Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
The following week when Connor walked into Fur-ever Friends, Tessica was at the front counter filling out paperwork with a younger couple. He could tell she’d made quite a few changes already. The lobby area used to be about ten feet wide by five feet deep, with a front counter separating the lobby from the main portion of the room. Now the lobby was ten by ten, and there was a big shelving unit on the left wall full of items for sale.
“Connor!” She smiled. “I wasn’t expecting you for another hour.”
“I got an earlier flight.”
“Great.” Tessica gestured to the couple in front of her. “I’m just getting paperwork in order for these nice people.”
“Fantastic,” Connor said. “Don’t let me get in the way.” He pointed to the back. “Mind if I hang out by the kennels?”
“Not at all.”
He went and stood by the cages and kennels. A meow came from behind him. He turned to see Butch claw at his cage, and reach for him with a paw. Butch meowed again.
“Okay.” Connor unlocked the cage and picked Butch up. The big orange cat butted his head against Connor’s chin, and immediately purred.
There was a three-foot-tall toddler corral in the center of the main room that was made up of eight plastic fence pieces linked together to form a circle with pillows in the middle. Connor walked over to it, stepped in, and put Butch down before he sat on one of the pillows. Butch climbed into his lap and purred happily.
Fifteen minutes later, Tessica was finished with her customers. She turned around, and her eyes opened wide with disbelief as she walked over.
“I swear he’s a different cat with you. Butch doesn’t like anyone else. He hisses at our vet, Gwen. He hisses at me. And he even hissed at the last person who asked to meet him.”
Connor frowned. “This guy? Hissing? He meowed at me as I walked by, and pawed at the cage like he was trying to get out.”
Tessica stood by the side of the corral. “Maybe you smell like his previous owner. Although, come to think of it, everyone I’ve seen him interact with has been female. Maybe he only likes men.”
“You’ll have to introduce him to the next guy who stops by to adopt, and see what happens.”
“Oooor, you could adopt him,” Tessica suggested.
“Me?” Connor shook his head. “My work schedule isn’t pet-friendly. I’d be gone overnight at least once a week.”
“Well, the great thing about cats, especially older cats, is that they’re very self-sufficient. Get him one of those automatic feeders, and leave him home for a couple of days at a time while you’re flying.”
“I’d feel guilty about leaving him by himself so often.” He rubbed a hand down the cat’s back.
Tessica chuckled.
“What?”
“Don’t you know? Cats are like the ultimate introverts. They’re happy to have time alone every few days.”
Connor thought that sounded a bit like a sales pitch and frowned. “I’m pretty sure that depends on the specific cat.”
“True, but trust me, Butch would be a lot happier alone in your place than he is here at the shelter with all the noise and other animals.”
He supposed Butch would be happier in someone’s home, even if the cat was alone sometimes, and Tessica was only giving him a sales pitch for Butch’s sake. Connor came to a decision, stood with Butch in his arms, and stepped over the wall of the corral. “Tell you what, if no one has adopted him within a month, I’ll seriously consider it.”
“Awesome.”
“That wasn’t a yes,” Connor cautioned. He put Butch back in his cage and clasped the lock.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a no.” She grinned.
Connor gave her a suspicious glance. She sounded a lot like some of the Littles he’d played with, but he knew he was prone to assigning Little characteristics to everyday people who would be appalled at the idea. He gestured to the clock and switched the subject. “It’s four-forty-five. Want to close early so we can talk about the shelter before you feed the animals?”
“Sure.”
She pulled the Fur-ever Friends sign in from the porch, locked the front door, and then took out a piece of paper from under the counter.
He moved to stand beside her.
“This is our total profits and expenses for the month so far.” She picked up a pen and added a figure to the current month. “And that’s the sale I just made. It’s not a big improvement yet, but?—”
He cut her off. “It’s only been a week. I wasn’t expecting much yet. Actually, I wasn’t even expecting to talk numbers this time. I was just going to talk about what steps you’ve made to improve things.”
“Oh.” She nodded and put the paper back under the counter. “Okay.”
He waved at the shelving unit in the front. “I see you put up the shelves we’d talked about. They look fantastic.”
“Yeah, I think they make the place look more professional.”
“I agree. And I saw the updated website. Is that the one your son did?”
“It is.” She grinned, clearly proud of her child.
“He did a great job.”
“I think so, too.”
“All in all, I’m very pleased with the improvements.”
She shrugged and broke eye contact. “It’s a work in progress.”
“Hey.” He waited until she made eye contact. “Good job. I’m impressed.”
He noticed a pink tinge to her cheeks, and she immediately focused back on the counter and wiped off some non-existent dust.
“Thanks.”
Again, Connor thought she was reacting like a Little, or at the very least, like a submissive. It certainly made her more attractive to him. After a short pause, Connor asked, “Have you had any luck finding volunteers?”
“Not yet, but I have an interview tomorrow afternoon with a girl that goes to Beaverton High. She wanted to meet earlier this week, but I couldn’t fit it in. Too many clients were waiting on me to do their books. I had to do some catch up before I could focus on getting a volunteer.”
“I hope the interview goes well.”
“Me, too.”
Connor really wanted to ask her how many hours she was putting in, but knew it wasn’t any of his business. And if he thought she was working too hard, he had no right to tell her to cut back. But after a somewhat lengthy pause, he couldn’t help himself. “Are you all caught up on your accounting clients now?”
“Caught up?” She shook her head. “No. But I took care of the ones that were over a week past due.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “How many hours are you putting in a day?”
She frowned. “Well, I’m definitely putting in more hours than usual, but it’s not unmanageable.”
He nodded and bit his tongue to keep from demanding an actual number from her. “Just remember that we agreed to two months. I’m not expecting miracles overnight. I’d much prefer small and steady improvements that are sustainable, over you working yourself into the ground.”
She still wore a slight frown, but nodded. “I agree, and I’m trying not to do anything outrageous.”
“Good.” Connor patted the counter, putting a physical end to the conversation before he said anything he’d really regret. “Did my sisters get everything cleared out upstairs?”
“Oh gosh, no.”
“No?” He repeated, not sure he’d heard her correctly.
“I mean, they got all the clothes, photos, jewelry, and other personal items, but all of the furniture and dishes are still there.”
“I thought Erin was taking care of that.”
“There must have been some miscommunication, because she told me she thought you were doing that.”
Connor sighed. “I guess I’ll give her a call so we can get on the same page.”
Tessica nodded in agreement. “There’s no rush. The furniture isn’t in the way where it is.”
“I suppose.”
Tessica checked the clock. “Anything else? The natives will be getting restless if I don’t feed them soon.”
“No problem. Can I go take a quick peek upstairs to see what’s left?”
She gestured to the stairs. “It’s your house.”
“Thanks.”
He went up the stairs, and as soon as he stepped into the living room, his shoulders slumped. It didn’t look as though his sisters had gotten rid of anything other than the pictures on the wall. He went into the bedroom and opened the closet. At least the clothing was gone. And even though the dresser was still there, all the drawers were empty.
Connor shook his head, went back downstairs, and found Tessica dishing up several bowls of cat food.
“All done?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He tried not to sound defeated.
She paused and scrutinized him. “You sound upset.”
Connor leaned against the front counter. “Not upset. Just… I don’t know, maybe I am upset. There’s still so much left up there.”
“But like I said before, there’s no rush. The furniture can stay there for the next two months without any problems.”
“I guess.”
She continued to dish up the cat food.
“Can I help with anything?”
“No thanks, I’m almost done. Unless…” she grinned at him and held out a dish of cat food, “…you’d like to feed Butch.”
He chuckled. “I know what you’re doing.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said with false innocence.
“Oh really?” He raised one eyebrow.
Her cheeks turned pink. She shrugged, and set the dish down by him instead of answering.
“Manipulation or not, I’ll still feed him,” Connor agreed. When he put the food in Butch’s cage, the big cat butted Connor’s hand demanding more pets.
When Tessica was done feeding all the other animals, Connor stopped petting Butch, and locked him in his cage with his dish of food.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“I am.”
Tessica grabbed her jacket and purse from under the counter. Then she turned off the lights as he opened the door. She locked the door behind them. “See you next week?”
“Hopefully on Thursday again if my schedule works out.”
“Sounds good.”
He followed her down the walkway and waited until she got in her car before he continued down the street to his.