Bruises- Shane Madej

11. Shane "Cat Whisperer" Madej

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Roughly 2 months passed by.

Maddie was almost completely recovered. Her doctor had ordered her to take it easy for the next few weeks and prescribed her with some pain meds, but, other than that, she was almost as healthy as she had been before the collision.

Ever since Alvin came out as gay, he moved to Washington with his boyfriend. Maddie sent him her best wishes, and that was that.

She still felt a little hurt that the guy she liked so much wasn't into her at all, but it really wasn't that hard for her to deal with.

She was starting to think that she really wasn't that much into Alvin anyway. Maddie didn't think she would have chosen to date him if he didn't ask her first.

She'd just been feeling pressured to get into a relationship; both of her siblings were either married or engaged, and then she was just single as can be.

There had to be someone out there for her. Maddie just knew it. She didn't know if she'd met them yet or not, but she hoped she'd find them soon.

Her thoughts wandered to Shane. Ryan told Maddie that Shane liked her. She hadn't thought about it much since then.

What if Shane did like her?

Maddie felt as if she had butterflies in her stomach at the thought of it.

---

Coincidentally, right after she was cleared to return to work, Buzzfeed decided to hold a team-building activity with a few of their editing and producing teams at a 3-day retreat in the mountains.

There were around 15 people who were invited to this retreat. Maddie, Shane, and Ryan included.

Maddie suspected that this retreat was going to help them hire more people for the Buzzfeed Unsolved team; they were one of Buzzfeed's most popular channels, so they were likely going to start getting a lot more funding.

On the morning of their trip, Maddie sat on her bedroom floor, packing. Shane was leaning against her doorway, twirling his car keys around his finger.

"You know, you're lucky I got here early."

"Shut up," Maddie laughed.

"I still can't believe you didn't pack until now."

She threw a couple of t-shirts into her suitcase. "What can I say? I'm a spontaneous gal."

"No you're not," Shane scoffed.

"Okay, maybe I just stayed up a little too late last night watching The Sound of Music and I was really tired and I forgot about packing and then this morning you showed up to get me and I wasn't even close to being ready yet."

He laughed and rolled his eyes. "Maybe?" He felt something brush against his leg and looked down. "Is this Bill?"

Maddie smiled, and gave the cat a quick pat before returning to her packing. "Yep." Bill stalked over to Shane and walked around his ankle. Shane leaned down and started petting him. "He likes you."

"Of course he does; I am the cat whisperer."

She giggled. "Oh really?"

"Mhm, whisperer of the cats. It's what they called me in high school."

"'Cat whisperer Madej'?"

"You got it!"

They laughed. A voice rang out from the kitchen. "Hey Mads, want a cup of coffee?"

"I'm good." She yelled back, trying to smush down the contents of her suitcase so it would shut. "You want coffee?" she asked Shane.

"Nah, I already had a cup."

"Who's here?" asked Hanna, walking down the hallway.

"Oh, Hanna, this is Shane." She said, finally getting her suitcase zipped shut. She stood up, extending the handle. "Shane, meet my roommate Hanna."

"Hi!" Shane smiled, shaking Hanna's hand.

"Hey!" Hanna smiled. "Maddie tells me you're the one responsible for those Hot Dog cartoons."

"I sure am!"

"They're an abomination," she laughed.

"Hanna's a boogara," Maddie explained.

Shane clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Well, it's alright. I can't expect everyone to like my work."

They laughed as Maddie got her backpack. "Okay. Ready to go?"

"Yup!"

Maddie gave Hanna a quick hug before waving and leaving the apartment with Shane. He put her suitcase in the back for her.

Before she could do it herself, Shane opened the passenger door for her. "After you," he said.

Maddie's face flushed slightly. "Oh, why thank you."

Shane smiled dorkily and walked around to the driver's side of the car. They drove off to the Buzzfeed Headquarters, where the bus would pick them up and take them to a cabin in the mountains.

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