Page 26 of Kiss and Make Love

A long sigh left his body. “My parents thought it’d be a suitable profession for me because I’m weird, okay? I’m socially awkward, I don’t easily make friends, and people generally don’t want to be around me. So, Mother and Father thought working with dead people would be the right path since I could jabber on all I wanted, and they wouldn’t have to listen to me. And there aren’t many living people to deal with. And I would be alone most of the time doing my work. And?—”

“I’m going to stop you there, Llewellyn.” She took a measured breath. This poor kid. “I know this is the pot calling the kettle black, but your parents are assholes.”

He wrinkled his nose. “No, they aren’t. They’re just practical. They look out for me, that’s all.”

She crossed her arms and leaned forward. “No. They’re assholes. Plain and simple. What parents say those things to their own child?”

Looking down at the sealed concrete floors, he said, “Well, it’s all true. Honesty is the best policy.”

“There is an enormous difference between telling the truth and being two giant dicks. Your parents are the latter.”

Llewellyn looked at his feet and scuffed his shoes back and forth against the floor. “So you don’t think I’m weird?”

She snorted. “Hell yes, I think you’re weird. You’re the weirdest kid I’ve ever met. That doesn’t mean you deserve to be locked away in a basement embalming room doing a job you hate for the rest of your life.”

His chin tipped up and he met her gaze. “Can I tell you what I really want to do?”

The hope in his voice made her heart hurt.

Spencer took off her gloves and slapped them down on the table to the side of her. Looks like she was in this for the long haul. They would get to Mr. Galiano soon. It’s not like he was going anywhere.

“Lay it on me, Llewellyn.”

When she got home, Becca was waiting on her doorstep with a scary movie in one hand and a bag of loose-leaf tea in the other.

Llewellyn and Spencer had successfully completed the embalming process on Mr. Galiano. She would go back in a couple days to dress, casket, and cosmetize him so he was ready for the open-casket viewing. Llewellyn would not be there, however, because he was going to pursue his dream job. She had to tell Becca about this. No chance in hell she’d believe her when she said what it was.

“Okay, you’ve been hyping this up all day,” Becca whined. “Please tell me what Llewellyn is going to do with his life.”

“When my tea is done steeping. Have a little patience.” She snickered, knowing full well that patience was not Becca’s strong suit.

“Seriously!” She fell backward onto Spencer’s blue suede couch and covered her face with a pillow. “You’re the one texting me all day telling me I’ll never believe it, and how this would only make me further think he’s not a real person,” she mumbled from underneath the plush fabric.

“Alright,” Spencer said, coming out of her compact kitchen and joining Becca on the couch. Sitting sideways to face her, she tucked her sock feet underneath one of the cushions, pulled on a magenta throw blanket, and sipped the herbal tea Becca had made herself. “A cat consultant.”

“What?” Becca pulled the pillow off her face. “I’m sorry, I thought you said ‘cat consultant’ but my ears must not be working.”

“A catbehaviourconsultant.”

“No!” she squealed, bolting upright and narrowly missing Spencer’s head with the throw pillow she beaned across the room. “That’s it. Llewellyn is fake. There’s no way he’s an actual human being.”

“Scout’s honour.” Spencer held up three fingers. “And that isn’t even the best part.”

“Spit it out, woman,” Becca cried.

“He wants to name his cat consulting businessClaw and Order. Can you even believe th—oh shit, are you okay?”

Becca had rolled off the couch and landed with a loud thump on the carpeted floor. She was laughing her ass off and couldn’t contain her amusement.

“I…need…to…meet…him.” She struggled to get out the words, pulling in shallow breaths between fits of giggles.

Yeah.Thiswas what a giggler looked like.

Sitting up, she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Maybe he can help me with Jiji. She never seems to listen to me.”

“That cat has a mind of her own. She never listens to you,” Spencer mused. “I guess it’s not such a bad idea after all?”

“So you encouraged him?”

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