Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray (scary books to read TXT) 📗

Caleb laughed. Around his old place in Boston, everything was closed by midnight, even some of the bars, and no food could be delivered after nine. New Yorkers didn’t know how to cope with the fact that things closed and not everyone wanted to work all night.

He caught sight of Lauren in his peripheral vision, her face inscrutable. Actually, it looked like she was trying really hard to look friendly and placid and utterly failing. She was still hot and bothered. Caleb wondered if he could keep that going through dinner.

“Well,” Caleb said. “If you don’t need anything else, I’m gonna head out.”

“Yeah, I’m good. Hello and goodbye, Lauren,” said Doug.

“I came by to get the kitten flyers,” Lauren said, patting her bag. “Are you coming by the big party next week?”

“If I’m not working, then yes.”

“We’re going to be fighting to the death to decide who has to work the overnight the night of your adoption party,” Caleb explained. “Or, you know, we’ll draw straws or something.”

“We heard there’d be free liquor,” said Doug. “It’s gotten contentious.”

“You’re liquoring people up to talk them into adopting cats, aren’t you?” said Caleb.

“I would never,” said Lauren with mock outrage. “I’m merely throwing a party. The aim is for people to adopt cats, yes, but we also want them to have a good time. Well, and Paige figured free booze would attract some of the local hipsters.” She rocked on her heels. “Can I see the kittens?”

“Oh. Yeah, I’ll take you back there.”

Lauren looked in on the kittens while Caleb went to the office to grab his stuff. When he popped back into the back room to fetch her, she was cooing and making baby noises to the kittens.

“They’re so cute with their little scrunchy faces.” Lauren’s voice got higher and squeakier as she spoke.

“They seem to be doing pretty well. I’ve been keeping an eye on Giant because he’s slow to eat sometimes, but he’s playing with the other cats and he seems very friendly.”

Lauren looked up. “Could he still be sick?”

“I think he may have a weak stomach, but he can live a full life if his eventual owners are careful with what they feed him. Or he’ll grow out of it. It’s hard to say with kittens this little.”

Lauren stroked Giant’s head, and he purred gently and pressed up against her hand. She cooed at him.

“We usually wait until they are about twelve weeks old to adopt them. They can eat regular kitten food by then. So they’re with us a few more weeks.” Caleb let out a breath. Her compassion was charming, but he didn’t want to spend all night squatting next to a kitten pen. “You read to go?”

“Yes. Bye, little kittens. See you soon!”

They left together a few minutes later after a lot of baby talk to the kittens. As they waited to cross the street, Caleb noted this felt suspiciously like a date.

But, no, they were just fueling up for the hot night they were about to have. They didn’t like each other much. This was not a relationship.

If he kept telling himself that, he might start to believe it.

Chapter 12

Dinner was…civil. There was a brief argument about whether to order red or white wine; Lauren won and they ordered a bottle of white. It was a draw about whether cat pheromone diffusers actually worked to help keep cats calm—she’d seen them in action, Caleb remained skeptical—and they’d agreed to disagree about something regarding raw food diets for cats. The final argument was over dessert—they agreed to split something until it became clear Lauren wanted tiramisu and Caleb wanted cheesecake and there would be no compromising. There were instead two half-eaten desserts.

Lauren let Caleb into her apartment and closed the door, feeling a little awkward now. They really didn’t see eye to eye on anything, did they?

Except the crazy thing was Caleb was right; the more they argued, the more worked up Lauren got, the more sexually aroused she was. Caleb was very handsome, his light brown hair getting a little long on top and sometimes falling into his eyes, a couple of days’ worth of beard growth on his jaw giving him a slightly scruffy look, and his crazy athletic body all adding up to a quite appealing package.

So basically, whenever they fought, she also wanted to rip his clothes off.

But she wasn’t sure how to get the ball rolling now.

“I’m feeling the need to call you fat and stupid,” she said.

He laughed. “To quell your desire or to ramp it up?”

“The latter. Why is it that fighting with you gets me so revved up?”

“There’s probably some brain science behind that.”

“I’ve got some beer in the fridge if you want a drink while I catalog your faults.”

Caleb followed Lauren into her kitchen. She was a little more self-conscious about her living space now that she knew he lived in Brooklyn Heights. Her place was clean but sparsely decorated, a large open space with a bedroom off to the side. The sofa was secondhand, the TV had been a gift from her parents, and the dishes had once belonged to Evan, who had spotted some colorful china on sale one day and decided to replace half his kitchen. Most of the cups in the cabinet had logos printed on them, one of the bookcases tilted slightly, and the computer desk in the corner had come with her after an old roommate had left it behind. Her mattress, at least, was fairly new, but it wasn’t until recently that she started making enough money to even just live without roommates, let alone replace all her old furniture.

Caleb didn’t say anything. He just smiled when she reached into the fridge and then handed him a beer.

“My ex-wife hated beer,” he said. “We hardly ever had it at home.”

“I like beer. But not IPAs. I don’t know why every craft brewery tries to cram as much hops in their beer as they can now,