Page 24 of King of Deception

A waitress walked past us, and Abel casually picked up a drink. “Thanks, Tara.”

“You got it, dude,” the woman giggled and went on her way.

Widening my eyes, I turned to him. “Wow. You must be really good at your job. Are you, like, their supervisor?”

“You could say that.”

Nodding, I took a sip of my drink. “So, what else do you do?”

“Aside from glamming it up and floating around all these beautiful people?”

I giggled, nodding, “Yes?”

“Uh—I support a couple of animal shelters.”

“You volunteer?”

“Something like that, yeah.” He raked through his lush black hair with his fingers, momentarily distracting me.

My grin grew wider as I looked away for a second. “Are you a cat person or a dog person?”

“Dogs. Definitely dogs. I have Dylan.”

“Oh! How old?”

“Three.”

“What’s he like?”

“A big, slobbery fluffball of love.”

I laughed, “Awww!”

“What about you?”

“Well, I’m hardly at home. I’d feel guilty about locking up a poor soul in my apartment all day.”

“If you could adopt one, then.”

“Probably a cat.”

“They’re a bit detached, don’t you think?”

“They’re misunderstood. Just because they know what they want and aren’t afraid to ask for it, people take that for selfishness.”

“And you cracked the code.”

“Any cat owner would tell you that there’s really no code at all. It’s pretty simple; you give them what they want, and they see it as love.”

“And in return?”

“When that moment comes and they settle in your lap purring?” I looked up, instantly grinning. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”

“So… you had a cat.”

“No, my ex did.”

“Oh. Jude.”

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