Waste Some Time (NOL)

1. Katie

1

KATIE

The sleek, furry face in front of Katie nodded from the rock and waved her small paw in the air.

“Look at you!”

Katie smiled at Rose, the smaller of the aquarium’s river otters. She’d come a long way since joining them earlier in the year.

After Katie clicked and threw a shrimp treat at Rose, she said, “Guess what?”

Rose tilted her head as if she knew Katie was asking her a question. “It’s almost New Year’s Eve. Less than a week away now. You know what that means?”

Rose tilted her head in the other direction and waved her paw again.

“That’s right. That means a new year.”

Katie gave a big, exaggerated grin to her furry charge, while Rose quickly swallowed the treat.

“This is going to be our best year yet. You and me, kid.” When a larger otter joined them on a different rock, Katie added, “You, too, Mel. We’re going to rock this year.”

Not that either otter needed more luck or success or whatever Katie was manifesting. Both had come such a long way since joining the aquarium. They were approaching Mel’s rescueversary, and Katie couldn’t be more pleased with how well she was doing.

As for Rose, an organization in California had rescued her as an orphaned pup. After they were unable to reintroduce her to the wild, Rose was transferred to the Audubon Aquarium. She wasn’t yet two years old, and the aquarium’s five-year-old resident, Mel, took to her new exhibit-mate as if they were long-lost family.

Mel did most of the visitors’ show on her own, but they’d been adding the younger otter in at the end of the performance. Rose had been quick to learn a few commands, observing Mel for extra cues, and waving was the most recent addition to her repertoire.

Katie put her hands on her hips as she assessed both otters. “I guess, for you two, that just means lots more seafood. Not a bad goal. Oh, and applause. You love applause, don’t you?”

Mel stood on her hind legs and did a little twirl. She hadn’t done it on command, so she didn’t get a treat for that one. Katie said, “Water,” then threw in some larger shrimps for them to chase.

As the pair dove into the water, Katie smiled and told them goodbye. She’d finished her last visitors’ show for the day, and since she was in early on Saturdays, another keeper would be around before closing time to make a cleaning pass, fill their food bowls, and scatter mealworms, grapes, raisins, crickets, and mollusks throughout the habitat for the evening.

She left the exhibit and headed toward the small staff room to grab her coat and bag from her locker. Stephen was already at his own locker, having finished his shift as well.

“How are things in the Amazon?” she asked him.

“Oh, the usual,” he said. “Steamy and squawky. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The tall man had shaggy blond hair and dark green eyes. He wore the same blue polo as Katie, with the difference being his excessively tanned arms, considering it was winter, compared to her pale arms.

She met Stephen when he joined the zoo staff as the aquarium’s Amazon-Orinoco bird keeper a couple of years earlier. They’d instantly clicked, and he quickly became Katie’s best friend.

“Didn’t see you this morning,” Stephen said. “Did you sneak in late to avoid me? You still haven’t filled me in on that party you went to without me.”

“You had family Christmas stuff.”

“To which you were invited, but chose to party instead.”

Katie waved him away with her hand. “You needed time with your sister.”

“Well, she didn’t show up anyway,” he said, the disappointment clear in his eyes.

To say that Stephen and his family were close would be a massive understatement. They were a huge bunch of extroverts who had welcomed Katie into their fold from the first time Stephen brought her over last year.

Katie had been excited to finally meet Stephen’s sister, who lived in San Diego and rarely found time to return home. But Katie had wanted to give the family a chance to have time with her first. So instead of spending the evening with them, Katie had gone to a Christmas Eve-Eve party with her cousin Rachel.

“Wait, she couldn’t make the trip for the holidays after all?”

“She drove in Christmas Eve, a day later than she’d planned,” he said, closing his locker and waiting for her to finish retrieving her things. “You could have come either way, though. You know that.”

“I know. But it was Rachel’s friends at that party, so lots of people I didn’t know. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet someone.”

“You mean an opportunity to meet THE one.”

Katie closed her locker and shrugged. “Yeah, that.”

“So, did you meet someone? Spill. I was promised details in exchange for you skipping out on Mom’s catfish courtbouillon.”

It had been hard to turn that down, along with missing out on the warmth of his family, but she’d get other opportunities for that. A party filled with people she didn’t know was a rarer find. Even if it had been a very low-key event.

“You didn’t miss much. It was pretty chill.”

“I don’t care about the party. Did you accomplish your mission? Meet the woman of your dreams? Or did you snub my invitation for nothing?”

Katie slipped her bag over one shoulder and bit her lip. “I wouldn’t say for nothing.”

Stephen raised an eyebrow at that. “So you did meet someone.”

“Someone,” Katie said. “Not the one.”

“How do you know? You only met her that one night, right?”

“Yeah, but she’s not it. We have nothing in common, even in the brief bit of time we spent talking.”

Nothing in common but thoroughly enjoying the taste of each other’s mouths. Katie had wanted to taste more of her, but she could tell it wouldn’t go any further than that. She was kicking off her New Year’s resolution early. No more wasting time on relationships that clearly weren’t going anywhere. If she wanted something that would last, she needed to make sure she was available to spot that person when they showed up.

“What if they just had awkward party vibes? You’re going to cut out the potential love of your life because she didn’t fit a couple things on your compatibility checklist?”

“We didn’t even get to the checklist,” Katie said. “She’s an accountant.”

Stephen narrowed his eyes. “What’s wrong with accountants? My sister’s an accountant.”

“And I’m sure she’s a lovely person.”

The woman Katie made out with certainly was. At least her mouth was the most lovely thing Katie had explored in a long time, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was they didn’t fit. Plain and simple. Katie refused to waste any more time on doomed relationships.

“Speaking of Sydney,” Stephen said as they headed toward the rear exit together. “She’s meeting me here in a minute. You should have dinner with us. She’s only in town for a few days.”

“Nope. Nuh-uh. You are not setting me up with your sister, who’s going to bounce in a few days. You know I’m only accepting serious prospects from now on.”

“It’s only dinner, I swear,” Stephen said. “It’s my sister who just got divorced, for crying out loud. I wouldn’t set her up with anyone yet, and if I did, it would be with another guy. And yes, I know your rule.”

He said that last word with an eye roll and an annoyed tone.

Katie didn’t know anything about his siblings except that there were four of them and they all had S names. She always imagined his parents were really into snakes or something, and she’d originally avoided hanging out with them to not ruin that image. She vaguely remembered him mentioning his sister from San Diego finalizing a divorce last month, but that was all she knew about her. That was enough to cross her off Katie’s potential prospects list.

Stephen’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket.

“She’s waiting outside.” He tucked his phone away again. “You can at least meet her before you turn down yet another of my offers.”

Not that Katie didn’t want to hang out with Stephen. And she didn’t know this sister, so she didn’t have anything against her. She just hadn’t been in a hanging-out mood lately. Christmas festivities were exhausting to go through alone, and she was dreading another New Year’s Eve without a partner.

All she wanted to do was cave out in her apartment with Benjamin, her fluffy orange tabby. Read some books. Take a lot of baths. Hide.

Next year would be her year. She just had to be patient and wait for it.

But maybe one dinner with her best friend wouldn’t be so bad. Besides, if his sister had just gotten divorced, at least Katie would be spared a bunch of relationship talk to make her jealous of.

They stepped outside, and Katie braced herself against the crisp New Orleans air and shock of sunshine after being in the warm, lowly lit aquarium all day.

A woman stood with her back to them, watching a noisy street car a short distance away. Her hands were stuffed in the pockets of a deep blue peacoat, and her long, wavy blonde hair with beachy highlighted streaks trailed over the back of the coat.

“Hey, Syd.”

The woman turned around at the sound of Stephen’s voice. Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were red from the crisp late December air, but her mouth stretched into a full smile when she saw her brother.

That gorgeous mouth pinged a memory in Katie’s brain just as the woman’s gaze shifted from her brother to Katie. Her smile froze while her bright, sea-green eyes widened with shock.

That’s when the shortened name registered.

The name and the mouth that went with it.

“Sydney.” Katie mouthed the word breathlessly before she could stop herself.

“Yeah, this is my little sister,” Stephen said. “Syd, this is my partner-in-petty-crimes, Katie.”

But no introductions were needed. It was clear from the shock on her face that Stephen’s sister recognized Katie as well.

She wasn’t just Syd, Stephen’s sister.

She was Sydney, the woman Katie had made out with a few nights ago.