Some people have one night stands. For whatever reason, things perfectly align between them and another person. It leads to them spending the night together in both the sexual sense and a more literal one. They wake up in the morning; maybe one sneaks out, maybe they don't. Maybe they get breakfast together. Maybe one says goodbye and does a long walk of shame back to their own shower. Whatever the case may be, those stars never align again. They were just two ships passing in the proverbial night that decided to drop anchor, and have a chat before parting ways again.
Selina thought that was what she had with Alfred. Their romp in the morning was just an extension. Really, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Some people have flings. There's no perfect alignment in a fling. A fling is just two people coming together to deal with their needs, whatever they might be. Physical needs, emotional needs, just plain intimacy without the need for strings attached? Those were all fair reasons for a fling. Maybe it only lasts for a few encounters or a couple of midnight rendezvous. Maybe it goes on for weeks. Maybe months. A fling comes to an end as people either drift apart or they find better things in life, or circumstances simply change. Flings have an expiration date. Their end is writ in stone.
Selina realized that was what she had with Bruce, with the Batman -- a fling. Theirs had gone on for years and years. Once she thought of her life as 'before Batman' and 'after Batman'. Not that she let him define her, for Selina was her own woman, but getting close to Bruce Wayne
had
changed her. It had made her a better person and she was glad for it. Now, nearly nine years later, it was hard to think of a time where she
wasn't
around the billionaire playboy or his alter ego. Even so, their fling ended. Selina found something better.
They were still friends. She spent a lot of time at Wayne Manor, maybe more time than she needed to. No one questioned it. They still got along swimmingly, they just didn't have sex anymore. It surprised Selina that Bruce could be her
best friend
. The girls came first, but he was a close third.
Some people have
relationships
. A relationship is a commitment, a promise, a willingness to make sacrifices large and small for another person's sake. It means settling down to one extent or another, to make a life together with someone else. It could be a long term partner, a fiancee or a spouse. Being in a relationship meant being normal, or at least trying to be normal. Sometimes they ended. Sometimes they went on until, as many have vowed over the centuries, 'till death do them part.
Selina used to dread that word, that concept. Relationships. She valued her freedom more than anything else, and being in a relationship would mean tying herself down in ways that made her skin crawl. It would mean giving up parts of that freedom for someone else. And if there was anything Selina wanted to be? Well, it wasn't normal. She dressed up in a skintight suit with cat ears and called herself
Catwoman
, for God's sake. Among the heroes and villains of Gotham City she felt she was remarkably well-adjusted, but she could admit that her job was anything but normal. And she liked her job; she wasn't about to change anything.
Somehow, Selina had found her
fling
with Alfred, the 'better thing' that made her drift away from Bruce and into the arms of his father figure, was more of a relationship than she'd care to admit. It happened slowly, so slowly that she couldn't look back and find a definite point where the two had become so entangled with each other that they were in love. She couldn't even remember the first time she said "I love you" to Alfred or the first time he told her the same. Each moment they spent together -- really together -- was just so perfect. The memories almost bled together. They didn't need to be distinct in her mind.
Selina didn't like to lie to herself, but it was hard not to when it came to her relationship with Alfred. She was pretty sure that the only lie she was
deliberately
telling herself was how perfect everything was. Alfred was almost three times her age; some tensions and awkwardness was unavoidable. They each made jokes or references that the other smiled at without any understanding and the few times they had dared to go out together in Gotham, he was always mistaken for her father. And as impressive as Alfred was for his age, Selina was
still
in her prime. He had pulled muscles and thrown his back just a bit more often than either one of them would care to admit, just trying to keep up with her. Even so, her Dark Butler (which still cracked her up a year later) managed to do just that the majority of the time.
Catwoman was dating Batman's butler in secret. They weren't hiding it because it would hurt Bruce. That was a conversation they had and they had come to the same conclusion; the only relationship Bruce Wayne needed in his life was cold, hard justice. This was all for the best. The only reason they hid it was because it really wasn't any of his business. Were it anyone but Alfred, he would know. He'd probably pay them a visit to make sure they kept Selina happy, and probably another wearing his cowl if they showed any hint of being criminal to make sure they didn't help her slide back into her old ways. With Alfred, though, it was all under his nose.