Moving Forward (Completed)

Chapter Six

"Damn... so their baby would be about five months old now..." Amanda stated, having done the math in her head.
"I guess. Did you know? You were going on about my mom being more on my side now..." Katherine asked.
Amanda avoided eye contact and took a drink of water before answering. "My mom mentioned that your mom said Scott had a kid now. I didn't know the details, only that your mom was pissed. I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure."
"I get that. Honestly, I'm glad I heard it from her instead of you." Katherine sighed.
"Are you ok?"
"It doesn't really effect me." Katherine shrugged.
"Yeah, but still..." Amanda said, giving Katherine a look that said she didn't buy her attempt to just shrug this off.
"I mean how long has he been sleeping with her? Did it start when we stopped having sex or had he been sleeping with her for years? Were there others? Was he as bad in bed with them or had he just lost interest in me?" Katherine sighed when she spoke her last question.
"Kate..."
Katherine took a breath and steadied herself. "No. It doesn't matter. He's a controlling, emotionally abusive bastard who I left. And honestly, he was never very good in bed. Whatever he did or didn't do while we were married doesn't matter anymore. I'm happy. Happier than I've been in years. Definitely happier than I ever was with him. And I'm not the one stuck spending the rest of my life connected to some idiot who can barely spell her own name."
"Yeah, you're just fine..." Amanda chuckled.
"It's just the initial shock of finding out. I don't actually care."
"Barba was there when you found out?" Amanda asked.
"He was, my mom doesn't exactly know how to talk quietly." Katherine chuckled.
"How'd he react?"
"He said Scott was an even bigger idiot than he already thought he was and then told me I could call him my boyfriend." Katherine smiled.
"He chose that moment to label your relationship?" Amanda questioned, furrowing her brow.
"It had to do more with an earlier part of the conversation with my mom. I promise it was the perfect timing." Katherine smirked.
"Good man." Amanda smiled.

Katherine had barely set her purse down after entering her apartment from lunch with Amanda when her phone rang.
"Hey mom." She sighed, dropping down on her couch.
"Your dad has some vacation time he needs to use and I thought we'd come visit before the summer was over and you have to go back to work. When in July would work for you?" Natalie asked and Katherine could tell she had a pen and paper ready to take down some possible dates.
"I've got a seminar I'm leading the week of the fifteenth and will be busy getting ready for it the week before, so the week after would probably be better." Katherine replied.
"Either one, the twenty second or the twenty ninth?"
"Either one."
"Ok. The week of the twenty second works best for us. Can you schedule a dinner with your boyfriend? Your dad and I would like to meet him." Natalie stated.
"I'll do my best, his job isn't exactly predictable or flexible."
"Dinner, lunch... coffee if that's all he has time for. I'd just like to meet him."
"Text me your itinerary once you book flights and I'll figure something out." Katherine assured her, though she wasn't exactly sure how Rafael would react to meeting her parents.
"Do we need to get a hotel or do you have a guest room?" Natalie asked.
"I barely have a one bedroom."
"Oh..." her mother paused and Katherine braced herself for a comment on her living space, "we'll get a hotel then. The cost of living in New York is much higher than Atlanta huh sweetheart?"
"That it is." Katherine smiled, relieved that her mother was being sensible... or maybe just trying to be nice. Either way she'd take it.

After getting off the phone with her mom she just kind of sat on her couch, staring at nothing on the wall. Katherine hadn't really had a moment to process the information she had received about Scott on her own yet. She and Rafael had spent all of Saturday held up in her apartment... her mind never once moving back to Scott. Rafael's mouth, tongue, hands... other appendages... proved to be quite the distraction, though distraction might not be the best word. When she was with Rafael, her mind never wandered to anyone besides the man with those intense green eyes she loved and at the same time was slightly intimidated to make contact with. Now she was alone. Rafael had left earlier that morning to catch up on paperwork so he wouldn't have to spend his evenings at the office next week and her lunch plans with Amanda were over. This left just Katherine alone with her thoughts in her tiny apartment.