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

“Parvo?”

“Canine parvovirus. It’s a virus we see in dogs sometimes. Anyway, my point was that the New York accents are new and different.”

She looked at the TV for a long moment. “It’s perfectly in character for you to be into a forensic investigation show.”

He shrugged. He’d done enough necropsies in his career that not much turned his stomach, but he could admit that someone with a weaker constitution might not like the content of the show. But he liked that they could solve the puzzle of these crimes with hard science and logic.

And speaking of logic, if Lauren noticed he’d broken protocol, she hadn’t said anything.

He looked over at her. She had on a pair of lacy pink panties and one of his old T-shirts. She climbed onto the bed, where he sat in a pair of boxers, and snuggled up beside him.

Were they about to…watch TV in bed together? It seemed like such an established-couple thing to do. Certainly not what two people only seeing each other for sex would do.

“Can I ask you a question?” Lauren said.

Caleb’s chest tightened in anticipation. “Yeah.”

“I just… Well, I had drinks with Evan the other night, and we were talking about dating, and it felt very strange I couldn’t tell him about you and me.”

“What about you and me?”

Lauren leveled her gaze at him and patted his knee. “I hate to break this to you, but we have a relationship. It’s secret and undefined, but it’s still a relationship.”

He sighed, unable to deny that.

“So at some point,” Lauren said, “you and I transitioned from people who hate each other to people who sometimes have sex to people who are basically having a secret affair. We’ve spent more nights together the last few weeks than some real couples do. But… It is a secret, isn’t it?”

Going public, for lack of a better way to explain it, would be like advertising to the world that they were in a relationship, and Caleb didn’t feel he could do that. He wanted to keep seeing Lauren, especially like this when she was half naked in his bed, but he didn’t want to make a commitment. He didn’t know that much about her, did he? They got along well in bed but less so out of it. It wasn’t like they were going to end up together. Caleb had no intention of marrying again. He’d trusted love once. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

“Do we have to label things?” he asked.

“No, not this minute. I’m okay with the way things are. I just feel weird about this all being a secret.”

“I know women talk, but do you really have to talk about this? It’s no one’s business. I’d really rather it not be public knowledge.”

Lauren leaned back and stared at him, her expression surprised. “Women talk?”

“You know. You go for drinks and gossip and stuff.”

“I don’t live in an episode of Sex and the City. I would just like to be able to tell my friends about something significant happening in my life. But maybe what we have is fleeting and not significant and doesn’t matter.”

Oh, here it was. “It’s…fun. I enjoy spending time with you like this. Does it have to be anything more than that?”

“No, it doesn’t have to be.” She sat back against the headboard and crossed her arms. “This thing between us may become something you don’t want, though.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She rolled her eyes. “How long do you think this can just…be the way it is? How long before one of us gets emotionally invested? How long until one of us meets someone else? I mean, maybe none of those things will happen, especially to you since you have no feelings, but I have a hard time believing this can just go on forever. And neither of us wants it to.”

“But if it’s working for us, why change it? Why not just…let it work this way for as long as it does.”

She closed her eyes for a long moment. “All right. And then the minute it isn’t working, it’s over?”

“I guess so.” Which was all he could offer, but Caleb still felt a little twinge. Did he want this to be a big thing? No. Did he want it to end? No.

She seemed dissatisfied with his answer, too, and turned toward the TV. Caleb looked at what appeared to be an episode of Law & Order from the ’90s.

“We talked about this. This right here is all I’m capable of right now,” he said.

“Fine.”

“You’re mad.”

She grunted. “I’m not… Okay, I’m a little mad. Do you even like me?”

“Yeah, of course I do.”

“As more than a body?”

He had to think a little harder about that. He wouldn’t have broken protocol if he didn’t though, would he? “Yes.”

“Am I wasting my time here?”

“Is there somewhere else you need to be?”

“No.”

“Then…”

She sighed again. “Status quo it is, then.”

Chapter 19

The crack of thunder outside ensured a slow afternoon at the café. Lauren tidied up the cat room, lamenting the weather interrupting her business.

“I went on a Tinder date last night,” Paige said. “This guy Brandon who lives not far from here.”

“Okay.” Lauren picked up a series of cat toys off the floor while Paige draped herself in a chair to tell her story.

“So, first of all, we ate at this upscale Mexican restaurant near Smith and Bergen, and the food was delicious. I think it was maybe the best Mexican food I’ve had in New York.”

“Low bar,” said Lauren. Any cuisine from around the world was available somewhere in New York City, but Mexican food was decidedly mediocre if one didn’t know the right places to find it. The popular Mexican restaurants in midtown Manhattan could provide a serviceable burrito, but for Lauren’s money, the best Mexican food she’d had come off a food truck she’d found in Red Hook one time when she got lost trying to get to Ikea. Which meant she’d never find it again.

“I mean, it’s probably not