by Renee Hart
“What?” she said, her words dripping with skepticism. She eyed him.
“It’s not bad. I promise.”
Chapter 2
“Why did I agree to this? Why did I do this? Oh gosh, stop looking at me,” Chleo squirmed. She was balancing a box in one arm and rummaging in her bag for the keys to her apartment with the other. She stared incredulously into the box. The little creature inside it squeaked and looked back up at her.
“Oh no. Look at your dumb ugly face. I hate you already,” Chleo said when she made it inside her apartment. She couldn’t believe that Petey was so convincing that he gave her one of the kittens that his cat had. She wasn’t a big fan of animals, especially not cats. But Petey had talked about how sweet the kitten was, and how she would love the company. She regretted the decision with every step she took once the box was handed to her on Tuesday afternoon.
The little kitten squeaked again. It looked like it had been born less than a week ago. Petey said it was 3 weeks, but Chleo had no idea how to gauge how old little cats were until they turned into “full grown assholes”.
It was tiny enough to fit in one palm, and it didn’t have proper balance to take too many steps. She hated it. She hated its big curious eyes, and the way it squeaked instead of meowed, she hated its grey fur with darkened stripes, and she hated that its tail puffed out like a majestic feather duster. Most of all, she hated that right now she wanted to name it and give it something warm to drink. She bought a small dropper and special milk on her way home. She had no idea how to take care of cats.
The little cat stared up at her, and Chleo scowled back. She set the box down on her kitchen counter and turned to lock her apartment door. She was grateful that her space was an open concept. There would be nowhere for the cat to hide.
She sighed and started to unpack a tin of kitten milk replacement formula.
“Your eyes are like the moon, little cat.”
“Mew,” she squeaked in return, watching Chleo intently.
“Big and bright and yellow. I think I’m gonna call you Luna. I liked Sailor Moon…maybe that’ll make me like you too.”
The cat said nothing. She raised her nose to the air and sniffed. She recognized the scent of warm milk.
Chleo heated up some milk in the microwave and used the dropper to feed the little cat. She scratched underneath the cat’s chin and used a finger to rub the top of her head. She was so unbelievably tiny.
“I guess it’s just you and me big eyed Luna. I’m almost an official cat lady,” Chleo said with a little chuckle. “Five more of you with me in this apartment and that’ll be me giving up hope of ever finding a man.”
Chleo’s phone buzzed in her purse. She reached inside it and looked at the screen. It was Jessica.
“Hey lady! Miss me?”
“It’s literally been a day and a half,” Chleo said, adding more milk to the dropper. She watched Luna lick at the tip of the dropper hungrily.
“So?” Jessica scoffed. “I wanted to make sure Petey hadn’t burned the store down.”
“He hasn’t…He did something worse.”
“Uh oh. What happened?” Jessica said. She braced herself for bad news. She knew if it was really bad, Chleo would have called her to let her know…so that either meant it wasn’t so bad, or it was worse than she thought.
“He gave me a cat,” Chleo said. She scratched under Luna’s chin and glared at her.
“What?” Jessica couldn’t contain her laughter. “You hate cats!”
“I hate animals,” Chleo corrected.
“Yes, but you especially hate cats. How did he manage to pawn a cat off on you?”
“He said she needed a good home, and would help me feel less lonely.”
Chleo had never actually told Jessica that she had been feeling lonely. The line got quiet for a while. Jessica was trying to decide whether to joke about it, or let her friend know that she was always there for her.
“I’m really sorry, honey. You have me. You’ll always have me. And now, I guess you have a cat child.”
“A cat child? Jesus,” Chleo groaned. “I named her Luna, and I’m so mad at her for existing.”
“You sound like you’re in love already. Has she had her shots? Checked her for any bugs or worms?”
“What? I have no idea. Oh my goodness, I don’t know what I’m doing. Maybe I should give her back,” Chleo said in a panic.
“Calm down, silly. I remember a friend taking her dog to this really great vet downtown. I’ll find out the number and text you. Gotta go though. My husband is turning our food into charcoal,” Jessica laughed.
“It’ll be the tastiest charcoal any of you have ever had!” Chleo could hear Alfie call out defensively.
“Love you! Bye!”
“Love you too. Hug Alfie and Lyd for me,” Chleo hung up the phone. Luna licked her nose and looked up at Chleo. Chleo took the little box into her bedroom and filled a corner with some old shirts and hand towels. Luna drunkenly staggered over to the clump and got cozy.
“Tomorrow I need to get you some litter, and food, and find out when I can take you to the damn vet.”
She ran a finger over Luna’s body, and watched the little cat until she fell asleep.
Chapter 3
In less than one week, Chleo decided she wasn’t completely repulsed by cats. At least, not completely repulsed by the one currently in her possession. Chleo fed Luna when she needed to, got her some litter, and spent most of her time around her. She was like a terrified mother, her mama bear mode transferring now to her “cat child”. Jessica sent her the number for the vet, but Chleo couldn’t go until the weekend.
On Saturday morning, Chleo put Luna into a small cat carrier and headed downtown. It would take a 15 minute train ride. The best part about living in the city was the fact that she didn’t need a car. She much preferred walking and taking the train.
The vet’s office was close enough to the subway, and when she got there, she was pretty surprised by what she saw. The office was located in an old building. The bricks had naturally gotten darker and grown moss in the cracks and crevices. It looked like it had once been a church before the inside was completely gutted and turned into a hospital for sick animals.
The inside was the complete opposite of how it looked like on the outside. The inside was spotless. The walls were a soft pink that almost looked like beige. There was a single horizontal pink stripe that was a more noticeable pink than the one that was on the walls themselves that ran along the middle of each wall.
There were only 2 other people in the waiting room. A plump man with a worried look on his face was twiddling his thumbs and looking down the hallway every few minutes. The second was an old woman with a purple beanie on her head. She had a large but incredibly skinny dog that Chleo could only guess was a kind of hound. The dog had a matching beanie with a small ball at the top of its head and it was panting even though it wasn’t hot in the waiting room.
“Can I help you?” a woman said from behind a large desk. She had to rise from her chair a bit in order for Chleo to be able to see her.
The receptionist had a friendly face, and she didn’t look a day over 21. She had layers of different colored eye shadow on, but very pale lipstick. Her hair was a dirty blonde and she wore it back in a ponytail.
“Yes. I have a cat,” Chleo raised the carrier so that the receptionist could see over the wall that separated her from the patients and their owners. “I wanted to get her checked out for bugs and shots and all that stuff.”
“Oh how lovely. First time?”
It was true, Chleo was starting to believe, people who owned pets were nuts and acted like owning an animal was like raising a child.
“First pet that wasn’t a fish, yeah,” Chleo said.
“That’s sweet. What kind of cat is she?” the receptionist asked with genuine interest.
“Uhhh, a grey one with a fluffy tail?” Chleo said as if she was asking a question. She didn’t know the diff
erence in cats.
The receptionist smiled and stretched her hands over the desk to take the carrier from Chleo. She looked into the open cage at the front and cooed inside.
“Aww she’s adorable.”
Chleo groaned. She knew that Luna was adorable. There was no way she could get rid of her. And it had only taken a week for her to get attached.
“She looks like she could be a Maine Coon or maybe a Ragamuffin. I’ll wait til Dr. Vaswani comes out. In the meantime, you can fill out this form and have a seat. If you have any questions you can just let me know. I’m Wendy,” the receptionist said and handed the cat back over to Chleo. Chleo thanked her and looked around the waiting room to find a place to sit.
Chleo sat 2 chairs away from the anxious plump man, placing Luna’s cage on the chair that separated them, and started filling out her form.
“I notice you don’t have a pet with you,” Chleo leaned over to the man and whispered. His eyes widened when she spoke to him. He was so focused on being nervous and looking down the hall that it took him a moment to realize that someone was actually communicating with him.
“She’s in surgery,” he sounded very disheartened.
The man didn’t care to elaborate, and as he nervously glanced down the hall again, Chleo decided that she wasn’t going to ask. She went back over to Wendy the receptionist and handed in her form. Wendy got up from her desk and disappeared down a hall that was to the left of her desk.
Chleo sat back down and peered into the cage as Luna’s bright yellow eyes looked back up at her. She put her finger close to the front of the cage and Luna sniffed at it.
“Chleo Matthews?” a voice said. Chleo was too busy staring at Luna to notice a doctor coming into the waiting room. Chleo was taken aback by him. He was tall with long black hair and a friendly face. He had on a white coat and a stethoscope around his neck. The doctor looked almost as young as the receptionist.
“That’s me,” Chleo said when she finally came out of her trance. She stood up and started walking over to the handsome doctor.
“You forgot your cat,” he said, looking behind her. He tried not to laugh when he saw her eyes widen with embarrassment. She went back for Luna and followed the doctor down the hall.
“Wendy tells me you have a little Ragamuffin,” the doctor said when they reached his office. Chleo shrugged and opened the cage door. Luna stayed in the shadows, taking in her surroundings. Her bright yellow eyes danced between Chleo and the veterinarian. He carefully reached into the cage and pulled out a cowering tiny kitten. Luna squeaked but was mostly still. She looked to Chleo for confirmation on whether this new human would be kind or not.
“And so she is,” the doctor confirmed. “She’s new too. About a month old, right?”
“There about. Listen, doctor…uhhh.”
“Vaswani. Arjun Vaswani,” he curled up one side of his mouth to smile at her. His teeth were dazzling. How was he not a movie star?
“Dr. Vaswani,” Chleo tripped on her words and stared down at the cat in his arms to avoid giving herself away. “Yeah. I’m not sure if she’s had her shots or really what to do with her. I mean, she’s mine and I’m keeping her…I’ve just never had a cat before.”
Dr. Vaswani chuckled and cradled Luna in his arms. He scratched under her chin until her eyes closed. She even seemed less afraid of him than when she was around Chleo.
“I can take a look at her,” Dr. Vaswani said. He spoke in a low and soothing voice.
“I’ll do some tests, but I may need to ask you to come back with her at some point during the week. Is that ok Mrs. Matthews?”
“Um, that should be ok. And miss,” Chleo said. She was grateful for her complexion. Her cheeks were on fire whenever he addressed her, and she was trying her best to pay more attention to her cat than to the man holding her.
“Sorry, Miss Matthews.”
They both looked up from Luna at the same time and their eyes met. Chleo offered a smile, but she felt completely exposed and vulnerable now that she was actually giving Dr. Vaswani a proper look. He didn’t seem to mind, in fact, he almost looked like he was just as nervous as she was.
“I can give her a test today, and maybe you both can come back on Tuesday,” Dr. Vaswani offered.
“I’m not too sure. I have a business, and…”
“Oh nice. What is it that you do?” Dr. Vaswani asked. He looked genuinely intrigued now. Luna was practically asleep in his arms as he kept rubbing her chin and the top of her head.
“My best friend and I own a flower shop. We’ve had it for about 8 years now. It’s called Any Blooming Thing,” Chleo said.
“That sounds vaguely familiar. But that’s very cool. I can give you my number, and you can let me know whenever you’re free to come by for the tests.”
Chleo wasn’t sure if he was hitting on her or not. They exchanged awkward glances every few moments, and he was smiling to himself when she spoke. But Chleo was used to the chase. Being pursued happened mostly if there was a chance that she would put out, or if there was something in it for the man involved.
“Your number?” Chleo was still finding it hard to believe that Dr. Vaswani could potentially want to see her outside of this pale pink office.
“Yeah, sometimes I can make house calls. If that’s OK with you.”
“It’s fine,” Chleo said. Her insides fluttered about. Luna looked so peaceful in Dr. Vaswani’s arms. She had a million things that she wanted to say to him, but she was enjoying the company of the handsome vet, and her soft purring kitten in his arms.
Chapter 4
“It’s only for a few hours. Don’t gimme that look, cat,” Chleo grumbled. Luna was sitting in the corner of a larger box staring up at Chleo. Of course Luna had no idea what was going on, but Chleo was getting used to talking to her cat even though she had only had her for a week.
Dr. Vaswani had given Luna some tests, and Chleo spent the day reading, pacing, and thinking about a man she barely even knew. She knew that when it came to physical attributes she could be fickle, but she also knew that there was something about him that caught more than just her eye. He was so sweet to her little cat, and his voice reminded her of Nat King Cole. It was deep and musical. The way his long hair fell around his face, and when he swung his head back to move his hair from out from under his eyes made her swoon.
There were probably tens of hundreds of people with pets that felt the same way. Jessica’s friend who went probably noticed how good looking he was. It would be impossible to deny how gorgeous he was, but she had made him just as shy and as awkward as she had felt being around him.
She told Petey about Dr. Vaswani, and he thought he deserved special praise for giving her the cat in the first place. He invited her out that night, and after a second to think about it, Chleo decided that going out was probably something she needed.
Her doorbell rang just as she was fitting large crescent moon earrings into her ears. She took a quick look at her body in the full length mirror on the inside of her closet door. She looked cute. Her hair was braided into two cornrows that went down to her shoulders; she covered her head with a dark brown wide rim hat. Her lipstick was a deep purple and her eyelashes were so thick and long that she didn’t even need to wear mascara for them to stand out. Her grey dress looked like an oversized sweater, and she had on thigh high dark brown boots to match the brown belt around her waist and her wide rim hat.
“Quel surprise, you’re wearing black,” Chleo joked when she opened the door. Petey had on a black shirt with an anime character printed on the front. His jacket was white with black sleeves, and his jeans were black. He was wearing boots too, but they looked like black combat boots that went above his ankles.
“Black is very in right now,” Petey said defensively.
“Isn’t black always in?” Chleo laughed. Petey grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the apartment.
***
“I can’t believe you dragged me here,” Chleo grumbled. They
were in a dark and quiet part of the city. It was surprising that there were very few people walking around. They had taken a cab to a small club that Petey recommended.
“This place opened just a few weeks ago. I thought it would be nice. Not too many people, you get to go up and sing or play music if you want. It’s this beautiful jazz place, and I know how much you like jazz,” Petey said. His arm was linked with Chleo’s and he kept joking that it was like that because he didn’t want her to run away. He remembered how hard Chleo took her last break up, and even though he was younger, he was very protective of her. She was more than just his boss.
Chleo relaxed when the door opened for somebody to step inside. Music poured out of the club. It was fast paced and fun, a lot like Sleepwalker and the other jazz musicians that Chleo had been into lately.
They stepped inside and music came at them from all around. The trumpet hit them right away, the sound of it floating over all the instruments and coming at them from all sides. Petey started bobbing his head to the music and glancing about the place. Chleo kept her eyes on the stage. It was to their right while the bar was on the left. In the middle was a section with tables, a corner with 2 pool tables, and a large space that was the dance floor.
For a place that was relatively new, there were quite a few people there. Some were sitting, both pool tables were in use, and there were enough couples spinning and dancing on the dance floor for it to be more than just a quaint little bar. Chleo didn’t mind. There was so much life and movement all around, especially on the stage.
There were 9 musicians on stage. A drummer, 2 guitarists, a bass guitarist, a trumpeter, a saxophonist, a singer, a female back-up singer, and the one who caught Chleo’s eye was someone playing a standing bass. He had grey eyes and chocolate skin. Whenever the singer and saxophonist leaned towards one microphone to harmonize, the guy with the standing bass would smile, and he had dimples. It was one thing for Chleo to have adorable deep dimples, but here was this brilliant musician having a good time and just feeling the music.
