Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Holly pulled through. Andrea collected her a few days later and although she was woozy and still oh-so tiny, the vet had given her a clean bill of health and told them to persevere with everything they had been doing. Best of all, the vet was confident it wasn’t fading kitten syndrome, which is the thing that Andrea and Felicity had both been petrified of even though neither of them had said the words out loud. It can take a kitten very quickly and the reason is not always obvious. They had lost kittens before, and lack of appetite and failure to gain weight were two huge red flags.
When Holly and Gennie were back and settled in their basket together, Andrea, Felicity and James – who’d turned up for his first shift that morning as promised – stood around the cage like proud parents.
‘This is a weird little set up we’ve got going on,’ said Andrea, after a few moments, and there was a hushed ripple of slightly awkward laughter. No one wanted to wake the sleepers.
‘Oh, by the way, in case you hadn’t worked it out, James is coming to help us for a couple of weeks, Felicity,’ said Andrea in a low voice. ‘He fancied some volunteering work and I know we could use the help.’ This was all said with an arched eyebrow. So arched, in fact, it looked like it might disappear over the back of her head. Felicity resisted a sideways glance at James.
‘Sure, makes sense,’ she said, trying to keep a straight face.
‘Good. I’ve put you both on shift tomorrow. It’s my day off. Can you show him the ropes, please? It might be pretty busy. And Lisa from the RSPCA is bringing some pups in during the afternoon.’
‘Sure, happy to.’
Andrea turned to look at her, both eyebrows practically on the ceiling now. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Sure, yes, why wouldn’t I be?’
‘Well, for one thing, you keep saying “Sure” in that weird voice.’
James cleared his throat and Felicity threw him a look.
‘No, no, I mean, yes I’m fine, sorry, I was just listening, that’s all.’
Andrea looked at Felicity, at James, then back to Felicity. She had a smirk on her face. Felicity shifted uncomfortably. Awesome as Andrea was, she could also be bloody embarrassing sometimes. She felt ready to kill her but also – and not for the first time – supremely grateful.
‘Good. I’ll see you both on Wednesday then. By the way, the vet said Holly would almost certainly have died if James hadn’t found her that night. If you guys hadn’t done everything you did for her. Well done, you two.’
James and Felicity exchanged a long look and Felicity felt her heart do a back flip. Then she looked down at little Holly, all snuggled up and sleeping next to her mum, and she said another silent prayer. Please make it through this, little one.
The next morning, James and Felicity greeted each other solemnly, and Felicity felt so bewildered by his presence that she found herself giving him a mock – and rather proud – tour around the building before she remembered that he already knew it inside out. The centre had been converted from an old industrial building and was essentially laid out like a large barn with partitions between the rooms that didn’t go all the way to the ceiling. That meant it wasn’t very soundproof and sometimes the noise the dogs could generate when they were in full voice felt like it was reverberating off the ceiling and bouncing off the walls. Still, Felicity felt rather proud of the place as she showed it off.
James followed her about politely and let her talk, although he had an amused smile on his face, and occasionally a bemused one too. Felicity tended to talk rather fast when she was nervous, and could sometimes be virtually impossible to understand until she got her breathing and heart rate under control, but to his credit he nodded along and pretended to hear every word.
When she had calmed down a bit, they did the rounds, spending rather longer cuddling dogs and kittens than was strictly necessary. It had become clear very early on that James was a natural. He had a gentle, easy way with the animals – no sudden movements, no loud noises – and they seemed to take to him instantly. She even felt a pang of jealousy when ‘her’ Bobby Charlton mewled loudly at him, demanding to be picked up and cuddled. James handled him deftly and he settled into a purring position under James’ chin as if he was born to be there.
He doesn’t even have a kitten shelf of any kind , thought Felicity, crossly.
The morning flew by and when it was time for a break, James nipped out and grabbed them cappuccinos and fresh cheese and onion pasties from the bakery, guessing (correctly) that she had forgotten to bring anything to eat for her lunch, as per usual. As it was just the two of them, they ate in the office like naughty children, Felicity sitting on the desk, legs swinging, James spinning backwards and forwards on the ancient office chair, and munching happily. Felicity found herself thinking about their cosy Christmas spent on the floor of this very room, playing drunken chess and flirting shamelessly. She wondered if he was thinking about it too.
‘So, you never told me why you hate Christmas,’ he said, as if reading her mind.
‘Do we have to do this now, Penguin Man?’ she said.
‘What else is there to do?’ he replied, in a slightly suggestive voice (or was that her imagination?).
Felicity waved the remains of her pasty at him. ‘Okay, fine, but you go first. I’m still eating.’
He paused, holding eye contact for a moment too long, his grey-blue eyes suddenly intense. Part of his blond hair was sticking up on one side and she resisted the urge to pat it back into place.
‘If you insist. But it’s not a pretty picture,’ he said.
‘What happened?’
‘I got dumped on Boxing Day.’
Felicity’s heart lurched in her chest. ‘That’s terrible,’ she said, the sound of her own blood rushing and swirling in her ears.
He spoke slowly. Carefully. It was still painful, clearly. ‘It wasn’t much fun. I’d been with E… er, with my ex, for nine years. We were planning to get married. Then, I don’t know what happened, she had a kind of midlife crisis at the grand age of thirty-six and decided she wanted to travel round the world. Without me.’
Felicity waited. As she had guessed, there was more to say. A wrinkle-frown appeared between his eyes as he spoke, and she was overcome with sadness for him.
‘I wouldn’t have minded,’ he went on, ‘but I later found out she never went travelling at all. She just bloody moved to Coventry, got together with an accountant of all things, and carried on living her life. Same old life, just without me in it.’
‘What a bitch!’
James winced.
‘Er, sorry, I mean, that’s awful! And this all happened on Boxing Day?’
He nodded slowly.
‘That’s really rough.’
‘You could say that.’
‘So, what happened? Do you mind me asking?’
‘I think you already did.’
‘That’s true. I’ll shut up.’
James gave a deep sigh and pushed his hand through his already tousled hair, making it even more sticky-uppy. Felicity attempted to avert her eyes, desperate as she was to touch it herself. It just looked so soft. Inappropriate.
‘We’d spent Christmas with my folks. It had been nice, a bit sedate, nothing to write home about, you know, but also nothing she could object to, if you know what I mean?’
Felicity nodded obediently. Don’t look at his hair .
‘She’d been pretty quiet all day, but my mum is… well, let’s say she can be quite domineering, she loves a party and causing havoc and being super loud, especially after a few sherries, and so Erika always tended to keep quiet around her anyway. So, I didn’t think much of it until I found her bags in the hallway the next morning. As far as I was concerned, everything was fine. We were fine.’
Felicity noted the clear hitch in his voice as he said her name. Erika. Sounded rather exotic.
‘She could have waited one more day, surely?’ said Felicity.
‘That’s the kicker. To this day, that’s the question I just don’t have the answer to. Why Boxing Day? Why not an ordinary Tuesday in February? Why couldn’t she have just waited even a couple more days? I tried asking her for an explanation later, but she couldn’t even give me that much. She just said, “It was time” in that mysterious, mystical Japanese way of talking she had. What am I meant to do with that?’
Felicity tried to ignore the stereotypical images of beautiful and mysterious Japanese women that immediately entered her mind.
‘Anyway, she basically ruined Christmas for me, and I was never a huge fan to start with.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Felicity.
Why on earth did she ever let you go?
James lifted his eyes to hers, his cool seemingly restored. ‘Your turn.’
‘Yikes, how long have you got?’ said Felicity, meaning it. Then she had a crazy thought. Damn you, Bex.
‘Take me out for dinner on Friday night and I’ll tell you,’ she said, looking him right in the eyes with what she hoped was a slightly flirtatious look. He stared back at her from beneath that blond fringe, his eyes suddenly twinkling in amusement.
‘You are full of surprises, Crazy Cat Lady. But…’
‘Don’t worry, it’s not a date,’ said Felicity, quickly. ‘It’s just two friends sharing their tragic Christmas stories over dinner. Okay?’
‘Fine. Okay. It’s not a date. It’s just two tragic friends. Gotcha.’
‘Right then.’
‘Right then.’