Page 1 of Talk Birdie to Me

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Saturday afternoons were quickly becoming Geena’s favorite time block of the week.

She snapped a couple shots of the table where she’d set up a solid blue backboard and portable studio lights. Then she adjusted her settings to account for the tiny stream of natural lighting entering from a high window slit on the narrow room’s far wall.

Her sister, Taylor, entered cradling a fluffy gray kitten. She wore bright teal scrubs and her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a neat bun. She placed the kitten on the table, petting it with one hand while she kept her other hand close by to keep it safely corralled.

Geena adjusted her settings for his fur and the lighting, while her sister tapped her fingers to keep the kitten’s attention.

Taylor smiled at the fluff ball. “This little guy won’t need much advertising to convince someone to take him home.”

Geena loved coming to the St. Martin Animal Sanctuary on the weekends to photograph animals for the shelter’s adoption page and for social media posts. Her volunteer work here had started as a favor to her sister, who was the vet tech at the shelter. They’d been in a bind for a Valentine’s Day event, and Taylor had roped Geena into spending the day taking photos of people with their pets as a fundraiser. That one event turned into a regular volunteer gig that brought Geena much-needed joy every weekend.

“I’m surprised he hasn’t been snatched up already,” Geena said. “When did he come in?”

“Yesterday. He’s been with our foster, so he didn’t have to quarantine. But she said the lighting in her apartment isn’t great, and since he’s a wiggly worm, she couldn’t get any good photos. Figured we could sneak him in today along with the new litter that came in a few days ago.”

Geena took a couple more test shots while the kitten played with a noisy plastic ball. After a few more adjustments, she was ready to go. “Is the new litter still in quarantine?”

“Yeah, but they look super healthy. The mom is a gorgeous calico. We’ll need some pics of her, too.”

“No problem,” Geena said, moving around to stretch her aching feet and calves. She was wearing her most comfy sneakers with jeans and a navy T-shirt, much more comfortable clothes than she normally wore to work, but she wasn’t used to being on her feet this much. “I’ve got all afternoon.”

Taylor danced her fingers on the table in front of the kitten to grab its attention. Then she lured its gaze toward the camera with a feathery wand toy.

“Right,” Taylor said while she waved the toy, and Geena snapped some photos in quick succession. “Operation distract Geena from waiting for that loser to get his shit together is still in effect.”

That had been the case for the last couple of weeks while Geena waited for her ex to submit his half of the mediation paperwork. Since he was a lawyer—although a corporate attorney, not a divorce or family one—he was at least familiar with the legal speak. She’d assumed they could move through everything quickly without going to court since they didn’t own property or have kids.

She’d been very wrong to assume that.

Ricky had been the one to move out and drop the divorce bomb on her, so she’d figured he would want to settle everything right away. To move on with his life and all that.

What she’d really assumed was that he’d been having an affair.

Wrong again.

Sort of.

He knew legally and reputation-wise that wouldn’t look good for him. So he was adamantly denying any extra-marital shenanigans. Geena didn’t believe him for a second, but at this point, she didn’t care. If he wanted out, she wanted to cut all ties as soon as possible.

But the initial disclosure forms he’d filled out didn’t add up. The mediator they’d hired couldn’t make sense of it either and kept kicking the papers back to Ricky, assuming he’d made some sort of number error. But his assumption was wrong as well.

How that man thought he could slip funny math past his soon-to-be ex-wife accountant and the mediator, Geena would never understand.

The man had hubris. She had to give him that.

She still wasn’t entirely sure what exactly he was attempting to slip by her in the bank, loan, and credit card accounts she hadn’t known about. But once she realized he was trying to conceal some funny financials that she could end up holding the bag for, Geena promptly hired an attorney.

Things would take twice as long now, at least, but she could sleep well, knowing he wasn’t going to screw her over. Her attorney wasn’t sure what he was hiding either, but she wouldn’t let Geena sign off on anything until they figured it out and settled everything fairly.

Taylor dangled the wand above the kitten while Geena started shooting. The kitten lifted to swat at the feathers, looking like a fluffy little bear on his back legs.

“This is a good one.” Geena giggled as she held the camera out so her sister could see the image on the screen. “At least for a social post or story.”

“Oh my gosh.” Taylor turned her attention back to the kitten and scratched his face. “You are gonna have a bazillion applications in a heartbeat. Which means a whole bunch of disappointed people we can steer towards some of your other adorable pals in here.”

Geena laughed at the bait-and-switch scams the shelter was running. Although, if everyone left happy with a kitten, she supposed it wasn’t really a scam.

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