Page 6 of Don't Fall

Chapter Two

Tessa

I wake up to a set of claws digging into my side.

Dick.

Drea’s cat. Well, really, her boyfriend, Scott’s. Two years ago, he asked me to cat sit while they went to Cancun for spring break and I’ve been trying to get him to come and take him back home ever since. I’ve tried repeatedly just leaving him at Drea’s, but inevitably, he finds his way back in through cracked windows or doors being held open a second longer than necessary. Doesn’t help that Drea doesn’t keep him locked in. Or that Scott seems rather disinterested in making the drive back home across town with him, but I’m not giving up hope on a Dickless life yet. Even if I have taken him to the vet twice and bought cat food every two weeks since I ran out of the first bag he came with. Dick is not mine. He’s not.

As soon as he feels me move, he switches positions and comes up to greet me, his motor-box running on overdrive. I laugh when his whiskers brush against my cheek, and finally, I open my eyes even though my alarm has yet to go off.

“Nothing like having a Dick in your face first thing in the morning,” I mumble quietly, although I suppose sarcasm is lost on cats. He noses me several times, waiting for me to finally reach up and scratch his ears. As soon as I do, he drops down on his side and goes back to massaging my ribcage with his pointy little nail extensions. I don’t even care. I’m actually smiling, his sense of contentment is so damn contagious.

Shit. Dick is mine. He is.

Slowly, I drag myself out of my make-shift bed compiled mostly of an old comforter and pillows stacked up in the rarely used and thus semi-empty dining room, and make my way out into the living room, cradling the cat like a baby while he curls into me. If only it was this easy with two legged men.

Drea’s still on the couch where Scott left her, but she’s awake and sitting up like maybe she’s been that way for a while.

“Aw, look at you holding Scott’s Dick in your hand.” She snorts, she’s so amused with herself.

“That joke never gets old,” I grumble under my breath, because sarcasm is also lost on early morning Drea. “Speaking of jokes, where’s Scott?”

She grimaces. She caught that one. “He took off a while ago. Had to get to work.” That explains why he was so agitated about not finding his keys last night. Also accounts for his sober state of being given the firehouse is no place for a hangover. For all his lacking heroics last night with Drea, Scott still turned out to be a decent human overall.

“I take it you two are over your little tiff from last night?” I ask, slowly moving my way around the room, still slightly distracted by the quiet purr of my cat.

“We had a tiff?” Of course, she doesn’t remember.

“You woke up in your prom dress. That didn’t trigger anything for you?”

She shrugs. “Not really. Woke up wearing my grandmother’s wedding dress last weekend. If that wasn’t cause for concern, I’m not likely to be all that worried about waking up in much of anything else.”

I take a minute to let her words sink in. “You ever think maybe you drink a little too much?”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” she agrees, “but you and Scott make it so easy to be reckless.”

I sigh, lifting Dick to mush his head to my cheek. Cat cuddles, man. “I’ll have to talk to Scott about that.”

“Be sure and tell him thank you when you do,” she says, waving her hand at me like she just remembered something.

“Why am I thanking him?”

She smiles, the way only a truly proud girlfriend could. “He unloaded your car for you this morning before he left.”

“He did?” Now I’m smiling. The way only the friend of a proud girlfriend could. “Scott is so nice. I don’t know why we’re always so mean to him.”

She throws her hands up at me, dismissing the statement. “He has it coming. Every time!”

I laugh. They’re a weird pair those two, but I can’t even imagine either one of them with someone else. They just...fit.

“Meanwhile, do I smell coffee? Please tell me I smell coffee.”

“You smell coffee.” She nods. “But it’s not ours.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugs. “I got up to open the door to the balcony a little while ago because it was so stuffy in here. Scent must be wafting over from your place.” Despite the intruder’s efforts to make nice, I rebuked his suggestion we both spend the night together on account of knowing someone’s name not making them any less of a stranger.

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