“I may have just sent your brother to a grisly death,” I tell her when I reach the counter. I lean my back against it, frowning atthe side exit that leads into the alley. Maybe I should have gone with him? “Sorry about that.”
“Well, at least if he’s dead, he won’t be crashing on my couch anymore,” Jade answers breezily.
“True,” I admit. I glance over my shoulder at her. “Plus, imagine the attention you’ll get now that you’re an only child. And double Christmas gifts!”
Jade laughs just as the door opens, and Justin calls out, “Uh…guys?”
We both turn. He’s standing in the doorway, dripping, soaked from just a few seconds out in the storm. His dark hair is plastered flat to his face, his shirt clinging to his body. And he’s cradling something against his chest, hiding it, as he makes his way through the café toward us.
“Was there someone out there?” I ask, pulse skipping.
“Maybe.” His brows knit as he steps closer. “I thought I saw someone, for just a second. But then I heard something digging around under the trash, and…” He adjusts his hands, to show us what he’s holding.
A kitten. A dirty, sopping-wet gray kitten, cradled against his chest, with bright yellow eyes too big for its face. It peers around the café from over Justin’s fingers, ears flat, and when it sees me, it lets out the smallest, most miserable mewl, showing a flash of pink tongue and tiny needle teeth.
“Ohhh!” Jade squeals, melting into a puddle. “It’s a baby!”
“I checked around, in case there were any more or the mother was nearby, but…” Justin trails off, shaking his head. “I think he’s all alone.”
The kitten blinks at us, shivering in his arms. And despite the mud and the bedraggled fur, it’s easily the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
“Oh my God,” Jade whispers, clutching at my arm and shaking me. “It’s too cute, I can’t take it. I’m gonna die.”
“It’s filthy,” Justin murmurs, stroking a thumb gently down the cat’s spine. “Probably starving. Do you two mind cleaning him up while I run and get supplies?”
“Of course!” Jade exclaims at the same time I mutter, “I don’t know…”
Jade shoots me a scandalized look.
“I just don’t think you should get attached,” I try to explain. “Your apartment doesn’t allow pets, remember?”
I’ve caught her scrolling shelter pages more times than I can count, pining over all the animals she can’t have. This is a guaranteed heartbreak waiting to happen.
“But your place does,” Jade quickly counters. She’s right, and I’m ashamed to say it hadn’t even occurred to me that I could take in a kitten. I’ve never had a pet before. “And besides, just because we’re cleaning him up doesn’t mean we’re keeping him!”
“Actually, I think it’s a her,” Justin says, lifting the cat’s tail to check. The kitten hisses and bats at him with a small paw, flashing sharp white claws and tiny pink toes. “Sorry, ma’am,” he murmurs, letting her tail go.
I chew my lip. “Fine. We’ll clean her up, feed her, and then take her to a shelter. But we can’t keep her.”
The look of glee Justin and Jade share makes my stomach drop. Conspirators. I’m surrounded by conspirators.
“Wecan’tkeep her,” I repeat, louder.
We’re keeping her.
While Justin runs to the closest pet store for supplies and Jade watches the store, I take my brand-new kitten into our staff bathroom and give her a bath in the sink. All it takes is somepatience, a few dozen bloody scratches to my arms, and a little dish soap to reveal that her fur isn’t gray at all.
By the end of her bath, I’m left holding a grumpy and very fluffy, pristine white kitten.
A pristine white kitten with a strong set of lungs.
“MEOW!”
“I think she’s hungry,” Jade says. The kitten squirms in my grasp, fur wet and spiky from her bath, half wrapped in a towel. The world’s grumpiest burrito. She yowls again, even louder this time, throwing back her tiny head to scream her fury to the world.
Jade finishes pouring a drink for a customer and pulls out a hard-boiled egg from the fridge. I watch her cut it into bite-sized pieces before scooping it into a saucer.
“Here you go, baby,” she coos, setting the saucer on the ground. The kitten nearly claws the towel to shreds in her rush to get out of my hands and down to the food.
