Trouble: Tyler and Katie

by Selena Kitt

  “Cute hat.”

  Mine was pink with a little tassel and I had mittens to match.

  I got in the car while Tyler knocked on the limo driver’s window, presumably to tell him to take us to the zoo, although why he didn’t use the intercom was beyond me. It was warm in the car and Tyler laughed at the way I fanned myself, but he wasn’t laughing by the time we’d paid our admission and started walking along the cement pathway marked with painted elephant tracks on the cement.

  “Damn, the wind goes right through these pants.” Tyler shivered, his gloved hand grabbing my mittened one, swinging it. He was wearing a leather jacket, which couldn’t have been that warm.

  “Told you.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “Girl, you stick that out again, I’m going to make you use it to warm me up.”

  “Such horrible threats.” I grinned.

  “Your zoo has a train?” Tyler stopped to look at the train station near the entrance.

  “Yeah, it takes you all the way to the back of the zoo,” I explained. “When I was a kid, we would walk to the back, and then take the train up front to the exit.”

  “Because by then you were hot, tired, hungry, sick of smelling animals and just wanted the hell out of the zoo?” he guessed.

  “You got it.” I laughed, my breath turning to steam in the air, a white plume of mirth. “Kind of weird, isn’t it? Putting animals in cages so humans come stare at them.”

  “I’m familiar with the concept.”

  “Feeling like an animal in a cage?” I glanced over at him.

  “Sometimes we make our own cages.” He shrugged.

  “We should set them all free.” I threw my arms wide as if by magic I could make all the cages fly open.

  “If they wouldn’t arrest me, I’d do it.” He put his arms around my waist, pulling me close. “Just for you.”

  “Let’s take the train to the back.” I said.

  “All right,” he agreed.

  We paid for the train ride—it was separate from the admission, any way to make more money—and settled ourselves in one of the open cars. I was right about the number of people who would go to the zoo in winter. I’d been to the zoo on field trips as a kid, and with my parents when I was young, and it was always in the warm months. The zoo was packed with people then, standing in lines, milling around with popcorn and snow cones. Today it was practically empty. It was almost like we had the whole place to ourselves.

  The train took us all the way to the back of the zoo and dropped us off by the zebras, who were nowhere to be found. We discovered quickly why most people went to the zoo in the summer—a lot of the exhibits closed in the winter months. The warm weather animals were inside.

  “Well we have to see the lions,” Tyler said. “And the tigers.”

  “And the bears?” I teased.

  “I hear there’s an awesome polar bear tunnel.”

  “Where did you hear that?” I smiled. “Yeah, it’s cool, you walk through this tunnel and it’s completely under water. You can see the polar bears swimming. On the other side, you can see seals.”

  “It’s polar bear torture. Food on the inside of the tube, food on the other side of the tube, and they can’t get to any of it.”

  I laughed.

  The lions were sad. They were all sleeping in their cages—typical cats—and it smelled so bad I had to hold my breath the whole way through. The tigers were the same, except there was one tiger awake. He paced back and forth in his cage, restless, whiskers twitching. The bears weren’t even out. No grizzlies or black bears. Hibernating weather.

  “I guess this is the polar bear tube of torture?” Tyler nodded toward the Arctic Ring of Life sign—the Arctic fox, seal and polar bear exhibit.

  “This is it.” I swung his hand as we entered. There were usually huge lines that stretched all along the twisted path but not today. “Hey, there’s the fox!”

  I pointed at a white ball of fluff curled up in the corner, nose to tail, near the glass, keeping warm. We stopped and looked at him for a minute, but he didn’t stir.

  We opened the door and went into the building. It was dark inside, and I blinked, letting my eyes adjust. We walked down a ramp, turning a corner, and entered the tunnel. It was eerily beautiful, the light reflecting through the water, casting blue shadows everywhere. There were seals swimming through the water on our right. They dove and played in the water. I touched my hand to the glass and they came to investigate, curious.

  “Hope this stuff is pressure treated.” Tyler knocked on the glass as a seal swam by him.

  We went through another dark section of the tunnel and came out on the polar bear side. I glanced around but didn’t see any bears.

  “Guess they’re sleeping too,” I mused out loud.

  “Look up.” Tyler lifted my chin with his finger and I gasped.

  There was a polar bear walking right on the tube above us. His giant paws were bigger than my whole head. His claws alone were longer than my fingers. It was like seeing a ghostly giant pass overhead. As we watched, he dove off the side into the water, swimming lazily. He surfaced on the other side of the pond, away from us, pulling himself clumsily onto the rocks. Couldn’t be easy to lift all that body weight, I thought—especially soaking wet.

  “Now this was worth the price of admission,” I said, smiling over at Tyler.

  “Oh, just wait,” he said cryptically. I wrinkled my nose at him, but he didn’t expound as we walked out of the tunnel into another room. This one had a bunch of polar bear stuffed animals and other merchandise for sale. There were also posters all over the wall with information about the Arctic, polar bears and seals.

  “Hey there, I’m Tyler Cook.” Tyler leaned on the counter, looking across it at the girl manning the register on the other side.

  “Oh wow.” She blinked at him, looking stunned. She’d obviously had no idea, getting ready for work that morning, that she was going to run into a rock star that day. “I mean, I know who you are. I mean… oh… hi.”

  “I arranged for a private tour, would you get your boss for me?”

  “Uh. Yeah.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone, pushing buttons. “Hey, Chuck? Tyler Cook is here. He says… yeah, okay.”

  She put her cell phone back in her pocket, staring at Tyler with an expression I was familiar with.

  “He says he’ll be right here.”

  “Thanks, sweetheart.” Tyler dropped her a wink. She hadn’t even noticed me. Hadn’t even looked my way. I might as well have been invisible.

  “Would you...” She reached under the counter and pulled out a zoo map. “Mind signing something. Anything.”

  “Sure.” Tyler signed an autograph while I went to the little window and looked out. From here I could see the polar bear who had walked on the tunnel surface. He was on his back, sunning himself in the rather weak Michigan sunshine.

  When I turned back, Tyler was now talking with a short, balding man wearing round, black wire-rimmed glasses that made his eyes look huge. Tyler glanced over, saw me, and waved me over. I noticed the younger girl behind the counter give us a look when Tyler slid his arm around my shoulder. He did it without even thinking about it, pulling me close, but I was all too aware of the jealous, speculative looks we were getting.

  “Come with me.” The bespectacled man, who said his name was Chuck, had us follow him. He swiped a key card in a door and opened it, and we all went through, heading through another tunnel, but this one wasn’t glass and now we were somewhere I suspected no zoo patrons were usually allowed.

  “Where are we going?” I whispered to Tyler.

  “You’ll see.” He just grinned.

  “As I was telling Mr. Cook,” Chuck said over his shoulder as we walked. “We spend a great deal of time developing our captive breeding program. I think we have one of the best facilities in the country. You’re a lucky young lady to be able to see this today, though, as most of our patrons will never come this close to a
live polar bear.”

  “A… live polar bear?” I blinked at Tyler, feeling him propel me forward, even as I hesitated. Was he out of his freaking mind?

  “Through here.” Chuck ran his card again and opened another door.

  I could smell the bears, something dark and musky, as we went through.

  “I’m not sure...” I gulped, feeling Tyler tighten his grip on my shoulder.

  “Oh, it’s fine. Perfectly safe.” Chuck assured me with a smile as we turned the corner, out of the tunnel. Now we were in a brightly lit room, clearly some sort of lab. On the table was an exceptionally large bear, with several people surrounding it wearing surgical masks and latex gloves. So large, in fact, I wondered how in the hell they’d managed to move it without a forklift or a crane.

  “Just passing through.” Chuck waved us onward. The masked veterinarians didn’t pay us any mind. “Normally you wouldn’t get an opportunity like this, but Sheera’s got a cracked tooth that had to be worked on, so Nacomi and Chinook are on their own for the day.”

  “Babies!” I cried, pressing my nose against the glass like a two-year-old, my maternal instinct kicking in so hard I thought I might actually start to lactate. There were two polar bear babies behind the glass, playing and tumbling together, their fat little bodies and uncoordinated legs making them go end over end like little round balls of white fluff.

  “They’re about two months old,” Chuck said, smiling at my reaction. “Still nursing, though and pretty dependent on Mama.”

  “Can we go in?” I turned to Tyler, pleading. “Can we please go in? If I don’t get to touch one of those little baby bears, I’m going to die.”

  “Well we can’t have that.” Tyler chuckled. That smug look on his face was well deserved this time. “Can she pet them?”

  “Of course.” Chuck used his magic key to open the door. I had a feeling this was breaking every possible zoo rule known to man, and I also had a feeling Tyler had given them a hefty enough “donation” that Chuck could have cared less. “They are developing sharp teeth and mind their claws. They’re young but extremely playful and surprisingly strong.”

  They bounded forward when we came in, unafraid, clearly used to human contact. They smelled us both as we crouched on the floor, sniffing our hands and our coats. I stored my mittens in my pockets, so I could pet their baby-soft fur. They were both about the size of a big raccoon and they both waddled like that too, making me laugh out loud when they tripped over their own feet.

  “Both boys?” I asked as I rolled one of the toy balls and the bears rolled over it.

  “Nacomi is a girl, Chinook’s a boy,” Chuck said from his post near the door.

  One of the bear cubs—the girl one, Nacomi, I think—had the ball in her jaws and she returned with it, shaking her head from side to side. Her brother growled low in his throat and gave out a high-pitched yip. He wanted to play too.

  “Wanna take one home?” Tyler teased as the boy bear gave up on his sister’s ball and came waddling over to me, plopping down in my lap, his big paws waving in the air as he wriggled and rolled to his back.

  “I want a house full of polar bear cubs!” I laughed, tickling Chinook’s belly. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and I saw how sharp those little teeth were.

  “As long as they stayed this size, right?” Tyler snorted, playing with Nacomi and her ball. She didn’t want to let it go.

  Chuck told us about the breeding in captivity program, how they hoped human efforts would help slow or stop the melting of the polar ice caps eventually, but if, God forbid, it didn’t, they might have one of the few places left in the world where the polar bears didn’t go extinct. They’d been considered threatened in the wild for quite some time.

  He didn’t change my mind about zoos, exactly, but he certainly made me appreciate what they did more. There was truly little I could complain about. The animals were clearly well cared for, fed, and happy.

  When it was time to go, I stood reluctantly, and the bear cubs clambered at our feet, biting at the laces of Ty’s shoes and butting us with their little heads like they knew their playmates were ready to depart.

  “I’ll just take one,” I joked, reaching down to scratch Nacomi behind the ears.

  Chuck showed us out to the lobby and Tyler thanked him. I could barely talk around the lump in my throat. It wasn’t leaving the bear cubs, although that was part of it. It was Tyler. I knew who he’d arranged this little zoo side-trip for, and his sweetness and generosity floored me.

  “So, did you like it?” he asked as we put our gloves and mittens and hats on and walked back out into the chilly winter air.

  I couldn’t answer him. There weren’t words. So, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him square on the mouth, hugging him so hard he had to grab onto me to keep us both from going over into a snow bank.

  “You are an amazing man, Tyler Cook,” I choked into his ear as he pulled me close.

  His smile broadened as we parted, and I don’t know how long we stood there, just looking at each other like we had a shared secret between us, something so big and awesome and incredible we just didn’t have words to express it, even if we could.

  Finally, I grabbed his gloved hand in my mittened one and we started walking. I was oblivious to the cold, to the people, few and far between, to everything but Tyler and the big, bright, wide world he cut a path through everywhere he went. Being with this man was like being with a human tornado. It was one hell of a wild, exciting ride.

  “Anything else you want to see?” he asked as we stopped at a vendor to buy hot chocolate.

  “Nothing could top that.” I laughed, blowing steam off my cup, holding it clutched between my mittens.

  “Is that a challenge?” he asked, smirking, as we started to walk again. Walking definitely kept me feeling warmer, although the hot chocolate wasn’t hurting, and being in the same hemisphere as Tyler Cook wasn’t either.

  “I’ll never forget this day as long as I live,” I told him as we neared the zoo exit. Our hot chocolate was gone, my belly warm and full, and we were holding hands again as we walked up to the limo. I glanced up at him, his cheeks red from the cold, his dark eyes bright with a light I could feel every time he looked at me, and I wished I could give him something half as amazing as he’d given me. “I won’t ever forget you.”

  “You think you’re forgettable?” He stopped halfway to the limo, pulling me into his embrace. He wore a little frown, his brow knitted, and I wanted to kiss that spot between them, so it would smooth right out again. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Katie.”

  “Credit sucks, I’d rather spend cash.” I did kiss him then, up on my tiptoes to reach that very spot, feeling it smooth out under my lips as he smiled. “Let’s go, I’m hungry.”

  Chapter Six

  Back at my place, I left Tyler in my living room with the television remote, a bottle of Patron and a shot glass while I went into the bathroom to get ready. The black, silk dress fit perfectly, hugging my slender hips. I wore the black heels I’d worn to the concert. I looked at myself in the full-length mirror on the back of the door, checking out the back of the dress—it was low cut back there, almost down to the crack of my ass, which left me completely exposed.

  I took out my hot rollers and scrunched and sprayed my hair to perfection, or as close as I could get. It was long, thick and naturally blonde—although I did add highlights to give it more of a honey color—and it took some wrangling to get it to do what I wanted it to. Then I did my make-up, eschewing lipstick because I didn’t want our mouths to slide all over when we kissed—and I expected to be kissing him a lot more before the day was over.

  Tyler had his Keds up on the coffee table, the television tuned to some sport or another—I could tell by the crowd noises, but I didn’t look—when I came into the living room. He glanced up when I came out, and then did a double take, his eyes widening slightly, growing darker as his gaze swept over me, head to toe, his feet now firmly pl
anted on the floor.

  “Celeste has good taste, doesn’t she?” I smirked and did a quick turn in my heels, showing him the back, which elicited a long, low whistle. “But I have a feeling she’s used to picking out clothes for your girls.”

  “What makes you say that?” He stood, grinning.

  “She told me, about the girls you invite up to your room.” I turned my face up to him as he pulled me into his arms. “The girls you take on the road.”

  “Does that make you jealous?” He raised that one quizzical eyebrow.

  “I don’t have the right to be jealous.” I shrugged. “I’m just happy to be here with you.”

  “I’m happy you’re here too.” He tilted my chin up with one finger. “But you didn’t answer the question.”

  “Okay… then yes.” I felt it in my belly and chest, a kind of heat, a slow burn. “It makes me feel a little jealous.”

  “Good,” he said, sounding a little too smug and he laughed when I punched him in the shoulder. “You ready to go have some more fun?”

  “Always.”

  After what Celeste had said about Tyler’s record, I was worried about getting across the border, but it was a breeze. The limo driver handled all the talking, handing over our passports—mine was right on my driver’s license, something people from Michigan could do to get over to Canada easily. I got it when I was nineteen, because that was the drinking age over in Canada, and it was twenty-one in the states. We spent a lot of time going to bars in Windsor after high school.

  I was shaking, though, by the time we got to the first checkpoint.

  “You cold?” Tyler slid an arm around my shoulders. Celeste had sent up a little fur jacket to wear over my dress. It was the softest thing I’d ever worn. Rabbit, Tyler said, which made me sad for all the little black bunnies—but I wore it anyway, hoping they’d lived a long, full life before being skinned. It was on the seat beside us now. “Or are you afraid of heights?”

  “Just excited.”