Under the Elms

What do you Believe?

She heard it before she saw it. As the door opened, the foundling kitten, stalking toward them in high dudgeon, was wailing for all she was worth. She stopped right in front of the pair of humans, looked up at them, and wailed again.

'I'm betting she wants popcorn,' Prince stated. 'Kirk said popcorn seems to be her favorite food.'

'That's it! How's Poppy for a name?'

'I'd say it suits her.' Prince replied with an indulgent smile. Sofia picked up the kitten, who immediately started purring extremely loudly. As Prince led Sofia to a loveseat in the room, he remarked, 'It sounds like she has her own amp! How can something that little be that loud?' Sofia shrugged with a beaming smile, and kept petting Poppy.

Once seated on a loveseat in the room, Sofia looked around. 'Where are we?'

'Your office, I hope. Look,' he continued, as he scratched under Poppy's chin, 'I don't want you to go back home to stay, even for one night. I asked my decorator to get this set up as an office for you. I know you may have to work for a week or so, until the school district honors your resignation, but one of the guys can drive you back and forth to work so you can prep in the car. I also-what the!' he exclaimed.

Poppy, thoroughly enjoying the chin scratch Prince was giving her, shook her head, sending saliva all over both of them. 'I thought only dogs did that. Yuck!' Prince wrinkled his nose, and walked over to a desk, grabbing multiple tissues to clean them off. Sofia started laughing, which startled Poppy, causing her to leap from her lap to the desk in the room, where she began cleaning herself thoroughly.

'She's a drooler! I thought cats had more self respect,' laughed Sofia, gladly accepting the tissues Prince offered. 'You were in the middle of convincing me to stay, I think.'

'Right.' Prince took their used tissues and disposed of them all, returning to sit closer and put an arm around her shoulders. 'I also want you to consider being my chairperson for educational outreach. The grants I gave out showed me how many hoops you have to jump through to give money to schools. With your experience, I believe you'd be great at it. I'm ready to expand from the Minneapolis area, but also underwrite the local programs that helped me as a kid; dance classes, battles of the bands, that sort of thing. The federal and state money for them dried up years ago. We need to foster the next generation of real musicians.'

'Hmmm, you make a compelling argument, sir,' Sofia replied, trailing one hand up and down his thigh. 'Consider, though, you just mentioned I was a distraction. I believe my school schedule will be even more of a distraction while I need to abide by it.'

'I'll chance it,' he replied, 'if it means I get to keep you where you belong. Right next to me.' After checking to see that Poppy was still on the desk, he pulled Sofia into his lap. 'Are you ready for bed, Mrs. Nelson-to-be?'

'What time is it? I'm turned upside down after the long flight and everything we've done here since we arrived.'

'It's almost 11, Minneapolis time. Which, I believe,' Sofia giggled at their repeated use of the phrase. Prince tapped her on the end of her nose, and lapsed into his Jamie Starr voice. 'I said, I believe is your usual bedtime when you don't have to get up in the morning. And I know for a fact that my bed is the most comfortable bed in the world.' He dropped the Jamie Starr voice, and fixed his bedroom eyes on Sofia. 'The best part of touring is coming back to my perfect bed, which is more perfect when you are in it.'

'Hmmm,' Sofia vocally sighed as Prince found the spot under her ear that would make her purr if she was a cat. 'Let's do this in bed. But tomorrow-' she gasped as his hand began caressing her very sensitive breast, 'I really do need to go by my house. It probably smells like dead something-or-other after all this time.'