Her Younger Millionaire

“Your outfit; it’s out of someone’s s*xual fantasies; so are you a stripper?”

She stared at him, brown eyes wide with disbelief.

“You’re a psycho aren’t you?” she said. He shrugged, watching her bite her luscious lower lip. She really was very attractive. Too bad she was also so highly strung. Mother would not approve. His eyes traveled up and down her body; not that he cared what his mother thought at this point. He stood up gathering his things.

“Can I buy you a coffee inside?” he asked, already leading her in to the much warmer interior.

“Umm, not really?” she replied in bewilderment as he pulled her in. He seated her at a table and signaled for the waiter to come back.

“What are you having?” he asked.

She just stared at him. The waiter came up to them, brandishing his notepad with an expectant expression on his face.

“Espresso,” she said shortly.

“Nothing to eat?” Aiden asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Chicken and Cheese sandwich, on a brown baguette,” she replied promptly. The waiter wrote it down and quickly left.

“So, how have you been?” he asked her leaning forward to stare into her face, head in his hands.

“I’ve been great.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“….”

“I got a dog,” she volunteered when the silence got a little uncomfortable.

“Oh yeah? I got a cat. Name of John Connor. What’s your dog’s name?”

“Arnie.”

“As in…terminator Arnie?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. Talk about kismet. We should arrange a play date.”

“I don’t think dogs and cats get along.”

“Pshh. Urban legend. There’s no proof of that. How’s next Wednesday for you?”

“Next Wednesday? I usually work weekdays. In an office?”

“Oh yeah? How has that worked out for ya?”

“Can’t complain.”

Aiden snorted.

“What?” Tina demanded.

“Clearly you haven’t lived.”

“Says the twenty five year old child.”

“Child huh? I’ll tell you what; I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

It was Tina’s turn to snort, “Very mature.”

“Mature? You call me a child and you expect me not to answer?”

“Okay, I’m sorry I called you a child.”

“Too late. I’m already offended.”

Tina sighed and rolled her eyes. The waiter broke their impasse by bringing their food.

“You should definitely bring Arnie to meet John Connor.”

“Never.”

*****

Aiden’s feet itched. He told himself that was why he couldn’t fall asleep. The truth was he was curled up like a pretzel because the cat was stretched out across the foot of the bed, allowing Aiden no space for his legs. He tried to nudge it to move but all he got for his trouble was a clawed paw, giving his naked foot a prickly warning.

In the morning he managed to trip over the cat four times before he’d even had his coffee. Once on his way to the bathroom, once on his way back to the bedroom to get dressed and twice as he was trying to make his way downstairs and to the kitchen. Not because he didn’t notice the cat, it was too huge to not be noticed, in fact Aiden wouldn’t be surprised if they could detect it from space. But it kept slinking its way between Aiden’s legs, like they were its own personal obstacle track.

Once he was seated on the couch with a cup of glorious coffee in his hand and three thousand pounds of purring fur in his lap, he pondered what to do. It was quite possible that he had lost his mind. His sister might have been right that so much solitude would make him snap one day. But whether he was crazy or not he still couldn’t stomach the thought of taking the cat in to have its b*lls cut off. Not that they were that impressive, even if the cat seemed proud enough of them to feel the need to flash them all the time. But he still could remember the look of terror in the cat’s eyes when the woman at the shelter mentioned neutering. Of course that was probably his imagination. Not like a cat could actually understand humans. Right?

“Guess I should take you in to get you neutered,” he tried.

The purring stopped. The cat lay completely still for a long time. Then Aiden could feel claws slowly making their way into his thigh.

“Or not.”

The claws retracted but the cat was still eerily still.

“Thing is, I think I need you to seduce a dog for me. Big fella like you; he probably won’t even realize you’re not the same species. So, I should probably wait a bit before having you neutered. Stop that!” he yelped as the claws made a reappearance. “You want to keep your b*lls, I got it.”

After thinking it over, he decided he just wouldn’t do anything. They had his contact info and would probably call once they realize the cat hadn’t kept its appointment. Then he would just say he changed his mind, they could keep the money, thank you, goodbye.

“Guess I can relate,” he mused. “Sometimes I think my dad would gladly neuter me..after I give my mom grandkids that is. Since Dylan’s out of that game, the lucky bas*ard.”

The cat looked up at him through half-lidded eyes, then yawned, the jaws opening to reveal an impressive set of teeth before it snapped its mouth shut again. Aiden was tempted to rename it Mustafa, except he didn’t think the cat really needed more ego. The tail started swishing from side to side and then it stopped, straight except for a curl at the tip, like the letter J.

“John?”

The cat licked Aiden’s hand.

“Okay, so you know what your name is; good.”