AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With everything put together, I surveyed myself in the mirror. The outfit was a little boho but nothing over the top, and it certainly felt far more like me.
It would have to do.
I opened the door to the hallway to see Archie sitting on the runner outside, a sour expression on his whiskered face.
“Going to meet the Queen?” he asked sardonically as I brushed past.
“No, just Calvin’s parents,” I replied, even though he knew very well where I was headed this evening, since I’d already told him I was going out.
“I wasn’t aware they were so important that they required you to try on every piece of clothing in your closet,” the cat remarked.
By that point, I was used enough to Archie’s little jabs that his comment didn’t have much of an impact. “Not every item,” I said sweetly. “Just the ones that are right for the weather we’re having now.”
“Hmph.”
I went into the kitchen and busied myself with putting fresh water in his bowl and opening a can of chicken liver delight. It wasn’t his favorite, but after all, I couldn’t feed him salmoneverynight.
It was too much to hope that these actions would mollify him, and I was right. He remarked in sour tones, “It seems to me you’re making a big fuss over nothing.”
“That’s your opinion,” I returned as I set his bowls down on the special rug I’d bought for that very purpose. “Meeting someone’s parents is a big deal. But I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that.”
His golden eyes slitted. “Shows how much you know. I actually had a girlfriend in college.”
“Youwhat?” I blurted. After all, Archie had told me at our very first meeting that he had absolutely no interest in anyone, male or female. Had he been lying to me in order to ensure that I wouldn’t kick him out? After all, I would have felt a heck of a lot less comfortable around him if I’d thought he might be looking at me in a sexual way, cursed cat body or no.
He licked a paw, then said calmly, “Josephine Miller. Nice girl. We got along well enough, and it was the thing to do back then. But I realized somewhere along the way that I really had no interest in her in the manner I was supposed to, and so I broke things off. There hasn’t been anyone since.”
Wow. I’d just assumed that Archie had had no romantic attachments at all, but now I realized I was probably naïve to think such a thing. People often had to experiment a little along the journey before they realized where their true orientation lay.
“Did you meet her parents?” I asked.
“No, thank God.” Archie walked past me to glance into his bowl, then turned and gave me an irritated glance. “Chicken liver?”
“Variety is the spice of life.”
He sniffed, then said, “Josephine was from Terre Haute, and we met while we were both attending Northwestern University in Chicago. We broke up at the end of the semester, before the holidays, and so there was no reason for me to travel to Indiana to meet her parents.”
This all made some sense, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was still a little gobsmacked that he’d had any kind of romantic entanglements at all, even if there had been only a single, short-lived relationship.
However, I wasn’t given the opportunity to discuss the subject further, because right then, the doorbell rang. To my surprise, Archie didn’t disappear, but just started digging into his chicken liver delight. Maybe he didn’t see any reason to take off because he knew that Calvin and I were heading right back out again.
I went to answer the door. Calvin smiled down at me, looking positively amazing in a leather jacket over a dark teal shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots.
“You look wonderful,” he said as he bent down to give me a kiss.
“So do you,” I replied. “Give me a sec to grab my jacket and purse.”
He waited near the front door as I hurried off to fetch the items in question. Since they were laid out on my bed, it only took me a second to slip into the black suede jacket and slide the purse over my shoulder. I’d already closed the blinds and turned on a couple of lights, so we were good to go.
I sent one last look at Archie before I shut the door, but he was busy eating and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me. Well, fine. I knew he’d be safe on his own, and even though I knew he got irritated by how often I was gone, I refused to feel guilty. He was fed on time — mostly — and had a warm, secure place to sleep. Millions of cats across the world would be thrilled to be in his position.
And all right, he wasn’t really a cat, but still.
Calvin and I went downstairs and got in his Durango. As I buckled my seatbelt, he said, “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, which was only the truth. Sometimes you just had to rip off the Band-Aid and go for it.
He chuckled. “You’ll be fine. My parents are really looking forward to meeting you.”
