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“An indoor bathroom,” he said then, and looked almost wistful. “That would be a nice change of pace.”
Well, I’d been planning to go out and get stocks of toilet paper and Kleenex and other odds and ends anyway. “Any pet stores in town?”
“I don’t believe so. There’s a Walmart.”
Back in L.A., I would never set foot inside a Walmart. I’d always been a Target girl. But now that I was in Globe, I realized I didn’t have a lot of options…unless I wanted to drive all the way into Queen Creek or Mesa, two of Phoenix’s most southeastern suburbs.
I tried not to sigh. “Okay. Do you want me to get you a bowl of water before I head out?”
“And some salmon treats?” he asked hopefully.
“The cupboard is bare,” I said. “I was planning to go to the store after I did some work here.”
“Water will have to do, then.”
Luckily, I’d brought along a few odds and ends of dishes to tide me over until the ones I’d ordered showed up. I got out a bowl, rinsed it off, and then filled it with water. As soon as I set it on the floor, Archie ambled over and began to drink. He seemed relaxed about the whole thing, but I could tell he must have been pretty thirsty.
How long had he been out on the balcony, just waiting for me to show up?
Poor guy.
I resisted the impulse to reach down and scratch him behind the ears. After all, we didn’t know each other that well yet.
“Be back soon,” I promised him, and he yawned and headed out to the living room.
“Get me a bed and a scratching post, too.”
Hmm. I was starting to get the impression that Archie had a bit of an entitlement complex. However, since I’d already agreed to take him in, I figured there was no point in arguing.
After all, it wasn’t as if I couldn’t afford to get him a few odds and ends.
I let myself out, wondering all the while what else Globe had in store for me.
The trip to Walmart turned out to be fairly uneventful, though, and I was back at my new home within the hour. It took a while to lug all my purchases up to the second floor, but eventually, Archie was gifted with the requested cat bed and scratching post, and had wolfed down a bowl of Special Kitty dry cat food. Thus fortified, he curled up in a ball and promptly went to sleep in a patch of sunlight slipping through the window of the second bedroom, the one I planned to turn into an office.
While I was out, I’d gotten a text from the place where I’d bought my living room furniture that delivery had been updated to the next day. Perfect. I didn’t know why the schedule had been shifted by three days, but I wasn’t going to argue. I hadn’t been looking forward to sitting on a folding chair until my new furniture showed up, and now I wouldn’t have to worry about it.
I also heard from Josie’s nephew Brett, who wanted to know if he could stop by and take a look at the place so he could give me an estimate. It seemed like a perfectly logical request, so I told him that would be fine. Although I wasn’t in any rush, I still wanted to see what the shop space would look like once the warm reddish faux finish had been replaced by cool blue.
From the way he eyed me as he entered the place, I had a feeling I wasn’t what he’d been expecting. I also noticed the glint of a wedding ring on his left hand, so apparently, he wasn’t the “love connection” the cards had predicted for me in Globe.
Which was fine. I still hadn’t quite come to terms with having a cursed asexual cat living in my apartment, and so I probably didn’t need the complication of a love life quite yet.
Besides, Brett, while not bad-looking, wasn’t really my type. His hair was just as blazing red as his aunt’s, telling me that even if she was helping nature along at this point, her fiery hair had started out natural enough, and he had a redhead’s freckled complexion and stood barely an inch taller than I did. My taste tended to lean more toward the tall, dark, and handsome type, although there hadn’t been much of that in my life lately.
At any rate, since I was wearing faded jeans, lime green Keds, and a green cardigan over a white T-shirt, I guessed I didn’t look quite like the woo-woo shop owner Brett had been expecting.
“Just this space?” he asked, looking around the store area.
“Yes,” I said. “The upstairs is great. Actually, the paint here normally would be fine, but it won’t work with the theme of the store.”
A nod and a businesslike “got it,” and Brett took a quick survey, going up close and running a hand over the walls to make sure there weren’t any hidden spots that might need repair.
“Eight hundred,” he announced when he was done, which sounded reasonable to me. “I’ve got some swatches — I’ll need to go into Mesa to get the paint, since there isn’t anything closer with a decent variety.”
For the next few minutes, I pored over the swatch books he provided, then said I wanted “Moonlit Indigo,” which was a darkish blue with a faint green undertone. He nodded and told me he’d be back the next day, we shook hands, and that, it seemed, was that.
Archie was still sleeping when I went upstairs, so I puttered around and made a decent dent in the stacked boxes in the living room and master bedroom. By the time he woke up, the place didn’t look quite so much like a disaster area, although of course, it wouldn’t really begin to resemble a home until the furniture started to arrive.
