Page 78 of Just Past Two

“Come in here.” Matthew led Silas down the hall to his bedroom, where he’d been keeping Zuul’s crate.

“You said this wasn’t a sex thing,” Silas said, teasing, following him in. As soon as he saw the cat, though, he stopped. “Oh.”

“This is Zuul.” Matthew opened the door of the crate and scooped Zuul out, lifting her up so Silas could see her.

Silas studied the cat, from her wary green eyes to her twisted hips and straight back legs. “What’s wrong with it? And what kind of name is Zuul for a cat?”

Matthew stared at Silas in disbelief. “She is named after Zuul, the gatekeeper of Gozer, from the first Ghostbusters movie. You obviously lived a deprived childhood if you don’t know who Zuul is.” Matthew shook his head in pity. “And she has a hip deformity. I found her in the parking lot of PI Games last night and took her to the vet.” Matthew cradled the kitten in his large hands, and she tried to roll over, purring as he scratched her on the head. “The vet said it’s causing her no pain, but she obviously has mobility issues. Must have been why the mother and the rest of the litter abandoned her. I had some ideas for helping her, but I figured this was your area of expertise, so I wanted to run stuff by you.”

“Sure, sure.” Silas seemed completely distracted by the cat, not taking his eyes off her throughout the entire conversation, even as he sipped his coffee. “It’s—I mean, she’s really small. How old is she?”

“About five weeks. A little young to be away from the mother, but eating solid food and everything. You want to hold her?” Matthew offered the cat to him.

Silas held up his free hand in a “no thanks” gesture. “Nah, I’m good. I don’t want to hurt her.”

“You sure it’s not because animals are fun, and you’re allergic to fun?” Grinning, Matthew held the kitten to his chest.

“I am not allergic to fun!” Silas gave an indignant huff that made Matthew laugh. Then his expression turned serious. “I had a kitten when I was a kid. For about a week.”

“Oh?” Matthew scratched Zuul’s ears.

“The family down the street was giving them away, and I came home with one. She was gray. I named her Stormy.” Silas smiled, looking down at Zuul with a longing expression. His smile faded. “My parents were not pleased.”

Matthew chuckled. “Yeah, I can’t imagine any parent would be thrilled with a surprise pet.”

“You have no idea.” Silas put his hands into his jeans pockets. “Of course, I wanted to play with Stormy rather than study, so after a week of that, my dad gave her away.”

“Your parents gave your kitten away so you would study more?” Matthew stared, mouth agape. “I’m sorry. That’s terrible. How old were you?”

“Eight or nine.” Silas shrugged. “They did what they thought was best.”

Sure they did. Matthew refrained from commenting, because he wasn’t the kind of guy to insult someone else’s parents, especially knowing they were dead. He put Zuul back down into her crate and closed the door.

“Why do you keep her locked up?”

“The vet told me to give her a safe space to get accustomed to for a little while before letting her out. That way she can get used to me and the way the place smells and all that.” Matthew led Silas out of the bedroom. “I was thinking that mostly what I need is an accessible litter box, ramps for the furniture, and a cat wheelchair.” He looked over his shoulder. “What do you think?”

Silas shrugged. “I have to tell you, I don’t really know anything about cats.”

“I know, but it’s all still your field. I thought you’d be helpful.” Matthew ran a hand over his head. “Maybe it was a long shot, I don’t know. Cats? People? We’re not that different, right?”

Silas gave him a patronizing stare. “Yes, Matthew, cats and people actually are fairly different.” A smile twitched at the corners of his lips. “But I think I can help you. Making a cat wheelchair shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Making one?” Matthew hadn’t seen that coming. The guy seemed stressed out enough by his real job without Matthew adding to his workload. “No, I didn’t mean to imply—I was just going to order one on the Internet.”

Silas raised one eyebrow. “You’re going to order one on the Internet? No. That’s ridiculous.” He shook his head. “I’m a biomedical engineer, Matthew. I can show you how to build a cat wheelchair.” Sitting down at the kitchen table, he pulled his laptop out of its bag and logged in. “You know how to use CAD?”

“No.” Matthew had never used drafting software before, although he’d been curious about it. He sat down next to Silas and scooted closer. “Do you?” He kept a straight face, pretending surprise.

Silas gave him a disbelieving stare, but when Matthew started to grin, the disbelief faded from Silas’s face. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

“It’s just so much fun.” Matthew wasn’t lying; teasing Silas was equally as fun out of the bedroom as in it. “I looked up a few options for cat wheelchairs last night if you want to see some models.”

“Sure, that would be helpful.” Silas clicked a few things on the laptop, loading a program. While everything booted up, he set up his wireless mouse. “Also, we’re going to need to measure your cat.”

“That sounds like a two-person job.” Matthew got up to get his tablet and came back to the table, already navigating to the wheelchairs he’d bookmarked. “Here. I was looking at these.”

Silas took the tablet, enlarging the photos, nodding slowly. “Yes, this should be easy to design. I’ll bet I can put these plans together today.” He set the tablet aside. “Now, I can’t build something like this at work. Do you have supplies for this? A workshop or something?” He waved his hand around the apartment, as if a workshop might show up out of thin air.