Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Henry

THIS EMERGENCY BETTER be worth it.

I wanted to turn back the moment I left the pizza shop. Abandoning Alex was torment, even when I accidentally made the conversation awkward. It made me realize just how long it's been since I've gone on a date. Not that that was a date, of course. Alex wouldn't go on a date with me. But if he did, I can't help thinking it would be something like our conversation at the pizza place.

Hypothetically, of course.

I all but jog back to the house. It's near enough to Main Street that I walked to the pizza place, and soon enough I turn a corner and spot the ranch house I'm renting with a guy I found online named Max. With the two of us, the rent on the two-bedroom home is pretty good, and living out here, we have a decent-sized yard and even a driveway and garage.

I hurry up the sidewalk. Inside the house, an open kitchen melds almost seamlessly with a large living room backed by a sliding glass door leading into the backyard. Aside from that, the house really only contains our two bedrooms, both waiting down a short hall to my right. It's nothing fancy or lavish, but renting a house instead of an apartment closer to a city comes with some major upsides. It's quiet back here, for one thing. Even with Main Street a block away, we rarely hear car traffic. And trees shade us most of the day, also providing a bit of privacy from the neighbors.

It's a great place to live, except for one little detail…

"There you are," Max says.

He's sitting on the couch with his feet on the coffee table. Something plays on the television, but that isn't what catches my eye. I'm too busy counting up the cardboard boxes stacked near the door.

"What's going on?" I say. "You texted about an emergency."

"Yeah, where were you?"

"I was on a… I was getting pizza with an old acquaintance."

Max drags his feet off the table and stands so he can pad toward me. He's in sweatpants and a T-shirt, which is exactly what he was wearing when I saw him this morning. So apparently he's had a pretty eventful day.

"So, what's the emergency?" I prompt.

I scan the apartment, but nothing is on fire, no alarms are going off, I don't see a puddle or a leak anywhere. Everything looks exactly the same as how I left it.

"Yeah, about that," Max says. "So I figured I should give you some notice, but I'm going to be moving out."

"Alright, well, that doesn't seem like an emergency exactly. It's the middle of the month."

Presumably, he'll move at the end of the month if he's found something better. But those packed up boxes are starting to make me nervous. Max is the type of guy who turns in an essay the day after it's due, if he turns it in at all, so seeing him packing up weeks in advance sets off alarm bells in my head.

It also sets off a fair amount of anger.

This is his emergency? He could have texted me this. We could have talked about it tomorrow. We could have talked about it days from now. I can't believe I bailed on Alex, who I might never see again, for something this trivial.

Somewhere in the back of my head, Chloe is lecturing me for letting my roommate and the café's teenage employees walk all over me.

I sigh out a breath. "I'll ask you for your half at the end of the month. We can work out the rest as it comes. Thank you for letting me know."

"Oh, yeah, well, that's the thing," Max says.

My eyes narrow. There's a catch?

"I'm actually moving tomorrow."

"Excuse me?"

Max waves at the boxes. "I'm already packed and all. And my girlfriend's free tomorrow to help me get everything out. We found a place. We can get all my shit out of here while you're at work. You won't even notice it. So yeah, I'm out. Just pro-rate me for half the month, alright, man?"

I'm still blinking and speechless as Max slaps me on the shoulder and strolls away to his bedroom. Tomorrow? How can he leave tomorrow? I have no time to find a roommate or adjust my own expenses or anything. He'll be gone, and I'll have an extra two weeks of rent and utilities to come up with completely on my own.

I slouch into the kitchen, hoping to find water and calm myself down, but when I plant my hands on the sink and hunch over it, an overflowing stack of dishes greets me. Max's dishes. The dishes that were here this morning. The dishes he never washes. The dishes he's going to leave here when he vanishes tomorrow.

It's yet another burden he's heaping unfairly on my plate, and somehow, it's one too many. I close my eyes to shut out the mess in the sink, but my brain is doing the math no matter how much I try to ignore it. This whole house will be my responsibility. The dishes, the mowing, the bills, the rent, everything. I'm working over forty hours at the café. When the heck could I possibly look for a new roommate? But if I don't start the search immediately, the extra bills will eat up more and more of my paycheck. My rent has abruptly doubled, and I can't do a damn thing about it.

I drag in deep breaths, blow them back out, will myself to stay calm. I have a little bit in my savings. I can weather this if I take it one step at a time. Surely, someone around here will need a roommate. There must be a human in this town who's looking for a place to live. I can ask around the café. Chloe might even let me put up an ad on our community bulletin board.

It'll work out, I tell myself. It'll all work out somehow. I won't let this bring me down.

POPPY FOLLOWS ME around the café the next morning. She does her usual dance between my legs when I drag out the kibble to feed everyone, but she abandons her bowl well before the others to join me on my cleaning rounds. She chases the broom around and watches me while I wipe down tables. I have to physically lift her and move her out of the way at times to get everything done before the café opens, and even then she wants to hang out with me when I'm supposed to be showing guests around and introducing them to the other cats.

I indulge her when I get the chance, but it never seems to be enough. Every time I sit, she tries to get on my lap. I can't even take a bathroom break without her pawing at the door.

"Seriously, what has gotten into you?" I say while holding her.

The before-work folks are long gone, and the after-school-or-work folks haven't yet appeared, so I have a little bit of quiet time to sit with Poppy in a corner and relax. She purrs in my lap, getting as close to me as she can and favoring me with lovey-dovey slow blinks whenever I glance down at her.

It's nice being able to indulge her. I actually have help today in the form of Sebastian, the other adult employee. He started working here a little after me. He's not a high school student, so he tends to be more reliable, even if he often doesn't make a full forty hours. Right now, he's playing on his phone while manning the coffee bar, but it doesn't look like either of us will have a customer to deal with anytime soon.

I don't realize work and Poppy have relieved some of the stress from Max's "emergency" last night until I remember the surprise he dumped on me. He's probably moving his stuff out right now. By the time I get home, everything will be gone, and there will be no escaping my new predicament.

Poppy bumps her head against me as though she can smell the worry building in a hot cloud under my T-shirt. Maybe she can. I've heard cats are sensitive to that sort of thing, but this is a little ridiculous.

"Worrying about me, girl?" I say while scratching her chin.

Her purrs deepen, humming through my thighs. She's a bundle of warmth and comfort, and despite my mounting anxieties, I relax more than I expect.

"Thank you," I say as I stroke my hand along her soft fur.

What I'd give to adopt a sweet girl like her, but with my new financial situation, there's no way I could give her the type of home she deserves. Better for someone equipped to spoil her to come along and adopt her instead.

I sigh. Even though I've calmed down some, I can't help digging around for a solution to this roommate thing. I'll talk to Chloe as soon as I see her about putting up an ad, but I may need to post a listing online too. Maybe I can talk to the landlord about it and see if he'll help. All the official things would need to go through him anyway.

Regardless, I'm facing at least this month's bills on my own. Max is hard enough to get a hold of while I live with him; I have little doubt he'll leave me in the lurch when he disappears with his girlfriend. I guess I could complain to the landlord about it, but it feels really mean. Do I want to end up in some huge, messy fight over this?

Poppy meows accusingly up at me, and I realize I've stopped petting her too stuck in my own head. I resume my petting duties, and the demanding little creature settles.

"Whoever adopts you is going to have to love lap cats," I muse aloud. "They'll have to be someone quiet and affectionate and calm. No other pets. Someone who can give you all of the attention. Isn't that right, Poppy?"

She rumbles a purr as though in agreement, and I chuckle despite my circumstances. I hope whoever her human is, they spoil the heck out of her.

I hear the door opening behind me and carefully dislodge Poppy, setting her daintily on a cushion atop a cat tree. She blinks sleepily at me, and I give her a few more pets, but I can't indulge in more if we have a customer coming in. If it's just one person, maybe Sebastian can take care of them, but I need to get on my feet and be ready if this is more than someone wanting a mid-day pastry. It could even be Chloe coming by during one of her random drop-ins, which would actually be great because then I could ask her about the ad. If I made something tonight and printed it at the library during a break tomorrow, I could have a poster up within twenty-four hours of Max bailing on me.

I'm feeling a bit more hopeful by the time I turn around and prepare to let a customer in through the two sets of doors that keep the cats from escaping. But when I turn to the big windows along the wall, I don't find a random stranger or Chloe like I assumed. My heart somersaults at the sight of Alex striding into the shop, a work bag slung over his shoulder. Our eyes meet through the glass, and I start moving instantly. I didn't expect to see him again so soon, or possibly at all, but I'm certainly not going to complain.

A friendly, handsome face is just about the best news I could have gotten today.