Like Cats and Dogs

by Kate McMurray

  He understood intellectually that Kara had probably been restless all along and just hadn’t said anything, that this situation was unique and not every woman would bail on Caleb rather than try to work things out, but he still didn’t feel like he could trust anyone. He’d known everything was not hunky-dory between him and Kara, but most of his attempts to get her to talk about it had been rebuffed, and he hadn’t been given much chance to try to fix things. He suspected Kara didn’t want them to be fixed. That was on her, not Caleb, but still, he couldn’t help but think he wasn’t good enough for her.

  But they’d been in New York less than a year when Kara had handed him divorce papers, and he’d lived in Brooklyn all of a month now, and this place was nice but still didn’t feel like home. He didn’t have much of a community here. But he couldn’t really go back to Boston and try to rebuild some happy past. Too much baggage, too many memories.

  He let his first patient of the day into the exam room and reflected on the fact that he was lonely. Maybe that was what had led him to Lauren’s bed. He’d needed some kind of human connection.

  Ugh, what a dreadful thought for the day. He focused on the dog in front of him, a blond fluff ball only identifiable as a dog because his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

  “Hi, buddy,” he said, patting the dog’s head.

  He needed to do something besides just go to work and go home, maybe. Find a hobby. Meet new people.

  The owner of the goldendoodle was a middle-aged woman who grinned at him like he was the hot guy in an old Diet Coke commercial. All right. He smiled at her then looked at the chart. “Charlie here needs a couple of boosters. I’ll go get his shots ready.”

  He ducked out of the room and took a deep breath. Yeah, he needed to do…something. Make some sort of change. The current limbo he found himself in was okay for now, but it was no way to live long-term.

  Chapter 10

  Caleb was manning the front desk when Olivia came in one evening a week later. She was taking the night shift that day, but had been running late, and now she was out of breath.

  “Ugh, sorry,” she said. “I had an appointment in Manhattan and the subways are just…well. I got stuck at Broadway–Lafayette for, like, twenty minutes trying to transfer, and I swear, if I read one more story about some city program the mayor wants to spend money on that is not the subway, I am going to march down to City Hall myself and tell him my thoughts on that.”

  Caleb laughed. “I’m sorry it took you so long to get here, but it’s fine. I didn’t have anything else going on tonight.”

  But Olivia was already pulling her cell phone out of her bag. She murmured, “Great, voicemail,” and then listened to the message. “Oh, Lauren wanted to know if we have any more cardboard cat carriers we can spare. We’ve got a whole case of them in the back. Could you drop a few off to her on your way out? I’ll take over now.”

  “Yeah, no problem.”

  “You’re not still avoiding her, are you? I know you guys have argued in the past. I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position.”

  “It’s fine, really. We’re not going to be best friends or anything, but I think we reached some kind of truce when she brought over that box of kittens.”

  “Oh. Good. I mean, since we do so much work with the Cat Café.” Olivia shrugged out of her jacket and hung it on the hook behind the desk. “How’s that dog of yours, by the way?”

  “He’s great. Friendly and well-behaved. I didn’t think I wanted a dog in my new apartment, but he’s the best roommate I’ve ever had.”

  Olivia chuckled. “He’s a good dog, in other words.”

  “Probably exactly what I needed right now.”

  “Pets have a way of doing that. I’ve got a cat at home that just showed up on my fire escape one night. I live in a huge building with sixteen other units, but this little cat chose my fire escape, like he knew I’d be a good cat mama, and then one time I opened the window and he moved right in.”

  Caleb nodded. In his experience, pets often chose their owners rather than the other way around.

  “Anyway, what I wanted to say,” said Olivia, “is that if you wanted to bring that dog here during the day instead of leaving him at home alone, that’s fine. He was very good with the other animals those few days he was here, so I feel pretty confident we can leave him up here by the desk most of the time, unless you think he’ll bolt.”

  “Nah, I doubt it. He hasn’t tried to bolt from me yet. He’s very sweet. Just a big, friendly dog.”

  “Excellent. Totally your call, but I’ve always run a bring-your-pet-to-work style office. It just so happens that most of the other vets have pets that don’t leave their homes right now, although Doug has a German shepherd he brings by sometimes.”

  “Thanks. I hired a dogwalker to take care of Hank a few times a day but having him with me here on overnights would be a help. I appreciate it.”

  Olivia smiled as Caleb got up and gathered up his things. “No problem. I endeavor to make this a pleasant place to work.”

  Caleb smiled as he grabbed his jacket. He really did appreciate Olivia. “Well, I’ll just grab those carriers from the back.”

  Olivia had a recurring order of collapsible cardboard cat carriers for when they adopted out cats and small dogs, so there were plenty in the back room. Groups of five were held together with plastic ties. Caleb grabbed a bundle, swung by the office to grab his bag, and then said good night to Olivia.

  He felt pretty good about popping in next door. Maybe this could be part of his new lease on life. He could make friends with the café staff and the other vets. He’d accepted an invitation to a cookout at Dr. Gardner’s place that weekend, where there’d be spouses and friends of the other vets at the clinic, so that would be good. He didn’t generally love parties, but this was a low-key thing with some people he already knew, and he did like the other vets at the clinic. It was kind of nice to work with people he wasn’t romantically attached to.

  The Cat Café was closed, so he hit the buzzer. Lauren’s voice rang through the intercom, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Caleb. I’ve got some cat carriers from the clinic.”

  The door buzzed and Caleb pushed inside. The café area was empty, so he walked back through the second door.

  When Caleb walked into the cat area, Lauren’s back was to him. It sounded like she was singing the Sia song, “Chandelier,” but there was something in there about cats and she name checked several of the café’s feline residents. “I want to meow with Sadie the cat…”

  “I don’t think those are the lyrics,” he said.

  She started and turned around. “Uh… I sometimes change the lyrics to pop songs to be about the cats.”

  Caleb couldn’t decide if that was cute or crazy. Some of both, he decided.

  Lauren took the cat carriers from him. “Thanks for these. We wanted to have some on-hand for the adoption event we’re hosting next week and realized we were a few short.”

  “You’re welcome. Is it just you here right now?”

  “Yeah, Monique and Paige just left about ten minutes ago. We closed at six.”

  Caleb looked at his watch. It was almost seven, much later than he thought it was. Olivia had been quite late. “Do you just let the cats hang out here all night?”

  “For the most part. There are a couple that need to be separated, so we put them in kennels in the back overnight. I’ve got a scrappy little street tabby we named Tyler Durden who likes to pick fights with the other cats when no one is around. It took me a whole month to figure out why there were little tufts of fur all over when I came in some mornings. But he’s good with people. I think he’ll be fine in a home with no other cats.”

  “Okay.” Caleb was still a bit baffled by all this, but he liked that at least the secret mission of the café was to find more permanent homes for these cats. It
was like a shelter with a coffee shop. Still a little strange, but at least the cats were well taken care of, from what he could tell. And now he felt awkward, so he said, “Well, I’m just gonna…”

  “No, stay a minute. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

  “Okay, but nothing fancy. Plain old regular coffee is fine.”

  “And your usual is coffee with cream, no sugar.”

  “How did you remember that?”

  Lauren grinned and tapped her temple. “I’m very good at my job.”

  That grin was incredibly sexy, like Lauren knew all the secrets in the world and was willing to share, for a price. A sexy price, hopefully. Caleb couldn’t help but smile back.

  “Have a seat near the counter and I’ll be right with you. I’m just gonna make sure these guys are all tucked in.”

  Caleb walked back to the café area toward the counter and sat at a table nearby. He reasoned he could probably figure out how to work the giant coffee maker—add water and coffee grounds, how hard could it be?—but he didn’t want to muck up any existing system. He pulled out his phone to check his email, and Sadie walked up. She chirped and rubbed against his leg. He relented and pet her.

  “Do I meet with your approval?” he asked the cat.

  She started to purr loudly, so Caleb took that as a yes.

  Lauren appeared at the door. “Hey, Sadie, get in here. You don’t belong out here at night.”

  Sadie sat defiantly at Caleb’s feet.

  Lauren rolled her eyes and slapped her thigh. “Come on, cat. You can’t stay out here all night. Go hang out with the other cats.”

  Sadie stared at her for a long moment but stood and sauntered over to the door. Lauren grabbed her and carried her the rest of the way, then locked the door.

  “Sorry,” Lauren said. “Sadie’s special. She’s a permanent cat here because I haven’t been willing to part with her. We call her the office manager because she bosses everyone around. She gets free rein during the day, but she would for sure get into stuff around the counter without supervision, and the last thing I need are complaints about cat hair in people’s morning coffee.”

  “Doesn’t that happen anyway?”

  “Sure, in the back room.” Lauren hooked her thumb back toward the cat room, then walked over to the counter. She got the coffee maker going. “When people are here, she mostly stays away from the counter, but I don’t need dusty footprints on the counter or anything like that. Plus she has lots of places to play and nap in the other room. I think she just generally prefers people to cats.”

  “How very like a cat.”

  Lauren laughed. She reached into a little refrigerator behind the counter, and Caleb took a moment to appreciate her ass. When she stood back up, she had a couple of croissants in her hand. “Aha. Monique sometimes leaves the day-old stuff in the fridge for me. These croissants are really good. I get them from this little hole-in-the-wall French bakery in Prospect Heights. They are…” She made a chef kiss.

  “Lovely.”

  “I mean, they were delivered fourteen hours ago and have been in the fridge for a bit, so they aren’t at peak freshness, but they can’t be sold now and are still pretty dang good.” She sighed. “When we first opened, we were giving the leftover pastries to a homeless shelter close to the river, but ever since the Star Café closed and everyone is coming here instead, the morning commuters have been cleaning us out. These two croissants represent all that is left after the plunder this morning.”

  “I’m honored you’re willing to share with me then.”

  Lauren poured two cups of coffee and put the croissants on a plate, and somehow managed to get all of that to the table without spilling anything. She probably had some table-waiting experience in her past. She sat across from him and dug into one of the croissants.

  “How are the kittens?” she asked.

  “Really great. I checked on them when I grabbed the carriers. They’re all pretty lively now. Rachel gave them names based on their physical traits.”

  “I know. I dropped in to check on them yesterday.”

  Of course she had. Lauren was just the sort of busybody who wouldn’t take anyone’s word that the kittens were okay.

  Caleb sighed. His whole resolution to make friends and try to find a community here wasn’t going to get anywhere if he let everyone annoy him.

  “Anyway,” said Lauren, “those kittens will be too young for the adoption event we’re hosting here next week, but I can definitely let people know there will be kittens up for grabs in a few weeks. We can make flyers or something. People love kittens.”

  “I usually try to talk people out of adopting kittens.”

  “Really? Do you prefer puppies?”

  He sighed. “It’s not that. Kittens and puppies are just a lot of work. They’re energetic, they eat a lot, they get into places you don’t want them to go. Not to mention, as you must know very well, it’s harder for adult animals to get adopted because people love kittens and puppies, but grown cats and dogs make perfectly good pets if you’re into that sort of thing.”

  “Said like a man who likes a big, slobbery dog.”

  “Well.”

  “What kind of dog is Hank?”

  “Yellow Lab and…something else. Definitely not a purebred. I can’t tell what the something else is, though. He’s on the big side for a Lab and has a shaggier face than any Lab I’ve ever seen, and he has some random patches of darker fur, but is otherwise basically a yellow Lab. He’s a good dog, though. He came housebroken and mostly trained.”

  “But someone left him at the clinic?”

  “Yeah. Could be anything. The previous owners moved or died or who knows? My gain, I guess. It’s nice to have a dog at home again. My ex took ours in the divorce.”

  “That bitch,” Lauren said with a bit of a smile.

  “Yeah. That was probably our most vicious fight.”

  “Over the dog?”

  “I really liked that dog.”

  Lauren nodded. “Sure. I’d be pretty upset if an ex wound up with one of my cats. Mostly, though, I just end up with other people’s cats. And you’re right, it’s harder to adopt out older cats, but we try here. The point is to lure people into adopting by letting them spend time with the cats first.”

  “Does that work? Do people fall in love with the cats and want to take them home?”

  “Yep. A few times a month. We let it be known that all the cats here, except for Sadie, are looking for forever homes. I figure if this place ever closes, I’d just take her home. Molly can cope with a new roommate.”

  Caleb sipped his coffee. “This is some place you’ve got.”

  He looked her over. She looked good today. Her long brown hair was up in a messy bun, her long bangs loose over her forehead. She had on a soft-looking pink sweater and dark jeans tucked into stylish brown boots. Her clothes hugged her body in an appealing way, and Caleb enjoyed a moment of remembering what she looked like under her clothes.

  “Maybe we should talk about what happened,” Lauren said.

  Caleb’s knee-jerk response was, Do we have to? But he said, “That is the elephant in the room, I guess.”

  She sat across from him. “I’m not trying to make it a thing, but it just feels weird not to acknowledge it.”

  “No, I get it. I’m acknowledging it. We slept together. It was good. I’m not opposed to doing it again.”

  Lauren rolled her eyes. “Well, there’s a ringing endorsement.”

  “What?”

  “‘It was good. I’m not opposed to doing it again.’” She dropped her voice in imitation of him, and the way she said it did make it sound quite lackluster.

  Of course, it was anything but. Caleb was still thinking about Lauren in bed all these days later.

  “Well,” he said. “We know where things stand. We had an am
azing…morning together, but neither of us can do a relationship right now. So where does that leave us?”

  ***

  Lauren stared at Caleb. His facial expression made him look like he was fighting with himself about something. This guy clearly had some baggage Lauren would do well not to look into. That was fine, she could work with that. Because she wanted him again. In, like, a primal, monkey sex way, not as a potential romantic partner.

  “Crazy idea,” she said. “We could be friends.”

  “Friends.”

  “Friends who have sex sometimes?”

  He laughed. He really was so very cute when he smiled. He should do more of that and less scowling.

  “Seems reasonable,” he said. He sipped his coffee. “This is good. Very strong.”

  “A little too strong if you ask me.” She sipped her own coffee, and it was bold and bitter. Lauren liked a strong cup of coffee, but not this much so late in the day.

  “Hmm,” Caleb said, clearly enjoying the punch in his cup. “I’d try to talk my way back into your apartment, but I really do need to get home before the dog tears apart my living room. He’s been gnawing on the rug when he gets anxious. I’m going to start bringing him to work with me, because I think he gets lonely.”

  “Where’s home?”

  “Brooklyn Heights. I’m renting a one-bedroom not far from Borough Hall. I usually walk here in the morning, and it’s a nice walk. I’ll probably walk home now, in fact.”

  Lauren nodded. That was a swanky zip code. Recently divorced veterinarians apparently did all right for themselves. Lauren silently thanked the charity of eccentric older ladies with money to burn for her apartment.