It wasn’t my eyeballs.
“I’m so dumb,” I wail.
Theo takes my hand, turns it palm-up, and deposits a soft, fluffy, furry body into it before walking away.
I hiccup.
I amneverdrinking again. This is mortifying.
And if it’s mortifying while I’m drunk, I cannot even imagine how I’ll feel in the morning.
“Hi, kitty,” I whisper unevenly through the sobs that I’m desperately trying to stop.
“That’s Snaggleclaw,” he says from somewhere else in the room.
“You named him after Snaggletooth?”
“She named herself.”
This one.
I am stealingthiskitty. She’s purring in my hand and her name is Snaggleclaw and I just dropped a tear into her fur, so she’s mine.
Theo returns and squats in front of me.
“More kitties?” I whisper.
He doesn’t answer.
Instead, he wipes my face with a soft, damp cloth.
My whole face puckers. “Don’t be nice to me.”
“Been here a few times myself, Laney. You’ll pull through.”
“I said, don’t be nice to me.”
“If you want Asshole Theo, I wrestled him mostly into submission a few years back. Nice Theo is all that’s left. Personality flaw. Apologies, princess.”
He wipes the cloth over my cheeks again. It’s warm but not too warm. I can smell him too. Clean soap with a touch of salt and mystery.
“I liked you too but I wasn’t allowed to,” I whisper from behind closed eyelids.
“You’re a grown-ass woman. You can do anything you want.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I want to but I don’t knowhoooooow.”
Snaggleclaw squirms in my hand, digging her little claws into my palm like pinpricks that startle me back to exactly where I am and exactly what I’m doing.
“Oh, god,” I whisper. “I made trouble for Emma.”
“Emma enjoyed the hell out of watching you have fun.”
My head hurts, and my dress is falling off.
