Page 84 of Hold the Pickle
Me: For me and six cats? That’s a lot for anybody.
Max: You want me to help you load up?
Me: There’s not much. Dalton will help.
Max: Cam and I are due for a visit to the homestead. We’ll make it sooner rather than later to see how you’re doing.
Me: That will be nice.
Max: Chin up. My dad will come for you now, you know. He’s really pushing for you to go to Florida with your brother.
Me: I know. Don’t tell him yet, okay? I bought myself some time.
Max: You can count on me.
I try to think of what to text Dalton, but nothing comes. He’ll be off this evening. I’m not sure I can avoid Evan or maintenance a second time. How many showers in one day will they believe?
Actually, I’ll explain the situation. Meet with Evan, tell them Dalton and I broke up over the problem, and I’m moving out, but Dalton will stay. If there are any fees, I’ll pay them.
Then I can wait for him to come.
And then I’ll go.
It’s going to suck. And I’m already crying again just thinking about it.
But it’s the only way.
28
DALTON
Itry a hundred ways to get off shift early, but Booker is on a rampage about Fitz being late and takes it out on us all. I don’t cut loose of the hospital until well after eleven that night.
Nadia has been oddly silent other than to confirm that nobody has knocked on our door again.
She doesn’t think they entered the apartment because when she left the bathroom, Catzilla was sleeping on the sofa. If strangers had invaded for even a minute, she wouldn’t have come out for hours.
The lights are all on, though. She’s stayed up waiting for me. I’m not the least bit fatigued due to the anxiety over our predicament, so I’m ready for us to stay up and figure out our next move.
I unlock the door and open it slowly to watch for errant kittens.
Ferris pokes his white head in the crack but he appears to be acting alone. I scoop him up and slip inside.
“He got away from me,” Nadia says. She sits cross-legged in the middle of the room, surrounded with cats. They are wired,jumping over her legs into the valley in the middle, then leaping out to circle around her back.
I drop my pack on the sofa and settle next to her. Ferris crawls along my leg, clawing my scrubs. I’ve been finding tiny holes in all my workwear. “Come here, you little beast,” I tell him and lift him away to curl into my hand. He’ll be too big for this trick soon.
Something about the room feels off. I glance around and realize all of Nadia’s luggage is lined up in the space between the bed and the dresser.
“Did you find a new place?” I ask. Happy anticipation of her answer makes my chest expand.
But her hesitation flips the switch. My chest tightens, and my throat constricts. I let out a slow breath. “What is it?”
She won’t meet my gaze, keeping her eye on Pumpkin, who has plopped down in her lap. “I’m going home. All the way home. To my parents.”
Shock thunders through me. “In Boulder?”
“Yes. I already went to the office to talk with Evan. I told him we had a big argument about the cats and broke up. I turned in my key and said you would be staying, no pets. He didn’t charge me any fines or anything, which was nice, because he could have.”
