Chapter Nine #2
Maudie answered right away, as though she’d been peeking through the blinds. She buzzed me up, and was waiting on the landing by the time I got up the stairs. “Good evening!”
“Hi. I hope you like white.” I held up the bottle.
“Oh, I don’t drink.”
“I’m sorry.” I could feel heat creeping up my neck. “I didn’t know.” Of course you didn’t, stupid. You wouldn’t have brought it if you knew.
“I’m not in recovery,” she said. “I just don’t drink. You’re welcome to.”
What I really wanted was to knock on her neighbor’s door and hand it off. Here I was on a date I wasn’t sure I wanted to be on in the first place and now I’d committed a faux pas thirty seconds in. I shrugged. “You can gift it to someone.”
“Does white go in the fridge or red?”
I followed her into the kitchen, which smelled really good. “White.”
She tucked the bottle into the fridge and went to stir something on the stove. “Drunken noodles,” she said. “Oh, that’s so ironic!”
With tofu. Great. I hoped she’d at least sauteed the tofu beforehand, but it didn’t look that way. I tried a laugh. “It is. Can I help or get you anything?”
“No, and we’re nearly ready. You can have a seat at the table.”
It was set with nice dishes and glasses of water without ice.
I sat and looked around the apartment. She seemed very settled, with comfortable furniture and knickknacks on half-full bookshelves.
I saw the cat tree in the corner before I saw a pair of golden eyes staring judgmentally at me from the back of the sofa.
The rest of the cat was white with gray spots.
I didn’t have a chance to say hello to it before another cat walked in from the other room, took one look at me, and booked it off into the kitchen.
It hopped up on the counter next to where Maudie was cooking, and she nudged it off, peeking back at me to see if I’d gag. “Get down, Ralphie. Not everyone appreciates that.”
I didn’t really mind, but I wouldn’t say I appreciated it, either. I smiled and gave a little wave. “Hi, Ralphie.” Ralphie took off back down the hall.
I didn’t dislike cats, but they were not my favorite creatures.
I’d dated several women who had them, and they’d generally been very standoffish toward me.
There had been one who liked me and parked on my lap and purred, which was nice, but if I touched her when she didn’t want it, she would bite the shit out of my hand.
Dogs at least gave some warning when they were going to shred you.
While I thought about it, I noticed two more, one on an armchair and one tucked into the upper level of the cat tree.
They were all staring at me. “How many cats do you have? I think I’ve seen four. ”
Maudie set dinner between us on the table. “Nine. I hope you like them.”
“Nine?”
“You rarely see more than a couple at once.”
I nodded. I imagined sitting on the sofa and being swarmed. “This is really good,” I said. I wasn’t lying; aside from the whole tofu thing the noodles were tasty. “Where did you get the recipe?”
“Just off the internet. Are you a cat person?”
“I’m more of a dog person,” I admitted. “But I do like cats.”
Maudie nodded like I’d said I was thrilled she had a house full. “I’ve had at least six since I was this big.” She held her hand out even with the tabletop.
“Wow. I know people who had that many barn cats, but not indoors.”
“Oh…Did you grow up on a farm?”
“Nearby. I lived in town, but some of my friends lived on farms.”
“What did they farm?”
“Mostly corn and soybeans. They kept some animals, but they were usually just pets.”
“Oh good. I can’t handle the idea of keeping animals then killing them.”
Yeah, saw that coming. I almost mentioned that a few farmers in our area kept dairy cattle, but I stopped myself in case there was something wrong with that. “Where are you from?”
“Right here. Grew up about five miles away.”
“Do you still have family here?”
“My mother lives in the senior residence on Park. I go see her most days…Take her out to eat sometimes, run errands, and help with laundry.”
“That’s good of you.” I couldn’t imagine having a decent enough relationship with my mother to do any of those things every single day. I would have to kill myself. “I’m sure she has company where she lives, but—”
“Oh, she loves the activities. She plays bridge and Scrabble and oh, they have a little pool for water aerobics. She can’t get around too well anymore, but she used to enjoy that.”
Maudie went on for another several minutes about the amenities at her mother’s place and where they liked to go out to eat.
It was tricky, she said, because she was a vegetarian and her mother was not, but she could usually find something at her mother’s favorite restaurants.
I’d finished my dinner by the time she stopped to take a breath and I was getting nervous about what we would do next.
So far, there had not been a hint of a click between us.
“Are you finished?”
“Yes…That was fantastic. Can I do the dishes?”
“Oh, no, go ahead and have a seat in the living room. I’ll just put them in the sink and do them later.”
I turned to the opposite side of the room just as Ralphie jumped up on the table and started licking at my plate.
It wasn’t like Ollie didn’t counter surf when he was left to his own devices, but I assumed this was an everyday thing instead of an oh-shit-get-out-of-there moment.
I left Ralphie to do his thing. “You have beautiful plants.” I went to the front window, where most of them sat, and came face to face with the cat on the tree.
It did not hiss or spit, but it looked like it wanted to. I inched away slowly.
“Thank you! Did you see the ones on my porch?”
There was no way I could have missed them. “Yeah. The hibiscus is gorgeous.”
“I love it. Now these I grew from cuttings…”
I got the tour of her indoor garden, which was actually quite interesting.
I asked about which ones she separated and which ones she took cuttings from, but that reminded me of the day Corey was showing me how to trim roses and Lisa had come out with cookies.
I realized I had my back to the cat in the tree when I felt a smack to my neck.
“Oh, Arnold.” Maudie sighed. “Not everybody likes your love pats.”
I was just glad there hadn’t been claws involved. “So do all of them sleep on your bed at night?”
“Only six or seven.”
“Okay.”
“C’mon.” Maudie took my hand and led me over to the sofa. Hers was soft and cool and felt nice against mine. “Can I get you more water? Or I could put on some tea.”
“Tea would be great.”
“What kind? I have…”
She must have listed sixteen kinds. I spaced out after the first two. I finally shrugged. “Surprise me.”
As Maudie went to work in the kitchen, I took the very corner of the sofa, and the cat stood its ground, just sat there with its legs all tucked in and its eyes on me.
I wondered how you could tell if they were boys or girls.
It was pretty obvious with dogs. “Hi,” I said to it, reaching out one hand.
Instead of running, the cat sniffed at me and let me pet it a little. Its fur was very thick and it let me sink my fingers in and scritch at its neck. Okay, this isn’t bad at all. We were still communing when Maudie came back.
“Tea is on. I see you’ve made friends with Siobhan.”
“Yeah, she’s quite friendly.” I could hear a little purr and felt very good about my cat petting prowess.
“So.” Maudie sat right in the middle and grabbed Siobhan onto her lap. “Do you spend all your free time writing?”
Teaching was technically my full-time job, but I never looked at it that way. It was a means to an end, a steady paycheck while I did my real work, which was writing. I didn’t correct her. “Most of it.”
“What are you working on now? May I ask?”
I thought about what I’d been writing around Lisa, but referred back to the project I’d been editing with Jace. “Another thriller. Body in the trunk. You know.”
“How do you learn all the police jargon and how autopsies work and that stuff?’
“I have a couple cops, a coroner, and doctors who answer questions for me. It’s actually pretty easy since I grew up in a small town…I know a lot of people from there who are really useful and they’re excited to share what they do.”
“Do you Google things like how to dispose of a body?”