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I have only two hours left of work, and I feel tired and drained. For days on end Corey has asked me to drive back to Silver Lake and hang out with him, but I honestly don’t have the energy for it. He turns thirty three in a few weeks, so I guess I will wait until then. I would love to bring Noah with me. I feel like they would get along pretty well.
My coworker, Maria, snaps me out of my thoughts.
“It must be something really big and juicy, if it hasYOUthat deep into your thoughts.” Her sweet voice draws a giggle out of me, but it also startles a tiny black kitten, resting on my thighs.
“First of all, stop thinking about my boyfriend’s dick. Second of all, you were close. It definitely is big. Third of all, stop scaring my cats away.”
“Christine again? Have you heard from her?” Maria raises an eyebrow at me.
“No. I sure do hope I never hear from her again. She is trouble, and that's something I do not need in my life.” I say, patting the kitten to calm it down.
“Well, let’s send that message into the universe.” Maria says, pointing to the ceiling, and we both laugh. “Do you mind if I stay and close up tonight? You really look like hell, and could use a bit more rest.”
I look at her apologetically, which does nothing for her determination to send me home, even though I am kind of her boss.
“I don’t mean this in a bad way, Ronan, but you need rest, sweetheart. We need you here and you are burning out. Go home and get some goddamn rest!” she says sternly, and walks out of my office.
I take that as a cue to pack my shit up and leave. As I stomp around the office, the kitten never leaves my side. She rubs her ears on my boots and meows, and my heart breaks for her.
What if I took her home? I could give her everything she needs. The little creature looks up at me, blinking its gorgeous black eyes, the pupils so blown you can barely see the yellow ring around it. She shakes her tiny head sweetly, as if she knew what I was just thinking about.
“Oh, you sure want to go with me?” I tell her, my voice is seven octaves higher than normal. Baby talkers, assemble! “Yes, you do! Oh yes you do, you little minx.”
I scratch behind her little ears and low rumbles of her purring fill out the room. I take one of the boxes piled up near our backdoor, and stuff her inside. I print out a silver pendant and put it on her new pink collar. She nuzzles into my palm, once I wrap it securely around her small neck.Toma, it says. She looks like a Toma to me.
Waving at Maria, I leave the office, smuggling the kitten out. I will fill out the paperwork tomorrow morning. The little bundle of fur meows at me the whole walk to my apartment, and after a week of dullness and exhaustion, I feel like I am finally, genuinely smiling. We keep the conversation going, right up until the building entrance. I talk to her, and she purrs or meows at me. What a great listener Toma is.
Our chatter stops the moment I notice there is light shining through my apartment window. Noah must be here, but we weren’t supposed to meet for at least three more hours.
I run up the stairs bursting with excitement, only to find the doors open, and the whole floor covered in dusty greenish petals. The smell of something burned, no,charred, wafts through the space. The kitten scrunches her little face, and I giggle. Reaching the living room I see my dining table gorgeously set, tall wine glasses, candles and more flowers and a note on, I suppose, my plate. A cough steals my attention, and I burst out laughing as I see Noah’s ass sticking out of the smoking oven.
“Fucking stupid idiot, fucking shit looking brownies,FUCK!” he curses turning to face me, and then smiles softly as our eyes connect.
“Welcome home, Ljubavi,” he says sweetly, then drops his gaze to a tiny black puff ball in the box I hold in front of me. Reaching an arm he grabs the pendant on her collar and looks at it. “Oh, pardon me, welcome home to the both of you, ladies.”
His lips connect with mine, and just like the first time, I see every single constellation behind my closed eyelids. For a moment there, all the hiding disappears. There is only Noah, me and Toma, who is screaming at the top of her lungs, wanting some attention too.
“So, what are we cleaning up?” I joke.
“Only the brownies. I didn’t burn anything else, though the bread might be a little raw in the middle. Your oven is…questionable.” He looks apologetically at me, taking the kitten out of the box. “Where are the supplies for her? Like, litter box,andfood,andtoys?”
“Oh shit. That’s what I forgot to get!” I whisper scream, slapping my forehead.
“We can go get it, the stores are still open.” He grabs his car keys and leaves for the door.
“Excuse me sir, the candles! We need to blow them out. You burned the brownies, let’s stop at that.”
We finish up with the candles, and I kiss Toma on the nose.
“You’ll be a good girl, right? We’ll be right back!” She wiggles her head, and nestles on my fluffy pillow. I have nothing to worry about.
About twenty minutes later, we finally have everything we need.
A litter box, litter, ten freaking kilos of cat food, both those little cat stews and dry food. Noah fills the basket with every single cat toy he sees, some of them the same model, just in various colors, and now he is dragging it all to the car as I sit in the passenger seat, eating a mango ice cream from the shop next to the pet store.
He is so tall it makes my tummy flutter as I keep licking at the frozen stick in my hands. He looks at me and stops in his tracks.
“So lewd. I love it.”
