Three Meows (Monsters For Her)

Chapter Three

A fter the first week at the University, I still couldn’t believe I could finally do what I loved. Ideas multiplied in my head like bunnies and I furiously sketched and noted them into existence, with the hope of turning those concepts into animations someday. I had tried to learn as much as I could before this chance at proper education, but it was hard. Now I felt like I found my tribe; a bunch of like-minded individuals who I could both measure myself against and collaborate with.

Life was wonderful.

That’s why I was humming while sitting under one of the trees near the campus, a half-filled sketchpad in my lap.

“Hey, whatcha drawing?” A grinning face peered down at me from the tree.

I jumped a little before my racing heart calmed down. Nobody told me to expect someone to be hiding high up in the tree when I chose this spot!

“Aren’t you uncomfortable?” I looked up at the red-haired man.

“What? You mean this?” He asked innocently and switched to an even more convoluted position, half laying against the trunk of the tree with his feet on two separate branches, one of them higher than his head was. “It’s certainly better for my spine than those torture devices our university tries to pass as chairs.”

“Everything is better than those chairs. You are attending there as well?” I nodded in the direction of the towering building of the school peeking out from the cityscape in the distance.

“Yup, Chester, second year of Digital Art, at your service,” he tried to make a bow before it made him lean too much to the side and he had to catch himself to not fall out of the tree.

“Lisa, first year of Animation. At no one’s service unless they pay me.” I raised a cocky brow at him.

“I see you got the ‘you can’t eat exposure’ lecture already!” The man laughed. “Good, good, keep it up. But maybe one day we will be at each other’s service, hmm?” His eyebrow wiggle was a bit uncoordinated and made me snort. “Digital Art and Animation often work together. And I can see we already have something else in common.”

“And what’s that?”

The man stuffed his own sketching pad in his bag, then promptly jumped off the tree, landing in a Spiderman crouch next to me.

“Cats!” he said, beaming at me. “I could see you sketching furballs from up there. Wanna see mine?”

Before he even saw me nod, he was already pulling photos up on his phone.

I squinted at the orange cat playing with a feather toy in the photo, then looked at my drawings, then back at the phone… There was no way…

“His name is Cheddar!” the man said proudly. “Isn’t he the most beautiful and regal cat ever?”

“No, he’s not,” I said automatically, only to hear Chester gasp, his hand over his chest as if I shoot him through the heart. “I mean, I have met him. He is beautiful, but I have seen him when he gets crazy zoomies or when he stares into space with his tongue sticking out. Regal is not the adjective I would use.”

“Waaait, are you the mysterious neighbor?” Chester asked. “You are the person our Cheddar is having a cuddle affair with?”

“Yes, but also please never use the words ‘cuddle affair’ ever again.”

“What, would ‘furry romance’ be better?” he teased.

“No, and you know it,” I pouted at the man.

“What would you call it, then?” Chester asked, his eyes shining mischievously.

“Unpaid catsitting, that’s what it is,” I retorted. “Now that I think of it, you should be paying me.”

“You are right,” he nodded seriously.

That threw me for a loop. Weren’t we just joking?!

“Wait, no, I didn’t mean—”

“Let me pay you in the best way there is,” he smiled widely and leaned forward, his arms caging me against the tree. I had to swallow hard when his face got so close I could feel his breath on the shell of my ear. “Free art supplies,” he whispered seductively.

And it worked. Fuck, but it worked, because those words could get any artist going.

Unexpectedly, during my break between classes I found myself tagging along with a stranger to a nearby art supplies shop.

“Just one thing.” I waved a warning finger at Chester.

“Sure,” he agreed readily.

My eyes roamed over the various offerings. I went on a shopping spree before the academic year started, but the secret of artists was that we were always hungry for more art supplies. There was the beautiful rice paper, fluorescent inks, a calligraphy brush, and… too much really. I would feel more embarrassed getting engrossed in browsing through different paints and pencils if Chester wasn’t equally enthralled by the artistic possibilities each new technique and product could bring. Even if he was focusing on digital art, it was obvious he cherished traditional art as well. In the end, I grabbed a gold pen that would serve as a highlight for my drawings. It wasn’t very expensive, so I didn’t feel that bad about mooching off a man I barely knew.

He paid for his own collection of paper and glittery paints, as well as my gold pen, and presented my gift with a flourish.

“That’s your first daily payment settled!” Chester beamed.

First? Wait, daily?!

“No, that’s…! You can’t…!” I spluttered. “You can’t mean to buy me art supplies every day?!”

“Fine, weekly payment then,” Chester pouted at me.

“No! That’s ridiculous! Monthly, if anything!” I protested.

“Deal!”

Only when I saw him grin from ear to ear I realized I had been duped. Walked straight into that one. He used a typical negotiation technique and started with an outlandish proposition to make another option seem reasonable.

“You are a beast.” I pointed an accusing finger at Chester.

“Gentleman on the streets, beast in the sheets,” he wiggled his eyebrows as he waved the stack of paper sheets he just brought at me. I groaned at the bad pun.

I had a feeling becoming good friends with this ridiculous man was an inevitability.