“Is the kitty still alive?”
“Very much so.”
“Well there you go. Level achieved.”
“Daddy level?”
“Call it whatever you want, girl.”
“Shut up.”
“You’re in love with him. That’s what I call it.”
“And what if I am?”
“It was about time you fell in love, woman.”
I think about that. “It is the first time, isn’t it?”
“All other times weren’t real,” she agrees. “This sounds real.”
Feels real, too.
I mean, his name is Merc. From Mercury. The Roman God of the Dead. The trickster god.
What does that tell you?
Trouble.
“I’ll come to pick my things up, and to see you. I can’t tell you everything over the phone, and I need my bestie.”
“I need my bestie, too!”
“You’re my boo,” I tell her.
“And you’re my bae!”
We snicker madly as we disconnect, but then I sober up.
Whatever the reason, Merc seems to be going through a bad phase. And I’ll be there for him, just like I told him. It may seem strange, that I’d feel so close to him so quickly, but I do, and he’s been there for me.
Moving here feels right. Fingers crossed I’m not making a mistake—but hey, you never know until you try, right? No matter how many times you got burned, there’s always the possibility that the light you see at the end of the tunnel is the sun.
And for Merc, I’ll take all the second chances I can get.
Merc and Kitty are having a conversation as I wander back toward his bedroom, turning these thoughts over and over in my mind.
“No, Hiccup. No, bad cat.”
“Meow.”
Hiccup?
“No, come here. Hic! Come here.”
Hic? Seriously.
“Hey…” I lean on the door frame, looking inside, the phone still in my hand. “What’s going on in here?”