“No, she doesn’t.” Of that, she was sure.
“Yes, she does.” Audrey sounded more adamant this time. “She follows you around the house. She always sleeps in bed with you. Wherever you are, she wants to be there too. She just doesn’t know how to communicate with you.”
Michelle had no response to that. Instead, she put on her robe.
“I’m going to go get Muse’s new toy,” Audrey said. “Why don’t you try rubbing her while I’m downstairs? See what happens.”
Before Michelle could respond, Audrey left the room. Muse watched her go, then returned her gaze to Michelle, staring at her out of wide amber eyes.
“I still don’t think you blink enough.” Michelle pulled the plug to empty the tub, then approached Muse. “And I still don’t think you like me.”
She held out a hand toward the cat. Muse looked at it, then at Michelle, and they were right back in their usual standoff. Michelle huffed with annoyance. This was never going to work.
To prove her point, she rubbed her fingers under Muse’s chin the way Audrey had done. Muse leaned into her touch, rubbing her head against Michelle’s hand. Michelle heard a strange rumbling noise, and it took her a moment to realize Muse was purring.
“Damn.” She rubbed a hand experimentally all the way down Muse’s back to her tail, and the cat arched into her touch, clearly enjoying it. “Audrey was right. Why didn’t I try harder to pet you before?” Michelle had gotten in her head the way she tended to do. She’d assumed the cat hated her, so she’d closed herself off to any other possibility.
Audrey returned to the room with a hot-pink toy mouse in her hand. “Aww, see? Shedoeslike you.”
“Fine. You were right. I admit it.” Michelle walked to the bed and sat, surprised when Muse followed. “Am I terrible for not putting in more of an effort with her?”
“Not at all. You were heartbroken when Kelly left, and Muse probably was too. It just took some time for you two to figure each other out, that’s all. Here, let’s see if she likes catnip.” Audrey tossed the pink mouse so that it landed near Muse’s paws.
Muse stared for a moment, then lowered her head to sniff it. The next thing Michelle knew, Muse was writhing on the floor, kicking her feet and rubbing the toy mouse all over herself. For a moment, Michelle thought she was in distress, but just as quickly, she realized Muse was playing. She had found her inner kitten, as Audrey suggested.
Audrey giggled as she watched Muse scoot around on the floor with her mouse. “It’s the catnip. It’s like crack for cats. It makes them a little wild.”
“You learn something new every day.”
Audrey draped an arm over Michelle’s shoulders. “That’s what I love about being with you. Just think of what else we have left to teach each other?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Audrey sat behind her desk on Monday, preparing for her Women in Art class. The new semester meant new students, and she was enjoying this group as much as she had enjoyed the first. Her ceramics classes still hadn’t filled, but the students she did have were fantastic. Laya had completed Ceramics I and was in Audrey’s Ceramics II class this semester, and Nuala McGarry, who had been in Michelle’s art history class last semester, was in Audrey’s Women in Art class now.
Since Nuala wasn’t an art major, Audrey assumed it meant Michelle had managed to inspire at least one student last semester, despite being disillusioned about her job. Audrey still wasn’t sure how she felt about Michelle’s decision to stay in Vermont. If that was what Michelle really wanted, it sounded perfect, but if she was compromising to stay near Audrey, then in the long run, Michelle might end up resenting Audrey for keeping her here the way Kelly had.
For now, though, they were happy. More than that, they valued each other in a way that was new for Audrey. Over the years, most of her friends and the people she’d dated had tended to put themselves and their careers first. Audrey had been the same way, focused on her career above everything else.
But Michelle was different. Underneath that prickly exterior, Michelle had the heart of a romantic. She’d made it clear from thebeginning that Audrey would be part of her future career decisions. It made Audrey feel important. And appreciated. Andloved.
Audrey was about to pull out her lunch when her desk phone rang from Heather’s extension. “Hi, Heather. What can I do for you?”
“Stuart was hoping to meet with you if you could spare a few minutes?” Heather asked.
“Sure. I’ll be right down.” Audrey frowned. What did Stuart need from her on this random Monday? Maybe he had another question about the transcription software she’d been using. The whole department had implemented it at the start of the semester, and there had been a few early hiccups, but everyone seemed to have gotten the hang of it now.
She closed her laptop and then locked her office—almost as soon as they’d become friends, Michelle had given her a gentle lecture about keeping it locked when she wasn’t in it—and headed downstairs, where Heather and Stuart were located.
“Hi,” Heather called out when Audrey approached. “You can go right in.”
“Sure. What does he want, do you know?”
Heather shrugged. “No clue. He was having trouble with the microphone for the transcription software last week, so that would be my guess.”
Audrey held in a sigh. She was happy to help, but the transcription software had its own customer service. She knocked on the door to Stuart’s office as she entered. “Hi, Stuart. Did you have a good weekend?”
He clasped his hands over his stomach, leaning back in his chair with a smile. “Very nice, a lot of skiing. You?”
