“And I’ll wait to catch them before they escape,” said Sally.
Sarah stood up and straightened her skirt.Simon seemed to have returned to normal.“Which end do you want to take?”
He pointed to the end closest to him, and she walked to the other end.“Okay, on the count of three, let’s tilt it back so Riley can climb under.Ready?”
Simon gripped his end of the couch and nodded.
“One, two, three.”Together they lifted the couch, which was thankfully lighter than she expected, and two balls of gray fur scampered across the room and away.“There they go,” said Riley, bounding after them, with Sally following close behind.“Let’s get ’em.”
“Let’s lower it back down,” he said, “and I guess we wait a few minutes.I’m sure they’ll catch them.”
“Sorry to have disturbed your evening,” she said.“I’m sure you have better things to do than catch a cat.”
“No, not really,” he said, taking a seat on one end of the couch they’d just lowered and motioning for her to sit as well.“Sorry your dinner is delayed.”
“I’m going to order some chicken curry from the place near our house and take that home tonight.I don’t really feel like cooking.”
“Is it good?I haven’t tried that one.”
“Yes.Riley likes the chicken, and I get the chickpeas.Then we usually have it with a salad at home.Do you want to join us?”she asked, before she could stop herself.
“Umm…”
“Can we, Daddy?”asked Sally, who was walking into the room holding a not-at-all-chastened Dot.
He seemed undecided, and Sarah didn’t press him.If he didn’t want to spend time with her, she wasn’t going to make him.
“What?”asked Riley, walking in a moment later.
“I was asking Daddy if we could go get Indian food and eat at your place,” said Sally.
“Can they, Mom?”
“If your dad says yes.”
They all looked at Simon, who looked torn between pleasing his daughter and something else.
“Please, Daddy.”
His daughter won.“Okay, as long as you let me buy.”
“How about you pay for Riley’s climb tomorrow, and I’ll buy dinner?That should make us even.”
“Climb?”asked Riley, her eyes sparkling with interest.
“Simon and Sally are going to the climbing gym, and they asked if you would like to go too.”
“Yeah!”said Riley, looking as though she wanted to punch the air before remembering that she held a cat.
“I have a menu from the restaurant in my purse,” said Sarah.“I’ll get it, and you can tell me what you like.”
“Sure,” said Simon, rising to follow her to the kitchen, where they reviewed the menu a moment as she opened an online order form for the restaurant on her phone.
“It’ll be ready in about twenty minutes,” said Sarah.“I’ll pick it up on the way home and you can follow in about half an hour?Would that work?”
“Yep,” said Riley, who now had Dash in his carrier and was standing at the door.“See you soon,” she said to Sally.
“Yes,” Simon said, in a strangled voice.“See you soon.”
