Chapter 8: Babble Juice

For the next months after Amy's birthday, the relationship between Katie and Matt could be best described as "strained". Matt tried to trip Katie's guilt trip trigger by complaining about her unwillingness to commit, but her parents' words had left a seed of clairvoyance in her. She saw his attempts in the light of Jack Monahan's words, as attempt to manipulate her into feeling guilty.

Neither side budged on the core issues. Katie did not ban Luke from seeing Amy – a ridiculous notion, really, since they had a signed agreement – and Matt sullenly refused any of Katie's attempts to bridge the divide between him and Amy. She had to admit that Amy was being her friendliest around Matt now, making Matt's inability to connect to the girl even more obvious.

Her relationship with Luke was equally strained. He carefully avoided any situation where he would be alone with Katie making her question her father's impression that Luke was yearning for her. She for her part could not bring herself to bridge the gap either, still not fully over her sense of duty to remain loyal to her fiancé.

By mid-October, Amy began to try on her Halloween costume, already in anticipation of a night of mischief. Moreover, last year's Halloween had brought her a father in her view, and she was properly excited.

Katie was of mixed feelings. She enjoyed the night of mischief, always had, but this year might prove problematic. She suggested to Matt that they went together, Matt, Katie, and Amy, and he flatly refused to participate in "stupid superstition" much like the years before. Katie pointed out that it was simply fun, to which he responded with a lengthy rant about the kind of fun she had engaged in eight years before.

Katie was relieved when, out of the blue, Luke asked whether he could have Amy over Halloween night. She agreed, and she planned the evening as one last chance for Matt to save their relationship. She suggested to Matt and he agreed that they had dinner at an Italian restaurant owned by a friend of her family. She asked Jack to arrange for reservations, and he reported success on the same evening.

Around four o'clock on October 31, she dropped Amy off at Luke's. Luke was still out doing some last minute shopping, but Erwin was there working on some contraption to scare kids, and when he asked Katie in she accepted.

She had never been inside Luke's place, and she was curious. It was not really grand considering that Luke had to be worth a few million dollars. The furniture and decorations were unassuming yet appealing in their simplicity. When Erwin offered her a cup of tea or coffee she followed him to the kitchen. Here she found a combination of oiled beechwood and stainless steel, but none of the high tech kitchen appliances she had expected from a successful nerd. When Erwin brewed coffee, he used boiling water, a porcelain filter holder, and loose ground coffee. They sat for a while sipping the hot brew when they heard Luke entering.

Katie almost fell from the high stool when Luke entered the kitchen. He had shopped for a new wizard costume, and he looked like a younger version of Sam Neill's Merlin from the TV mini series. The fur coat looked real enough, and he even wore laced boots made of the same fake fur. Yet, to Katie's eyes he looked strikingly similar to the Luke Braun of eight years ago.

He saw her reaction and grimaced.

"Hey, Katie. I didn't know you'd be here."

"I uh ... Erwin asked me in, and I wanted to discuss a few things..."

He quickly dropped the coat over a stool and sat.

"Shoot!"

"No, nothing important. I just ... What are you guys planning?"

"To invoke terror in the hearts of snotty teenagers," Luke grinned. "To make a few mothers shriek in fear and to further caries and hyperactivity by handing out candy bars and other un-health foods."

"Sounds like fun," Katie smiled. "The skeleton again?"

"Yes, of course. But this year, Amy gets to pull the rope."

"You are probably a bad influence for her, but she'll have fun."

"So, what are your plans tonight?"

Katie's smile vanished and she looked apologetically at Luke.

"Matt and I will have dinner at a restaurant. It's time he and I had a chance to talk a few things through."

"Trouble in paradise?" Luke asked at least feigning sympathy.

"Trouble yes, but no paradise," Katie sighed. "Okay. Will you remember to bring her to school? I'll pick her up after school tomorrow."

"Yeah, sure," Luke answered. "Have a nice evening."

Now was there a touch of bitterness in Luke's voice. Katie was almost certain. She sighed heavily. However she decided her future, at least one man would be left disappointed and hurting.

Back in her rented house, Katie changed into a pretty costume and moderate heels. She rummaged in her jewelry box until she found the engagement ring Matt had given her. She could not help but smirk. The ring had looked pretty enough, and from the hints Matt gave her she understood that it must have been expensive. She wore it daily for a while until one day when she took it off in the wash room and it fell to the tiled floor. She had picked it up and there on the tiles were the splinters into which the "diamond" had broken up.

Not quite understanding the implications she collected everything and went to a jeweler asking the man to fix the ring. The amused jeweler then explained to her that the cut stone was just German diamond, mountain crystal in other words. The ring itself bore no stamp and was probably just 10-carat gold. She briefly contemplated to replace the broken crystal stone with a true diamond, but in the end she found that she did not want to incur the costs and settled for a replacement cut crystal. She did not wear it much thereafter.

This night however, she put the ring on her finger and sat down in her living room waiting for Matt to pick her up. He was on time, arriving in her old, four year-old Honda. She had given him the car to use when his old BMW failed the inspection. She was driving a new Toyota now courtesy of the lump sum Luke had paid her for the first seven years of missed child support. It felt stupid to be picked up in her own old car, but Matt insisted on driving himself and not using "Luke's car".

He was friendly enough though, even initiating a conversation about the gubernatorial campaign, and they talked animatedly during the five mile drive to the restaurant. They had reserved a table by the window at Da Luigi, but the staff was not quite ready to seat them. They were offered free drinks in exchange and sat at the bar. Katie was slightly embarrassed when Matt nagged the barkeeper until he got a second free drink. She was relieved when their table was ready and they could sit down.

Midway through the entree, Katie heard her cell phone go off. It was an MMS from Luke, and she looked at it briefly. The image showed Amy standing beside a huge Jack-in-the-Box, and Katie had to chuckle thinking that she had been lucky a year before that Luke had not triggered that thing. She would have peed in her pants!