2020-03-30 - Can we talk?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : Hey. Can we talk? Maybe grab a cup of coffee?

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : You want to have coffee with me?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : I want to apologize. Coffee seems like the right beverage for that.

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : Tequila would either lead to yelling, crying or vomiting so I'm ruling that one out.

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : Why the change of heart?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : I'm trying to make an effort here.

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : I see that. The question still remains, why?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : Because I've been a complete asshat since you showed up

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : Well longer than that

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : And why do you want to stop now?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : I guess I can keep going if you like?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : But I figured both of our lives might improve if we can work through some things?

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : Sure, if it helps you sleep at night, we can talk. I think it's too late for me.

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : I doubt it will help with that, but I'd appreciate a chance to apologize. Espresso Yourself ok?

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : I'm not the type to say no to coffee. I could use a break from damage control with Wayne.

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : He and I aren't in the best place right now.

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : I'm sorry to hear that. Honestly.

It's early afternoon in Gray Harbor with a light breezy rainstorm blowing through. Easton is seated at a table in the coffee shop with a large black coffee in front of him. He still has on his rain jacket, a bright blue ultra thin one. His clothes are just a pair of dark jeans, a pair of retro running shoes and gray waffle knit henley. He has his back to the door and is staring intently at his coffee, his phone out on the table still texting someone every now and then when it buzzes. Between texts though he seems very intent on inspecting his drink, his brow knit furiously.

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : When do you want to meet?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : This afternoon ok?

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : Yeah, we can do that this afternoon.

Katherine's just finished driving from Seattle and has just gotten to Downtown Gray Harbor. She's considering possibly just driving straight home and standing Easton up but in the end, she finds herself stopping at Espresso Yourself, partially because she needs her coffee, and partially because she knows that if she settles things with Easton, she can start to truly heal her heart and hopefully she'll be able to mend her relationship with Wayne at some point.

The door to the coffee shop opens, and the brunette appears in a black power suit, her hair up in a high ponytail, and red pumps. It's a typical Business Katherine look. She doesn't notice Easton at his table at first and heads to the counter to order a dark roast, black.

Easton's almost surprised when he hears Kate's order. Not at the black coffee part, that remains consistent, but at the fact that her voice still stands out so clearly. He turns and makes a small wave. He looks tired, his eyes a little puffy with dark circles starting to form. Now that he's sure she's actually coming he slips off the jacket and puts it on the back of his chair to dry. He waits for her to approach the table before nodding and greeting her with, "Thanks for coming. You okay after the other night? With the Dream?"

When her coffee comes, Katherine turns around and is startled by Easton's voice when she moves towards him, not the sound of it as much as the tone, his concern in particular, and the question. She sits down in front of him, her expression barely composed with her emotions underneath the surface, though her posture is portraying strength and confidence at the same time, the conflicting messages a little disjointed. "I'm alive, in one piece," she states in a quiet voice matter-of-factly, "Despite everything, Wayne came and patched me up, so I'm thankful for that."

Cupping his mug in both hands Easton does a little head bob at her flat statement of survival. "Good." He nods at Wayne coming to help, "Did he explain any of this shit?" He watches her, unsure of what she does or doesn't know about this place, about Glimmer and all the rest of those crazy topics. "I should have asked before. Unfortunately ending up in places like that for people like us isn't all that uncommon here. And even worse, I'm pretty sure I dragged all you in there. Not that I meant to, but sometimes it just works like that. Except Turner, I woulda dragged his ass in on purpose for backup." Easton smiles slightly at the talk of dragging Geoff in, despite the overall seriousness of the topics at hand.

"He explained the stuff about gifts and abilities...nothing about Dreams specifically, but I know he writes about the weird stuff in Gray Harbor in his comics so...I guess I can figure it out from there..." Katherine rambles on a little as she replies to Easton as far as what Wayne has told her. She simply stays quiet when Easton explains what actually happened. It's a lot to take in. "Werewolf?" is all she manages to squeak out quietly.

Easton nods and then gives a bit of a wince at the news that she wasn't quiiite prepared for Dreams, but that happens. It's a lot of information to cover after all. He really should put together a standard operating procedure for newly arrived Glimmer folk in Gray Harbor... if such a thing wouldn't ensure he was immediately never heard from again. Werewolf? Easton nods and puts his hands up briefly, "That's a ... yea. A thing?" He sighs and wishes not for the first time that he had a little bit of something stronger in his coffee for this.

"Can I back up? As to why I'm here? Because it's not just the bar or that my parents had a place here..."

He watches her, almost wary as he starts to lead towards some deeper conversational waters.

Katherine narrows her eyes as Easton seems to willingly steer the conversation towards dangerous territory, about why he went to Gray Harbor without her. "You know you don't owe me an explanation. You don't owe me a thing...except for an apology, really," she points out with a slightly shaky tone of voice, her attempt to let him off the hook. "I thought what I wanted was for you to feel a fraction of the pain I was feeling, and the first time I saw you, that's what it was. But after seeing you in that Dream, seeing you hurt that way, in a place that's so special to us...I don't know. You don't have to explain anything."

Katherine's eyes travelled down to her coffee, afraid to look into Easton's eyes and show herself emotional and vulnerable.

"I'm sorry"

It's a good place to start, she's right. But he doesn't want to stop there either. Easton's been working through a lot lately and one of the things he is trying to get better at is actually talking about things instead of just taking action. Especially considering how frequently those actions are destructive to him and those around him. He shakes his head at her and says, "It's fine. I get it." It does at least help him feel a little vindicated that she was out to hurt him though. It's nice to know he didn't entirely make that up. But the part about the Dream gets a little shake, "I want to." explain, that is.

"When I woke up?"

He pauses, his own eyes now failing to meet hers. Coffee is getting a lot of emotional looks tonight between the two of them.

"From the accident."

Oh, he's going all the way back to there.

"I saw Tom. And I mean, alive. Like he was fucking just sitting there in the chair. Alive, happy, just waiting for me. Despite the fact that I saw his ass get blown up. Despite the fact that I was pretty damn sure he stopped breathing on the ground in a charred fucking pile." He sucks in breath, trying to keep calm enough to at least explain a little bit more. It helps that she knows Tom, that he doesn't have to do the thing where he has to explain how important he was. How it wasn't just another Marine or even a 'close friend.' All those words that are true but fall short of explaining anything.

"And then I had to hear that he was dead. And whatever the fuck I was seeing.. just wasn't real." He looks up now, finally meeting her eyes. "Kate, he was there. And I thought for sure, I was crazy. I thought that was it. I lost Tom, my leg, my career, my sanity and I ... I was done."

"I know. I felt it. I felt you." Katherine looks up as she says this and locks eyes with Easton for a moment when she says this before lowering her eyes again, staring at the coffee. The powerful lawyer isn't the Katherine that Easton used to know, but rather this sweet, caring one he hasn't seen in almost two years.

"I always just thought that we were that close. But when you left...how could you feel someone's heart and feel like you don't know them at all? And then, one night, I went back to all the letters you wrote, and I read them. And then I felt you again...but I didn't know what to do with all that. I thought I was going crazy. So I drowned myself in work, just buried myself. I tried to fill the void. With a career. With stuff."

Katherine pauses here, and seems to hesitate about continuing on.

"Right. You're a 'reader'" It's not his word for mentalist, maybe it's Isabella's? He can't keep track now. But it fits. He nods at her and lets that sink in. It didn't really occur to him that she might be having these flashes of abilities outside of Gray Harbor. Besides seeing Tom nothing supernatural really hit for him until he came here.

"I'm sorry. Not that I understood any of this then.. but I've been figuring it out here. There are a lot of people here that have helped me. I didn'.." He sighs and says, "I didn't realize you were struggling. Cause I didn't fuckin' ask, I realize." He shakes his head and offers, "I just wanted you to be able to move on, without me. Because I was really sure I wasn't ever coming out of this." He winces and wishes he could use the past tense or at least separate himself from the issues and turmoil but the reality is that he is still making his way out of the mess that consumed his life after the accident.

"I should have asked."

"I understand why you didn't. You had a lot of stuff going on." Katherine isn't lying or feeding platitudes; she could have done without the heartache that followed but she did understand why he didn't ask about her. Katherine finds herself at the bottom of her coffee cup but does not order another one. She just looks down at the empty cup, mostly just listening to Easton at this point. She isn't sure that there's much to say at this point, not on her end.

Easton sighs and finally gets to, "I should have been able to say that. Or some version of that though. You didn't deserve what I did. That was shitty, on every level." Screwing a nurse to get out of an engagement is definitely a low point for Easton in terms of just about everything. "I'm really sorry I did that." He doesn't bring up that he's still working on that whole communicating thing, but it remains very much a work in progress.

But he doesn't mention specifics, not really wanting to open up that can of worms and more than a little disappointed by his behavior.

There is a lot more he could talk about with her, and probably things that he should talk about with her. But there's a lot to be said for quitting while you are ahead.

"Do you think we can manage to not be assholes at each other? Or did you want to keep yelling obscenities back and forth for a while?"

It's probably not the best time for a joke, but Easton has never much seemed to care about that.

"Like I said, you had a lot going on." Katherine tries yet again to let Easton off the hook, despite how much he'd hurt her. In a quiet whisper, she adds, "I would have forgiven you if you'd just talked to me."

She glares at Easton at his attempt at a joke as she tries to keep her tears contained. There is obviously something there that she wants to say. Something she wants to get off her chest. It takes her a moment but she asks, "Why were you so angry at me?"

Easton's brow knits further when she's understanding about it. Forgiveness is just about the last thing he wanted out of this apology ironically enough. He sighs and nods, "I know." It takes him another beat or two to continue, "I was worried if you understood or if you forgave me that you'd want to make it work. I didn't want you spending your life-.." He knows both ways were selfish. He knows how much it was going to hurt her either way. He just thought he was picking the better option, and maybe didn't realize he shouldn't have been the one picking.

The glare is expected. Almost welcomed. The question however is much more difficult to deal with.

"Because..." He starts before he actually has an answer formulated so he trails off for a moment. He starts to say something in that space once or twice before finally admitting, "Because, I am barely getting a life together out here. Finally starting to get some shit sorted, and I ... thought I might not handle this well." He allows himself a small smile, "Go figure."

"But seeing you in that Dream, I just- I don't want to see you get hurt." He allows that he's a bit late on that front and adds, "More."

Katherine sighs, unable to contain the tears forming in her eyes. She is not crying but the tears in her eyes do fall despite her best efforts to keep them contained. But she sticks this out, because she wants some semblance of closure so that she can move forward. And then something about the last sentence he says causes Katherine’s anger and hurt to intensify.

”It’s a little bit too late to avoid hurting me, isn’t it?” she says quietly, her tone flat and unreadable, “You lashed out at me for showing up in this god damn town. I didn’t even come for you, and honestly, I know I told you that I wanted you to hurt but...I never would have pulled the trigger on actively trying to ruin your life. You should know me well enough to know that. I didn’t even tell Thorne about our past, or any of our shit, just because I didn’t want to cause any trouble in your life. But the more you kept acting like an asshole, the more you brought out the worse in me...” Katherine’s voice trails off and she lets out a defeated sigh.

"I know" That he hurt her, that she took quite a drubbing through out the process of him trying to recover and start over.

"I know" Again. This time in reference to her not pulling the trigger. He might have expected a little shade here or there, but not active destruction.

"I am very, very good at that. Unfortunately" Easton still smiles ruefully at being an effective asshole. "But I'm sorry. Because you don't deserve it. Obviously, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm the one who fucked up and couldn't communicate." Gee, if that hasn't become a pattern for Easton's life and relationships. But at least it's progress that he can start seeing that as such.

"I get that we're not going to be besties. But. I would like it if we could not hate each other?" He realizes that sounds a little harsh and is quick to add, "Because I don't.. and I get that you are just trying to build your life too." Even if he is still not really onboard with her doing so here in Gray Harbor, that's less about him and more about this place.

Katherine blinks the remaining tears out of her eyes and sighs. “I hate that it hurts to be around you,” she confesses quietly, “I hate that what you’ve done and the way you’ve been sends me into such a blind rage that I can’t appreciate the man in front of me who is crazy about me. I hate that I hurt Wayne because of how angry and hurt I’ve been...”

Katherine sighs after letting her voice trail, pausing before she speaks again. “I don’t know if I can recover from this. If things don’t work out with Wayne, maybe you’ll get your wish and I’ll leave town. It’s not like I would have a reason to stay.”

Easton just nods as she lists off the things that she hates about this situation. He does wince when she mentions hurting Wayne, "Aw, shit. I'm sorry if I'm fuckin' things up there. I promise to just stay out of the guys way. Unless you think he'd want me to apologize?" He's assuming it's over the words they had at the Pourhouse. And goodness knows if he were in Wayne's shoes he'd just want the ex to stay clear, not come have some awkward apology talk.

He nods and says, "I understand." when she talks about not being able to recover from it. It's not like he can expect much at this point.

"I am never going to recommend people stay here in Gray Harbor. But, please don't let me run you off if that's what you want."

“I got angry and he saw some texts I sent ranting about you after the Pourhouse. It’s less about what you said and more about how I reacted to it.” Katherine offers as an explanation but doesn’t elaborate and instead says, “It’s not about you. It’s about me struggling to forgive you and the problems it’s caused. There just isn’t any point in staying if Wayne and I can’t work this out.”

Katherine’s expression essentially looks defeated and she’s as emotionally open as Easton would remember her to be back when they were first dating, before the Marines. A far cry from the version of Katherine he’d first seen at the casino.

"Why the fuck does he care if you forgive me?" Easton gives her a look that makes it clear that he doesn't think much of Wayne at this point. "If shithead doesn't appreciate what he has in you, then tell him to get the fuck with the program." The look he levels at her is about as close to a friendly one that she's seen since she came into town. He shakes his head, clearly ready to take her side in whatever disagreement might exist without needing any details.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Katherine says quietly after a few moments, his friendliest expression to date throwing her off guard initially. “Please don’t make Wayne the bad guy in this. It’s not his fault I have this emotional baggage that’s kept me from fully throwing myself into a relationship with him. I just...” She shrugs. “I mean, this conversation’s been helping, so who knows? Maybe forgiveness will come. I don’t hate you. I just hate when you go full asshole on me.”

"Kate, I'm just saying if he's not willing to figure it out with you, he's a fucking idiot." Easton waits for that to sink in before grinning and saying, "And I'm speaking from experience here." He finishes off his coffee and says, "You don't owe me forgiveness, but if it helps not fuck up your life.. then I hope we get there." And then he shrugs and says, "Aw, give me a bit of credit. I never went full asshole one you. Maybe like sixty percent." He thinks about that for a minute and offers, "Sixty-five. Tops."

“It’s more like 75% but sure.” Katherine attempts to inject a bit of humor in her tone but she only gets about halfway there. There’s still something in her eyes that wants to say something. But she loses her nerve and instead asks, “Are you happy? At the end of the day, did you find what you were looking for?”

She is worried about a lot of things, mostly about making things right with Wayne. But seeing that Easton wants to make things better between them, it makes her hopeful that she can reign her anger in and move forward with Wayne.

“If you want to know if we can move past this animosity between us? I think this is a good start,” she comments after a pause, “You almost seem supportive. That’s way more than I expected from you today.”

"Pfft. I didn't even punch him or so much as show him a weapon. Seventy, tops." Easton smiles when she at least shows some willingness to banter with him about his asshole grade.

The look in her eyes doesn't go unnoticed but he assumes that the question she asks is what she was considering. "I'm starting to consider it possible?" It's not exactly the same thing. "And it had nothing to do with you Kate. I really thought.. " He looks at her and tries to word the ending of that for a while.

Thankfully he can move on to the next topic. "I agree. It's a good start." And it's definitely more than he hoped for that he's managed to not make her slap him or walk off yelling. Improvement!

"All right, I'll give you the seventy." She still isn't in full banter mode, but she's willing to exchange the banter with Easton, and it almost feels like old times, except for the fact that she is at least a little different here, a little more subdued and tentative with him.

Katherine recognizes Easton's hesitation and completes his thought. "...that you'd never recover and that you wouldn't worth my time. I know." There is a pause before she adds, "Bennie's a great girl, and in that Dream, all I wanted was to make sure you'd make it back to her. As much as you've been an asshole, I know it's because you've been hurting. If Bennie is the one that helps you get on a path to healing, I'm genuinely happy for you. You deserve to be happy."

Easton let's her 'complete' the thought and it's interesting what she thinks he meant. He doesn't feel the need to correct her, it's close enough.

"Bennie is great. I didn't come out here expecting anything, but something just clicked." He smiled gratefully when she says he deserves happiness. "Not really, but it's nice of you to say. And I hope you find what you're looking for too."

He pushed his chair back and stands. "It's a good thing I'm drinking less, maybe we actually have a shot at this behaving like adults thing" he grins and adds, "Thanks for coming Kate."

"I know what you mean, it's the same with Wayne. Hopefully, I can still salvage that."

When Easton stands to leave, Katherine looks up at him. "Maybe you won't set me off so much," she offers when he comments about behaving like adults, and then she adds, "I considered not coming but...the part of me that used to care convinced me I needed to hear you out."

She makes the adjustment on the fly, her choice of words carefully planned this time. "Wish me luck with Wayne. I'm going to need it."

Standing up herself, the brunette offers Easton a hug.

Easton's a hugger. This is known. He pulls her in and squeezes before pulling back and telling her, "Well, tell Wayne I said he's a fuckwit if he doesn't give it another chance." Yes, he knows she would never say that, but that's what makes it even funnier.

"And if he ever hurts you, I'll murder him." After a pause, "If that's what you want."

Some people are quick to make those threats. Easton's just a bit more serious about his. But he grins and waves and heads back out to his jeep in the blowing rain.

Katherine sits back down at the table and watches Easton leave before she pulls her phone and the latest issue of Wayne's comic (in plain sight not hidden by work she's supposed to be doing), contemplating her next move.