Page 39 of Anyone But the Superstar

‘I mean, I know that people are supposed to wear sunscreen everyday no matter what, but is it really necessary for a cat?’

Anne sits on the coffee table, facing Mike. ‘Sphinxes have sensitive skin.’ She sprays the SPF onto her hands then reaches out and rubs down Mike’s head and ears. ‘And the sun may not be out too much now, but it will be this afternoon when I walk back.’

‘Wait.’ I shift on the couch, too disturbed to be worried when Mike’s body sinks against mine. ‘You’rewalking?’ I glance at the cat, the carrier and the heavy work bag.

Anne shrugs, continuing to grease up the cat. ‘It’s just down the road.’

A busy, two-way, triple-lane road.

Finished protecting Mike from the hole in the ozone layer, Anne drops the sunscreen back in the bag. ‘Snacks, harness, leash, sweater?—’

‘Sweater?’

She nods, closing the bag. ‘For the polar-like air conditioning NASA pumps into the buildings.’ She lifts Mike, then slides his greased-up body in the baby carrier. ‘He might get a chill.’

‘Meow.’

‘Oh. Sorry Mike.’ She reaches in and turns him so that he’s facing out. ‘I forgot you like to see where we’re going.’

It’s like the catisa baby.

‘All right then.’ She stands with a grunt and hikes her the bag’s strap on her shoulder. ‘Enjoy your workout.’

She waddles two steps before I’m off the couch. ‘Hold up.’ I jog back to my room, snag a pair of socks and return in seconds. ‘I’ll walk you.’

I’m too busy pulling on socks and jamming my feet into sneakers to look, but I can hear the frown in her voice. ‘You don’t have to. I’m fine.’

‘Yeah, well, I was going that way anyway.’ I slam my foot down to push my heel into it, then stomp over to her and grab her bag from off her shoulder. ‘Part of my cardio.’

The looks she gives me is far from grateful and mirrors my exact thoughts.

I’m so dumb.

11

FELIX

‘You want to tell me what’s going on?’ Jack’s voice snaps in my earbuds while I finish up my preacher curls in the condo’s gym.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Extending my arms, I reset the weights and stand from the machine.

The building manager was right when he said the gym is usually deserted between the hours of ten and three. I’ve been here for thirty minutes so far, and no one’s come in. It’s way more relaxing than a hotel gym where people are constantly in and out.

‘You don’t know what I’m talking about?’

Sigh. Jack is super annoying when he does the whole repeat-what-I-just-said-as-a-question thing.

‘Nope.’ But I can be just as annoying when playing dumb.

An act I seem unable to drop since this morning.

‘First, you hang up on me last night.’

‘I told you.’ I check the list of exercises my trainer sent me on my phone. ‘I accidentally hit the off button.’

Or Anne did. On purpose.

Thinking of Anne reminds me that I need to order more thanyesterday’s sad assortment of groceries and I shoot off a text asking her when she’ll be home today so I know when to have it delivered.