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His phone rang.
Joq.
Chris’ heart flipped.
“Hello?” he asked.
“What the fuck is all this?” Joq replied.
“It’s for your cat. You did get the cat, didn’t you?”
“I did, but why are you sending me all of this stuff?”
“I want to make sure he’s taken care of.”
“She.”
“Oh, a female, good, that’s better,” Chris rocked back in his chair and smiled. “I was reading up on them and apparently the males can get urinary tract problems if they get stressed and it can be difficult to detect—”
“Chris,” Joq cut him off, “what are you doing?”
“I’m,” he paused, just say it, he berated himself. “Trying to tell you I want to see you again.”
“You already told me.”
“Well, clearly not well enough because you won’t see me.”
Joq sighed heavily down the line. “Hang on,” he said after a moment and Chris heard him moving around what he suspected was his apartment, the sound of a door opening, a low, deep howling sound, a thump on the floor, and a door closing quickly.
“What is that?” Chris asked.
“The cat,” Joq replied.
“She doesn’t sound too happy,” he replied carefully. “Maybe you should consider the redesign.”
Joq started laughing. It was a slow building thing, and then he was cracking up down the line—it seemed incongruous to his normal personality, and it sounded like it came from somewhere heartfelt and deep. It made Chris smile helplessly as he pictured it.
“She’s awful,” Joq finally said. “She won’t let me in my room.”
“Really?” Chris was delighted. He hadn’t realised until that moment he was kind of jealous. Of a cat. And he was glad he’d never tried to do this relationship thing before because it clearly made him deranged.
“Yes. The shelter people said I can bring her back, but one, I can’t even pick her up, how would I do that? And two, that feels like a fucked-up thing to do, doesn’t it? She’s got a difficult personality so I what? Just get rid of her?” Joq asked expressing more to Chris in one go than he ever had.
Also, with that statement, Chris thought maybe he had a shot after all. If Joq was willing to look past flaws. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t a fucking cat and being okay with a deranged boyfriend was not the same as being okay with a deranged cat.
And where the hell had ‘boyfriend’ come from?
“Chris?” Joq asked.
“I’m here, sorry, just thinking,” he replied still distracted because yes, boyfriend was what he wanted, screw his problem. It wasn’t happening with Joq, it probably wouldn’t happen.
“Please don’t tell me you’re thinking about sending people round to catch her. I’m keeping her, I just need to figure out how to get her out of the room.”
“I wasn’t thinking that, no. I agree, you should give her a chance.”
“Are you drawing a parallel here?” Joq asked and Chris could feel the eye roll.
“No, of course not.”
