Whatever trauma Chili had inflicted was instantly forgotten, and Clyde purred like a machine gun as he bumped his head under my chin and kneaded on my shoulder. He got over things pretty quickly.
“That wasn’t nice,” Eric informed Chili, who was now arching his back and purring. “You’re supposed to be nice to your brother.”
“Eh, Clyde knocks him around sometimes too. But Chili can be, shall we say, spicy.”
“What?” Eric feigned shock. “This little angel?” He scratched behind Chili’s ears, prompting louder purring. “Slander!”
“Uh-huh. Just wait till he pounces on your feet in the middle of the night. Then we can talk about who’s a little angel.”
Eric snorted. “Oh, he’s one ofthose.” He gave Chili another scritch, then rose, wincing when his knee popped. “Will they be okay with us moving things in and out?”
“Yep.” I tucked Clyde under my arm, then grabbed Chili under the other. “Because they’ll be penned up in my bedroom until it’s safe to let them back out.”
Clyde was cool with being carried around. Chili apparently sensed that something was afoot, because he started squirming and yowling as we got closer to the bedroom.
“Oh, stop it, drama queen.”
He flailed, kicking my side with his back legs and trying to bite my arm. I just rolled my eyes. I was pretty sure Clyde did too.
There were more theatrics when I closed the bedroom door. Chili banged on it and howled.
“You’ll be fine,” I said through the door. “It’s only for like ten minutes.”
According to the howls, that answer was unsatisfactory.
I just chuckled and headed back up the hall to where Eric was brushing cat hair off his shirt.
“They don’t like being penned up?” he asked.
“Ugh. No. I mean, Clyde couldn’t care less, but Chili is convinced it’s a grave insult and an affront to his ancestors.”
The muffled yowlingalmostsounded like,“I heard that, asshole!”
Eric laughed, which was so good to see. “Opinionated, isn’t he?”
“So much.”
“Well.” Eric nodded toward the door. “Let’s make this quick so he can get out of Purgatory.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Was that a pun?”
He cocked his head. “Uh. No?”
“You sure? Purr-gatory?”
The way he wrinkled his nose and groaned had no business being that cute. “Oh for fuck’s sake,” he muttered, and started toward the door. “Just… go get some damn boxes.” As he opened the door he added, “Purr-gatory. Jesus H. Christ.”
I laughed and followed him out to unpack our cars.
CHAPTER 5
ERIC
After we’d dropped off everything I’d need at the condo, Jesse drove me over to the truck rental. From there, we went back to the house, loaded up the U-Haul, and put the rest of my belongings in a storage unit. I’d found a decent-sized one in a climate-controlled facility with excellent security, and lucky us, it was on the ground floor. Carting everything in from the truck was a lot easier when we didn’t have to go up and down in the elevators.
I put the last box into the storage unit, then stepped back and gazed at the stacks we’d carefully arranged. That was it. We were done. I’d moved out of the house I’d shared with Selena. Before today, it had all felt abstract and surreal. As if I were talking about something that someone else was going through, or discussing it the way eighth grade me had discussed going to college—so far in the future it barely felt real.
But here we were. Just like the day my parents had left me in my college dorm, everything was suddenly real. The wheels were turning, and my life going forward would look very different than it had before. Except college had been exciting and cool. Intimidating, sure, but I’d been looking forward to it.
