Chapter 4 Nat
Chapter four
Nat
Nathaniel stared up at Thea, still holding her ball of yarn, begging her to see through the curse that hid his true form. If only she could understand that he was trapped in this form, maybe she would be able to help him.
But why would Thea see anything other than what she had reason to? He had no high hopes that he would become human again anytime soon.
The thought was terrifying, and yet somehow, strangely comforting.
While he wouldn’t have chosen to spend his days with her as a cat, he would prefer being a cat with her than being a human without her.
Perhaps that was a little pathetic of him. What sort of man would rather stay a cat than become human again?
But he couldn’t deny the truth to himself: if it was the only way he could be with Thea, he would happily stay a cat—even if he never got to eat real food again.
His stomach growled.
He hadn’t eaten any of the food she’d given him. A bowl of milk with something in it did not sound appealing to him. Eventually, he would probably be hungry enough to eat it.
“You’re a more considerate cat than Ginger.”
“Thank you,” he said, though she couldn’t understand him.
“I don’t need to be considerate,” Ginger said, licking her paw. “I’m the cat, and she’s the human. She’s the one who should be nice to me.”
“She loves you just the way you are,” he told her, “but it wouldn’t hurt to be nice once in a while.”
The cantankerous feline didn’t say anything, just licked her paw again and ran it across her face before she began to knead the carpet with her paws.
Nat curled up in a ball at Thea’s feet, looking up at her as she told them stories of her day, her fingers moving busily.
He felt a strange sensation in his paws and a flare of hope burst through him.
Was he turning back into a human? Was this nightmare going to be over and he could tell Thea about the man who had turned him into a cat?
But as he looked down at his paws, nothing happened.
In fact, his paws were involuntarily kneading the carpet, just like Ginger had been doing.
He let out a frustrated growl, and Thea looked down at him.
“Is everything all right?” she asked him.
Nathaniel resisted the urge to growl again. He didn’t need to upset her, and she didn’t know that he was himself, trapped in the form of a cat. This was the most frustrating thing he had ever been through.
How long would it last? Would his children at the orphanage be worried when he didn’t come back? While he had no concern for their welfare—his staff were excellent—they would be missing him.
Hopefully they wouldn’t even notice. Hopefully he would wake up in his own body once again and would be back in the morning. But the thought of him simply disappearing on them made his stomach uneasy.
Or maybe that was just the smell of the cat food.
But the children had already been through so much loss, and he didn’t want to be yet another adult who left them.
What if the man made his way to the orphanage?
He had never spent the night away from the orphanage since they’d moved into their new building, and while he didn’t expect anything to happen, they’d never had a man running around town turning people into cats before—at least as far as he knew.
He should go and be there. But what was the point? It wasn’t as if he could do anything if the man did show up. He was a cat. He was completely helpless, and all he would do was get in the way.
The idea gave him pause. Perhaps he could trip the man. But then again, if he had the power to turn people into cats, who knew what else he had the power to do? And perhaps it was better to be a cat than to be dead.
“I wonder what Guinevere was thinking when she left,” Thea said, looking down at him with a frown. “She was acting oddly when you arrived.”
Nathaniel tried not to grimace. Could cats grimace? What would his face even look like if he did?
“And of course, we had a visit from Nathaniel today, didn’t we, Ginger?” Thea said.
Nat’s ears perked up, and he looked up at Thea. This was something he hadn’t expected—a moment to hear directly from the source what Thea thought of him now.
Did she still hate him the way she once had?
“Nathaniel is our landlord,” Thea said, looking down at him with a kindly smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll learn everyone’s names soon enough.”
Nathaniel fought the urge to grind his teeth. He was not just her landlord, and he didn’t want to be described as such—even to himself.
“I know you always love when he comes to visit,” Thea told Ginger, who purred happily.
“He always scratches me the right way,” Ginger said smugly. “I have taught him well.”
Nathaniel bit back the laugh that surely would’ve come out sounding like he was dying. She had trained him, hmm?
“And he brought me flowers again,” Thea said, turning her attention to the bouquet sitting on the table.
Nathaniel paused, waiting for her reaction. He’d never asked what she truly felt about the bouquets he brought for the café. He’d always assumed she would tell him to stop if she didn’t like them.
“I do love flowers,” Thea said quietly as she looked at them.
But then her expression changed.
“I don’t know how to tell him he should give up on me,” she said. “Do you have any suggestions?”
She looked at him, almost hopefully, and Nathaniel let out a growl. He didn’t want Thea to give up on him.
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t,” she said, with an amused smile. “You’re a cat, after all. One of these days, I suppose I will figure it out. And until then, I shall have to be content with him continuing to bring me flowers—even when I would rather him not.”
But then she sighed.
“Even if I can’t admit to myself that I’m lying about that.”
Triumph rushed through Nathaniel at the admission.
She was changing her mind just as he had suspected, whether she knew it or not.
And if he ever became a human again, he would find a way to prove it to her.
Prove that he had changed, and whatever he had done to her in the past to make her hate him, he would never do again.
Thea yawned and stood, stretching her arms. “I’m off to bed. Are you coming with us, or would you rather stay down here?” she asked him.
He let out a meow and settled deeper into his position.
It wouldn’t be proper for him to go with her, even if he was a cat.
No matter how much he wanted to.
***
Nathaniel’s nose itched. He reached up and scratched it, the itch turning into a fire.
He sneezed, and the sound was loud enough to echo through the whole café.
Café.
He opened his eyes wide and took in his surroundings.
He was in the café. Why was he in the café?
Why was he curled up in a ball on the floor next to the fireplace?
Memories began to filter through—being turned into a cat, spending the evening with Thea and Ginger, falling asleep on a rug by himself.
But it was light out. Thea should’ve woken him with her noise when she came down to prepare for the day. Either he’d slept through it, or she wasn’t here.
He stretched and his eyes opened wide when he realized he was stretching his human arms out.
Human!
He was human again.
He scrambled to his feet, patting his chest, relieved that his clothes had stuck with him through the transformation.
Had he scared her off? Had she come downstairs to find a man asleep on her rug and gone back up? Or had she not come down yet?
It was light out, and the café was empty, which was concerning. Where was she?
There was a knock on the door and someone called, “Thea, are you in there?”
Nathaniel’s eyes widened. Was Thea not here? Had something happened? He looked at the stairs leading to her apartment. Should he go up and look? He hadn’t gone upstairs since she had moved in. It had never felt right—like he would be invading her privacy.
But in all the years he had known her, he’d never known her to not open her store. What if something was wrong?
What if she was sick?
With his mind made up, he hurried toward the stairs.
Hopefully, this wouldn’t be another thing that she would never forgive him for.