Well, that, and when they first shook hands, Caleb felt a spike of jealousy. It was unfounded—a few minutes of speaking with Evan revealed he was gay—but that it had happened at all was an unpleasant surprise. Caleb had no claim on Lauren. They weren’t seeing each other exclusively. They weren’t even in a relationship. Hell, they weren’t even friends. They were two people who verbally sparred sometimes and then had sex.
He moved about the party. All of the vets had to wear official blue Whitman Street Veterinary Clinic T-shirts so they would be easily identifiable to the party guests, which meant he fielded some questions from potential cat parents. He knew most of the cats at the café were rescues who came from shelters, so he also assumed the cats had been screened for devastating diseases like feline leukemia and the feline version of HIV. Maybe the years of treating sick cats had made him too pessimistic, but all these people drinking and thinking taking home a cat was a good idea made him a little wary.
Which was why he inserted himself into a conversation with a woman who was telling a prospective cat adopter that she didn’t take her cat to the vet regularly because the cat stayed inside all the time and didn’t need shots.
“You really should, just in case,” Caleb said to the woman.
“Well, sure,” she said, glancing at his shirt. “You want us to pay you hundreds of dollars every year.”
“No, I want to prevent the spread of feline diseases should your cat escape your apartment or otherwise be exposed to other cats.”
“He wouldneverescape.”
“I passed four different missing cat posters on the way to work just this morning. You never know.”
The woman just scoffed at him.
So he wasn’t feeling very sociable when he finally ran into Lauren again. She looked to be a couple of cocktails into her evening, but she greeted him pleasantly enough.
“All right, cat lady. Do you screen or do a background check on any of the people who adopt cats?” he asked.
“We make them answer a series of questions to make sure they’re ready to take in a cat. The cats who live in the café have already been spayed or neutered and their shots are up to date, so that’s already taken care of. We get everyone’s contact information, and Paige calls them to follow-up in a few weeks. That’s really all we can do.”
Lauren’s tone struck Caleb as blasé. “That’s all you can do.”
“It’s not like we’re giving out state secrets here. And you guys at the clinic don’t do any more than that when you allow pets to be adopted.”
“No, but most of the adoptions are to people who are already clients.”
“Sometimes, my cold-blooded friend, you have to trust your fellow human beings to be good people. What’s the alternative? A lot of these cats would die on the streets or in kill shelters otherwise. At least this way, we give them a chance at a good home.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust people…”
Lauren leveled her gaze at him, as if to say, “Oh, please.”
“I’m only worried about the welfare of the animals.”
“Sure, you are.”
The mocking note in her tone felt like she was goading him. On purpose? He couldn’t tell.
He rolled with it. “I’m just saying, letting any rando off the street adopt a cat could lead to these cats being mistreated, and that’s not what you want.”
“Of course not. We do screen people. Are you accusing me of something?”
“No. I would never accuse you of anything.”
She scoffed. “Oh, really?”
“Have I ever?”
“You’ve called me flighty on a few occasions. And you, buddy, are stubborn and untrusting.”
Their raised voices were starting to attract attention around them.
“You’retootrusting. You live in some strange fantasy land of cats and unicorns where everything is perfect, and it’s ridiculous. People aren’t nice. That’s not how the world works.”
“That’s not fair. I’m doing good work here. If you can’t see that—”
