“No. Not if we rearrange some things in the Cat Café. There’s a way to do it.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We have our own lawyer, by the way.”
“Okay, okay.”
An alarm went off on Lauren’s phone. “Hang on, I gotta call Paige.”
“Paige?” Josh asked.
As Lauren held the phone to her ear, Caleb explained, “Lauren’s friend. She must have had a date tonight. This is the fake emergency call in case Paige needs to bail.”
“Huh. I thought they only did that on TV.”
“Paige doesn’t have…the best judgment. I don’t know if she only dates guys who are all wrong for her or if she hasn’t quite learned that men are not exactly at their most truthful when filling out their online dating profiles. Either way, she goes on a lot of bad dates.”
“Yikes.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Paige is great. One of the sweetest, nicest people you’ll ever meet. She was one of Lauren’s bridesmaids at the wedding, actually.”
Josh frowned. He had missed the wedding and was still upset about it. He’d flown to Chicago two days before to interview at one of the big law firms there, figuring he and Megan could save their relationship if he moved with her, even though he had the job at DCL waiting for him in New York. Not only had he completely bombed in the interview and not gotten the job, but a massive storm had blown through the Midwest and grounded a bunch of flights, and Josh couldn’t get anywhere near the East Coast until the day after the wedding. So he’d missed his own sister’s wedding and had not gotten the job or the girl in the end.
Caleb shrugged. “She’s smart and together most of the time. Just not when it comes to her love life.”
Lauren put her phone on the table. “No fake emergency needed. He stood her up.”
“Wow,” said Caleb.
Josh laughed, a little surprised at all this. He and Lauren had always been close, but many years of living in different cities meant they weren’t up to date with each other’s friends or personal lives. This was also quite different from life at the law firm, but in a refreshing way. Nice to talk about friends’ misguided dating decisions instead of depositions and briefs. “Anyway, you were saying about the pastry chef?”
Lauren waved her hand. “It’s all boring work stuff. Not important. How’s the job going?”
Josh would rather have gossiped about strangers than talk about work, but he said, “It’s pretty interesting. I only wish I didn’t keep getting stuck at the office after hours to get everything done. On the other hand, I just made a huge student loan payment. So silver lining.”
“Oof,” said Lauren.
“But actually, there is something you can help me with. My boss is urging all the associates to do some kind of volunteer work, because DCL gives back to the community.” Josh added some sarcasm, which made Lauren chuckle. “You work with a lot of animal rescue organizations, right? Can you think of any opportunities?”
Lauren nodded. “My friend Mitch runs an organization that traps, neuters, and returns feral cats. He’s doing an event next Thursday. He dropped off brochures at the Café yesterday. I can email you the details.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It can be, but he trains everyone before he puts them to work.”
“Have you ever done it?”
Lauren shook her head.
“I did events like that a few times when I lived in Boston,” said Caleb. “A lot of it is setting up traps and waiting around for the cats to walk into them.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound too hard.”
“Then I’m one of the vets who actually neuters them and has to deal with them when they come out of anesthesia. So you have the easy job.”
Caleb’s tone was light, but Josh took his point. “Fair enough.”
“The feral cats don’t usually bite too hard,” said Lauren with a twinkle in her eye.
