He cocked his head to the side curiously. “Why can’t you?”
What did I say tothat? “Well, uh,” I ventured, “I wasn’t invited?” That was pretty neutral, right?
Hen just rolled his eyes. “You didn’t even give me a chance to invite you yet! And for the record, you are definitely invited. You let me get you into trouble at the pet store; it’s only fair if I let you do the same to me. How about tomorrow night?” he offered. “Or, no,” he corrected himself before I could speak, “that’s probably too short a notice. And we probably have a few days before Sandra finishes checking my references.” He thought for a second. “How about Wednesday night? I could…” He paused and…was he blushing just a little? “You could come over to my house first and I could feed you? And then we could go shopping?”
I took a moment to wonder why those statements had come out as questions. Was he second-guessing his invitation even as he spoke it? And just what sort of invitation was this intended to be? Like, should I wear my sexy underwear?
When I didn’t reply immediately, Hen apparently decided to sweeten the pot. “It would give you a chance to see Curie again,” he offered. “And you could, um…help me pick out where to put the additional litterbox.”
I was pretty sure he didn’t need a second person to consult for that, but I wasn’t going to be the one to point that out if he was trying to think of reasons for me to be at his house. “That sounds good.” I pulled my phone out to check my calendar. “My last meeting on Wednesday is actually at 3, so I could get to your place any time after about 4:30. Whatever works for you.”
Before he could reply, the office door opened and Sandra bulled through it with two cat carriers containing complainingkitties. “Here they are!” she announced. “Singing the song of their people.”
Meow!
Mrrrrrr.
Hen and I both grinned widely, eyes meeting. I jumped to my feet to take the carriers out of Sandra’s hands, pressing a finger to the mesh in front of Minnie’s face. “Hello, my sweet girls. Are you ready to come home with me? I promise you’ll have lots of places to sleep and plenty of food and toys.” Could cats be bribed? Who cared, I was going to try!
“Hey, Jamison?” Hen asked, looking down at the forms he’d been filling out. “Can I use you as a reference? Great.” He jotted down my contact information on the form without actually waiting for me to agree, not that I’d been about to disagree. “I’m not sure how quickly my vet will respond to you when you call them,” he told Sandra. “They’re a pretty small practice and sometimes it’s just ‘Leave a message, and we’ll call you back when it’s not chaos’.”
Sandra patted his shoulder, then stretched her hand down to pet Curie where she was still curled up. Curiemrrped but didn’t open her eyes. “We’re used to working with vets. And unless your practice is far away, we’ve probably dealt with them before, anyway. Most of the vets know the shelters, and vice versa. We’re in the same business, as it were.” With a final scratch to Curie’s ears, she moved her attention to Solo, who was watching us from the desk. “Now, let’s get our gentleman home for the night.” She scooped him up into her arms and carried him out of the room, managing to get the door open and then closed behind her without dropping the cat, which was, frankly, kinda impressive.
“That woman,” Hen said quietly to me as the door closed behind her. “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t sleep. Or maybe just sleeps in one of the cages.”
I snickered at the mental image of Sandra squeezing her bulk into one of the small cat crates and snoozing away, the better to wake up and start her work early in the morning. “She’s definitely dedicated. What do you want to bet she’s on the phone to your references tonight?”
“Oh!” He reached under Curie to pull his phone from his pocket. “That reminds me to text Jamal and warn him that a strange lady is going to be calling him and demanding information about me.”
Jamal? Who was Jamal, again? Was that a burst of…jealousy in my chest? That was dumb. We weren’t a couple, and there was no reason to think this ‘Jamal’ was anything but a friend, or even just an acquaintance, anyway.
So why was I frowning? I carefully cleared my expression and stood up. “You do that, and I’ll see if I can get Curie back in her carrier,” I suggested. “I suspect I’m going to need the practice for my girls.”
Obediently, Hen lifted the clipboard up where it had been resting on Curie’s shoulder so I could get to her. I scooped her up and cuddled her to my chest. “You ready to go home, little girl? In a few days you’ll have a new friend moving in!”
Curie regarded me with tired eyes but didn’t have anything to say to that. Her eyes widened when I lowered her toward the open top of the carrier, however, and suddenly she sprouted three more legs, all of which were braced on the edges of the opening to fight me as I tried to lower her in. “Hey, come on,” I coaxed. “If you go in your carrier, Hen will take you home to all your pillows and toys.”
Curie was not convinced.
Henry was watching me and chuckling. I glared at him and he just shrugged. “You didn’t give me a chance to warn you she hates the carrier.”
“But she wanted to stay in it when we opened it,” I protested, remembering. That wasn’t logical!
“Cats,” was all he said in reply, turning his hands up helplessly. “Here,” he finally offered, standing up to join me at the carrier. “Let me pull her claws out.”
Hen gently unhooked Curie’s claws from the fabric and together, we managed to wedge her into the open carrier. As I drew my hands back, he quickly reached down and zipped the zipper closed, nearly catching her twitching tail at the end of it before she yanked it back defensively. “There,” he said, patting the now-closed carrier in satisfaction. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I wasn’t sure whether he was asking me or Curie, but I suspected both of our answers would be the same. I raised my eyes from where they’d been focused on Curie and found Hen watching me closely from mere inches away. Reflexively, I flinched.
“Sorry,” Hen muttered, pulling back. “I didn’t mean to…”
“No,” I interrupted before he could go on, “it’s ok. I wasn’t -”
“And he’s in for the night!” Sandra announced, charging back through the office door and startling us both. We jumped apart as if we’d been doing something naughtier than being awkward together. “You done with those forms, Henry?” she went on, reaching for the clipboard Hen still had in a loose grip.
“Oh.” He blinked and looked down at it. “I, uh…yeah?” He let her take the clipboard, still blinking as if he wasn’t quite sure what had just happened.
“Great.” She gave him a wide smile. “I’ll get started on your references tonight and then give you a call to let you know when you’ll be able to pick Solo Cup up.” She burbled a girlish giggle. “Heh, that rhymed. Cup, up.”
