Chapter 4

Megan surfaced from slumber and had a nearly immediate panic attack. Even with her eyes still closed, she could tell that this wasn’t her bed, there was someone else in it, and she had an incredibly intense cramp in her legs. Then, yesterday’s events came crashing down on her. Catching Brad with another woman, the fight, taking Sophia, the drive to Portland, and then seeing Tasha for the first time in years. Tasha! Oh no! Okay. Relax, breathe. Megan opened her eyes, which seemed like much more of a struggle than normal, especially for a Saturday. The red hair peeking from under the blankets identified Sophia as her bedmate.

That didn’t explain the dead weight behind her knees, though. Gingerly lifting herself, she spotted a little black mound tucked in the crook of her legs. From that mound, a tiny head lifted up, opened its eyes, and squeaked in protest at her movement. The mound unfolded itself into a cat, who proceeded to then stretch in the infuriatingly luxurious manner of their kind.

Megan knew that despite a decade or so of yoga, she would never achieve the exquisite bliss that this cat’s stretches promised. This must be Nocturne.

Nocturne, after being rudely awakened, stalked off in a huff through the door. Megan followed, although not as quickly, as her legs took a bit more coaxing as blood rushed back in. She wasn’t sure how long she had been sleeping like that, but it hurt. Megan followed Nocturne into the bathroom, and they looked awkwardly at each other as they took care of some necessary business. From there, she stumbled out into the rest of the apartment, which was currently unoccupied. There was a blanket on the couch, but otherwise no sign of Tasha.

Fortunately for Megan’s mental state, the door opened a few minutes later, and in walked Tasha, holding a beverage tray.

“Good morning,” Tasha said with way too much cheer for this soon after waking. “I thought that you might like coffee!”

“Oh, you are the best!”

“I know.” She grinned. “It’s been a minute since college, but I think that I remembered your coffee order.”

“Did I say the best? I meant to say that you are a goddess.”

“I know! But thanks for reminding me. Now mention that to Nocturne, because she thinks that she’s the only goddess in residence. Oh, and I got a cinnamon hot chocolate for Sophia.”

“Thank you so much. That’s very kind of you! Did you sleep on the couch last night?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! We came in and stole your bed. You should have told me. I’m so sorry!”

“Megan, it’s okay. I fall asleep on the couch half the time anyway. Nocturne likes to climb up on me, and then I don’t want to disturb her, so we just sleep on the couch.”

“So, over thirty and sleeping on the couch with your cat most nights?”

“Don’t say it! I am not some kind of… what do they call it?”

“Spinster is what they used to say.”

“Thanks, grandma! I am not a spinster. I just haven’t found a compatible person yet.”

“Are you looking?”

“Eh, not really. I work too much, plus I’m in tech, which either intimidates people or bores people, and for some it apparently shatters their fragility and they go into conniptions.”

“Oh, that sounds like some fascinating dating stories. Do tell!”

“Oh, no! Not without something much stronger than a latte. Why don’t you go wake up Sophia and I’ll start on breakfast. I’m usually a yogurt kinda girl, but I’m pretty sure that I have what I need for pancakes.”

“Pancakes would be amazing. I mentioned something about you being a goddess, right?”

“Yes, yes you did. I see that Nocturne decided to spend the night with y’all. I hope that she wasn’t too much trouble for you. Let me get her highness fed, and then I’ll work on breakfast for the three lesser beings in this apartment.” Tasha cooed at Nocturne, “Isn’t that right, baby? You know that you’re always the queen!”

Megan left her friend cooing to an excited cat and padded back into the bedroom. “Sophia, are you awake?”

“Mom! I wasn’t awake, but I am now.”

“Good morning, sweetheart! Your Aunt Tasha has cinnamon hot chocolate for you, and she’s making pancakes for breakfast.”

“Can’t I sleep a bit longer, Mom?”

“You can go back to sleep after breakfast, I promise. I need to talk to Aunt Tasha for a bit anyway. Just come get breakfast and hot chocolate, okay?”

“Ohhhh. Kayyyyy…”

“Thank you, see you in a minute.”

As Megan walked back into the kitchen, Tasha looked up from feeding Nocturne and asked, “Is Sophia up?”

“Yes, but she’s not happy about it.”

“Hmmm, reminds me of someone else, long ago. History 101, wasn’t it? Freshman year…”

“Ugh, don’t remind me! That class was so early! Why? It was awful.”

“And yet, you persevered—with a bit of help from your kind and wonderful roommate. A roommate who has apparently now been upgraded to goddess.”

“Oh, no. I’m not living that down anytime soon, am I?”

“Nope! Goddess Tasha has a lovely ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Ugh, where’s that coffee?”

They ended up having a lovely breakfast together. Tasha made Sophia some cat-shaped pancakes, which were a big hit. Sophia learned what Nocturne’s name meant (a piece of music or art dealing with night, often a romantic night theme). After breakfast, Sophia sat on the couch with her book and a stern maternal warning that she would need to get dressed soon.

While they cleaned up the breakfast dishes, Megan asked Tasha about her plans for the day. Tasha responded, “Well, I need to grab an early lunch, and I volunteer at the cat shelter for a few hours starting at noon. I help with socializing and adoptions. You and Sophia should tag along. I bet she’ll love socializing the cats!”

“What does cat socializing involve?”

“It depends. Cats like to sleep a lot, so you may end up with a cat napping in your lap. They also like to play, which is really practicing hunting. We have lots of toys at the shelter, so I usually spend a lot of time entertaining cats with those. Mostly, we’re just trying to get them used to having humans around and interacting with us so they’ll fit in well with their adopters.”

“That sounds like fun! Let’s do that.”

“Do you have time for some yoga? Are you still teaching?”

Megan sighed. “I tried introducing yoga at school a couple years ago, and some idiot mom decided that I was ‘steering the children away from Christ,’ so that put an end to that. Not long after that, my yoga classes at the local gym were suddenly empty. So I haven’t been teaching yoga for a while, but I still do it at home.”

“Did you bring your stuff with you?”

“No, I’m pretty sure that I forgot to pack that.”

“That’s okay, you can borrow some of my yoga pants. It looks like we’re still about the same size. I’ve got an extra mat, too.”

“Thanks, Tasha! That would be great.”

An hour later, they sat down after yoga, tired and a bit sweaty, but relaxed. “So,” Tasha said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Well, you know some of it—how Brad cheated on me while I was pregnant with Sophia, and then we worked things out. Things seemed fine after that. It took awhile to trust him, but I didn’t sense any issues. We had disagreements and arguments, but nothing major, you know. He had his job at the bank, and his father made sure that he got promoted quickly. I was teaching social studies and history at the middle school and that was great.”

“Uh huh.”

“I mean, there were some red flags. During COVID, Brad started spending more time at home on the internet; ‘doing his own research,’ he said. He tried to talk to me about his ‘research,’ but I wasn’t having anything to do with that nonsense. I don’t think he liked that.”

“Uh oh… So he went down one of those rabbit holes.”

“Yeah, do you think that had something to do with this?”

“Maybe. A lot of good people went to bad places during the pandemic, and you know that I’m not one to ever consider Brad one of the ‘good people’ in the first place. I always suspected that he didn’t like me being your friend…” After an awkward pause, Tasha continued, “And I’m not hearing you defend him on that. Did he say something?”

“No. I mean, yes. I mean, he never said anything back in college or when you were my maid of honor or anything. This past summer, though, I thought about maybe coming to Portland for July 4th as a family trip. When I brought it up, he said that he’d never go to Portland because it was full of commies, jews, and n… uh, he used that word. Oh, and a slur about gay people, too.”

“Fuck that guy! You should have left him then!”

“I told him to never use that language at home again, and he said that he wouldn’t, but yeah, you’re right. It really shook me. I knew that he didn’t like gay people, because everyone at church was like that, too. I stopped going a few years back. I found a Sunday morning piano class for Sophia, which is pretty hard to find out there. I’m pretty sure that she hates it, and I’m ashamed about that and ashamed that I didn’t say anything, but I felt really alone.”

“I’m so sorry, Megan! I know that can be hard, to feel so alone. I know how hard it is to stand up, too. It ain’t easy at all. You did the best you could and it sounds like you sheltered Sophia, too.”

Tasha stood up to give Megan a hug, and they both cried. “I’m really sorry that I haven’t seen you in three years.”

“We’re making up for that now, aren’t we?”

With a laugh, they disentangled themselves. Megan looked at her friend and said, “We both could have done better, and I wish that my marriage wasn’t falling apart, but I can’t tell you how grateful I am that I’m getting my best friend back.”

“Me too! Now go get in the shower and I’ll work on lunch. Then we can go love on some cats.”