Turning Tables ✔

Part 4

LISA

It was almost midnight when I got a call back about Lyla.

But it wasn't the call I was expecting. 

"Hello?" I asked as I picked up the phone.

"Hi, I'm Lyla's owner. I'm so sorry I didn't call back earlier, but I had some personal family stuff to attend to."

My heart sunk as soon as I heard her voice.

For a moment, I doubted myself. No, I must be mistaken, I thought to myself. There was no way it could be her.

But it was. It had to be. I mean, the name on the collar... It was her.

I froze as soon as I heard her voice. It was like I forgot how to use words.

I was just so shocked... I never thought I'd hear this voice again... 

"Hello?" Jennie asked.

"Uh, yeah, hi!" I said in a fake, squeaky, high-pitched voice.

I wasn't even sure why I was faking my voice. I guess I didn't want her to realize what I realized... That we were two long lost best friends talking on the phone again.

But changing my voice was probably unnecessary. She had obviously heard my voicemail and still she didn't realize it was me.

Holy shit, she hadn't even realized it was me? How had my voice not rung a bell for her? Had she forgotten about me completely? Was that even possible? Could I have meant that little to her?

"I need to say thank you so much for taking care of Lyla. Not everyone would have bothered to take care of her and reach out to me to return her. I really appreciate it." Jennie said.

"Oh, it's no problem at all," I continued in the squeaky voice. It may have been unnecessary, but at this point I didn't know how I could stop without making things extremely obvious.

"So, when can I pick her up?"

"Uh, any time you want tomorrow, I have the day off," I answered nervously.

"Oh, okay, where should I meet you?"

Holy shit, where should she meet me? Meet me? Was I really going to be doing this? Fuck, how could I see her again? But how could I not? I had her kitten. I needed to give her her cat back... 

"You can meet me at my house," I said without thinking. 

Shit, no, I should have made it a public place. But public might not have been the best idea, right? I mean, if I got emotional, it was going to be doubly awkward to be out in public. Better to meet here where I could freak out in private after, right?

"That sounds great. Can you text me your address? And I'll text you tomorrow when I'll be coming over? It'll probably be some time around noon."

"Sounds great!" I said in an overexcited tone. "Well, bye now!" I was cutting the conversation off fast, but I needed to get off the line. My heart was pounding in my damn chest. I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"Okay, see you tomorrow," she said before hanging up.

As soon as the phone clicked, I was overwhelmed with the amount of information I now had to process.

So this was Jennie's cat. Jennie was in town, then.

No, not just in town, but living here! She was actually living here! How else would she have lost a kitten? People didn't bring kittens with them to travel home. Okay, maybe sometimes they did; I guess I was jumping the gun on that one.