“I wasn’t on a date,” I said.
I raised a hand to thank the cashier, then slipped my card back into my pocket and hefted the heavy bag of supplies over my shoulder.
“Right,” Rafael replied, obviously not believing me. “You weren’t on a date. You were talking toJakeabout getting acat, right?”
I wondered why he was saying Jake’s name like that, but in regards to his other remark, I had to stifle a laugh. “Actually, I wasn’t lying about that.”
Some of the smugness went out of Rafael’s voice. “Wait - what?”
“I do have a cat now. Well, it’s partially my cat. I suspect we have joint custody of her.”
Rafael sounded flabbergasted. “What? Dude, I’m so confused right now.”
I grinned into phone. “How so?”
“Agh!” Rafael groaned. “After we talked, I remembered why the name Jake sounded so familiar.” He lowered his voice and whispered sharply, “He was that omega you slept with! Right?”
With a sigh, I paused to set the bag of supplies down on a bench since this conversation was apparently going to take a while. “Yes. Although now I regret telling you his name the first time.”
Rafael let out a sound like an excited squeal. “Dude! You had a second date! Do you like this guy?”
“Whoa, slow down there,” I said. “It wasnota second date.”
“You had his name circled in the calendar.”
“Because we were meeting to - ”
“To discuss cats or something, yeah, I know,” Rafael interrupted. “But nobodydoesthat, man! Nobody has a one-night stand and then meets up with that person again to talk about cats.”
“Well, I did,” I mumbled.
Rafael groaned and then I heard the sound of him throwing his body against the couch dramatically. “Tell me everything. I wanna know what’s going on in your life.” He paused, then asked, “Also, do you seriously have a cat now?”
Since I knew Rafael wasn’t going to let this go easily, I conceded and told him the whole story - not the part about Jake and I agreeing on a second date, because I didn’t want Rafael to know he was right, but the tale of the abandoned pregnant cat and how Jake and I saved it together and decided to adopt her.
“Oh my god!” Rafael cried, his tone full of glee. “Are you serious? You’re gonna have little kittens running around?”
“Well, the cat is staying at Jake’s apartment for now, since he knows how to take care of her better than I do,” I said. “But yes, that’s what’s going on.”
“I wanna see them,” Rafael murmured, sounding a little embarrassed.
I smiled. “Not quite yet. She’s still afraid of us, as she has every right to be. When she hates us less, you can come over. I mean, I haven’t asked Jake about it, but I’m sure he would be fine with it.”
Rafael made a noncommittal noise. “I get the feeling you’re still not telling me the truth about this Jake guy.”
Why does my best friend have to be so goddamn nosy?I thought.
“But… I won’t pry into your business, if you really don’t want to tell me,” Rafael finally said.
I withheld a sigh of relief. “I’d like that, Raf. I promise, it’s not because I don’t want to tell you. I just... don’t quite know how I feel right now. To be honest, I’m confused.”
“Yeah,” Rafael said sympathetically. “It’s fine, man. Sorry for getting all up in your business.”
“Don’t worry about it.” With a grunt, I lifted the bag back up. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get this cat litter back to the apartment.”
“Right - oh! Wait!” Rafael cried. “Did you ask Jake about the café thing? About if Sammy is available?”
Shit,I thought. I’d completely forgotten about that. It had never once crossed my mind until he brought it up again.
