Page 18 of Proslo

“No need. He’ll either sleep it off and get the munchies or will zoomie it off, or a combo of both. Just don’t give him any more treats for today.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “So it’s safe to wait out the effects?”

“Yes,” came the affirmative reply.

“How long?”

“A few hours at most.”

Thank the stars. With any luck, Pumpkin would be sober when Betty woke up. I carefully moved him off of my lap, so I could dispose of the empty packet. I would confess to her later, of course. Once I was certain Pumpkin was all right, I amended to myself mentally. Hopefully, she would see a funny side to it. Despite my best effort, Pumpkin woke as I stood up. His eyes flew open and he got a crazed look on his face. And then I discovered precisely why they called it the zoomies.

11

BETTY

Our hands brushed as we walked from the elevator into the entertainment deck where an honest to God public park filled with grass, trees, bushes, and a children’s play park stood, surrounded on all sides by restaurants and cafes and shops, Proslo informed me. It felt natural to slip my hand into his, and I was determined to not overthink why that was. We’d been determined a perfect psychological and genetic match, after all, by a really advanced and sophisticated set of algorithms. It was probably just us really gelling and something to do with pheromones. Yeah, we were medical professionals, but we were both into building our relationship, not treating it like a science project.

“Oh!” I said, stopping to point at a cafe with a sign proudly proclaiming it to be ‘Quarter Bites’. “Are those beignets?” A quick glance at the menu board informed us that yes, they were indeed and also that Cafe du Monde chicory coffee was served there. “Can we eat here?”

He smiled, nodding even as his eyes looked around for an empty table. The ones outside facing the park were all full, but he quickly spotted one inside being vacated. We made a beeline for it and a waitress hurriedly came to take our order.

She left only to shortly rematerialise with our pastries and coffees and I took a sip, closing my eyes as the glorious caffeine hit my system.

“I have a confession to make,” he said.

I opened my eyes. “You don’t like the coffee?’ I asked, wondering if this was the first time he’d ever had coffee of any sort.

“No, that’s fine.” He looked decidedly nervous. “There was, ah, an incident with Pumpkin last night.”

“An incident?” What was he even talking about? Pumpkin had seemed fine when I got up, a little zoomie but that was to be expected with all the upheaval.

He swallowed. “I gave him too many cat treats,” he confessed, looking crestfallen and staring down at his beignet.

“You gave him too many - oh.” Suddenly the zoomies made even more sense. I laughed. “I bet that’s made you his new best friend.”

“I am sorry for drugging our fur young.”

Wow. He was taking this hard.

“Hey,” I said, reaching a hand across the table to cover his. “It’s okay. Thank you for telling me and I know you’ll be more careful next time. But honestly, he’s eaten all the catnip out of a stuffed mouse toy and gotten high from it more than once. It’s not dangerous or anything.”

He took a deep breath. “You are not angry?”

I shook my head. “Nah. Shit happens. You two have bonded and he got over being stressed about the move. Win-win, am I right?”

He looked thoughtful. “He did seem to recover well and was confidently moving about our quarters this morning. He seems to have staked out the sofa from my old quarters as his own.”

“Exactly.”

Damn, he was so cute. I took a bite of my beignet, falling for him a little bit harder. How could I not, after seeing how invested he was in Pumpkin? I just knew the child we’d get would be lucky to have him in their life. I certainly knew that Pumpkin and I certainly had hit the jackpot.

“So,” I said, changing the subject, “We don’t need to buy much food-wise, huh? Seeing as we’re leaving so soon for the wedding and all.”

“We should stick to shelf stable foods and those that remain in the cold stasis compartment,” he agreed. “We can replicate anything else as needed.”

My mind took a split second to translate that into canned and frozen food only.

“Any preferences?”