13. Last Bath I’ll Give You
LAST BATH I’LL GIVE YOU
TARA
On Friday afternoon, I arrive home to find Bri sitting on the couch with a book open in her lap. Her long blonde hair is swept over her shoulder and she has cute little reading glasses perched on her nose.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” I ask, putting my bag down inside the door of my bedroom after kicking off my shoes.
“Like you even need to ask that. I wasn’t going to leave you to deal with all this stuff by yourself. How are you going? Have you seen your Dad again?” She gets to her feet, her movements as graceful as ever.
I’d sent a message in the group chat with her and Kylie after my breakdown on Monday, and they’d both been checking on me daily since.
I shake my head. “No. I’m still processing everything. He wants me to meet his daughters.”
Bri’s face drops slightly, before giving me a hug and holding me tight until I sink into it.
It’s been so long since I’ve allowed anyone to see my vulnerable side that I’d forgotten what it’s like to have my best friend here for me like this. Which makes it difficult for me to keep my composure.
I’ve felt like I was walking a tightrope all week. Ever since Aiden found me crying in his office on Monday, I’ve been fighting a constant internal battle with my emotions, which is not like me at all.
“Thank you,” I mumble, and Bri squeezes me again before stepping back.
“You never have to thank me for being here for you, T,” she says with a pointed look.
I let out a breath, nodding. “Still, you didn’t have to leave your new husband to come and see me.”
“Ha, Jake and I see each other so much, I’m sick of the man.” She grins.
I laugh. “The day that you’re sick of Jake Boyd, hell will have frozen over. He is the perfect man, after all.”
She pokes out her tongue, unable to argue with me as we both know I’m one hundred percent right.
When we were growing up, it was obvious to Kylie and me just how right Jake and Bri were for each other.
It just took them a good few years to work it out for themselves.
But the three of us girls knew he was the kind of guy that other men should aspire to be like, even back in high school.
I mean, the other guys in our friendship circle are pretty awesome as well, but there is just something about Jake.
All caring and respectful, wrapped up in an incredibly good looking package.
My best friend definitely got one of the good ones.
“Where’s Maddie?” I ask, looking around for her little dog that usually goes everywhere with her.
“I left her at home with Jake. You and I are going to get that kitten this weekend, and I figured it would probably be best not to make it deal with a dog just yet.”
I feel the emotion rising in my chest again. I hadn’t told Bri about the cat yet, not sure how to broach the subject with her, seeing as it’s her apartment and all. But Kylie must have filled her in, and of course, not only is she fine with it, she’s making it happen.
I might not have a partner, but I have two of the best friends anyone could ask for. If only they both didn’t live so far away.
“Oh my gosh, he’s adorable!” Bri scratches the fluffy little black kitten behind his ear while he purrs against my neck.
Julie, the foster carer, had happily let us come and see the litter of kittens she and her husband have hand raised since they were only a few days old.
“Isn’t he? This little guy is the last of his brothers and sisters to leave us.
I just find it so sad when the black ones are the last to go.
They deserve love just as much as the others.
Just be warned, he can be a little naughty once he feels comfortable.
” Julie wags her finger at the little ball of fur, who pushes his head further against my neck and purrs even louder.
I’ve never owned a cat, but how naughty can they be?
I’m already in love with him, and I’ve only known him for ten minutes.
While I’d been researching kittens, I’d come across countless profiles of little black balls of fur, looking absolutely adorable, but I think he might be the sweetest of them all, with big blue eyes that stand out against his jet black fur.
“Why do you have trouble finding homes for the black ones?” Bri asks, looking surprised.
“There’s just so many superstitions about them, even now, which is so crazy. Who could possibly think this little guy would bring them bad luck?” Julie sigh, shaking her head.
“Well, I am not even slightly superstitious. I’ll take him,” I say with a grin.
Why not rescue a little soul who feels unloved? It might be nice to have a kindred spirit around .
I hold him out in front of me, admiring his fluffiness. He’s all black except for a few tiny specs of grey and white scattered throughout his body. And although they’ve described him as a domestic short hair, the random long hairs make me think he might end up being even fluffier than he looks now.
“As if anyone could come and just see him without taking him home,” Bri says while I pay Julie.
She sends us off with a bag full of cat food and a few toys. Bundling him into the carrier that I’d bought on my cat spending spree, she reaches in to give him one last ear rub.
“Do you have a name for him yet?” she asks, straightening up.
“I haven’t been feeling particularly creative in that department. What do you think?” I ask Bri, who cocks her head to the side.
“What about a name from a show or movie or something?” I think about it for a moment, jumping when she claps her hands together loudly with a look of excitement. “Remember that movie we loved when we were in kindy? Aristocats. We were obsessed with that. What about one of the names from that?”
She’s right, I absolutely loved the Aristocats when I was a kid and had forced her to watch it at every playdate we had.
“You’re right. I really like the name Toulouse for him.”
Bri scrunches her nose. “Isn’t Toulouse the ginger one? The other one is the black one.”
“Yeah, but I don’t like the name Beliose. And as much as I’m against gendered names, he just doesn’t look like a Marie.”
Bri laughs. “True. Toulouse it is.”
Bri drives us home, with Toulouse howling in his carrier the whole way. After five minutes, all we can do is laugh at how sad the little guy sounds. We stop laughing, however, when a horrific smell permeates through the car.
“Oh god, he’s pooped,” I say, gagging.
“My… That is potent.” Bri presses the buttons on all the windows in the car, and both our eyes begin to water from the assault on our sense of smell .
This sets us both off laughing again. We arrive back at the apartment, and Bri parks her car next to mine in the residents’ underground car park, leaving the windows open enough to air the smell out.
We get him in the elevator and realise too late that he’s now covered in poop.
“Crap… we’re going to have to give him a bath.” I say, and we stare at each other.
“How… how do you bathe a cat?” Bri asks, sounding about as confident as I feel.
The elevator doors open on the ground floor, and I open my mouth to warn whoever it is that they might want to wait til it’s empty, not wanting to subject anyone else to the smell.
But the words die in my throat when I take in the appearance of the tall, slightly disheveled but incredibly hot man standing before me.
“Aiden?! What are you doing here?” I ask, blinking.
My words come out harsher than I meant them to, but seeing him in my building throws me off kilter.
He’s still dressed in the same clothes he wore to work, and I notice his backpack slung over his shoulder.
He must have just finished work. I hadn’t realised how late he was staying.
Or maybe he knows someone in the building and the backpack is full of clothes for a sleepover.
I ignore the twisting feeling in my stomach at that thought.
“Um, hi to you too. And also, what the hell is that smell?” Aiden halts in the doorway, raising his hand to cover his mouth and nose.
“Her cat pooped,” Bri offers up, looking between us both with wide eyes, and Aiden’s gaze drops to the carrier in my hand.
“I didn’t know you had a cat?”
“We just picked him up. But he pooped in the carrier on the drive back, and now he’s covered in it,” I reply, breathing through my mouth to avoid the smell.
“As fun as this is, we should probably get upstairs before more people need to use the lift and end up dying from the smell,” Bri says.
Aiden gets in, looking at Toulouse who is screaming his little head off inside the carrier. “Cute.”
We get to the top floor, and I realise Aiden didn’t hit a button. “What are you doing here?” I ask again.
“I forgot to hit the button,” he replies, holding his arm in front of the door to keep it from closing on us. “I live in this building.”
Bri looks between the two of us, a smile slowly forming. “What a coincidence. So does she.” She nods her head towards me while I stare at him in stunned confusion.
“Seriously?” he asks, looking at me.
I nod.
“You live in the penthouse?” he asks.
“Funny story. Wanna come help us clean a cat and we can tell you all about it?” Bri asks, ignoring my glare.
Aiden shrugs. “Sure. Why not?”
And that’s how, ten minutes later, we’re all standing in the bathroom, covered in tiny scratches with a wet black kitten who, thankfully, no longer smells like poop.
Toulouse had clawed his way up my arm until Bri had dug out some rubber gloves I didn’t even know we’d had, and I’d managed to avoid any more bloodshed.
“Poor little guy looks traumatised,” Aiden says, scratching Toulouse’s wet head while he shivers in my arms, bundled up in a towel.
“Yeah. Sorry, little man. I promise, that’s the last bath I’ll give you.” I set the kitten down on the ground, letting him slowly start exploring his new home.
Bri opens the bathroom door, and the three of us follow while Toulouse tentatively steps out, keeping low to the ground while he takes in the large space.
“So, the penthouse, huh?” Aiden says, his gaze flicking to mine before looking over at Bri .
Bri launches into an explanation about how Jake won the place in one of those raffles several years ago and now I live here keeping an eye on the place for them while they live out in Stanthorpe most of the time.
“Wow. That’s cool. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who won a house or flat before,” Aiden says, once she’s finished talking.
I continue to watch Toulouse getting acquainted with the apartment while ignoring the mixed feelings I have about Aiden being in my home.
We’d sort of come to a truce this week, after he’d found me crying in his office.
I figure, he wasn’t an asshole about it, so the least I could do was ease up on him.
But it feels weird having him here. I’m not completely blind to the fact that the attraction I’d initially felt towards him was still there, but I’ve never socialised with anyone from work, other than Chris when he was still there.
And having fuzzy feelings towards my boss just feels like trouble waiting to happen.
The fact that Aiden seems impervious to Bri’s looks and is instead watching me is also disconcerting. I’ve never had a man pay this much attention to me when either Bri or Kylie (or both together) are around, and I don’t know what to do with myself.
“Well, I should get back to my place. I guess we’ll be seeing even more of each other now, Tara.”
I nod silently while Bri lets him out, closing the door behind him and turning to face me. “Ah, you failed to mention that your boss is hot and clearly into you.”
“He’s not into me,” I reply with a scoff.
She raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, he is.”
“He was just being polite, that’s all.”
Bri shakes her head. “Oh T, when are you ever going to see yourself the way the rest of us see you? He was so into you. He helped us give your cat that was covered in poop a bath, and only a guy who knows you’re a total catch would risk serious injury like that.
The guy is smitten. He’s a smitten kitten.
” She grins, pleased with her little rhyme .
“You’re such a dork,” I reply with a laugh, rolling my eyes.
“Yeah, I am. And you love it.”
“I do.” I hug her, before realising we’ve lost sight of Toulouse. “Crap. This is going to be fun.”
We spend the rest of the evening playing with the kitten with no more talk of boys. But it’s hard to forget that Aiden now lives in the same building, and I find myself wondering how often we’re going to be running into each other.
And half looking forward to it.