Page 12 of The Love Hack

By now, I’d exhausted the front gardens of neighbouring houses, the open space surrounding the next-door block of flats, the kids’ playground and the car park behind the supermarket. Only the main road was left.

My heart in my mouth, imagining Astro’s fluffy form limp and crushed by a passing car, I turned the corner. My throat hurt from calling and from the lump of impending tears. I didn’t want to lose him – I didn’t think I could bear it. He was my best friend, my companion, my responsibility.

Then, walking down the road towards me, I saw a familiar figure.

The long, denim-clad legs, the mid-brown hair sticking up at the front, the T-shirt with a Nine-Inch Nails album cover on it, which I’d seen only that morning – although it felt like a lifetime ago.

It was Ross, on his way home to the flat that was only a few minutes’ walk from mine. But more familiar still – although bewilderingly strange out of context – was the grey, furry form he had cradled over his shoulder.

I broke into a run, sprinting the short distance until I reached him, arriving panting and tearful.

‘Lucy! There you are. Are you okay?’

‘Just about. Not really. What the hell are you doing with Astro?’ Then I realised how bad that sounded, and hastily added, ‘Is he hurt?’

Ross nodded, turning around so I could see my cat’s face, disgruntled but unharmed. When he recognised me, he tried to wriggle out of Ross’s arms. His hold was precarious, I realised, because he was carrying not only his laptop bag and the cat, but also a brown paper bag from which a familiar smell emerged, savoury and vinegary, making my mouth water when before it had been dry.

‘He’s fine. Here, can you grab him without letting him go?’

Carefully, he passed Astro to me. The cat protested briefly, but allowed himself to settle in my arms. Overwhelmed with relief, I tried to squeeze him hard enough not to let him go, but not so hard as to hurt him.

‘Where was he? How did you find him? I need to get him home.’

‘I tried calling you.’ Ross fell into step next to me. ‘But you weren’t answering.’

‘No – I must’ve left my phone in the flat. I came out in a rush when he wasn’t home.’

‘I stopped off at the chip shop to get some dinner,’ Ross explained. ‘And he was there. Carol there said he visits a couple of afternoons a week, just at teatime, and they give him a bit of cod.’

‘They what? My cat’s been sneaking out for takeaways and I never knew?’

Ross laughed. ‘I recognised him from the photo on your desk, and then I saw your name on his collar. I thought I’d better bring him back, because it’s not safe out there – you know.’

Hearing the roar of the road behind me, I felt my knees threaten to dissolve into jelly. ‘I know.’

‘He’s a such a great cat,’ Ross enthused. ‘He let me pick him up, no problem. I was going to take him back to mine and give him some of my scampi if I couldn’t get hold of you – I didn’t know your address and I didn’t want to just abandon him.’

‘He would’ve never wanted to leave,’ I said, pushing aside the thought that, if Ross had invited me back to his for scampi and chips, neither would I.

‘I know, right? I’m crazy about scampi – I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I moved here from the States – it’s not a thing there. But how awkward would that have been? “Dear Adam, I rescued my colleague’s cat and now she’s accusing me of abduction.”’

I laughed, the release of tension making the joke funnier than it might have been. ‘“Dear Adam, my colleague, my cat and myself have found ourselves in a thrupple. How can we make this work for all of us?’

Ross grinned. ‘And what would Adam have said to that?’

I looked sideways at him, over Astro’s soft head. Now that we were nearing home, he was starting to wriggle in my arms, eager to prove that he knew his own way back and didn’t need to be carried. But I kept hold of him, as if he was providing a shield between Ross and me – or between myself and my feelings.

‘“Negotiating space for a third individual within your primary partnership can be satisfying for all parties,”’ I began, trying to channel the Adam persona that I’d discovered only the day before. ‘“Such relationships are challenging, but they can also be rewarding. Open and honest communication is…” Here’s my flat now.’

‘Damn,’ Ross said. ‘I wanted to know how that was going to end.’

‘I guess you’ll have to wait until someone writes to Adam with that exact question, then.’ Feeling myself starting to blush, I buried my face in Astro’s fur and kissed him, relief that he was okay flooding through me all over again.

Ross reached out to scratch my cat behind the ears, in just the spot he liked. ‘What’ll you do about his takeaways?’

‘Shit.’ It had only just occurred to me that this was something Astro had done before, and therefore something he was likely to do again. ‘I don’t know. I can’t let him – it’s not safe.’

Ross nodded. ‘I wouldn’t be too keen on the idea if he was my cat. He’s pretty special.’

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