She laughs. “You’re ruining my games, Monster. Can you take his royal highness or not?”
“Why not? When are you heading back?”
“I’m here for the week.” I note that she’ll be here on the day of Emma’s concert tickets, and I’m excited to share that with Clara when she gets back.
“I’ll get a litter box and food then. Do you know what kind, or should I ask Mom?”
“Ask Mom. I’ll see you in an hour and a half.”
She hangs up, and I’m left in the dim light of my room with a legitimate task.
I know the guys have been making up stuff to keep me occupied, and while I appreciate it, I need more. This isn’t more, but at least it isn’t life busy-work.
Dialing my mom, I fill her in on Fluffington’s escape, and she finds the whole thing hilarious. “You know, I saw him with you over break, Jansen. That cat loves you more than me. So, if this works out, don’t feel bad about keeping him.”
“Mom, I’m not taking one of your cats.”
“I have four. And you know as well as I do, cats pick their people, not the other way around.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll see. Just text me what I need to buy for the next week.”
“Love you, Sweetling.”
“Love you, Mom.”
That awkwardness done, I throw on some clothes and set out to find someone to go cat shopping with me.
Walker’s in the kitchen, a bottle of kombucha in front of him, a regular notebook open with some notes scratched across the pages.
“You branching out from art?” I ask.
“Huh?” he looks up, not having heard me come in. “No, just running through all the scams I’ve ever heard of to see if anything would work to get us out of this.”
“Any luck?”
“No. None.”
“Want something else to do?” I ask, turning to start the kettle and pull out a bagel from the fridge. Smearing on the cream cheese, I wait for Walker to answer.
Suspicion is coming off the guy in waves. “What?”
“Are you allergic to cats?”
“No. Why?”
“Good. Want to go buy some cat stuff?”
“Why are you buying cat stuff, Jansen? Did you just buy a cat without talking to the rest of us?”
I feel a little hurt at the accusation, but honestly, it sounds like something I’d do. “No, nothing like that. We’re just going to have a feline visitor this week while Evie’s in town.”
“Evie travels with a cat? And then leaves it with you?”
“She stole our mom’s cat. On accident, but the friend she’s staying with is allergic, so I said I’d take him. His royal highness is really sweet, so it’ll be fine.”
Walker laughs loud and long, and I’m not sure what to say. “So, you’re saying it runs in the family?” he chokes out.
“What?”
