“Yeah, I like them.”
“I thought you might,” Mark says. “And besides, they purr at a frequency that promotes healing.” His gaze darts to my leg. “It could help with that bruising.”
I roll my eyes. “The bruising is all gone, Mark.”
He grunts, shrugging off my reassurance.
The cat cafe is the cosiest place I’ve been in the city, and I wish I learned about it sooner. I’m sitting only a second when a black fluffy cat jumps onto my lap and curls up. Several sniff at my legs—or at my left leg, at least. They seem to sense there is something amiss beneath my jeans. Mark is assailed by several kittens, and he tickles each of their bellies in turn while sipping his coffee.
The way he handles them, confident enough to knock them onto their backs in an attack, but never rough enough to harm them, speaks of past experience. “You obviously had cats growing up,” I say. My siblings are all dog people, and everyone has their own big monster at the home. Truthfully, it was always a close call trying to determine who was more rambunctious: the siblings or the dogs? Chris was the sole person all dogs answered to. I’ve always suspected it’s due to animal instinct that they obey him—after all, all of their owners did, too. Even before our parents passed away, Chris had been the one in charge.
“No, but my neighbours all did,” Mark tells me. “My brother is allergic, so they were never allowed in the house. I’d always be made to shower when I came back from my friend’s house with cat hairs stuck to me.”
I snort. I’m surprised the cat hair daredto try to mar Mark’s impeccable appearance.
“Is he older or younger?”
“Older.”
“So you were the spoiled youngest?” I ask.
Mark winces at the question. It draws my eye to his black eye. “Not exactly,” he says. “I was the well-behaved child until I realised I hated doing what I was told. NowI’m the rebellious one.” He rolls his eyes, his tone lightly mocking. “Somehow, an architecture course is the height of rebellion to my parents. They wanted me to do business. And my brother wants me to do any job where he can monitor me twenty-four seven.”
I process the words. “I can’t picture anyone controlling you.”
Mark’s expression brightens as he casts me a lopsided smile. “Good.”
“Why don’t you get a cat?” I ask. It’s obvious that he likes them. “You’re not living at home anymore.”
“If Eddie wasn’t throwing a party every other weekend, I would.”
“Is that black eye from the party?”
Mark stares at me. I didn’t manage to catch him unaware. “I took an elbow during basketball yesterday.”
Basketball, which Tommy also goes to. “You two fought again?”
“It wasn’t a fight,” Mark’s tone is prickly all of a sudden, but I don’t get the sense that it’s me he’s angry with.
I let the topic drop. I sip the rest of my coffee and make room on my lap for the calico kitten climbing my leg like a tree. She uses my left leg as the climbing pole. There’s no flesh to feel her claws on until she’s at my knee, and even then there’s the sleeve and lining creating a barrier to her claws.
I tickle the kitten’s chin and eye Mark. His attention is on the kittens, and he looks at them with a soft expression.
“How long did you and Louis date?”
Mark jolts, almost knocking all the fluff balls from his lap. His head jerks toward me in a sharp movement. The cats by his feet scatter. “We never went out,” he denies.
“You didn’t?” I ask, confused. “But I heard you did?”
“I—it wasn’t dating,” Mark says, so emphatically that I’m a touch offended on Louis’s behalf. “We hooked up a few times, nothing more. And it was before you and he became friends. I’ve never pursued any of your friends, ever. And I haven’t dated anyonesince starting college.”
“Oh.” I deflate. “You only hook-up with people?”
“Yes,” Mark says.
It’s disappointing news. I’ve been trying to work up to asking him out for a date. I don’t think I’d manage to ask him out for a hook-up…not that I’d want to, anyway. I can’t imagine just sleeping with a person, and not wanting anything more to go with it. I’ve heard plenty from my brothers to know I’m not with the general family thought in that regard, and I know even Chris has slept with people without any emotional connection to them. But it makes me squirm.
“I see,” I say, returning my attention to the cats, glad for the distraction. I shouldn’t be only disappointed. It was better to feel Mark out first before I took the leap.
