They miss you
I missed them too. They were just so funny and so cute I could barely deal.
James was asking about going out next weekend and if I was up for Friday night at Sapph.
I was, but I also asked her if I could bring Vail. James and Delaney had been harassing me about inviting Vail to come with us so they could meet her. And by “meet” they meant interrogate and assess. I couldn’t count how many times I’d told them that there was nothing going on between me and Vail, but they just shared one of those annoying couple looks and gave me twin smirks.
They would know something was up when I couldn’t form a coherent sentence in front of Vail if she smiled at me too much. They’d know and then I’d never hear the end of it.
Sure you can bring her. The more the merrier.I’d told James about Vail coming out to me and she had been so smug about being right that I threw things at her until she begged me to stop.
Great, let me ask her.
I’d have to meet with James and Delaney and beg them not to make things awkward beforehand. To ask them to chill out. This friendship with Vail was too new and too fragile. I didn’t want to fuck it up and I didn’t want my friends to fuck it up on my behalf.
Aw, they’re so cute I can’t stand it. Hey, what do you think about coming to Sapph next Friday with me and my friends? No pressure.I don’t know why I added that last part. Vail wasn’t the kind of person who was susceptible to peer pressure. She’d always done whatever she wanted.
Sure, sounds fun. Which friends?
I told her it was just James and Delaney. I’d talked about them to her often enough, so it was almost like she’d already met them.
I’m in. As long as you buy me one drink. That’s all I ask.
Now I had to buy her a drink at Sapph too?
Oh I see how it is, I agree to do one thing for you and now you think you can ask for other stuff.
That wasn’t a flirt. It was…something else. Just conversation. I was not flirting with her.
You buy the first drink. I’ll buy the second. Fair?
That was fair, and I told her so.
Even though it was Sunday night, I was already anticipating next Friday night like a kid waiting for Santa to come.
Now I just had to get through the rest of this week.
Chapter Twelve
Vail
I wasn’tsure if I was ready to meet Lea’s friends, but it was happening anyway. I couldn’t say no to going out with her. It would probably be fine, but I was so out of practice with these kinds of social situations. So much of my time was spent talking to kittens or recording in my little booth by myself. And the social skills I’d learned from my mother were all about seeing what you could get from someone else. Forging connections. Networking. That kind of thing. You never became friends with anyone just because you liked their company. What was the point of that?
I was going to have to figure it out or fake it well enough. It was just a few drinks at a bar. If I couldn’t do that, then I had some serious social problems.
Lea would be there with me. She wouldn’t let me down.
The rest of the week I spent getting as much work done as possible and worrying about leaving the kittens alone on Friday. It was only going to be for a few hours, but I was stressing about it. They were still so little. I even broke down and looked up a pet-sitting service and booked a potential cat sitter to come over for an interview to stay with them on Friday. Normally I wouldn’t have let a stranger into my house like that, but if I left them alone, I’d be distracted and worried the whole night.
On Wednesday, the cat sitter, a woman about a decade older than me named Maya, knocked on my door. She smiled and I let her in. I’d been impressed by her profile on the site, considering she had a degree in animal science and had worked at an animal shelter.
“Come on in,” I said, leading her to the living room so she could meet Brit and Tana.
“Oh my goodness, look at you,” she said, immediately crouching down and holding her hand out to the kittens. They eyed her suspiciously before slowly creeping over to sniff her.
“They’re probably confused and smell my kitties.” Her voice was low and soft so they weren’t threatened.
Within moments my kitties were purring and rubbing themselves all over her hands.
