11. Malcom has a cat #2
“What?” Her eyes popped back up to his, and the innocence there told her he knew exactly what she’d been doing and was playing with her in return.
She really liked that. “Oh, sure,” she told him, like her internal temperature was completely normal, and took a few steps away from him, only to realize she had no idea where it actually was, blowing her cool game. “Where do you keep it?”
With a devilish grin, he pointed to a cabinet on her left.
Jules wasn’t surprised to see he had a fairly fancy waffle maker, which put hers to shame, and his pots and pans were stainless steel/non-stick hybrid Hex-Clad, which also put hers to shame.
As he worked on double-breading the chicken (this time with her leaning against the counter), Dawn Corleone jumped onto the island and made her way over to Jules.
“He’s not supposed to be up here,” Malcom began, only to correct himself. “I mean she’s not supposed to be up here, but …”
“But she’s a cat, and doesn’t give a damn about house rules,” Jules pointed out .
“You can set her on the floor if she’s bothering you.”
“She’s fine right here.” Jules began scratching behind Dawn Corleone’s ears, earning a full-throated purr in return. “Aren’t you, girl?”
When it got to where he could use some help, he had Jules come around and make the waffles, and the novelty of having someone cooking with him made his heart feel light. Just watching her do the simple tasks put a smile on his face, which she caught and returned.
When everything was done, and Malcom started plating up the food, she went and flipped the record.
“You can play something else, you know,” he called out to her, unable to stop thinking how much he liked her in his space, making herself at home.
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I know.”
With Donna Summer’s voice filling the room once again, Jules sat down next to Malcom, close enough so their legs were touching. As they started to eat, Dawn Corleone stalked over to them and Malcom immediately picked her up and set her on the floor, only to have her jump up again.
Jules stopped him from putting the cat on the floor again. “Do you know how many meals I’ve eaten at Paige’s with multiple cats hanging around? Every. Single. Meal.”
“Fine. She can stay,” he agreed, only to point his fork at the cat. “But just this once.”
Jules rolled her eyes, knowing how cats got their way, no matter what. Because … cats. “The sooner you accept the fact she’s going to do whatever she wants in her house, the better off you’ll be.”
“Her house?”
“Yes. Since she’s choosing to live here, that makes it her house. In her mind, anyway.”
“Which makes me … what?”
“Her tenant.”
Malcom rubbed the top of Dawn Corleone’s head.
“This is actually the first pet I’ve ever had,” he revealed.
“And I’m not totally convinced she doesn’t belong to someone else.
I mean, she’s pretty well behaved, and doesn’t seem like a stray cat, so I keep waiting for someone to knock on my door looking for her. ”
“I really don’t think you need to worry about that.
” She pointed to one of Dawn Corleone’s ears, in which the top was clipped off in a straight line.
“That right there means she was a stray and was rounded up and taken to a vet who spayed her, clipped her ear, then released her back into the neighborhood.”
“What? ”
“It’s to control the cat population, making it so they can’t reproduce and create a feral cat colony. She’s probably been given her shots, too, but you need to find a vet and have her checked out anyway, to make sure. You’ll also need to get her a litter box—”
“I already did that.”
She gave him a look that said, And you’re thinking you don’t own this cat , before saying, “And you’ll need to get her some cat toys and maybe a scratching post or two, and then try and start limiting her time outside.”
“Why? She loves to go outside.” He cocked his head to one side. “And didn’t you just say she’d do whatever she wanted to?”
“I did, but I meant in the house. You can, however, keep her from going outside by simply not letting her go outside. That’s the one thing you do have control over.
And as for her love of the outdoors, she was a stray and had to live like that, but since she’s found a nice place to call home, she’ll get used to staying indoors where it’s safe.
Cats who go outside tend to have much shorter lives than indoor cats, because of cat fight injuries, dogs, and cars. ”
“Hmm. Cats are a lot of work.”
“Supposedly it’s kind of like training for having a child.”
“You mean a child you could leave unattended in your house all day with bowls of water and food on the floor?”
“Yes. A child like that.”
They chuckled together.
“Well, if it’s like training for a child, it’ll be wasted on me,” he said.
“You don’t want children?”
He paused for a moment before answering. “I thought about it briefly when I was married, but I haven’t given it much thought since then, which means I probably don’t want them. And I’m forty-two, so …”
“Men can have kids well into their seventies,” she pointed out.
He made a face. “The last thing I want is to be that dad. You know, collecting social security and changing diapers. By the time they’d be enrolled in a soccer league somewhere, everyone would think I was their grandfather, not their father. No, thanks.”
At the ‘soccer league’ reference from the night they met, Jules smiled. “But on the upside, you’d probably have a young, hot wife, right?”
“A young, hot wife who I probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with? Again, no thanks.” He then turned the question on her. “What about you? Do you want children? ”
It did seem a little strange to be discussing children on their second date, but she’d been the one to get that ball rolling. “Honestly? I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t even have any plants.”
“What does having plants have to do with anything?”
“Supposedly having plants is the first stepping stone. If you can keep a plant alive, then you get a pet, and if that works out, then you have kids.”
“Well, I skipped plants and went straight to a pet, so do I need to get a few plants?”
“I don’t know. It could all be bullshit.”
They chuckled again.
“Will your mom be disappointed if you don’t have children?” she wanted to know.
“Actually, my father is the one who will be disappointed, because of carrying on the family name and all that. Unfortunately, my brother didn’t come through with any male heirs, so my father has been frequently mentioning my ‘duty’ to produce one, as I get older.
” Malcom glanced at her. “What about your parents? Do they want grandchildren?”
“They’ve never put any pressure on me about it, which I appreciate.
I really don’t think their future happiness depends on whether or not I provide a grandchild for them to bounce on their knees, and carrying on the family name isn’t a thing, so …
” She pressed her lips together for a moment, then decided to dive into the topic of Malcom’s marriage.
“You said you briefly thought about kids when you were married. Were you and your wife not on the same page about that?”
“We weren’t on the same page about a lot of things, to be honest.”
She decided to keep going, and figured if he didn’t want to continue sharing, he’d tell her to mind her own business. “Like what things?”
“Furniture, for one. I mentioned already that our furniture looked like modern museum pieces and were about as comfortable, so I really wasn’t upset when Gwen—that’s her name—took it all.
She also liked to go out a lot, and I mean a lot .
I’ve always been more of a recluse and she dragged me everywhere so we could be social and be seen, like we were some sort of power couple.
She liked to be the center of attention and fed off it. ”
“She sounds kind of like an attention whore,” Jules mused, then at his surprised expression, quickly added, “Sorry. I probably could have phrased that differently.”
“No, you’re right. She was an attention whore,” he agreed. “Your bluntness just took me by surprise.”
She decided to change the subject slightly. “Did your parents like her? Were they disappointed when you got divorced? ”
“My father really liked Gwen, so he was extremely disappointed in me, but my mom was fine with it. She knew Gwen and I weren’t a good fit even before I did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, our differences were sort of revealed gradually to me, but I think my mom just had better intuition from the beginning.”
“So what was the final straw?”
Malcom’s expression turned uncomfortable. “There just came a time when our differences were insurmountable. Gwen ended up wanting more than I was willing to give, and that was the end.”
Jules could have said she was sorry, but if things had worked out for Malcom and his wife, Jules wouldn’t be dating him now, so she wasn’t really sorry—especially since Gwen seemed like a selfish person. So, instead Jules asked, “Do you ever regret ending your marriage?”
“No. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. And easiest.”
It was said with such absolute certainty, Jules knew it was completely true and he had no lingering regrets about it. It also piqued her interest about what ‘more’ Gwen had wanted which had led to the dissolution of their marriage, but decided that was maybe a question for their third date.
“Do your parents want you to get married and settle down?” Malcom asked.
“Honestly, I think they would, just because they’re so happy and want that for me, but they also know that happiness looks different for different people. So, I think they just want me to be happy, whatever that looks like for me.”
“Jesus, your parents sound like amazing people.”
“They are. I got lucky that day.”
“You mean the day you were conceived?”
“No, the day they adopted me.”
“You were adopted?”
Jules nodded. “I was.”
“I’ve never known anyone who was adopted.”
“Well, we’re pretty much just ordinary people.”
He took her hand and squeezed, his gaze direct and full of heat. “There’s nothing ordinary about you.”