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“Is he making trouble?” my father asked.
“No, I guess I am. I met someone.” I heaved out a breath. “I haven’t been with anyone in quite a while yet somehow, now I’m beating them off with sticks.”
My father laughed. “A fine problem to have. Just be gentle with Magnus. From all you’ve told me, he seems to be a true friend. Those are hard to come by.”
“Even though you just said men and women can’t be friends without sex rearing its ugly head?”
“Just because it rears its head it doesn’t mean you can’t figure out a way around it. Just be honest with everyone involved.” He let out a windy sigh. “Take it from me, the things you try to keep to yourself have a way of coming back to bite you in the ass.”
THIRTEEN
My day was packedfrom the moment I stepped into the clinic. Actually, even before.
I met Mrs. Gunderson in the parking lot, where she was fretting about her Shiz Tzu Freda and her constipation andoh, couldn’t I just fit poor sweet Freda in today so she could get her rest without worrying?
I wasn’t sure if she meant Freda or herself regarding rest, but I managed to fit Freda in just before noon, after I got a cancellation from a new kitten patient of mine with ringworm.
Well, from the kitten’s mom, not the kitten herself. That would be a feat.
The time I’d allotted for my lunch break came and went with no deli sandwich—and no Kitty. I didn’t get a text. I didn’t get anything.
As much as I wanted to assume that was odd behavior from Kitty, deep down, I knew it wasn’t. When we were together, we did awesome. Trouble occurred the second she was alone to think or dwell or whatever my thinky…not girlfriend—I couldn’t call her that yet until she agreed—did when she was on her own.
So I grabbed a sandwich from the vending machine and took a short break later in the afternoon to run home to check on my cat.
I found him sitting on the mat in the foyer of my apartment, one of my slippers under his body as if it was an egg he was guarding. He glared at me and let out a plaintive yowl of disapproval.
“Yeah, yeah, I know I didn’t fill up your bowl enough. I’m going to have to get you one of those timer feeders if I’m going to not be home as much—” I stopped and frowned.
What if this wasn’t just some blip with Kitty? She’d told me she wasn’t cut out for a relationship. She was unfailingly honest, though I knew she kept some stuff close to the vest.
Amazing sex aside, she was worried, and I probably hadn’t done enough to try to allay her fears.
No, I’d told her I needed her to come to Thanksgiving with my huge, gigantic family and pretend we were in a typical low-key relationship that hadn’t started on a cat rescue classified site.
Yeah, good one, Hauser. That’s the way to keep things nice and neutral. Drop her into a blazing frying pan right at the beginning.
A frying pan I’d been trying to avoid myself.
Not that my siblings would allow that. Despite it being a very busy workday, I’d gotten calls from two of my brothers and one of my sisters so far. And it was early in the week.
Within the next few days, I’d likely hear from every one of them in some capacity, either about what dishes they were bringing or why they couldn’t bring anything or if I’d finally found an excuse to get out of the shindig altogether.
That was negatory.
But Kitty clearly hadn’t even come by to feed my cat. Even if she had issues with me for some reason, she’d offered to do that, and I wasn’t cool with her letting down Lucky.
Neither was he, judging from the shredded toilet paper roll in the bathroom and the wrecked litter pan in the hall. He was usually tidy as a pin but not so today. Litter had been flung in every direction in obvious kitty temper.
I didn’t blame him. I was suffering from my own bout of temper at the moment myself.
While I could see where I’d made some errors in judgment—okay, fine, numerous errors—I was more than a little annoyed she’d let Lucky down. Who did that after offering to help in the first place? Especially considering how we’d met.
And she had my key. I’d given her a key after one night spent together.
What had I been thinking? I supposed it didn’t much matter because she hadn’t used it.
Dodged a bullet there.
