Aruna and Rebecca Pt. 02

She gently squeezed my hand. "I still can't really see you as a hairdresser for dogs." She smiled at Lilly. "Do you know each other from work?"

Lilly shook her head. "Oh no, we go back much, much longer than that. We were already best friends in kindergarten. We always sat in the same class in elementary school and did the same courses in high school so it was only natural for us to look for work together too. Finding a job for both of us at the same place wasn't so easy by the way. We were very lucky Frank would take us both. There was only one opening, but he always had a soft spot for Aruna and she wouldn't take the job without me."

"I can't blame him." Rebecca replied. "Aruna's a real stunner." I couldn't believe she had just said that in front of someone else. "Especially when she blushes like this." She added, grinning.

I got an even deeper color and Lilly rolled her eyes. "Right... Let's go inside before you guys start to act even more mushy." She stepped forward and big sliding doors opened up for us.

All three of us got papers to fill in before we got to go where the pets were held. "Do we have to do this too?" Rebecca asked the clerk at the desk. "Only she is here to adopt, we are merely here to help her choose."

The clerk frowned her unabrow. "Nobody passes the red line without giving me a filled-in form first. Those are the rules."

For a while Rebecca just stood there with her paper in her hands, undecided. Then she folded it in half and turned around, searching for something. "I have to go to the bathroom." she explained. "Go inside when you're finished, I'll find you there." In the meanwhile Lilly had already finished and gave the pen form the desk to me. It had a little chord on it so people wouldn't steal it.

"Are you sure?" I asked Rebecca. "It's no problem at all to wait for you. We came here together."

Rebecca shook her head and gave me a quick kiss on the mouth. "No. I''ll find you there."

My questionnaire was a fair bit longer than that of Lilly and Rebecca because I was the one who came to adopt the cat, but it only took me a minute or three to fill it in. We waited a few minutes more, expecting Rebecca to return from the toilet so we could all go in together anyway, but she didn't come. Eventually we entered on our own after all.

We walked through a heavy door that came out in a long hallway. On both sides were cages, cages and more cages. Dogs on the left, cats on the right, and once in a few cages other animals in- between, like rabbits, a little pig, a hamster family, two snakes and a parrot.

The people of the shelter had done their best to make the cages as cozy as possible for the animals, but it was still crazy. How was I ever going to be able to choose? I wanted to take them all out of this horrible situation. They all deserved a good and loving home.

I took a deep breath and regretted it at once. The air smelled like feces and disinfectant. Suddenly I felt familiar arms slipping around my waist. I turned around. Rebecca, of course. Hand in hand we walked on while Lilly followed a few steps behind us.

"Do you already know what kind of cat you want?" Rebecca asked while she knelt at the cage of a litter of young kittens of an unknown breed.

"No clue." I confessed. "I don't think it matters much what color the cat is."

She smiled up at me. "That's not what I meant." she answered while she stroked the head of the mother cat through the bars. "Young, old, male, female, breed and which one or no breed,... I meant those sort of things."

I knelt beside her and stuck my own fingers through the bars as well. "I dont want a very old cat because she might get sick and die soon, and no male cat because I read that they pee a lot on stuff to mark their territory. I don't want to break up families either, so these would be out as well. No kittens unless they are alone, or cats who have a litter."

I saw Lilly rolling her eyes while she petted the dog across the hall. "You big softy. They are used to it. It happens to them all the time. Kittens leave their mother and she forgets about them, just like it happens with dogs and their puppies."

I stood up and moved to the next cage. "I don't want to take those chances. No kittens. Remember Lola?"

Lilly sighed. "Lola was already a crazy and depressed dog before she lost her puppies. Besides, her puppies didn't go to good homes, they died."

In the end I chose a skinny calico. I can't really explain why I chose her, but she came to me when I put my hand through the cage and I instantly knew this was going to be my cat. We clicked.

A volunteer from the shelter opened the cage for us and carried her through the heavy doors to the desk clerk. She scanned the chip of the cat, helped us put her in the carrier we brought with us, and I paid the bill.

Lilly dropped us off at the apartment building and I invited her back in, but she drove off with the excuse that she still had to walk her dog.

Chapter 10

And so Rebecca and I were alone again, the beautiful calico not included. I was glad I could put the basket with the cat in it on the ground when we entered my apartment. My fingers were all red from the handle and I painfully stretched my hand.

"Now I've met your friends, I think you should meet mine, don't you think?" Rebecca said happily while I was still rubbing my hand. She was already busy putting out food and water and pouring out litter in the litter-box.

"That was only Lilly, she is not the only friend I've got you know!" I protested softly while I tried to open the little door of the cat's cage.

I didn't know if I wanted to meet her friends already. After a whole afternoon with Lilly, I was ready for some alone time with her again. The weekend would be over quick enough as it was.

"Don't you want to meet them?" she asked while she put the top on the litter-box. "I promise they'll like you!"

"That's not it." I answered softly while the cat gently poked her head out and sniffed around a bit.

"Then what is it? My friends are just as important as yours!"

I stared at her. "Of course they are! That isn't what I meant!"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Yeah, right. But you dont want to meet them."

"I didn't say that!" I called out. "It's just,..."

"What? It's just what, Aruna?"

The cat jumped at our angry voices and retreated to the back of her cage again, but neither of us noticed the cat anymore.

"Damn you, let me finish my sentence!"I yelled."I meant to say that I don't want to meet them tonight, OK? We just spent almost the whole day with Lilly and tomorrow it's already Sunday! Before we know it the weekend will be over and I am tired and I just want to spend some time alone with you, is that so difficult to understand!"

Rebecca dropped her arms and her angry body language and closed the three-step gap between us.

"Sorry." She mumbled softly. "I guess I was a bit over-enthusiastic and when you reacted so cold I made the wrong assumption."

"Cold? Wrong assumption?" I grumbled, still a bit mad. "I didn't react cold, I reacted tired, as I am tired! And you made the wrong assumption alright! What made you think I wouldn't want to meet your friends? Friends are important and you are even more important!"

I knew I was ranting again, but I couldn't stop myself anymore, even though I realized this argument was nonsense and completely pointless. "What did you think, that you're just a fuck for me? A phase? Of course I want to meet your goddamned friends, but not right now, ok?"

My voice was getting louder and louder and Rebecca put a soft hand on my mouth to stop the words coming out. "Was that an I love you in there? Hidden between those lines?" she asked with a shaky voice.

I fell silent immediately. Shit, I was going to save that one for a special moment, and when I was a bit less confused about all my feelings for her, when I finally would have had time to think! Why was everything between us going so damn fast?

"Well?" she added.

"I...I guess so." I whispered. "But,... but I was going to save that one for a special moment."

She laughed and threw her arms around me, hugging me tight. "My dearest Runy, every moment is special with you!"

I grinned widely. "Was there an I love you in there too?"

She kissed my neck. "Absolutely."

"But we barely know each other." I answered before I gave myself over to her touch again.

"Isn't that great? We have so much more to discover about each other!" she mumbled between kisses.

"But how can we love each other this much? I have never felt this intensely so fast for anyone!" I said while my hands grabbed hers.

She stopped kissing my neck and shoulders. "I think you already had me at 'oh so you're the one with the heels'. "

"But that was our first meeting! I looked terrible! I was just awake and I was a mess!" I protested.

She laughed again and this time I laughed with her. "Exactly." she answered.

*

To all those who are still with me:

-thank you for reading on until the end of part 2

-comments and criticism are always welcome (of course)

-and I am currently working on chapters 11-15.