With the paperwork filled out, and one more volunteer scratched to shit, I was the proud owner of the grumpiest cat in the building. He was perfect.
“Good luck,” the first volunteer muttered to me as she handed me the folder with all of his forms in it.
I couldn’t hide the eye roll this time. It had been a long damn day, and this girl wasn’t helping. “We’ll be fine. He just doesn’t like you. Clearly,” I said with a shrug as I picked up his little carrier and walked back to my jeep. I set him on the passenger seat and then hopped in, starting it up and turning on the A.C. for us both. The sun had definitely come out now, and we were feeling it.
“Okay, my dude. You need a name, but I guess we have time to decide. Also, you should know that I’m not normally so snarky, but I think you’re great, and she was being kinda bitchy. I mean, you saw that right?” I looked down at him, and he blinked up at me before letting out a smallmeow.“I’m glad we’re on the same page with this dude. Let’s go home.”
This morning I was in a shitty yoga class, and now I had a cat. Maybe I should apply for the damn sex app. I was clearly having a ‘be crazy’ type of day, and it could use some whipped cream.
“Okay CC,I think I should do this. Do you think they’ll even accept me? It’s an application, so it isn’t as if it’s a sure-fire thing, right?” I asked, staring at who I had quickly deemed my new best friend.
Wide gold eyes stared up at me as his fluffy tail flicked back and forth across the hardwood floors. I’d quickly discovered that he enjoyed the game of fetch. I wasn’t sure if that was normal for a cat, but who was I to judge? I’d gotten him a couple of toys at the pet store, and so far, the only ones he’d taken to were the small toy mice that were catnip-infused. I’d throw one, he’d snatch it back up and drop it at my feet. We’d been doing this for almost an hour while I filled out the application to join this insane sex app that the girls in my yoga class talked about.
Apparently it was part of an exclusive sex club over in Sapphire Cove, called Silk and Spice. I’d never heard of it, and I was surprised how easy it was to find, but again, the only socializing I did was in the bakery, and it wasn’t as if people came into Buns of Delight to discuss their latest flogging session. I chuckled to myself at my own joke as I threw the mouse for CC again.
The application was pretty straightforward. It asked for your name, age, an up-to-date physical and clean bill of health, if I was on birth control—thankfully I was—and the last time I was sexually active—basically my life’s historysince the moment I started pleasuring myself with or without a partner.
I’d give it to the creators; they were thorough. My eyes scanned over the list of likes and dislikes, each on a scale of one to five, one being absolutely not, three being maybe, and five being fuck yes. They even had a comment section for each if you wanted to elaborate on your ‘hard limits’, as they called them.
Penetration—of course. Penetrate away.
Choking—yolo, please don’t kill me.
Degradation.I stared at the word and genuinely thought about whether I wanted to be called names and talked down to. Who knows? Maybe if he were hot enough. Solid three.
Praise—call me a good girl, daddy.
I started giggling to myself, wondering if they’d regret letting me this far into this test run when they saw these comments.
Anonymous sex?Perfection. Yes.
The only question I came to that I took a moment to answer was ‘Why are you interested in trying out our app?’I thought about lying, making up some shit about how I just wanted to try new things, this seemed like such fun, whatever bullshit the other girls were putting to gain an approval email. But after a few minutes of staring off into space and realizing I wasn’t even that serious about this, I decided to be honest. I reread my answer for the third time, ‘I’m sick of my mother’s bitching about how I’ll always be alone. This seemed like a solid way to find new nonsense to tell her, so she’ll get off my back’.Yup. That was what I was going with.
Next question.
I finished the rest of the survey in no time and closed my laptop before I could start getting in my head about why this even mattered. It didn’t. I didn’t evenwantto be on this app.
“Okay, CC, dinner time!” I said as he trotted over, a small purple mouse stuffed in his mouth. “Tuna or salmon tonight?” He cocked his head at me, as if to say, ‘you tell me human female.’
“I can’t believe I’m full-on talking to a cat. I have a cat. This is just. Wow. Okay, dinner.” I let out a breath and dished CC out some fancy salmon kitty food in his dish before I made myself dinner as well.
“You know, CC, I never wanted kids or anything, but I also didn’t see certified cat mom in my future,” I mumbled mostly to myself. Thankfully, he didn’t acknowledge me for even a moment as his face was buried in his food bowl, and we ate in a comfortable silence.
It was an hour later, in the middle of me making the specials’ schedule for the bakery this week, that my phone dinged with a new email. I looked over and felt my stomach drop as I saw the message that’d come in.
“Oh fuck me,” I muttered to myself.
I’d been accepted into the Silk and Spicedatingapp, insane comments and all.
“Why doesn’tMom like me the way she does my brothers?” I asked Grandpa. My voice was more of a whisper as he sat next to me on the bench at our breakfast table.
Mom had been leaving me here with Grandpa a lot lately. She’d just drop me and take my brothers out to do something, and it didn’t make any sense. I was a big girl now—I’d just turned ten, and they were only eight. They never listened when we went out, and I always did. So why was I here, and they were out playing and having fun with our parents? I knew they saw Dad while theywere out too. Evan had told me the last time she’d picked me up and brought me home.
Grandpa looked down at me. He had the same brown eyes I did, but his face was covered in wrinkles, and he had almost no hair left on his head. He said that happened when you got old.
“What makes you ask that, Doll?” he said as he cut another piece of his pancake.
“Well, she always drops me off here with you, and her and my brothers go out and do fun stuff. Why don’t I get to come along with them? Like family?”
