A Kitten Called Cat

Chapter Six - Kitten Makes a Big Mistake

I woke to find the flat was quiet again so I wandered down the corridor to the kitchen. As my coffee was chugging and steaming, I noticed that the door down to the dining room had been left open. I saw that the table hadn't been cleared so I carried our dirty crockery up into the kitchen.

I was loading the things into the dishwasher when I was startled by a voice behind me. "What a good kitten you are!" Mr Bossy was saying. "But you don't have to bother. Elroy deals with that sort of thing."

I turned around to look at Mr Devastating and my jaw may have hit the floor. I'd guessed right about him being a gym bunny. He'd just been working out.

I mean... I'd always known he was a bit of a hunk... his suits were so well cut and did nothing to hide it. But now, in his lycra shorts and tight, sweat-soaked t-shirt, there was absolutely nothing left to the imagination. His muscles were bulging and his whole body seemed to have a glow after his workout.

I suddenly realised that I had been staring at him for an embarrassingly long time but his smile told me that he didn't mind at all!

If pressed, I decided, I could probably do without the whole sweat thing but, apart from that, the whole effect was very, very pleasing on the eye.

But then it struck me again that he was way, way out of my league. And the realisation was like a kick in the teeth.

I could see the pain in his eyes as he reached across, squeezed my hand and kissed me on the cheek. "Kitten," he said and his eyes did their 'boring into me' thing. "We are going to talk about this tonight." Though his tone was gentle, it was absolutely clear that I needed to come up with a good explanation by then.

And knowing how good he was at reading me, that explanation was probably going to have to be the truth.

He turned and headed out of the kitchen.

"Would you like some breakfast?" I shouted after him because the alternative was running away to my room and bursting into tears again.

He turned back and flashed me that devastating smile of his. "Yes, please, Kitten," he answered. "That would be lovely. Müesli with yogurt and a cappuccino, please. I'll need ten minutes to shower and change though."

I set up breakfast for us both at the kitchen counter but I tried to make it special with one of the trays of fancy tropical fruit and some juice. A bunch of flowers had magically appeared on the kitchen island at some stage so I popped it between the two place settings.

When he appeared, showered, shiny and still completely beautiful, he was dressed in another of his smart suits - pinstripes this time - with a white shirt and a kingfisher blue tie. When he saw my efforts with breakfast, he smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

As we ate, I tried to keep the black hole of depression from showing in my face but of course I failed. "Tonight," he reminded me as he finished his coffee. He stood up to leave but then turned back.

"If you would like to go out, Elroy will see that you are using the lift and show you how to use the gate." he told me. Then he took some money out of his wallet and put it on the table. "That's there in case you need anything."

"I can't take your money!" I protested automatically.

"You don't have to. But it's there if you need it."

I don't know why I had a sudden pride thing going on about taking his money. I mean, a couple of days before, I'd been reduced to scrounging somebody's half-eaten burger.

He leaned down to where I was still sitting at the kitchen island, kissed me on the cheek and said, "Have a good day, Kitten. And tonight..." he fixed his eyes on me for a moment, "you are going to tell me all about it."