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Mari pulled back her chair and saw Ebi sitting there with one paw raised and his claws extended.

“Ebi!”

The cat was, as she usually was, nonplussed at the pain she’d caused her.

With an almost human sigh, Ebi got up on her feet, turned, and then swished her tail and walked out of the room.

“Did she draw blood?”

Mari hung her head. “It feels like it.”

Her phone gave her a notification of an incoming call and Mari lowered it so she could see who it was.

The screen gave her the answer in an instant.

HEATH

She put the phone back up to her ear and told her friend. “It’s him. He’s calling now.

“You should talk to him, Mari. If he’s not here to apologize, I’ll kick him to the curb for you.”

Mari’s heart made the decision for her.

It squeezed painfully at the thought of letting him leave without talking to him.

Or letting him talk while she figured out if she could let him go without her heart breaking all the way.

“Call me later, Mari. Let me know how it goes.”

The call ended and Mari tapped the button to answer.

“Hello?”

She heard him sigh. A hard rush of air. “Can I come in?”

Mari’s lips pressed together in a thin line and closed her eyes. “I’m working.”

Silence.

She felt her heart drop. Was her anger and her frustration worth turning him away like this?

“Heath?”

She thought she heard him swallow before he spoke.

“Yeah?”

Mari bit into her bottom lip until she felt like she drew blood. “I’m coming.”

She ended the call there and put the phone back down on her desk, facedown.

While he was here, she was going to give him her full attention.

They both deserved that.

When she walked through the living room area, she saw Ebi on one of the seat cushions of the couch, stretched out in the sun.

She lifted her head and gave her a look that said she was about to go to sleep and not happy with the interruption.