Page 115 of On the Double

“Ow! Harper!”

I rushed into the other room, wincing as I saw my little Oreo with his claws in Oliver’s back as he struggled to finish packing.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” I grabbed the black and white kitten from his back, not being the most delicate. The little kitten’s claws held on for dear life as I ripped him away.

“That cat is a demon,” he growled, spinning to face me.

I held the kitten protectively against my chest, petting his little head. “He is not. Take it back!”

“He jumped on my back!”

“Because he wants to be near you.”

“Because he’s a menace to society!”

“I disagree,” I said, sticking out my tongue. I glanced at the clock and swore under my breath. “There’s still so much to do. What time are the movers coming?”

“In an hour.”

“I can’t believe the house sold so fast.”

“Neither can I. Are you sure this is okay with Edu?”

A pang of hurt shot through me at the mention of his name. “It doesn’t really matter. Rae and Duke talked to Cash for us. If it’s okay with Cash, that’s all I care about.”

When he stayed silent, I knew I hadn’t heard the last of it. “You still haven’t seen him?”

“Once,” I admitted. “The other night.”

“A booty call,” he grumbled. “He just couldn’t stay away.”

No, he hadn’t been able to. In the past two weeks, he’d continued to text me, but I’d only seen him the one time. He slipped into my bed in the middle of the night and gave me pleasure I would never forget. But in the morning, he was gone. No goodbye kiss. No text to tell me when he’d see me again. That was it. And I tried not to think about how much being used like that pissed me off. All I had to do was tell him it was over, that I didn’t want to continue this kind of relationship, especially since he’d pretty much vanished from my life. But I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

Maybe tomorrow.

“Not that it matters. We have more important things to do than worry about my love life.”

We were moving into a house on the OPS property while we searched for another house to move into. We’d heard there was a house coming on the market very soon that would be of interest, so we waited patiently. But until then, we still needed a place to stay. Most of our things were going into storage during the transitional period, so it would make moving easier when we did buy.

“What are we going to do with the demon cat?” Oliver asked.

“I already talked to Rae. She said it was fine to have the kitten in the house. We’d just have to pay for any damages.”

“You,” he corrected. “You’ll have to pay for damages. I want nothing to do with that cat.”

“He’s so sweet.”

“Harper, he ate your goldfish!”

I winced. Yeah, that was a small problem. “And now we know we can’t have live fish in the house.”

“Or any other kind of fish. He ate my ham sandwich last night.Even the bread! I turned my back for thirty seconds to get a drink and he had stolen the whole fucking thing!”

“So, we don’t leave food out anymore.”

He sighed, shaking his head at me. “I told you, I want nothing to do with that cat.”

“Fine, I get it. He’s my responsibility.”

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