Tinsel

by Kris Bryant

  She looked at me and smiled again. “Wow. No wonder you’re in advertising. Your imagination is brilliant.”

  We had a sweet moment where our walls were down and we were just two women coddling a swaddled cat at four in the morning. At a vet’s office. Normal stuff.

  “We should probably get going. Thank you again for saving her.”

  “That’s why I gave you my number.”

  I waited until Taylor locked up the office before I got into my car. She walked over and leaned in to pet Catmas, who was perched on my lap.

  “I hope you feel better, pretty girl.” Taylor rubbed her chin and looked at me. “Get some sleep, okay? I’ll call you later to see how she’s doing.”

  I would have nodded and smiled, but there was something different in the way she looked at me. My stomach looped and twisted inside and dropped to my knees. My heart picked up speed, and suddenly I was nervous and worried about how near she was. How did I look? I was tired of looking horrible around her. I quickly smoothed down my hair.

  “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.” She turned and slipped into her car. Catmas leaned up and put her paws on the window. We were both watching her. “She really is pretty. And nice.” Catmas started purring and wouldn’t stop staring at Taylor. I lifted her paw and waved at Taylor as she backed out. She playfully waved back. “Okay. I’ll quit being a nerd. Let’s go home.”

  Even though Catmas’s fur was slightly damp, I kept her on my lap. By the time we got home, we were exhausted, but I had a mess to take care of. I put Catmas in bed and did a quick cleanup before I joined her. The last thing I remember was Catmas curling against me, her rumbling purr soothing me to sleep.

  Chapter Eight

  Taylor called after her shift and asked how Catmas was doing. She offered to bring over a late lunch, and I found myself excited to see her. She picked up Chinese, which gave me a good thirty minutes to get cleaned up and look presentable.

  “I feel like you’re forever feeding me.”

  “It’s an excuse to see this little girl.” She put the food on the coffee table and reached for Catmas. It was so cute to see them together. Taylor flipped Catmas onto her back and rubbed her tummy. She looked up, saw my Christmas tree, and stopped. “Um. Is that tinsel still hanging from your tree?”

  “I shut the door while we napped. Operation Tinsel Takedown is in effect right after lunch. I’ll make sure Catmas doesn’t leave our side.” There was very little chance of that with food around. Catmas loved something about Chinese food. Probably the soy sauce, which was my favorite part.

  “With gorgeous long hair like yours, you’re going to have to make sure she doesn’t eat your hair, because the same thing happens,” Taylor said. She handed me fried rice topped with orange chicken.

  I tried to ignore the fact that she’d called my hair gorgeous. I did blow it out so it wasn’t completely out of control. For the first time since before my wicked cold, I was wearing makeup. I looked good. The house was a wreck, but at least I felt good about myself. “I’ll try to vacuum often. I don’t know that I can survive another episode like the tinsel one.”

  “Oh, having a cat is so rewarding. They definitely keep you on your toes. This won’t be the end of the good times.”

  I held up my chopsticks and snapped them together for attention. “I know you think I’m going to keep her, but I really can’t have her.”

  “We’re friends now, right?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  She smiled. “You’ve been well for a week now, right? I mean, you haven’t put any of the flyers out. It’s almost Christmas, and some eight-year-old kid is sad because they’re missing their kitty.”

  “Or five rambunctious asshole kids want to put her in a box and wrap her up and see how long she lasts wrapped up under a tree. That’s probably why she hates boxes under the tree,” I said.

  She folded her arms and stared at me.

  I sighed and gave in. “Okay, fine. I have a cat.”

  Taylor raised her arms up, motioning a touchdown. “Yes! I knew it. Best thing I’ve heard, ever, really.”

  “Okay, okay. Settle down.” I looked down at Catmas, who was sitting directly between us. She looked up and did a silent meow. It was adorable. I’d known she was destined to be mine since the very beginning, but I’d fought it. I really thought she belonged to somebody. I didn’t want to get attached and then have her taken away.

  “You should take her back to the office to get her chipped. We can figure out the vaccines as we go.” She gave Catmas a tiny bit of chicken and stroked her ear. “You have a new mommy now. Isn’t that exciting?” Taylor looked over at me. “And we really need to change her name. I mean, unless you’re really attached to Catmas.”

  I waved her off. “No. I just gave it to her as a filler. Such a pretty kitty like her for sure belonged to somebody else. The only thing she responds to is the little scratchy noises I make to get her attention.”

  “Do you want a fluffy kitty name or a normal name or just something different?” Taylor wiped off her mouth and pushed her plate away. My eyes were naturally drawn to her lips. Even though her lipsticks were pretty, I preferred her natural color. It had been nice to see her last night, casual and straight from her bed. She was beautiful at three in the morning. “Jess?”

  I was lost thinking about her. “Um, what?”

  She laughed. “You must still be tired. What about a name?”

  “Well, let’s find something she likes.” Taylor picked her up and placed her on her lap. Catmas leaned up and put her paws on Taylor’s chest and rubbed her head all over Taylor’s chin. “Let’s see. What do you like? We know you like tinsel. And your eyes are silver like tinsel. What about Tinsel?”

  Catmas meowed for a long time. Taylor and I looked at one another in surprise.

  “Tinsel. Come here, girl,” I said. Catmas turned in Taylor’s lap to look at me.

  Taylor put her down on the floor, and we waited. I repeated her name and rubbed my fingers together to make a sound that I knew she liked. Catmas, no, Tinsel trotted over and rubbed against my hand.

  “Such an oddly fitting name for her.” I picked her up and looked into her silver eyes and fuzzy face. “Tinsel. Do you like that?” She reached her paw up and touched my mouth. I looked at Taylor. “Well, okay. I guess she has a new name. Tinsel.” I put her back onto the floor and stared at her. “But right now you are banished from the living room.”

  Taylor stood. “That’s right. Operation Tinsel Takedown is in effect. Let’s grab a bag and get rid of every single piece of the shiny stuff.”

  “Good idea. Catmas. No, I mean Tinsel, you stay here.” I pointed at her. She yawned and followed us anyway. She was entirely too curious for her own good. She pounced on the bags we were filling, and when she realized she could climb the tree, I peeled her off it and banished her to the bedroom. She squawked for a bit but then settled down. I stood on the other side of my bedroom door with my ear pressed against it, not knowing if her quieting down was really her getting into other mischievous things like destroying my panty drawer, or if she was curled up sweetly on the bed sleeping because she didn’t get a full twenty hours of sleep yesterday. I felt Taylor’s warm breath on the back of my neck.

  “What’s going on in there?”

  I stifled a shiver and slowly turned. “Shh.” I put my finger up to my lips. “Nothing.” She was so close to me. I watched her eyes travel over my face. Her gaze lingered on my lips. I swallowed hard.

  She put her ear against the door, too. “Nope. She’s up to something.”

  “I know, right?” One step. I could reach her in one step. I could slide over and press my lips against hers in just one little step. I smiled. Just last week I’d dreaded communicating with her. Now I was thinking of kissing her.

  “Come on. Let’s finish so we can rescue her.” The way she whispered was so cute.

  I nodded and we tiptoed away. I turned on Christmas music as we pulled every single strand of tinsel
from the tree.

  “You know, most of the time people are adding things to the Christmas tree, not taking them off, at least until after Christmas. These are really cute decorations. Do you have nieces and nephews who made these?” She held up one of the snowflakes that TJ and I made for Grandma.

  “No. My brother and I made those when we were young. These are my grandmother’s. I inherited them when she went into assisted living.”

  “I don’t know if I should say sorry or what to say.”

  I shrugged. “She moved there about three months ago. We’re having Christmas here at the house, and I was hoping to do a nice job on the tree incorporating her decorations and mine. I saw the tinsel in the box of her decorations and even told my mom that I thought they were banned from humanity for this very thing. I mean, not specifically cats, but just kids.”

  “You were probably a super-sweet kid.”

  I snorted. “I was in constant competition with my brother. I was a jerk of a kid. Not much better as an adult.”

  “Oh, stop it. Look at all the good you’ve done just in the short time I’ve known you.”

  “Look at all the bad I’ve done in the short time you’ve known me,” I said.

  She worked her way over to me, pulling tinsel off that I’d missed the first time around. “You can look at it like that, or look at it knowing that I’ve seen you at your absolute worst and I’m still here.” Standing in front of me, hands on her hips, she seemed to challenge me.

  My heart drummed against my chest. I was horrible at reading women and making the first move.

  “You really are perfect. You forgave me too easily. I was horrible.”

  She nodded. “But you had your reasons. I sometimes forget that people have problems. My life is so simple right now that it takes a lot to faze me.”

  I took a half a step closer. “You can never tell my mother about how awful I was. She’s instantly going to fall in love with you and replace me with you.”

  “All of this is true. Parents love me. It’s a true gift.”

  The dimple appeared and I sighed. Why I was at such odds with this woman was ridiculous. When she reached out and touched my hand, I didn’t pull away.

  “Look, it’s so close to Christmas, I was thinking—” Taylor’s emergency phone went off. “I’d better take this. It’s the answering service, and I’m on call this weekend.” She turned and added space between us.

  I sighed and followed her back into the living room. I wasn’t sure if I could recycle the tinsel but decided to put it in the trash so our problem didn’t become somebody else’s.

  “I really hate to do this, but I’m going to have to leave.” She looked genuinely upset. “And we were having such fun.”

  I helped her slip into her coat. Her hair smelled like coconut when she pulled it from beneath the back of her coat.

  “Hang on. Let me grab Tinsel. She’ll be mad if you leave without saying good-bye.” I opened the door, and Tinsel pranced straight to Taylor.

  “Good-bye, sweet baby.” She put her on the chair and touched my hand. “I’ll call you later. And, Tinsel, be good and quit eating things other than your food.”

  I leaned against the door when she left. I didn’t know what was happening, but I liked the way she made me feel and how she’d dropped everything to help Tinsel. She was a good doctor and an even better person. Why I’d held such a grudge escaped me. Dr. Taylor Mitchell was damn near close to perfect.

  * * *

  Tinsel and I walked in with ten minutes to spare.

  “Cutting it close, huh?” Taylor met us at the door.

  “Sorry. Work ran over, and then I needed to love on Tinsy for a bit.” She only heard the name Tinsel when she was being mischievous.

  On cue, a tiny paw slipped out beneath my coat and reached for Taylor. We both laughed. I opened my coat.

  “Are we talking about you, sweet baby?”

  Taylor played with her paw until Tinsel popped her head out of my coat. “You might need a carrier at some point. They have soft ones if you don’t like the clunky plastic ones. And she seems to be pretty docile, but we don’t want to take the chance that she’ll get out.”

  I put Tinsel on the counter, where the receptionist oohed and awed over her. She pranced up and down as if she were in a show. “Come here, little one. Let’s get you chipped.” I reached for her, but she jumped on the desk, out of my reach. I wasn’t worried. Nobody was in the place except me, Taylor, and the receptionist. Tinsel strolled to the doorway that led back into the offices.

  “I’ll go this way, you go that way,” Taylor said. She motioned for me to take the other side of the reception area, and we’d meet in the middle where Tinsel was sitting.

  “At least she’s not scared of us or this place,” I said. We walked right over to her. Taylor scooped her up and swung her over her shoulder.

  “You can’t keep running away.”

  Tinsel meowed and reached her paws in the air, trying to climb Taylor’s shoulders and head. I gently pulled her off and held her.

  “She’s trying to get to the mistletoe.” The receptionist pointed to the fake mistletoe right above our heads. We looked up and then at one another. “You know what that means.”

  In a matter of seconds, I turned into an awkward teenager and couldn’t look her in the eye. I brought Tinsel up to my face and kissed her instead.

  Taylor smiled and leaned over to kiss my cheek. It was the briefest kiss, but the warmth of her lips on my skin packed a punch.

  “My night here is done. I’ll lock up. Go take care of that precious kitty.” The receptionist slipped on her coat and waved on her way out.

  “Lead the way,” I said. I shrugged like the kiss meant nothing, when in reality I was so excited I squeezed Tinsel to the point she grunted. I released my grip and smoothed down her fur.

  “This won’t take long at all. She might squawk, but I'll try to make it as painless as possible,” Taylor said. She slipped back into doctor mode. “Okay, baby girl. We’ll do this quick.” She already had the needle ready and did it before I even had a chance to prepare myself. The needle was incredibly large and made my knees weak. Tinsy made a deep sound but didn’t try to get away. Taylor gave her a little treat for being a trooper.

  “When do you leave for your parents’ house?” I knew Taylor was going home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The practice was open on the twenty-eighth, so she had to be back for that.

  “Thursday night after we shut down. I have an eight o’clock flight out. I’ll be back early Sunday.”

  “Tinsel has a gift for you.”

  Taylor looked surprised and gazed at Tinsel. “Did you bring it tonight?”

  I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand. “She forgot. I reminded her, but you know how kids are.”

  Taylor laughed at my eye roll.

  “Well, I have something for Tinsel and her mom. I can come by Wednesday, if you don’t already have plans.”

  Mo and I were going to hang out, but I could cancel with her. She’d be pissed if I didn’t jump at an opportunity for time with Taylor. A day didn’t pass without Mo asking me if I’d talked to Taylor or texted with her.

  “If you’re busy, we can just get together sometime next week,” she said.

  I touched her hand. “No. I really want to see you. Come over Wednesday, and I’ll make dinner. We can have a pre-Christmas celebration.”

  Dimples. It was hard not to smile when she did.

  “Sounds great. I’ll bring the wine.”

  Chapter Nine

  “I’ve never seen your house this clean or festive before,” Mo said. She grabbed Tinsel as soon as she closed the front door. “Come here, you.” Tinsel meowed and pawed at her buzzed hair.

  “Well, since I’m having the family over Thursday, I wanted the place to look perfect.”

  “I almost believe that. And maybe it has a little something to do with a certain sexy doctor who’s coming over tomorrow night.” Mo held her
forefinger and thumb close together with just enough space indicating a tiny amount.

  “Maybe just a little.”

  “I need you to tell me all about your kiss.”

  I waved her off. “It was totally innocent. She kissed my cheek. It was no big deal.” I pretended that it didn’t mean anything, but that little kiss had put our relationship on a whole new level for me.

  Mo plopped down on the couch and let Tinsel climb all over her. “I think she’s great, and she’s seen you at your worst and still wants to hang around you.”

  “It’s a good thing Tinsy’s on your lap, or I’d throw this pillow at you.”

  “Tinsy. The name really works. It’s fun and flirty like she is.” Mo suddenly sat up and held Tinsel in her arms, facing her. “You know what I just thought? This little baby came into your life to introduce Taylor to you. If you really think about it, this little fuzzball is responsible for your relationship with her.”

  “First of all, we don’t have a relationship.”

  “You’re friends, right?”

  “True, but that’s not what you meant.” I sat and thought about it. “Well, we would have eventually met Taylor at Dawn’s party, right?”

  “Probably. But would you have talked to her?”

  “You would have spotted her for me and made it your mission to get us together.”

  “And you would have been moping about Stacy—”

  “Stephanie.”

  “Whatever. She who-must-never-be-remembered-for-anything,” Mo said.

  “I can’t imagine I would have been charming. I mean, I would have been growly over the breakup, and I probably would have still caught the cold. I would have been a hot mess. At least Taylor knew me before I got sick.”

  Mo laughed. “Yeah. You were bitchy at the party. Maybe the same things would have happened, but Tinsy made you keep in touch.”

  I scooped up Tinsel and flopped her onto her back. “Did you make it all happen, girl? Are you the reason Taylor is in my life?”