Lauren sat in her office, staring at a computer monitor and trying to balance the account books to put together a report for Diane. She wasn’t ready to let go of the idea of possibly hiring a pastry chef, even though actually using the kitchen to prepare food was probably asking for Randolph and Newton to try to shut them down again. Still, a girl could dream.
Paige stuck her head in the door. “There’s someone here who is interested in adopting a cat. I thought you might want to talk to him.”
“You can’t handle it?” Lauren slid away from her desk and opened a drawer. She pulled out a manila envelope. “All the forms are in here.”
“You aren’t curious about which cat he’s interested in?”
“I mean, I am, but my numbers aren’t adding up right for some reason. I think I mistyped a digit somewhere. It’s only off by a few dollars, but…”
“Lauren? Boss lady? Please take a break. I think you’ll want to talk to this customer.”
Paige smiled in a way that made the dimple on her left cheek prominent, which made Lauren think she was up to something. Was the customer a celebrity? That had happened a couple of times. There were a few pretty big actors who lived in the neighborhood, and sometimes they popped in to check out the Cat Café. Lauren had seen the hot young star of a popular HBO show on the street a number of times in the last couple of weeks, and it was plausible he wanted a cat.
“Yeah, all right. Give me one second.”
Lauren scanned the column of numbers again, finally found where she’d made a mistake, and fixed the error. When the formula recalculated the numbers, the balance came out correctly. She let out a breath.
“We’re still in the black for this month,” she said to Paige.
“I’m glad. Come on.”
Lauren followed Paige out to the cat room. On the way, she tried to remember all of the famous people who lived in the neighborhood to narrow down who this might be. Maybe it was the mayor. Or a popular writer; there were a few of those in the neighborhood, too.
But, Lauren saw when she arrived in the cat room, it was actually Caleb.
Paige stepped away. Lauren looked around the room and noticed Lindsay and Evan were there, too, standing off to the side and grinning.
“What is happening?” Lauren asked. “There’s no way on earth Caleb is going to adopt a cat, and the way you all are smiling makes me think I’ve been betrayed.”
Monique walked over. “Dr. Fitch has filled out the paperwork for cat adoption,” she said, handing over a form.
“Et tu, Monique?” Lauren took the form and scanned it.
The top part contained Caleb’s name, address, and contact information. But in the box under Why are you interested in adopting a cat?, he’d written, Because I made a terrible mistake and I want Lauren to know I’m sorry and I want her back.
“Are you kidding me with this?” she asked, holding up the form. It felt like a cruel joke. She’d been trying so hard for the last week to push Caleb from her mind, because it was clear nothing would happen between them, and here he was with some jokey cat adoption form.
Caleb frowned. “All right, you got me, I’m not really here to adopt a cat.”
Lauren cursed and crumpled up the form. She tossed it at a trash can. Caleb watched the ball of paper sail through the air. Then he turned his attention back to Lauren.
“Did you read it? I meant what I wrote.”
“So, wait, I’m supposed to believe you, a man who told me just a couple of weeks ago that he couldn’t give me what I wanted, who has told me more than once he couldn’t be in a relationship with me, who has decided to come to my place of business and pretend to adopt a cat as a way to win me back?”
The smile that had been playing across Caleb’s lips fell. He glanced toward Evan, who moved his hand in a circular keep going gesture.
Caleb sighed. “This was supposed to be my big romantic gesture. See, isn’t it cute? Caleb’s adopting a cat. But he’d never adopt a cat because he’s a dog person. Ha, ha.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. Her stomach churned. She felt like she was the butt of some April Fools’ joke. “How gullible do you think I am?”
“No, I…” Caleb frowned and rubbed his forehead. “I’m fucking this up. This was supposed to be a cute gesture where I get you to laugh long enough for me to tell you I made a huge mistake. You were right, I put up walls and didn’t give us a chance to see where things could go. I thought I didn’t want to be in a relationship, and I still think relationships are scary and risky generally, but I want to be with you enough that I’m willing to take the risk. I’ve missed you like crazy since we ended things.”
Wasn’t this what Lauren had wanted to hear? Hadn’t she fantasized about the moment Caleb realized he was stupid to let her go and came groveling back? Well, here he was. He was telling her he’d made a mistake and he wanted to be with her. But something still wasn’t right.
“How do I trust this?” she asked. “How do I know you won’t change your mind in a week and send me packing again?”
“Well, speaking of packing, I thought this could help.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a keychain with two keys on it. The tag was shaped like an old-fashioned suitcase. He handed it to Lauren.
Lauren held it and examined it. “What is this?” she asked, her pulse kicking up.
“Well, we talked a lot about our baggage, about how it was in the way. I thought this could be a peace offering. Those are the keys to my apartment. The square one is the deadbolt and the round one is the main lock.”
“You’re…giving me keys to your place?”
He took a step toward her. “I want us to be a couple for real. To go over each other’s places when we feel like it, because we trust each other and are comfortable around each other. In a way, I guess I’m sharing my baggage with you, too. My past experience is part of who I am now and I can’t just get rid of it, but maybe with you, I won’t let it hold me back anymore.”
Lauren looked down at the keychain in her hand, feeling mystified. He… He was really telling her he wanted them to be a couple. Giving her keys felt like a tangible commitment. He was trying to tell her he’d heard her and what she’d asked of him and was trying to give it to her now.
What did she want? She looked up at Caleb and met his gaze. Well, she cared about him. She loved him, in fact. She’d been miserable the last few weeks since they’d ended things.
What about the whole focusing on herself thing? She was pretty happy about her job. It was going well, even though she was losing sleep over a pending discussion about money with Diane. Still, she liked the challenge of demonstrating that she could expand the business in a viable way. And she loved her apartment, she loved the cats, she loved her friends. And she loved Caleb. Being with him would make her happy. And if the ultimate goal was to be happy, shouldn’t she go for it?
“You’re not talking,” said Caleb. “Please say something. What do you think? Am I too late, or…”
“No, you’re not too late,” Lauren said, the words coming out a little watery. “This is…” She held up the keychain. “You’re really serious. You want us to be together.”
“Yes. It was wrong of me to end things without really trying to make it work. I’ve regretted that since the moment I walked out of your apartment. I just didn’t know how to give you what you wanted. But now I do. So, yes, I do want to be with you. And, hey, all your closest friends are here to bear witness to it.”
“You invited them?”
“Well, I invited Evan. He took some liberties.”
“You’re welcome!” Evan shouted from across the room.
Lauren laughed. “Well… I mean, I can’t believe you…”
“Lauren. Letting you go was a stupid thing for me to do. I was wrong about us. Yeah, we argue about dumb things sometimes, but that just means we’re both passionate people with strong opinions, and the truth is, toward the end we agreed more often than we didn’t. Anything we disagree on is something we can work on together. I mean, I may even come around on the whole keeping-a-cat-as-a-pet thing.”
Sadie wandered over then and rubbed up against Caleb’s leg. Caleb bent to give her scritches on her head.
“Well. I’ll believe that when I see it.” Lauren took a deep breath and looked at the keychain again. Could she deal with Caleb’s baggage? Yeah, she probably could. “You mean it. You want to be with me?” Every time she repeated it, it felt truer.
Caleb opened his mouth to say something, then snapped his jaw shut, then shook his head like he’d made a decision. “Yes,” he said. “I want to be with you. I love you.”
Well, there it was. They loved each other. And hopefully that was enough. They could work together on everything else.
“Please say it’s not too late,” Caleb said. “You want to be with me too, right? I’m not just embarrassing myself in front of all your friends so you can kick me to the curb, am I?”
“No, I…” Warmth spread across Lauren’s chest. This was really happening. Caleb was standing here telling her he wanted to be with her, he loved her, and they could have what she’d wanted for them since the first time she’d realized she liked him more than she hated him.
That line between love and hate really was thin, wasn’t it? Or was it a coin that was easy to flip around?
She smiled. “You’re not too late. I’ll take you back. I love you, too.”
His whole face lit up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Kiss her!” yelled Evan.
Caleb laughed. Then he closed the distance between them, cupped her face, and placed a perfect kiss against her lips.
Lauren parted her lips to let him in more deeply, putting her hands on his shoulders, then behind his head to pull him closer, and he put his hands on her waist to hold her there. And they kissed right there, in the middle of the cat room, with the whole crowd of friends and customers looking on. Their relationship was secret no longer.
Lauren eased away and took a step back. Everyone was staring at them with giddy expressions on their faces.
“You know,” Lauren said to Caleb, “normal boyfriends bring their girlfriends flowers. Not cheap keychains.”
“Sure, but I also know a lot of flowers contain toxins that are bad for cats.”
Lauren laughed.
Paige stepped forward. “I’d offer you privacy, but, well, this is a place of business and it’s the middle of the day.”
Lauren was tired of having an audience anyway. To Paige and Monique, she said, “You guys have got the rest of the day handled, right?”
“Absolutely,” said Monique, smiling.
“Cool. Come on, Caleb, we’ll go to my place.”
She grabbed his hand and started leading him toward the door. There were some hoots and hollers from the peanut gallery.
“You…consulted with Evan to do all this?” Lauren asked.
“Yeah. Was that the wrong thing to do? The cat application thing was his idea.”
“It was probably exactly the right thing to do. Evan has been rooting for us all along.”
“Really?”
“He’s a smart guy.”
He was so smart, in fact, that he’d run into the back and returned with Lauren’s handbag. He handed it to her and then said, “You crazy kids get out of here.”
Lauren squeezed Caleb’s hand. “All right. Let’s go, Caleb.”
***
As he crossed the threshold, Caleb realized the last time he’d been in Lauren’s apartment was the day he’d left her. It felt a little strange to be walking back into it now.
“Pardon the mess,” said Lauren. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to come over today.”
Caleb looked around. The apartment wasn’t messy so much as a little cluttered. The blanket on the sofa was askew, there was an empty coffee cup on the table, and she busied herself now with picking some errant pieces of mail off the floor.
“Molly can’t abide my leaving mail on this table,” Lauren said. “I’m forever picking it up. Anyway.”
And now it was awkward. Where should Caleb stand? What should he say?
Lauren pulled the keychain he’d given her out of her pocket and hung it on a hook next to the door. “This is really a key to your apartment? It’s not just some old key you put on here to make a point?”
“Those are real keys. I meant everything I said. That’s why I got witnesses.”
“You didn’t have to go that far.”
“Yes, I did. I had to do something to prove I’m serious. I do trust you, you know. I mean, maybe text before you come over, but you really are welcome at any time.”
Lauren laughed while rolling her eyes. “Text first. Of course.”
“If I don’t answer, I’m probably sleeping. I do that on my day off a lot.”
Lauren shook her head. Caleb couldn’t interpret the look.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m not asking for free and open access to your apartment, but you’re already putting restrictions on this.”
He was about to protest that this had not been his intention, even though he was still a little nervous about her just barging right into his space, but then Molly darted out from under the sofa and streaked across his path, which startled him so much he tripped backward. He caught himself on the arm of the sofa, but he cursed.
Lauren rolled her eyes. “You afraid of my cat?”
Her tone was adversarial, and Caleb couldn’t exactly blame her. She’d agreed to take him back, but he still had a little work to do to make her trust him “I’m sorry,” he said. He sat on the sofa. “This is going all wrong. I was joking. I mean, I do trust you, but—”
Lauren sat beside him and put her hand over his where it rested on his thigh. “It’s okay. We haven’t been dating very long. I never even needed that much from you, not this soon. I just wanted you to open up a little and accept that something had changed between us. That we were starting to mean more to each other than just sex. Now you and I can be together and see where it goes.”
“I know. I understand that. That’s what I was trying to show you. Did I bungle it?”
“No.” She smiled.
“Because I’ve changed. You changed me.”
She blinked a couple of times. “Are we having a romantic comedy ending? Is this like every other Julia Roberts movie?”
He laughed. “I’m just a boy…sitting next to a girl…asking her to love him.”
She smiled. Her eyes looked a little watery. “Have you changed?”
He took a deep breath. “If I haven’t, I want to. I’m tired of feeling the way I have since Kara left. Putting on armor may keep me safe, but it sure is lonely in there. And I honestly don’t know if you and I will work out. I just know my life is better with you in it. The more time we spent together, the more I started to feel like myself again, and not the jaded asshole I’d become. I will probably never be the old Caleb again, but I am this man now, and I want to be open. Unlocked. Not closed.”
She smiled, definitely teary now. She leaned forward, cupped his chin, and pressed her lips against his.
That was when he knew they might be all right. If he remained open to Lauren, they would figure the rest out.
He slid his fingers into her hair. He’d missed this hair, missed the silky feel of it between his fingers. He’d missed her voice, he’d missed the freckles across her nose, he’d missed how heartfelt and genuine she was. He’d missed this woman, period. He deepened the kiss and pulled her into his arms, and before he even knew what was really happening, she was straddling him on the sofa.
“Are we doing this?” he asked, her hair hanging down around his head like a curtain.
“Yeah, we are.”
He laughed, encouraged by the growl in her voice. “This is the easy part, you know.”
“What, the sexy bits?” She grinned. “I know. We’ll have to work at the other stuff. As long as you’re willing, I am, too.”
“For you? Anything.”
They kissed again. Caleb settled back into the sofa and took Lauren into his arms. And he felt…content. Right. Like everything was falling into places. Why had he been fighting so hard to accept this in his life? He’d been so sure Lauren would betray him the way Kara had, but this felt different. He’d learned things in the decade since he and Kara had made a commitment to each other. He’d changed. Things would be different this time. And rather than be afraid of what the future might hold, he’d be open to it.
“So, ah…” Lauren said with a smile, running her hands down Caleb’s chest. “Should we, um, seal the deal?”
“Are you making a sexy double entendre?”
“I am.”
She waggled her eyebrows, which made him laugh. Had he laughed this much with Kara? No, he didn’t think so. And he would stop comparing Lauren to Kara, because this was a different relationship with an entirely different woman, and the potential was there for this to be something really amazing, as long as he stayed open to it.