Beautiful
Boxes of Peruvian food, all stamped with the logo for Inca Papa, littered the low coffee table where Rox and Cash were sitting. Their laptops lay beside them on the velvety leather upholstery. Wine glasses and an empty bottle stood among the foam boxes and paper litter.
The couch was so deep that Rox’s feet stuck out straight, but tall, leggy Cash looked proportional sitting across from her with his ankle crossed over his knee. Even though they sat catty-corner to each other on the sectional, Cash had been reaching over with his chopsticks to feed her little tastes from his chicken and carrot dish, which was scented with garlic and soy sauce and was savory in her mouth.
His suit jacket was draped over the end of the couch, and he had rolled up his sleeves again. Black inked fire snaked to his wrist on his left arm.
Rox had to lean way over to hand him her fork so he could taste her steak thing, a heady mix of caramelized onions and dark tastes.
She scooted to the edge of the couch so that she could reach his outstretched fingers. Truly, she was so short that she was just a ball with hands and feet sticking out, sometimes.
Pirate, Midnight, and Speedbump had acclimated to Cash’s house astonishingly fast, even though they still were clingy. Speedbump and Midnight were wound in a tangle of warm black and gray fur on Rox’s lap, and she had her arms locked around both of them to keep them from falling off while they slept and she ate. Speedbump’s gimpy back leg was stretched out to the side.
Pirate was sitting on Cash’s lap, purring, while Cash carefully scratched around his ruined ears. Cash asked, “This isn’t hurting him?”
“He looks ridiculously happy. I really can leave them locked up in the guest bedroom so they won’t get fur all over your house.”
“You can’t lock up an animal like that. It’s unkind.” Cash gingerly moved to scratch under Pirate’s chin, and the cat stretched his neck to get more. His tongue was hanging out a little on one side of his mouth in his delirium.
“I really appreciate you letting us stay here, Cash. I found a guest house in between contracts today. They’re fine with cats. I filled out the form online, and they said they can do the credit check in the morning so I can move in tomorrow after work.”
“Good. As long as you’re safe. I started Melanie on drawing up documents to serve your old landlord. We’ll have your things and your deposit back within a few weeks, I predict.” He leaned his head to the side, watching Pirate, and smiled. “Okay, I know that they’re your babies, or whatever, and I hate to say anything harsh about an innocent animal, but these are some beat-up beasts.”
“They’re beautiful,” Rox said, scratching Midnight on his scarred back. The mound of cat fur on her lap began to purr. “Besides, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
Cash laughed a full-throated laugh. He threw his head back and everything. Pirate looked up at him, bemused. He said, “No, it’s not.”
“Of course it is.”
He raised one eyebrow. “If you’re not beautiful on the outside, you can’t get laid, no one likes you, and you won’t get ahead in life.”
Rox shook her head and released Midnight, who trotted away and licked his tail. “I call baloney, Cash.”
“It’s not. It’s the absolute truth.”
“You think you got where you are because you’re pretty?”
An incredulous look floated up his face. “Absolutely.”
Rox laughed at him. “Humble, much?”
“This is how I look. I am aware of how everyone reacts to me, every day. Yes, I have a bit of success because I am, as you have said,pretty.”
“You’re a damn fine lawyer, Cash. You went to Yale.”
He shrugged. “Money and flirting with the admissions board.”
“Every actor and model in this town wants you to look over their contract.”
He raised one eyebrow. “And then sleep with me.”
“Some of them are in New York and go over the contract via video chat.”
“And then they all fly in for one last meeting,” Cash said.
“You don’t sleep with the guys.”
“It’s not for their lack of trying.”
