer. As soon as you get yourselves situated we could go to The English Market for some lunch and I could show you around." Shannon added.

I leaned forward. "I was told not to bring up the English around here." I said in a conspiratorial tone.

Shannon laughed. "Well not in Dublin anyway. Cork is a little more worldly. They call it the rebel city for a reason. I think a good comparison might be your Washington versus New York. One all about it's national identity, the other about it's social identity. You're likely to meet as many foreigners as you are Irish there."

They continued to chat while I looked out the window lost in my thoughts.

"Where are you staying?" Shannon asked as we disembarked. I told her and her eyebrows went up. "Well I'll ride along that far, I've got a bit further to go to get home." The taxi deposited us at our hotel. "We'll meet at the English Market at the south entrance at noon." She said to Cate before we made our farewell.

"More cathedrals."

"What?" Cate replied, turning from the closet where she was hanging clothes.

"Golf courses and cathedrals, those seem to be the prominent tourist attractions." I said chuckling as I looked up from my phone. Cate rolled her eyes and smiled.

"What can I say? We have castles and pubs too."

"Maybe I should take up golf."

"We could this spring." I looked up quickly to see her expression. She always shied away from talk about the future and I was curious what prompted her statement. She was still fiddling with a hanger and I noticed her hands had slowed and she wasn't looking at what she was doing.

"I'd like that." I replied softly. She lifted her head and turned to look at me, the light from the windows caught her eyes in a dazzling blue, and for the first time since we met, the fear was gone. Her brow was smooth, the corners of her mouth lifted into a little grin. What ever was happening, I liked where it was going.

"What should we do with an hour to kill before lunch?" She grinned lasciviously.

"You're incorrigible. You know that don't you?" I said with a laugh.

"What?" Her eyebrows rose, pure innocence radiating from her. "I was thinking of taking a walk."

I squinted, unable to hide the grin that was spreading across my face. "Oh? A walk?" She smiled and shrugged innocently all the while looking up at the ceiling. "What have I missed?" That caused her to laugh.

"I knew you weren't paying attention on the train. Shannon mentioned a lovely row of shops along St. Patrick's Street."

"Ahh well that explains it. I think I've created a monster." I said laughing.

Cate pouted a furrow grew on her brow. "Do you really feel that way?" I felt my face slacken. I didn't realize I'd stepped on a land mine until after I'd heard the click.

"I was only teasing Cate. I didn't mean anything by it."

No small number of expressions flowed across her face. I expected her to blow up at me, but she only turned and took her coat and walked to the door.

"Cate!" I launched myself towards her. She turned and held her hand up.

"Don't. I'll be back to go meet Shannon, but I need a moment." Her eyes had transformed from dazzling blue to flat gray and seemed full of tears to the point of overflowing, her voice cold. She flung her coat on, turned and left. The sound of the heavy door closing with a soft click echoed in my mind. My stomach sank as I ran through what I'd said to see if I could figure out what just happened. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply trying to get my mind under control. I turned and walked to the window and stared out into the distance, clouds moved quickly in from the sea. The boats down on the River Lee floated along in complete ignorance of the fact that I may have possibly ruined the one thing in my life I cherished most, and all with a flippant remark. I stayed my overwhelming desire to run after her. I knew somewhere deep inside that I needed to give her space. I paced back and forth like a caged tiger for a few minutes and forced myself to sit down and relax. "Breathe in, breathe out." I thought to myself. She's doesn't give up, and I'll be damned if I will. She's everything in the world to me. My eyes snapped open at that.

"I'm such an idiot. She's everything in the world to me." I said out loud. "Everything I've done since we've met was for her. Everything I do from here forward in my life is for her, for us, not for me." Vocalizing how I felt made me calmer by inches. "I respect her. She has the heart of a lioness, but sometimes she seems so fragile, like a glass figurine." I massaged my temples as I put my head down. "Which I've just thrown to the ground." I felt the hot streak roll down my face and swiped it away.

An unknown amount of time passed as I sat in a chair facing the window, my head in my hands. "I don't know Cate. I don't know how to tell you just how much I love you and have you understand." Breathe in, breathe out. I felt another tear slip free, my cheek cooled where it dropped free. I leapt out of the chair when I felt cold fingers run up through my hair. Cate stood there, still in her coat, her face tear streaked. She didn't say a word, but only opened her arms and we fell into each other. "I'm so sorry Cate. I didn't mean anything by it." I felt the tears flow adding to the cool mist still in her hair.

"I know." She said, her voice low and heavy with emotion. I leaned back took her face in my hands gently thumbing away the tears.

"I love you so much Cate. I, it's just that words can't do it justice, they're said and gone so quickly." She shook her head gently, a little smile pricked at the corners of her mouth.

"No they're not Dylan. Words leave marks on your soul. That's why hurt deeply, and others lift you up." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "A bee doesn't sting you unless it feels threatened. I just spent the last twenty minutes wandering around wondering what I'd done to threaten you that would cause you say something like that. No matter how flippant it sounded, it stung."

"I didn't mean anything by it." I said again, she touched her fingertips gently to my lips silencing me.

"I know. The bee doesn't take it personally, so I thought about the ways you could feel threatened by me, and I only came up with two. The first was that you're afraid." She paused and took another breath. "Afraid that I'll leave." The tears rolled down her cheeks again and I let them go. "Which isn't the case. Remember? I don't give up easily." She wrapped herself in my arms again and laid her head on my shoulder.

"What's the other?"

Cate laughed. "Bearing in mind what you said before you realized I was even here it isn't worthy of consideration." I leaned back and looked into her eyes. She closed them and let out a sigh knowing she would have to give it up. "The other was that you feel trapped by me and are trying to get loose so you can move on."

"That's not true!" I said quickly.

"I know that." She interjected just as quickly. "I know that now Dylan." She said much more softly.

"Cate I love you so much..." She stopped me with her lips, crushing mine with her own. The silence was broken by her phone ringing.

"Oh shit! What time is it?" She said fumbling for her phone. "Hi!" She said sheepishly. "Yes we're still coming, we lost track of time. It's only a few minutes walk, we'll be right there. Will you wait for us?" She signed off the phone and gave me a quick peck. "I need to wash my face. I'm sure I look a fright."

"You don't." I said kissing her softly.

"Well you do, come on then." She took me by the hand and dragged me into the bath and ran the water.

We took advantage of the concierge service to borrow an umbrella and began the walk to the English Market. Shannon sat on a bench looking at her phone. Cate walked up to her and sat next to her and gave her a quick hug. "Sorry about that. We didn't mean to stand you up."

"I was beginning to wonder. I couldn't get Mik sneak away from work so it's just us."

"Mik would be the rascal that Mum and Dad don't fancy?"

"Aye, he'd be the one." Shannon rolled her eyes.

"He can't be that bad if he has a job." I said laughing.

"His full name is Mikolaj Kowalski. Does that give you an idea then?" She said chuckling.

I just made an, "oh" expression and pursed my lips and shook my head.

Cate looked up at me and rolled her eyes. "There's some similarity to a prior situation I was in with Samar, as you might have guessed."

We went in and walked around the market, the girls chattered as I looked around. The market was full of stalls of various produce, at this time of the year it tended to lean towards the winter varieties. There was a stall with a large variety of fruits, the apples sported local names, the citrus I guessed must have come from the Mediterranean. The sight of all this food did wonders for my appetite. I cleared my throat as they looked over a pile of breads at the next stall. Cate whipped around quickly.

"Are you two getting ideas for lunch?" I asked smiling. "Because I could start at one end and work my way to the other if you're still looking."

"C'mon then. We can't let ye starve after going over the wares." Shannon replied with a laugh. We settled into a table at one of the cafes and ordered drinks.

"What's a dab?" I said aside to Cate, she smiled.

"It's a flat fish, like flounder, thin fillets, it makes for good fish and chips, also grills well." She said looking at the chalkboard at the catches of the day. There were several since Cork is a port city, the rest of which I recognized.

"Baps are bread, dabs are fish, got it." I said laughing.

"Dabs on baps are tasty." Shannon added with a chuckle. Cate stifled another laugh as the waiter took our order, nobody could keep a straight face as I ordered the dab on a bap in my fairest imitation of Cate's accent. I distinctly saw the waiter's head shake as he walked away.

Shannon tried to dig a little deeper into how we met, Cate let her know it's just as we'd already told her, there was no secrets that we hadn't shared with their folks. A lie, well told, by both of us. I found out from Cate that she'd only told her father about the Chad incident and it wouldn't go further than him. I did tell Shannon that their father had given me the third degree just like the old gangster movies, with a light shining in my face and all. Cate rolled her eyes so hard I thought I heard it over the sound of the busy cafe. "Said if I broke his little girls heart that he'd have to extract the price."

Shannon dove on that quickly. "Well since I'm the little girl, I guess that means you'll be dumping this frumpy pain in the arse." She said grinning.

"I couldn't do that to Mik." I said. "Besides I like this frumpy pain in the arse." I leaned over to kiss Cate. She quickly palmed my face and pushed me back into my seat with a gimlet eye. A smile began to creep across her face as I pouted. She leaned over and gave me a quick kiss.

"What does Mik do?"

"He's a shipwright, welding and such. He got his degree and decided to take ship out of Gdansk a few years ago and ended up here. He's got a lovely singing voice as well, mind with a bit of an accent." She said smiling. "Though his English is up to par. He's teaching me some colorful phrases in Polish. What about you then? I hear that you're at uni with this one, then I hear you're some software wunderkind."

"Where did you hear that?" I said smiling.

"A little bird told me." She had that cat that ate the canary look on her face.

"I didn't know that you knew Samar." I replied, placing the piece in the puzzle quickly.

"I know lots of people." She said.

"They met at the Modern Art museum, Samar was his usual self. How did you find out about it?" Cate asked.

"He's trying to woo the knickers off Ellen."

"I hope she's smarter than that."

"I warned her that he's a right bastard but she wouldn't listen."

Lunch came just then and we did a number on it, leaving nothing behind. "What was it you called him after we left the museum?" Cate prompted with a little smile.

I looked around to see who might overhear. "A small minded, arrogant, shit weasel." Shannon's mouth dropped open and she began to laugh loudly.

"That is perfect! I'll have to tell Ellen that it's unanimous, nobody likes him."

"Where to next?" I said as I hailed the waiter for the check. "I remember seeing a listing for a chocolate shop as we entered the building."

"That's where I'm headed." Cate spoke up quickly.

"That's no surprise. Mind if we tag along?" Shannon responded.

"Oh alright." Cate laughed.

We made our way around through the hall and nearly didn't pass a French patisserie with a case full of desserts and cakes. I nearly had to tug Cate's arm to get her to keep moving, all while reminding her there was chocolate ahead.

"I had much better self control before I met him." Cate said to her sister.

"Aye, I can see ye losing control with that one." She nodded and winked causing them both a fit of giggles.

I rolled my eyes for a change. "Good Catholic girls, the both of you."

"I've got eyes and I'm not dead." Shannon shot back with a grin.

Once let loose at the chocolatier's they both were overcome with child-like glee reading the labels and making choices. They each left with a box of mixed truffles and Cate had picked up some bars for the trip home. We'd made our way around the rest of the market walking slowly as the girls continued to chat. We parted company at the entrance to the market with a promise to come and see Shannon perform tonight at the pub. Cate and I wandered back to the hotel in silence. I wasn't sure of what to say, or if anything needed to be said.

"It's still early. Is there anything you'd like to do?"

Cate peeked out from under the umbrella at the gray sky and wrinkled her nose. "I would really love to just take a nap." She said sheepishly.

"Okay." We went up to the room and Cate stripped down to her panties and rummaged through my bag pulling out a sweatshirt of mine and tugged it over her head, freeing her hair with a flip. She climbed under the covers and I pulled the drapes putting the room into near darkness. I walked over to one of the chairs and began to sit.

"Are you coming?" She asked, her voice small and innocent as a child's.

"Sure." I said. I undressed and climbed into bed. She rolled into me and wrapped herself in my arms.

"I'm sorry, about earlier." She left it hanging.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, I was being an insensitive jerk."

"No, I was being overly sensitive. I thought about it when I went for a walk. I ran it through my mind and you didn't say anything that warranted a reaction like that." She hugged my arms tighter.

"You're right, I'm not a jerk, you are." I said and kissed her behind the ear. Cate gave a little chuckle.

"I'll try to be better." She said so faintly that I nearly missed it.

"Hey! Don't you dare cave in like that." I added quickly. "You were not a jerk, I was only teasing. I'm going to have to stop it because I think it's starting to upset you even though you don't say anything about it."

"I can't help it, sometimes I get anxious when I look at you and forget that you're not just my Dylan, but also a handsome, young, millionaire. It's daunting, and it makes me feel guilty as if I'm some sort of gold-digger."

I backed away from her and rolled her onto her back and looked down at her face in the gloom. "Cate, I only ever want you to look at me and see 'your Dylan' that's who I am. I know you're not a gold-digger, you don't have it in you to even try. So please stop thinking like that." I leaned down and kissed her, her arms wrapped around me.