“I’m joking with you. I have my enormous Bridget Jones style pants on. I went to the doctors remember? I have to at least pretend to be respectable.”
Samara
We left a pouting Max on reception who whined loudly about having to stay to look after the office while we went out without him and we walked up the road to the ice-cream parlour. Of course, they still sold ice-cream given that was their main income, but with it being winter, they diversified with a line of toasties and warm waffles.
A tall, thin male came over to us. I’d have described him as brooding. Not so much with dark good looks but rather with the surly look on his face.
“Welcome to Jetty’s. What can I get you?” He said in a flat tone, sounding more like a robot than a waiter.
Jess and I exchanged glances. “If I could have a water please, and Jess?”
“Mocha for me with one sugar please.”
“Any food?”
“Cheese and tomato toastie.”
“Make that two.”
“Is that everything?” The robotic waiter asked before leaving to take our orders through to the back.
“Laugh a minute that one, isn’t he?” I nodded in his direction. “What with him here and Sir Loins being all miserable at Jax’s.”
“Sir Loins?”
“Oh I forget you’ve not been there yet. He’s the barista there. Just broken up with his girlfriend and he’s miserable. I bet that’s what’s happened to this guy too.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m going to try to find out. Maybe he’s a potential aftercare client?”
“Well, be careful. I don’t want him spitting in my dinner.”
The waiter brought our drinks over. Between him going to get my water and coming back I now really wanted a lemonade, at a like my-life-depended-on-it level.
“Ooh, can I have a lemonade please? With lots of ice.”
“You want another drink?” Grumpy pointed to my water.
“Yes, and lots of ice. Don’t forget the ice.” He sighed and stomped off.
Jessica smiled. “Are you having cravings?”
I grinned. “I think I am.” I had a quick gulp of water. “So, what did Lachlan have to say?”
She sighed. “Do we have to do this? Are you going to make me talk about him?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely. You have met me, haven’t you? I want to know everything. What happened today, where you met. Everything.”
The waiter came back with my lemonade.
“Do you have any lemons to go with it?”
He pointed to the drink. “There’s a slice of lemon in it.”
“No, it’s not enough. Do you have like, erm, eight slices of lemon. Yes, eight. That should be okay.” I picked out the slice of lemon and ate all the inside and then I started crunching on an ice cube.
“Okay, which species are you then if you don’t mind me asking because I’ve seen some strange shit in here, but people eating lemon and crunching ice cubes without pulling a face. That’s a new one.”
I beckoned him closer with my finger. “It’s a secret at the moment but I’m a pregnant species.” I confessed. I was surprised when a smile came to his face.
“Ah, I should have guessed. My sister was weird then too. Eight slices of lemon coming up.” He said and he disappeared back behind the counter.
“Well, from looking like he was sucking them to willingly slicing them up for you.” Jessica pointed out.
“You get a lot of special treatment being pregnant. I’m going to make the most of it.” I laughed.
I thought Jess would laugh back but instead she said. “Just go careful, it’s still very early days.”
I took a punt. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience.” As I watched her face, Jess’ eyes welled up and she swallowed.
“It was a long time ago now and I wasn’t pregnant long enough for it to count, if at all.”
I reached out and held my hand over hers. “Every pregnancy counts, Jess. No matter how long for. Tell me about it, please.”
She took a deep breath and spoke in a low, soft voice. “If I do, you mustn’t say a word because no one knows.”
“No one? Not even the father knew?”
Jess shook her head. “No. Because I did a test one day and the next I bled, so maybe it was a false positive anyway. I’ll never know.”
“Was it Lachlan’s?”
Her eyes fixed on mine. “Yes. But he was at work as usual when it all happened. I tried to tell him, but he was too busy.”
“That’s when you left him, isn’t it?”
She nodded, staring into space before returning her gaze to me. “He had no idea what was going on right around him. He could only think about his job and promotion. He was so busy looking to the future he let the present go.”
“Oh, Jess. I am so very sorry you had to go through all that alone. I’m sorry for chatting on about being pregnant. It must be hard.”
“Oh God, no. Don’t you dare pussyfoot around me and apologise for your happiness. I’m thrilled for you. My situation wasn’t meant to be. I made my peace with it all eight years ago. I believe that whether I was pregnant or not, the situation was sent to me to show me that I needed to move on with my life. I moved and passed my exams and never looked back.”
“Really?”
She sighed. “Okay, I looked back and wondered where it all went wrong.”
“And?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure when we changed course to a path of destruction. We were good and then we weren’t.”
“Do you still love him?”
She shrugged. “What does it matter? We don’t work together.”
“You did once.”
The waiter came over with eight slices of lemon, an extra bowl of ice cubes, and another lemonade. “On the house,” he said smiling. “Got to look after the little one.”
I turned green as I got a whiff of the lemon. “Erm, actually…”
“I’m here, bitches.” Max came through the door and scraped a chair back at the side of us, plonking himself down. “Finally, my sister returned so I could get out to join you. Girls, what’s with all the lemon, ARE WE HAVING TEQUILA?”
“No, Max. Just lemonade.”
“Oh, you disappoint me. I thought we could get pissed up and then I might have the nerve to deal with my client.”
“What is your problem with Maisie? She’s really nice.”
He tilted his head at me. “If she’s so nice, why can’t she find a date?”
“She just has some unusual tendencies.”
“Like being a bitch.” Max quipped. He clicked his fingers in the direction of the waiter who went back to his previous surly expression and took his time, serving another three tables before finally coming over. “Can I help you?” He said tersely.
“Oh yeah, can I have a coke float please and your phone number?”
I elbowed him in the side violently. “Max, enough.” I turned to the waiter. “I am so sorry for my friend’s high level of inappropriateness. He was joking. We’re leaving.”
Max’s hands went to his hips. “I haven’t had my coke float.”
“It’s almost time for your appointment with Maisie, so let’s go.”
He climbed up on a chair in the corner of the parlour. “I’m not going, you can’t make me.”
“I’ll just send Maisie in here then, shall I? You can see her without Jess.”
He slowly got down. “You are not nice, Samara Leighton.” He huffed. “Now do you think that guy got a good look at my butt from my position on the chair? It’s a great angle, right?”
As we made our way back to the office, Max kept us all entertained, but I could see Jess’ smiles did not reach her eyes. I decided then that I would definitely do my best to re-unite her and Lachlan; not because Cupid commanded it, but because she was my friend and deserved her own happiness.
Jessica
Max had actually done me a favour coming in when he ha
d. The conversation had been heavy, and I’d not planned on sharing my secrets, but Samara just had that friendly way about her that made you open up. I knew she wouldn’t say anything to anyone else. I was glad we had Maisie coming in for an appointment that afternoon. It would take my mind off Lachlan for an hour or so, because since I’d seen him, I’d found it hard to think about much else. The man came to replace the glass in my window and Samara offered to stay in my apartment while the job was done seeing as we had Maisie due at any moment. When it got to ten past two, I went out to the reception to make sure Max wasn’t being held prisoner by his next appointment.
But there was no one there except Max who was singing Away in a Manger.
“No sign of your appointment.”
“Nope. Looks like she bailed.” He spun on his office chair.
“There’s no need to look so pleased. She’s part of your probation period, remember?”
“Hmm, I feel like I’m being set up to fail. I will have to find a date for someone else.” He narrowed his eyes in my direction. “Would you consider yourself undateable, Jess?”
“No.” I caught sight of Maisie walking very slowly up the street towards us. “Anyway, she’s here.”
We watched as she sauntered. She was dressed in tight black leggings, long black boots up to her thighs, and a black t-shirt with rips across the chest that revealed the top of her breasts. She was overtly sexual and the kind of woman that you wanted to hate because they were so bloody attractive. She pushed open the door of the building and leaned on the reception counter. “I have an appointment with you.” She said to Max.
“You’re late.” Max told her.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Ever seen a cat wear a watch? Me neither.”
“Come through to my office, Maisie. It’s more private.” We’d just have to leave the reception locked until Samara came back down. I couldn’t see us being inundated with disappointed visitors anyway if the morning had been anything to go by.
In my office, Maisie went straight over to the couch and curled up with her feet under her.
I pulled a chair up near her and gestured to Max to do the same. He sat in front of her with his folder, and a pen that had a sparkly fake diamond on the end and fake pink feathers.
“So, Mais. If I could go through your form.”
“Okay, Cedric.”
“Sorry, Mais. What?”
“I said, okay, Cedric.”
“My name’s not Cedric.”
“My name isn’t Mais.”
“And this is why you’re undateable.” Max blurted out. “I’ve heard the others call you Mais. You’re just being sly and awkward.”
She stretched out on the couch and yawned.
I leant over to Max. “Pet her.”
“You fucking what?” He whisper-shouted.
“She’s a cat. Want to get around her? Pet her. Treat her like a cat, not a person. What have you got to lose?”
“My beautiful face if she claws me to death?”
He huffed loudly. “What-ev-er.” Standing up he walked over to Maisie who eyed him suspiciously. He held out a hand towards her. “Your hair is beautiful, Maisie. Can I stroke it?”
“You may.”
He stroked down her hair and made gagging motions to me from behind her. “Lovely cat. Now would you like some milk before we start?”
“Do you have any fish?” Maisie asked.
“I’m afraid not because it’s a dating agency not a fish and chip shop.” He caught my glare and jumped up. “I’ll just get your milk.”
When he left I turned to Maisie. “Stop tormenting him; you’ve had your fun now.”
She pouted. “But it’s so much fun.”
“Yeah, well do you want a date or not? It’s all very well being aloof, demanding, and cat like, but it’s not going to get you anyone who wants to stay around.”
“Yeah, well that’s the story of my life. No one ever does. Not my parents who didn’t want to know when I got bitten, even though they’d taken the stray werecat in in the first place. Then I finally found Frankie, but he wasn’t interested once he settled down with Lucy; and the next-door-neighbours, well as soon as they got pregnant, it was bye bye. So what is the point? I get settled somewhere and then thrown out with last night’s newspapers.”
Well we certainly appeared to be getting straight to the root cause of Maisie’s difficulties. She didn’t trust that anyone would stick around. “Look, give Max a chance. He’s going to do his best to find you your perfect match and I will work with you about how to accept that you can’t ever know if someone will stay around. You have to be happy in yourself and enjoy what joy you can take from each day.”
“You’re single, aren’t you? It sucks, end of.”
“Yeah, you’re totally right,” I agreed. “But you can still either play the victim or get on with life. I choose to get on with life.”
“Okay.” Maisie sat up as Max walked back in. She took the cup of milk from him and lapped it up with her tongue. I watched Max shudder.
“Okay, Max. What do you want to know?” She said.
When he’d gathered up all his information, he told Maisie he would be in touch very soon with details of her first date. Max would do a pre-date appointment, discussing potential conversational topics. Then the date would take place and if there were any problems, the date would be curtailed, and Maisie would come back to the office to speak with us.
“I really don’t know why I’m single.” Maisie said. “I like men and women, so I have twice as many people to choose from.” She started coughing. Great big wracking coughs and eventually she hurled up a hairball. Max started to gag. “Okay so maybe that’s why.” She said, grabbing a tissue off my desk and picking it up. “It’s not exactly sexy, is it?”
“We’ll get there, Maisie. I promise.” I told her, but neither of us looked particularly convinced in light of the hairball incident.
“So who are you going to set her up with first?” I asked Max.
“Bartholomew Simpson, the barista at Jax’s. He’s newly single and he’s hot. If nothing else she can let him roger her senseless. Plus, she can get staff discount on her daily saucer of milk. It’s a winner.”
Max soon lived to regret his over-confidence.
Two days later Maisie came into the office. Her face had three big scratches down her right cheek and her top lip was bust up.
“Maisie. What the hell happened?” I asked. I’d only come out to reception to grab a coffee.
“Is Max in?” She hissed. “Only I’d like to update him about what happens when you set a werecat up with a barista, and his jealous ex doesn’t like it and attacks you.”
“He’s at a meeting with Shelley.” I looked around wondering where Samara was and then I heard the sounds of retching in the background. I turned the reception’s Christmas music up. “Oh dear. I guess she must have had some false nails on her?”
“She’s a werewolf. One of the toughest there is. She brought down a whole pack on her own. I didn’t even like her stupid boyfriend because that’s what he is. Stupid. I asked him if he wanted to to hang out at The Marine and he said yes and untucked his shirt. Then Alyssa, that’s his ex, turned up. I went outside and asked what business of hers it was if he was single and got this for my troubles. Anyway, they’re back together so at least one union came out of it.”
It brought out a whole new meaning to swipe right, that was for sure.
“Come through to my office and take a seat, Maisie. Let’s chat some more while you are here.”
She hesitated and then walked over to the couch and curled up on it again. “Don’t suppose you want a resident cat? Only this couch is amazing.”
“Maisie. Why do you not get your own place? With a nice comfy couch?”
She sighed. “Because I like to be looked after. Petted. Spoiled. If I live on my own, then there’s no one to do those things for me. I hate it at the moment, now Frankie and Lucy are away travelling, and the neig
hbours don’t want me around anymore. The restaurants chase me off nine times out of ten. I’ve started hanging around at the grooming salon because that new woman is kind, but I have to be careful because they largely cater for dogs.”
Like all of us, Maisie was just looking for love, care, and companionship. Her brittle edge and cat-like qualities of aloofness no doubt put people off, but underneath she really was a pussy cat.
“When Max comes in, I’ll help him go through the dating agency books and see if we can’t find something different to what you’ve been originally matched with. It can happen a lot with mixed species. Your dating agency results are skewed by the different qualities you have. Plus, sometimes people complete their application forms without being brutally honest.”
“I might need to do mine again.” She admitted. “At least to state a clear dislike of other female’s claws.”
When Maisie had left, I went to check on Samara who now looked grey but was eating a doughnut.
“Are you okay?”
“Sure. You?”
“I’m thinking that maybe I need to go on a date, soon.”
Samara perked up. “Seriously? You feel ready to embrace love again?”
“I’ve done nothing but feel sorry for myself since I got here, and well, also for the last eight years since things with me and Lachlan went wrong. Then I was talking to Maisie this morning and even having been almost taken out by a werewolf hasn’t deterred her from wanting to find love and companionship. I don’t think I should be sitting every night in my apartment above my workplace, listening to Max’s warbling coming from across the hall. I need to be enjoying myself. If not dating then doing something to get to know my new surroundings better.”
“Have you visited the lighthouse yet?” Withernsea had a lighthouse museum as its main tourist attraction.
I shook my head.
“Well, it’s only £3 to get in so why not start there? Let me look at the opening times for you.” Samara began typing furiously into the keypad. She seemed very determined I should see it; it must be good. “It closes at 5pm on a weekday so you’d have to go Saturday or Sunday? Which would be better?”
Cupid and Psych (Cupid Inc Book 2) Page 6
