Yeah, that’s absolutely fine.
I didn’t know when I was going to see her before then, and that bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
I should probably bring them over before then, though. For a test run.
Oh.
Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Just let me have some time to clean up so they don’t get into anything they shouldn’t.
I also wanted to order some cat toys so they wouldn’t get bored and attack my furniture.
Time to make a list.
* * *
When the boxesstarted piling up outside my door, I knew I might have gone a little bit overboard. I hadn’t bought a cat tree or anything, but I might have added too many cat toys to my cart. I couldn’t help myself. So many of them were so cute.
James had come over on Wednesday to help me film some content, and I was going to help her with hers in exchange and she noticed all the cat toys I’d left in a basket.
“Are you getting a cat?” she asked after she arrived.
“Uh, not exactly.” I should have put them away. Oops.
“They’re for Vail’s kittens. She’s bringing them over.”
James smirked at me. “Sounds like the two of you are getting along. Tell me, what stage of the relationship is a kitten playdate?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like that. It just isn’t. There were at least two times when I thought she was going to kiss me and then she didn’t. If she was going to go for it, she would have done it by now.” But she’d pulled back and we hadn’t talked about it again so the only conclusion I could draw was that she didn’t want to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss her. It happened. Not a big deal. Just let it go. Didn’t want to bring it up and then have to hear her reject me. Better to let it lie.
“Uh huh,” she said, still smirking. “We’ll see.”
* * *
James didher best to keep her comments to herself for the rest of our time together, which was nice of her. We got our work done, and she helped me with a website issue I’d been struggling with.
“You’re amazing, I love you.” I threw my arms around her neck, which wasn’t something I would normally do, but I couldn’t help myself.
James laughed and patted my arm. “You’re welcome. I do what I can.”
We both finally shut our laptops and decided to head out to get coffee. The bookshop was an essential stop so James could grab Delaney for a “break” for them to go out back and make out until Delaney had to go back to work.
If I had a girlfriend, I would probably do the same thing.
Seeing James and Delaney together so much had been making me think about the girlfriend question. Thinking that maybe I could give it a try. That it might not crash and burn. But then the nastiest, most vicious voices in my head told me that I’d fuck it up. That I’d break it without even trying. That I’d fail and take someone else down with me. That I was destined to be on my own.
No, a girlfriend was not for me. But I would like to have sex. It had been a while, and I was quickly getting bored with my own masturbation routine. I’d worn out the same old fantasies until they no longer had any allure or spice. Everything had become…dull. Just turn my vibrator on the highest setting and go until I could wrench a reluctant orgasm from my uninterested body. About as arousing as brushing my teeth. It was still good, but it wasn’t blowing my mind.
Shoving those thoughts away, I ordered my coffee and a slice of flourless chocolate cake that was covered in caramel sauce. It was a decadent slice of heaven, but I found myself wishing for cheesecake instead. Blueberry cheesecake, specifically. So much so that I went and canceled my regular coffee order and got an iced blueberry cream latte instead.
James noticed. “Trying something new?”
“Something like that.”
Chapter Sixteen
Vail
The kitties were not so soldon getting in the car. I had managed to get them used to going out by using the stroller but strapping them in with their little seats in the back of my car was new and they got very pitiful about it.
