Page 19 of When In Doubt

“Yeah, but there’s other stuff too,” he explains. “There’s a bake sale, games, and a cat competition.”

A giggle escapes me. “A cat competition?”

“Yeah.” He sighs, a long-suffering smile creeping over his mouth. “My captain has a three-year-old, Birdie. A while back she pitched a fit until he agreed to include it.”

“What do the cats do?”

“Show up.” He chuckles. “Birdie looks at them all, listens to them meow, and picks a winner.”

“Just picks one?”

“Just like that.” His expression is almost as bemused as I feel.

“There’s no official judging guidelines?” I raise an eyebrow. “Surely that’s a recipe for corruption. What if somebody slips her a fifty before the judging?”

He gasps, clutching a hand to his chest. “I can’t believe you’d question her integrity. I tried to sneak in my rabbit once and she wouldn’t speak to me for a month.”

I’m curious despite my better judgment. “You have a rabbit?”

“Yeah. Harvey.”

“You have a rabbit called Harvey.”

“Yup.” He crosses his arms over his chest as if daring me to say a bad word about it. “I wanted a pet to keep me company when I’m not working, but I needed something my mom could watch when I’m on shift.”

“You didn’t want a cat? Or something less… fluffy?”

“Mom’s allergic,” he replies, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. “And don’t talk shit about my boy.” His fingers tap across his screen and he flips it around to me, revealing a picture of him holding a ball of ginger fluff about the size of his head.

“He’s huge!” I exclaim.

Oscar grins proudly. “Yeah, he’s a big guy.”

I take the phone from his hand and study the picture more closely. “I take back what I said, though, he’s definitely cuter than a cat.”

“I knew I had a good feeling about you.”

My cheeks warm and I want to steer us into safer territory. “Why Harvey?”

“I dunno.” He shrugs. “Thought he looked like one.”

“I like it.” I hand his phone back to him. “It’s very dignified.”

“He’ll be thrilled to hear that.”

I smile up at him, not quite sure what to say next. The silence holds for a long beat, the two of us staring at each other before Oscar clears his throat, snapping the moment like the breaking of a taut string. I blink rapidly, looking down at the paper. “Did you want the flyer in the window or on the desk?”

“Uh, maybe the desk?” he says, looking around, his voice a touch thicker than it was. “If you don’t mind. I don’t want to get tape on your glass.”

“No problem.” I smooth it out and tape it to the corner of the desk.

“Thanks, Freya.” He knocks on the desk before turning to the door. Just before he pushes out into the street, he stops short. “You should, uh… you should come.”

“To the Open House?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun, most of the town will be there.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Seeing people in big groups isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse. I do better one on one, when I have a chance to figure out what I’m expected to say.