Smack the day in the mouth

 Caitlin felt down in the dumps. She was pacing at home. And it was raining. She couldn't even go for a long walk.

"What is it?" Deano took her hand away from her mouth before she bit her thumbnail into.

"Oh, It's..it's nothing." She shook her head. Maybe she'd told this to Deano already. The whole Hope story. How Hope didn't want her baby's father to know where she was, and yet Hope wanted to know where he was.

"I did as Hope asked, about that guy, Kenny." She told him about Arlo who tracked down dead-beat dads where she worked. "I mean, that's all he does."

Deano nodded. It didn't take much for her to get situated on the couch with him as he turned on the TV.

"Why couldn't I have been a better friend?" She felt as if she was just talking to herself, but Deano had his arm around her.

"Why are you so hard on yourself?" Deano looked at her. "You can't know everything. You can only do so much."

"Yeah, I know..but..but I could have done something." She felt very sad for Hope. "It's just she was always so studious and obnoxiously always right about everything in general." Caitlin sighed. "And now..look at her."

"Stop beating yourself up, OK?" He took her fist before it gave way to the thumbnail biting. "I'm not sure you should work at that place at all."

"What?"

"Can't you see what it's doing to you? You don't look pleased with yourself about anything anymore. This internship is making you ..I dunno.. so sad, having to listen to all these problems," Deano told her.

"But..but I want to help people. I mean, most of their problems are just a phone call away," she sighed, thinking that might not be the case with Hope, though. "It's just with those I do know..I'm no help at all. Like Tori. And..and Melvin."

"I don't want to talk about him," Deano squeezed a frown and shook his head, no. "I wouldn't be working there if..it if wasn't for Cori. I wish Cori owned the pizzeria." But he talked of his part-time job was just a way of getting to his dream job which had nothing to do with the food industry. 

Caitlin looked him over and grabbed the sides of his face. She smiled and kissed him as if she was ready to dive into their very satisfying sex life. Oh, he could talk seriously and it just made her want to have him even more.