Hours later, I wake with a wet nose pressed against mine. “Mew.”
“Shush. Go away.” I turn my head into my husband’s warm chest but undeterred, Cat paws and sniffs my ear.
“Fine.” Rolling out from under Suds’ heavy arm, I don leggings and a t-shirt.
Happy, Cat dances around my ankles purring like mad.
Once I’m done feeding her, I open website after website. Somewhere, there has to be a bit of good news about the plague but if there is, I can’t find it.
Damn. Look how many people caught the virus. I say a short prayer for my dad and all the first responders. Then, I read my emails. Most of the correspondence is junk but one sets my heart pounding.
The subject says READ THIS, the sender is unknown, and the body of the email contains a date and a time. I shake off the disturbing prickly feelings. The message was probably sent by a teenager trying to get a thrill during their otherwise boring confinement.
It’s nothing.
Suds stirs upstairs, Cat jumps, shoots across the room, and careens off the wall. Bounding up the stairs, she meows triumphantly at the top.
My partner snickers and pads downstairs, bare-chested, carrying the fur-ball of cuteness. He sets her down on the floor where she sneaks over to the cupboard.
“Meow? Meow?”
“She’s lying. I fed her.” I don’t look up from my computer so she scratches at the cabinet and I ignore that, too.
“Nice try, kitty. You almost had me fooled.” Suds settles down beside me, drapes one arm over the back of my chair and stares at my screen. “What’s all this?”
“Facebook advertising.” I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, wondering if he’ll think it’s a waste of time and money.
“Huh. You get any hits?”
“None worth mentioning, except this weird email.” I open the strange missive and drag it to my spare monitor. “I’m trying to trace the origin but not having much success.”
“Some kid, playing jokes?” Pursing his lips, he scratches his beard, and stretches.
Holy fuck, he is a fine specimen of a man. I place my hand on his thigh and stare at his beautiful face until I remember we were in the middle of a conversation. “It’s probably nothing.”
Suds finishes his coffee and lifts his laptop’s lid. “I’ve got to order me a treadmill.”
“Great. I was thinking you could place it in the loft.” I grin because we both know he can’t stand up straight, except at the apex.
He opens a few more windows, comparing prices. “Hmm… I can’t find one for crawling on hands and knees.”
“Probably not… How about you set it in the bathroom? Pee and go. Not so good for me. I need to sit.”
He laughs. “Cut it out. I’m putting it in the foyer.”
“What if there’s a fire?” I imagine me cooking, the extinguisher failing, and me dying as I trip over the equipment.
“Not very likely but if you’re worried, I’ll switch the door so it opens into the stairwell.” He makes everything sound reasonable but I can’t picture it. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
“Speaking of stairs, did you notice the café is empty? Gina said she wasn’t breaking even so gave up and closed shop. I told her we’d keep an eye on things and she said we could help ourselves to her stock.”
“Nice bartering.” Suds leans over and kisses me, holding me in place with his fingers threaded through my hair.
I pull his earlobe to my mouth and nip. “If this pandemic goes on much longer, I may need to pimp you out for groceries. The ladies want to auction you on our next Zoom meeting.”
“You are too much.” Chuckling, he shakes his head, and our lips meet for another round of heated tongue play.
Now Suds is feeling better, I probably should clue him in to some of the new clientele. “Uh, while you were sick, Frankie wanted me to do some work for him.”
