Page 70 of Guitars and Cages

“I like animals.”

“It shows. Have you ever considered adopting a shelter pet?”

“I don’t even know where the shelter is.”

“Well, that’s an easy enough fix. I’ll write the address and phone number down for you, and you can think about it and visit if you want. I think you should.”

I shrugged. I didn’t want to think about that right then. I wanted Ghost, and I was pissed off that I couldn’t have her. “Yeah, maybe, I guess.”

She wrote everything down for me, and I tucked it in my pocket and headed out the door. The cat bed in the truck was a glaring reminder of how wrong the day had gone. I took it out of the truck when I got back the bar, and carried it inside.

Morgan lifted his head from his order sheets as I walked in. “Thought you’d take her home first before bringing the truck back here.”

“There’s no her to bring home. She, uhh, had a microchip in her that gave the information about her owners, and they came and got her. I brought the cat bed in ’cause Alexia was so thrilled when I told her about Ghost that she said she was gonna talk to you about letting her get one, too. Can you tell her I’ll bring the rest of the stuff I bought when I come to work tonight?”

He took the bed from me and set it down in one of the chairs. “Yeah, sure. I’m sorry, Asher. I know you were looking forward to bringing her home.”

I reached into my pocket for the shelter info and handed that over, too. “Eh, it’s fine. Now I won’t have to worry about getting her to California if Cole and I end up going. Maybe we won’t, though; he went out today looking for places that would make a good gym.”

“Well, good for him. Since you’re here, how about some darts?”

“No, thanks, I’ve still got some work to do back at the apartment.”

“Asher, sit down.”

He said it so simply. Not an order, but still, I couldn’t walk away. I sat and stared at the table.

“I know you’re upset about the cat, even if you don’t want me to see it. You know there’s nothing wrong with being disappointed?”

I wanted to tell him I wasn’t disappointed, but I’d actually gone a day without a single lie, and was to hoping to make it two.

“Yeah, I know; can I go now?”

“Is it really so hard to talk to me?”

“Right now, yeah,” I said. Maybe this was one of the few times when honesty could work in my favor. I just wanted to leave.

He sucked in a deep breath, and then let it out with a huff. “Fine. Go ahead, Asher; I’ll see you tonight.”

“Yeah.”

I put the keys to the truck down on the table and left the bar, stuffing my good hand in my pocket and heading home. No twitching whiskers, soft purrs and unconditional love for me, I thought bitterly while I walked, but then what else was new? It wasn’t as if I deserved love anyway. I was passing my old building when someone called out to me. I looked up to see Conner coming down the stairs.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Really shitty right now.”

“That bad, huh?”

“I’d say it can’t get any worse, but I know it can.”

“What happened?”

I ran my fingers through my hair before sitting on the steps and resting my head against the railing. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Well, how about starting when you moved out of here and take it from there? At least then I’d be all caught up.”

“Yeah, you didn’t come by on Friday.”