Chapter 17 #2
He nods and puts it in. Impressive. One more safe space for me and my friends to go is on the list. I make a mental note to tell Robbie about this when I catch Dex writing in his notebook again.
I elbow him. ‘What grade?’
He grins and ticks his finger back and forth at me again like I’m some naughty child. Though I don’t actually think I’d mind being a bad boy.
Or maybe even better, his good boy.
I shove those thoughts away and pull out my card with shaking hands to swipe it at the till. The guy with Percy on his name badge hands me the receipt.
Archie. Milo. Percy.
Who are these guys?
There’s something about them that feels odd and dangerous. Like this café should be one of those mattress stores the Mob uses as a front for other illegal things.
‘He doesn’t look like a Percy,’ Dex signs small between us so only I can see.
I snort. ‘I know. They look like…’ My fingers hover.
‘Contract killers,’ Dex signs, then laughs again. ‘Can you imagine?’
In this town? Not likely. The worst person to ever live here was Leaf’s aunt, and she’s long gone. I can’t imagine contract killers living in this town and opening up a cat café.
I mean, who the fuck would come up with that?
As we wait for our coffee, I tug Dex over to a bench. Through the door in front of us, I can see into the cat lounge. There are no kittens visible, though I think I can see a black-and-white cat sleeping on top of one of the many cat trees.
‘You have pets?’
Dex looks startled by the question. ‘You’ve been to my house.’
‘Three years ago,’ I remind him.
He flushes like he forgot. ‘No pets. Maybe I’ll get a cat today.’
I grimace. ‘Cats hate me.’
His eyes go wide. ‘What? Why would you bring me here if cats hate you?’
I shrug. ‘Seemed cute.’
‘You’re ridiculous,’ he signs, but dear god, there is so much affection in the movement of his hands and the look on his face. If I had permission right now, I would kiss the shit out of him.
I glance at his little book and then meet his gaze.
‘I had a fish growing up. And a guinea pig. They both ran away.’
Dex’s eyebrows rise. ‘Ran away? Even the fish?’
I nod. ‘Came home one day, and it was gone.’
Dex stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. ‘Maybe it died and your dad flushed it?’
My lips twitch. ‘No. That’s not what happened. It literally ran away. I’m pretty sure it fell in love with the guinea pig, and they made off together.’
Dex lets out a laugh, loud enough that I can just make it out.
‘You funny.’
I mean, I wasn’t trying to be. It literally happened, but hey, if it scores me points, then so be it.
Suddenly, Dex stands up, and I watch his ass as he makes his way to the counter. A second later, he’s turning toward me, and my eyes catch on his groin, his thighs. The way his cock slightly bounces in those shorts.
‘Cute,’ he says when he hands me my chai. I stare down and see the kitty paw embossed on the top in foam. ‘You want to go see the cats now?’
I nod and stand up, taking a sip of my drink. Fuck, that’s actually good. I didn’t expect that from cat café–owning contract killers, but shit, they’re good with their hands.
We move through the second door, and when it closes behind us, we find a small empty table and take our seats. My eyes swivel around the large room, taking in the cats lounging on beds attached to the walls, one on a window hammock and one dangling from the ceiling.
None of them are what I expected. They all look like they’ve rolled straight out of a dumpster with wild hair and crooked whiskers, and one of them has only its back shaved. I was expecting picture-perfect model kittens.
I don’t know who the fuck would want to adopt any of these.
‘This is cool,’ Dex says as I tuck my ankles underneath me. Just in case one of them strolls over and decides to have a little snack.
‘You know cats will eat you if you die.’
Dex sputters slightly and grins at me. ‘I think any animal would.’
‘Yes, but cats have no remorse. They’d just gobble you up.’
‘At least my body will go to feed my poor orphaned baby,’ he replies as a cat stops near our table and looks up. It’s orange and white, with one glowing yellow eye. It blinks at us and then jumps up onto our table.
I lean back, not sure if it will swipe at me, but it merely sits down between our mugs of coffee and licks its paw.
Dex peers at me over the orange fluff and grins.
‘This is cool.’
I mean, it’s something. I’m pretty sure cat hair is getting into my drink, and the cat on the table is making the line of communication not Deaf-friendly. I should really reach out and grab it, but I’m scared the cat will take a swipe at me, and honestly, Dex seems so happy.
He reaches out to pet it, but the cat gives him a warning look, and he retracts his hand.
I kind of wish the damn thing would leave, but it just continues to sit there, grooming itself, my chai getting colder by the minute.
And then suddenly, another cat appears, rubbing against the legs of my chair. This one has long hair that’s entirely unkempt and weirdly…greasy? It only has half a tail, which is shaved, along with a bald spot near the side of its leg, likely where they took off a mat.
‘These are…less cute than I thought they’d be.’
Dex shrugs as he scratches the one-eyed cat between the ears. It closes its little eye and nudges his hand. Hard. ‘I don’t know,’ he signs. ‘I like them.’
I glance down at the cat with the half tail and then back at Dex, who’s watching me, humor flickering through his gaze.
He thinks this is funny. My aversion to cats, or really, cats not liking me, and here they are, swarming my space.
‘Why you laughing?’ I ask, and Dex shrugs.
‘The cats love you.’
‘They’re plotting my murder. Look at them. They’re probably hoping I’ll die so they can have a big meal.’
I see the way his eyes light up at that, and I know he’s laughing at how uncomfortable I am.
Fucking Leaf and his terrible advice. Which reminds me, I should probably reach out and touch Dex, but the damn cat is still in the way.
And it’s batting at my cup.
I stare at it, its little paw swatting at the handle.
It better fucking not, I think, just as the cat rubbing against the chair legs swipes at my ankle. I jump slightly, scaring the cat on the table. It jumps up, back arched, and my cup of chai falls to the floor.
I’m pretty sure there was a crash as it hit the ground, and by the way the cats are rushing around the room, I’m assuming they’re not happy with the noise.
Dex is bent over laughing, his cheeks red and flushed as he tries to compose himself, and I’m left sitting there, unsure what to do.
A moment passes, and then suddenly, the man I assume is Milo appears.
He has a similar look to his brother from the front desk—light brown hair, broad shoulders, tall.
Dangerous. He eyes the spill on the floor, then looks at me.
He doesn’t look happy, but he also doesn’t look mad. ‘Asshole cats,’ he signs and then disappears, returning a moment later with a mop and a towel.
‘This happen often?’ Dex signs, and Milo just shrugs as a flat-faced calico cat jumps on his back and settles on his shoulder like a parrot.
‘Next time, hold cup,’ he tells me in very stiff ASL when he stands. The cat clings on with sharp nails, but Milo doesn’t even seem to feel it. Instead, he just reaches over and peels the cat off him, setting him on my lap.
The cat shows me its butthole and jumps down.
I glance at Dex, who is scribbling in his notebook. I’m sure I’m getting terrible marks for this. My grade is going to be a fucking disaster.
His eyes flick up to meet mine, and he snaps the book closed. ‘Best date ever.’
I doubt that very much. He’s probably lying to make me feel better. But that gives me a little more hope.
Before we leave, Dex drags me over to the adoption wall, where all the cats have profiles. There’s a little sheet with their photo, their name, and fun facts about them.
The cat with the half tail is Captain Claws. She’s recently had her tail amputated from an infection. The form says she loves pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.
‘I don’t understand. Cats hate rain,’ I sign after tapping Dex.
He laughs. ‘It’s a song.’
Oh. I’m not unfamiliar with music, but it was never my thing, so song lyric references rarely make sense to me. But I realize that Milo is trying to be cute, so I peruse the rest.
There are five in total: Catthew, Fuzzeroli, Tofu, Meatloaf, and…
‘Dennis,’ I mouth, spelling the name. That’s the one-eyed cat.
Beside me, Dex bursts into laughter and looks down. I follow his gaze, and fuck. There’s Dennis, staring at my shoes like he wants to take a piss on them.
He had better fucking not.
‘Don’t you dare,’ I warn him. Not that the cat understands ASL.
He blinks up at me with his one eye, then walks off.
Milo appears a second later, waving to get my attention. ‘He thinks you-him same-same.’
I blink at him because what the fuck does that mean? We’re both assholes? Lonely? Looking for somewhere that feels like home?
God, that’s kind of pathetic.
Milo seems to read the confusion on my face, and he touches his ear with his finger, dragging it to his lips. ‘Deaf.’
That’s…oh. I look at Dennis’s fact sheet. He’s six years old, abandoned in a park, had mange. Gross. I didn’t realize cats got mange. He likes the smell of old books and hot coffee in the mornings. He’s also profoundly deaf and missing an eye.
I glance over at Dex, who’s making doe eyes at me. ‘He likes you.’
Oh no. Absolutely fucking not. ‘I don’t have time for a cat.’
Dex pushes out his lower lip, and I want to bite it. ‘Cats don’t need that much time.’ He starts listing things on his left hand. “You can get an automatic cat food dish, a water fountain, and—’
“No,” I say aloud for emphasis.
He blinks in surprise, then sighs. Milo appears again with a small index card and hands it to me, but I refuse to take it. I will not be handed things in this café.
Dex rolls his eyes and grabs it for me. ‘Thanks.’
Milo nods. ‘The adoption fee is forty dollars.’
‘Forty dollars is nothing!’ Dex emphasizes.
‘Then you adopt him.’ Dennis is a literal garbage cat who did nothing but knock my drink over and embarrass me in front of Milo and in front of the man I want to…well. Do a lot of things with.
Dex tucks the card into his pocket alongside the damn notebook. ‘Maybe I will.’
God, I hope he doesn’t actually take that as a challenge. I sigh and thank Milo, then take Dex’s hand. ‘We go now?’
He glances behind him at all the cats. None of them look like they give a shit that we’re leaving. Dennis is sitting a few feet away with both his back legs in the air, going to town on his butthole. The half-tailed cat is cleaning her paws.
The rest are warily eyeing the other visitors, who seem about as confused as I am. Why are there no tiny, cute kittens to pet? Only Dex seems thrilled with this whole thing. He doesn’t put up a fight about leaving, though, and takes my hand as he leads the way to the front doors.
Outside, it’s a little cooler than it was when we first got there. There’s a bit of a breeze, and I can smell a hint of brine on it from the ocean.
Leaning against my car, I stare at Dex, who stands a few feet away, watching me carefully. He knows I’m waiting for my grade, and waiting for what he’s willing to give me as my prize.
He takes a step closer. ‘That was nice.’
I shrug.
‘You had a bad time?’
I shake my head because no, in fact. I did not.
I got to flirt, and get to know him, and hold his hand, and watch him be cute with small animals. Not the worst date I’ve ever been on. Before him, it was mostly me and Robbie trying to find odd hours to tear each other’s clothes off and orgasm enough that it took the edge off how stressed we were.
I know I didn’t give Robbie any indication that I was in love with him at the time, but he didn’t seem particularly keen on knowing that. He never asked about my day, and I never asked about his.
He was my best fucking friend, but for years, we never talked. Not really. Nothing deeper than gossip and how bad things were going at work. And it’s strange now to realize how much easier this all is with Dex. How much easier it is to want more than just stress relief.
He’s in my space now, close enough to touch but with enough space between us to sign. ‘I wonder if any of those cats will get adopted.’
‘Probably not. They’re ugly.’
His lips turn down. ‘I know, but even ugly cats are beautiful. Their little furry faces and big eyes…’
He kind of has a point, even if I won’t admit there was some kind of charm to those little trash goblins.
‘They deserve to be loved, don’t you think?’
For a moment, I feel a bit like them. Maybe not ugly on the outside, but it’s taken me a while to realize I behave pretty ugly on the inside sometimes, and now I have so little to show for it.
Dex is right to make me work this hard. It feels oddly satisfying to do it, to see him enjoy the effort I’m putting in.
‘Everyone deserves to be loved,’ I finally answer.
He smiles, and it reaches his eyes. Swaying into me, his groin bumps against mine, and he puts his hands to my chest for a moment, like he’s feeling my breath. His eyes are locked on mine, and god, they are so pretty.
‘B plus,’ he spells.
It takes me a long second for my brain to catch up, and my eyes widen with outrage. ‘B?’
He shrugs. ‘Not a perfect score, but a good one.’
I was never a B student. Fuck, what more could he possibly want from me? I’m incensed enough that I raise my hands and ask him that.
He gives me a pointed look. ‘You’re still hiding your feelings,’ he says. ‘What you’re thinking. You’re afraid of me.’
He’s not entirely wrong. But it’s not him I’m afraid of. It’s what he represents. It’s what he can do to me. It’s how I know he will turn my life entirely upside down with no way to turn it back if everything between us falls apart.
But I also have to admit, like the cold, corporate businessman that I can be, Dex is low risk, high reward. He’s given me so much. He’s stepped into my world instead of demanding it be the other way around.
I think I could be happy with him.
No. I know I could be happy with him.
I swallow heavily. ‘What does a B plus get?’
He meets my gaze, then smirks as he signs, ‘Follow me back to my place and find out.’