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Julia’s apartment had a large open space living room, and it flowed into the small kitchenette.
While the coffee was brewing, I put out Grumpy’s gourmet food and filled his water bowl. Your food looks better than most human food, I thought as I watched Grumpy gobble up the diced chicken and mixed vegetables.
The buzzing from the phone interrupted my daydreaming, and I looked at the caller.
“Hi, Julia!” I said when I accepted the FaceTime video call. Then, I propped the phone against a decorative vase that held some dried flowers.
“Good morning, Claire!” Julia sounded chipper, and for someone who got even less sleep than me, she looked wide awake and boho chic. She was wearing an oversized maroon sweatshirt with the slogan Be Kind embossed on the front.
“Did you sleep okay?” she asked.
“Uh-huh,” I replied and poured some freshly made coffee into a mug.
“You’re not very talkative this morning,” Julia said. I raised a finger as I gulped some more coffee.
When I managed to down a few more sips of the piping hot coffee, I said, “Sorry about that. I just woke up not too long ago, and I hadn’t had any coffee when you called. In fact, I woke up to the phone buzzing, but I missed the call.”
“That was probably me. I tried to call earlier. Anyway, now that you’re up, what are you doing today?”
“Considering I’m still not completely awake, I haven’t thought about it.” I took another sip and savored the dark roast. This is good, I thought before adding, “I hope we’re able to talk to Annisa, but I also want to go back down to Monterey and talk to Sully.”
I saw Julia nod her head vigorously in agreement. “I took a few personal days off, so I can come with you. And Tristan said that he’ll feed and walk Grumpy today, so we can take our time while we’re down there. By the way, can you let me in?”
“What?” Still in a partial brain fog, I didn’t understand Julia’s question.
“I’m standing outside the door. Can you let me in?” Julia flipped the phone around and moved it so she could show the outside of her door.
I saw the familiar potted evergreen trees that were stationed on either side of the door.
“Why don’t you use your key to get in?” I was mystified why Julia was asking me permission to come into her own apartment.
“I didn’t want to barge in on you.” Julia shrugged. “Now that you’re staying here with Grumpy, I want you to feel like this is your place.”
“That’s considerate and completely unnecessary,” I said, grinning at my best friend.
Holding the phone in one hand and a coffee cup in the other, I made my way to the front entrance with Grumpy trailing alongside of me. By the way he cocked his ears forward, he sensed that something was up. When I opened the door, he barked and jumped on Julia.
“Hi, little dude,” Julia cooed and bent down to scoop him up. “I missed you.”
“You and Tristan were just here last night.” After we came back to San Francisco, Julia and Tristan stayed at the apartment rather than drive to their place right away. We talked until way after midnight.
“Do you want some coffee?” I held my cup up and noticed that I needed to top off my drink.
Julia shook her head. “No, I already had my cup this morning, but you go ahead and get more. We can make a plan for this afternoon.”
“Good idea.” I turned around and shuffled my way to the kitchen.
I picked up the coffee pot to pour the last dregs into my mug when Julia said, “You know you can make an espresso drink with the machine.” She was referring to her high-speed Italian coffee maker.
I nodded. “I don’t need anything fancy in the morning. Just give me plain old black coffee, and I’m good.” I saluted her with my cup before I took a sip.
Julia chuckled at my caffeine-crazed addiction. “I don’t know how you can drink it plain because it’s so bitter.”
I gave her my most snobbish sneer and said in a high-pitched, haughty voice, “The uninformed will never appreciate the fine taste of a good roast.”
Julia burst out laughing. “Okay, okay!” she conceded and took a seat on a stool. “What’s our plan when we go to Monterey?” She rested her chin on her folded palms and looked expectantly at me while I thought about what we should do.
I wrinkled my nose and sucked the air through my teeth. “Honestly, I don’t have one yet. I was going to call Aiden once I was more alert, but you called before I could do that.”
