Her Younger Millionaire

John grinned then resumed grooming himself. Guess it took a lot of work to keep all that fur so glorious.

Aiden spent the day drinking coffee, talking to the rescue center (that offered its opinion on the dangers of keeping a cat un-neutered), petting John and not doing any work at all. Oh, he tried. But he was curiously distracted and John was a bit more socially needy than Aiden had anticipated. As in, he didn’t like to be ignored at all.

He sat on the newspaper when Aiden tried to read over his third cup of coffee. He walked over the laptop when Aiden was trying to type. He poked his head in front of the screen and tried to catch the cursor running across it. He complained loudly when all Aiden found to feed him was yesterday’s fried chicken. And then he scratched on the balcony door and demanded to be let out. When Aiden ignored him, John promptly peed on the rug. It was old and looked a lot better in the trash than it ever did on Aiden’s floor, but still.

“Okay, okay, I get it! I’m a lousy cat owner! I didn’t expect you to be so high maintenance, okay? I haven’t bought any stuff yet!”

Aiden made the trip to the store as fast as he could, sure that John would have trashed the whole house when he got back. Instead he came back to find John sitting in the window, waiting for him like a feline guard. As soon as Aiden opened the door the cat was slinking in circles around his legs, almost making him trip once again.

“Calm down. I’m gonna drop the whole lot on you if you keep that up.”

John howled that he hadn’t had anything to eat in WEEKS and that Aiden was a cruel and wicked man to leave him alone in this house for THREE DAYS!

“I was gone twenty minutes, you drama queen,” Aiden huffed. He may not speak cat but he had dealt with his share of dramatic teenagers, thank you Mom and Dad for signing him up for that church group in high school.

John jumped up on the kitchen bench as Aiden opened a can of tuna, butting his head against Aiden’s hand in his eagerness to finally get something to eat.

“There was nothing wrong with that chicken,” Aiden grumbled. “I swear, you eat better than me.”

He put the litter box in the laundry room and scattered a few toys around the house. Hopefully they would keep John occupied so Aiden could get some work done. For the next two hours, Aiden worked like the wind. He kept straining his ears but apart from a small tingling sound as John assumingly paws at one of the toys, he heard nothing. He started worrying that he left the door open or maybe a window. What if John got out and had been run over by a car? Aiden jumped up and rushed into the living room, only to find John lying curled up on the comfy chair, sleeping.

Aiden stood watching the cat for a while as he willed his pulse to stop racing. The sight was incredibly peaceful, even if John was not purring at the moment. Just watching his stomach move up and down as he breathed made Aiden feel sleepy. He walked over to the couch to lay down, just for a little while. After all he didn’t get too much sleep last night. Damn cat.