“So your cat lady bona fides are solid.”
Lauren laughed. “You could say that.” She started picking the clothes up off the floor.
“Well, this was…nice. Guess we have to go back to real life now.”
She stopped and looked at him. “Guess so.”
“Is this a thing now?”
Caleb felt like a dick for even saying that, but he didn’t see much disappointment on Lauren’s face, either. He kind of wanted it to be a thing, but maybe that wasn’t a good idea.
“A thing?”
“I just mean,” Caleb said, sitting up. “The ink on my divorce papers is still drying. And the whole process was…not pretty. I’m not really ready to date right now.”
“You’re divorced.”
“Yeah. This was great and, honestly, I want to do it again, but I don’t really have it in me to do anything romantic.”
“Well, I guess you’re in luck.”
He watched her futz around the room, unable to read her tone. Was she bitter? Honest?
She dropped her clothes in a hamper and said, “My ex-boyfriend just got married. It was… I don’t know. I’m still processing how I feel about it. I thought I’d marry that guy once, but it wasn’t meant to be, and now he’s married to somebody else. So I decided I’m going to focus on myself for a bit. Relationships…end. They don’t go how you plan. And rather than deal with the frustrations of that, or with dating, which I don’t really have time for, I’m prioritizing myself. Doing what makes me happy, what fulfills me. If the right guy comes along, awesome, but if not, I’ll be okay.”
Caleb appreciated that. He was still adjusting to being on his own—he and Kara had lived together since vet school, and before that he’d had roommates, so he’d never had his own place before. He hadn’t gone as far as prioritizing himself so much as just trying to find some kind of normalcy. It seemed remarkable for someone to choose themselves; Caleb had always figured that once he’d recovered, he’d date again, even if he planned to never get married again.
He must have been staring, because Lauren stared back.
“Like, I get it,” she said. “Breakups are the worst. Can I ask what happened?”
“She cheated on me, then closed the clinic we ran together without consulting me, and then the cherry on top was her running off with the guy to another state.”
Lauren winced. “Oof. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m…making my peace with it. But, like I said, things got messy, especially when we were dividing up our business assets, and I just… I can’t put myself through all that again. I know ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ is a cliché, but it really is me.”
“But it’s me, too, is what I’m saying.” Lauren sat at the foot of the bed. “Derek getting married really threw me for a loop. He and his wife knew each other for, like, five minutes before he proposed. My friend, Lindsay, says a lot of guys just hit a certain age and are suddenly ready to settle down. So it’s not me per se. But I felt like it was me. I dunno. Sorry, you don’t need to hear all this.”
“It’s all right. I’m familiar with that feeling.”
“Bottom line is we don’t have a romantic future. And I’m okay with that.”
Caleb knew he had no business in a relationship while he still harbored so much bitterness toward Kara, but hearing Lauren state the situation so bluntly was oddly upsetting. Disappointing, even. Why would that be? Lauren was sexy and great in bed, but she was also kind of a presumptuous know-it-all cat lady who ran a business in which people sipped coffee and pet cats. They’d spent most of the time they’d known each other bickering. Even if he wasn’t still a mess over his divorce, getting involved with this woman seemed like a silly idea.
And yet.
Her robe was starting to slip off her shoulder to reveal the edge of her breast, and it was basically the sexiest thing he had ever seen. He wanted to reach into that robe and cup her just-more-than-a-handful breasts.
“Your eyes are all red,” Lauren said as she got off the bed.
“Yeah, my contacts have been in for a few hours longer than they should have been.”
“Aha. I thought I saw you wearing glasses.”
“I do a lot of the time, but dogs licking my face are occupational hazards, and it’s hard to get the smudges off sometimes.” He cleared his throat. “Even if we have no romantic future, this was nice. Just putting it out there that I’m incredibly attracted to you and would not say no if you wanted to take me back to your place and jump me again.”
“You kind of jumped me.”
He felt himself smile. He liked this woman a lot when they weren’t arguing. “It was a mutual jumping.”
“Well, I need to hop in the shower. But it’s a pretty big shower. Room for two if you want to conserve water.”
So, no romantic future, but perhaps some sexy fun in the short term. Hard to say no to that. He tossed the covers aside. “Well, if it’s to conserve water…”
Chapter 9
Lauren sat across from Evan, Paige, and Lindsay at Pop. She was bursting to talk to them about what had happened with Caleb but was worried about how all of it would look. She couldn’t just say, I slept with a guy I have no future with and who I don’t really like that much. High five!
Lindsay was an old friend from college who hopped around careers like they were hobbies; she’d recently bailed on a dead-end job as a line cook at a restaurant in Park Slope to begin a career as a restaurant reviewer for a popular urban food website. These days, she ate everything as if she were thinking of the most pretentious way to describe it. She sipped a martini now as if she were a sommelier at a wine tasting, which was especially silly given that the glass was garnished with a tuft of cotton candy on the rim.
Lauren loved her friends, but they could be a lot sometimes.
Evan narrowed his eyes at Lauren. “Something happened.”
“Well, that’s vague,” said Paige. “Of course something happened. Something happens every day. I mean, Mitch came by today to talk about the adoption event, and I think he hit on me? But it’s hard to tell because he was subtle about it.”
Lindsay frowned. “Mitch is the feral cat guy, right? The big guy?”
“Yeah,” said Paige. “You make him sound like a mountain man when you describe him that way. I assume he lives in some apartment in Brooklyn with eight adopted cats, but it’s not like he lives in a hut in Prospect Park. He’s a perfectly nice guy. Not my type, but…”
“You want me to talk to him?” Lauren asked.
“No. Especially not with your boss voice. It’s fine. It was a little awkward is all.”
“No boss voice,” said Evan. “We’re at a bar. Paige is your friend and not your employee when we’re sipping cocktails.”
If only it worked that way. Lauren had known Paige for years, too. Paige had been an event planner for a massive international bank. Her main task had been planning quarterly meetings for the executives at luxury hotels around the world. She’d made enough money to live well but had found corporate life soul-sucking. After her boss had made one too many comments about how her ass looked in a skirt suit, she’d quit and come to work for Lauren.
“What I meant,” said Evan, “is that Lauren has a look on her face like she has news. I’m guessing it’s related to a dude.”
“How do you do that?” asked Lauren.
Evan shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
“So, uh, well. I slept with Caleb.”
Evan gasped.
Paige said, “And Caleb is… Oh, wait. Caleb Fitch. Dr. Fitch. The veterinarian. I thought you hated that guy.”
“Me, too,” said Lauren.
“You’re gonna have to explain,” said Lindsay.
“I got this,” said Evan, holding his arm out in front of Lauren as if he didn’t want her to step forward. “Dr. Caleb Fitch is the new veterinaria
n at the clinic next to the Cat Café. He’s quite foxy, although unfortunately heterosexual.”
“I’ll say,” said Paige. She fanned herself with her hand.
“He’s also a bit prickly, and he and Lauren got off on the wrong foot. They’ve had a couple of big arguments. But they only hate each other in the sense that they want to jump each other’s bones.” Evan turned back to Lauren. “Glad you finally got that taken care of. When is the wedding?”
Lauren looked around and flagged down a waitress. After she ordered, she said, “Look, he’s… Yes, he’s foxy as hell. But he’s also kind of a dick. He thinks he knows everything, he’s stubborn, he doesn’t seem to have normal human emotions, and he’s a dog person. A dog person, guys. I can’t date a dog person.”
“Heaven forfend,” said Evan.
“No, she’s right,” said Paige. “That’s like a Yankees fan dating a Red Sox fan.”
“A Montague dating a Capulet,” said Lindsay.
“A pork roll person dating a Taylor ham person,” said Paige.
“That’s the most New Jersey thing you’ve ever said,” said Lindsay. “The Empire dating the Rebel Alliance.”
“A Coke person dating a Pepsi person,” said Paige. “Definitely doomed from the start.”
“And besides,” said Lauren, “he just got divorced and doesn’t want to be in a relationship. So it’s not going to be a thing. Just… We had sex. That happened.”
“Girl, this calls for more cocktails,” said Evan. “We should get Claire to send over a whole pitcher of that blue martini thing you like.”
“Ugh,” said Lauren. She didn’t want her friends making a big deal of this. She’d just needed to tell someone.
“He was good, though, right?” asked Evan.
“Yes, very.” And he really had been. They’d gotten each other off in the shower afterward, and that had been amazing, too. Lauren had gone to work feeling sleepy and sated, which had probably helped keep her mellow during the morning rush chaos. Monique had told her afterward that she admired Lauren’s calm.
“The problematic ones always are,” said Paige, shaking her head.
The waitress placed a martini in front of Lauren, so she took a sip.
“This calls for a toast,” said Evan.
“To what? My non-relationship?” asked Lauren.
“Hey, you banged a hot guy,” said Lindsay. “That’s enough sometimes.”
Lauren laughed and lifted her glass. “All right. To banging hot guys.”
“You’re gonna marry him so hard,” Evan said, clinking his glass against Lauren’s.
“You could not be more wrong, Ev,” said Lauren. “Recently divorced, dog person, doesn’t like me much. What part of that spells future wedded bliss?”
“When he proposes, you owe me ten dollars,” said Evan.
“Or not! Who says she has to marry the first guy to come along since Derek? Not all men are relationship material,” said Paige a little defensively. Then she grinned and held up her glass. “To hot guys!”
“I’ll drink to that!” said Lindsay.
They all clinked glasses. Inside, Lauren sighed. It would be nice to have someone in her life, sure, but she was focusing on herself, and that meant repeat performances with guys who, no matter how sexy and charming, were not potential future mates was probably not a solid strategy. Or maybe it was, because she’d gotten hers in the end. Maybe some kind of with benefits arrangement could be made.
Or she could stop trying to overthink it and just enjoy a night out with her friends. The subject changed anyway when Paige said, “So I went into the bookstore the other day and saw Pablo is working there now.”
“I know,” said Evan with a groan. “My coffee habit was bad enough, but now I feel obligated to buy a book anytime I casually drop in. There’s only so much space in my apartment.”
“You could just ask him out,” Lindsay said. “Otherwise, you’re going to be that man who dies because his great piles of books fell on him.”
“This has occurred to me, but I don’t think it’s our time yet.”
“This means Evan hasn’t worked out if Pablo is gay or not,” said Paige.
“His biceps are pretty beefy. I bet he’s got a good right hook. I’d like to not be on the other end of it if I hit on him and it’s unwelcome. Or I could just forget about him, because Robert called the other night.”
All three women groaned. Robert was Evan’s ex-boyfriend, a sweet guy who was…fine. Lauren thought he was okay. Which meant he wasn’t good enough for Evan. Apparently this was a point they all agreed on.
“What?” said Evan. “Look, I’m not getting back together with him. He was nice but dull. I get that. So, he called, just to be nice. He’s dating a young man named Elvis now, if you can believe that.”
“Elvis? Really?” asked Paige.
“Yes. And apparently he’s a hunka hunka burning love. But my point is Robert invited me to this housewarming, which, if what I recall of Robert’s social circle remains the same, promises to be a smorgasbord of single gay men.”
“What about Pablo?” asked Lauren.
“I’m keeping my options open.”
Paige lifted her glass. “To keeping options open!”
They all clinked glasses again. Lauren laughed. Thank god for her friends.
***
Caleb checked on the kittens just after he got to work the next morning. All five were still thriving. Rachel had set up a little pen for them to play in and given them some little balls and things, and the kittens were having a great time pouncing on each other. Although Caleb did not want any kittens in his home, it was hard to deny that these little guys were pretty cute.
Rachel wandered into the back room. “They have names yet?”
“No. I figured whoever adopted them could name them.”
“I’ve been calling them each by their coloring. Gray, Mittens, Stripy, White Nose, and Giant.”
“Giant?”
“It’s like the reverse of calling a big guy Tiny. I’m calling the little one Giant. I think he’s got some spunk. Don’t you, Giant?” She reached down and scratched the little kitten’s chin.
“What’s on the agenda for today?”
“You’ve got a goldendoodle who needs booster shots at ten and a Great Dane with a cough at eleven. Mrs. Liao is bringing in one of her cats this afternoon, although I don’t recall which one.”
“How many cats does Mrs. Liao have?”
“Eight.”
“Eight? In a Brooklyn apartment?”
Rachel grinned. “I’m betting that place is…pungent.”
“And I thought Lauren was a crazy cat lady.”
Rachel gave the cats one last head rub each and then turned to walk back toward the waiting room. Caleb followed. Rachel said, “Lauren is a crazy cat lady, but she keeps it to the café.”
“She has a cat at home, too.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow. “And how do you know that?”
“It came up in conversation when she brought the kittens here.” That was plausible enough. He’d enjoyed his morning with Lauren immensely, but he didn’t want to discuss it. It was his business.
And it didn’t really mean anything; it had been just some fun after a tough night. She didn’t want a relationship, and neither did he.
He’d been in love once and it had been terrible. After vet school, after they finished internships in different cities and somehow made a relationship work, he and Kara had set up a practice together in Boston, looking after the cats and dogs and hamsters of the wealthy brownstone class who lived in Back Bay. They’d put their pooled money into a storefront on Newbury Street sandwiched between an ice cream parlor and a novelty gift shop. They’d operated in the red for the first few months, which had been tremendously stressful, but they got enough business to s
tart turning a profit just before Caleb had maxed out their credit. And Caleb had always figured if he and Kara could get through all that together, their relationship was indestructible.
Caleb would have been happy to stay in Boston. Sure, he preferred big dogs to the little ones a lot of his clients carried around in fancy bags, but most of the patients were good dogs (and cats and bunnies and gerbils and hamsters and guinea pigs), and he and Kara had been happy working together.
He’d been a different person back then. Hardworking and content. He didn’t constantly feel the edginess that had been trailing him since the divorce. Perhaps that was why the move to New York had made sense when Kara had suggested it. A vet school buddy of Kara’s had gotten a lead on an established veterinary clinic in Morningside Heights that the owners wanted to sell. “We’ve gotten everything we can out of this place” had been Kara’s argument when Caleb had asked why she wanted to move. So they’d picked up their lives and gone to another city, left their friends and their community behind, and bought the clinic on 110th Street, just a few blocks down Broadway from the Columbia campus.
Caleb had thought they’d been happy there, too, but something had felt off. He hadn’t been able to put a finger on what the issue was. Whenever he brought it up to Kara, she suggested it was because they were still adjusting to life in a new city.
And then one day Kara had said she’d met someone else and they were moving to LA. She had wanderlust, Kara had explained, and didn’t want to be tethered to any one location, and besides, they’d been together since the first year of vet school. Hadn’t their relationship run its course?
No, Caleb had argued. Their wedding had been the two of them making a lifelong commitment because they loved each other and would work together to keep their relationship sacred through good times and bad. They didn’t make a commitment just to end things when they got bored.
Dividing up the business had been the worst part. He’d been furious about Kara making these unilateral decisions without consulting him, about putting the clinic up for sale without telling him, about fighting him over every dollar, every piece of equipment, every filing cabinet. He hadn’t wanted to sell the clinic, but he hadn’t want to run it without Kara, either, and he’d learned the hard way that owning a business with one’s spouse and a joint bank account and a Gordian knot of tangled finances got to be quite messy. She’d used her half of the assets to hire one of the best divorce attorneys in the city, and he’d spent hours and hours in various law firm conference rooms haggling over which things they would keep, which they would sell, and who got which cut of the profits.
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