“So you like new job, yes?” Mr. Chung sits behind the counter while on his break, me next to him with Colonel Fourpaws on my lap. One of the downsides to working in a pet store and having a pet means you spend all your money on stupid things said pet hates.

Every day I come home with something new, but this creation I have on his body means I can take him out with me to visit people.

J fell in love with him when I brought him to the pet store a couple of weeks back on my day off. This has become one of our new regular routines over the last couple of weeks. I come down when Mr. Chung is on his break and we sit and have a chat. Not that I didn’t use to do this, just not with a cat on my lap with a leash attached to his body collar.

“Yeah, I love it. Been there for nearly a month now.” I stroke Colonel Fourpaws’ head. “Obviously I don’t want to do it for the rest of my life, but yeah.”

“You heard back about pictures?” he asks in his stilted English.

I look away sheepishly. “Yeah but… I haven’t opened the email.”

“Open now.”

“I’m—”

“Open now,” he repeats.

“You’re so demanding.” I roll my eyes in jest before lifting my ass up off the stool, pulling my cell out and clicking on the email app. “I’m sure it’s a rejection email anyway. I mean—oh, holy shit!”

“What? What they say?”

My hands start to shake, my stomach dipping with nerves. “They want me to come to New York for a meeting! They love my drawings.” I scroll through the email. “They’ve sent me tickets to fly first class.”

“This good! When you go?”

“Erm… February twentieth… next week.” I chew my bottom lip. “I hope Jeffery will give me the time off.”

“He will, he will.” Mr. Chung waves his arm in the air. “No worry about that. You worry about finding home for cat while you away.”

My eyes widen. “Oh my God, I forgot about that!”

“I have him but I busy busy with work.”

I smile gently. “I know, Mr. Chung.” I look away, staring at the wall. “I’ll come up with something.”

He pats my arm twice before standing up. “I go back work, you want usual?”

“Yes, please.”

“You wait, I put chicken in box for cat.”

As if he knows we’re talking about him, Colonel Fourpaws lifts his head. “Awww, you don’t have to.”

He waves me away before pushing through to the back as I lift up off the stool. Only my foot gets stuck on the bottom rung as I try to stand. My arms open wide, Colonel Fourpaws flying out of them as I fall face first onto the counter.

Why does this feel so familiar?

* * *

I pick Colonel Fourpaws up off the ground, the leash getting tangled in his legs. Continuing up the path, he meows, wanting to be untangled.

“Alright, alright! Keep your fur on.”

I manage to finally untangle him as I get to the bottom step, looking up and seeing J standing in the doorway.

“You’re three minutes late.”

“I know.” I run my hand through my hair. “Colonel Fourpaws got distracted.”

J doesn’t make a move, keeping his eyes on mine before he states, “You won’t be able to leave until three minutes after eight.”

“That’s fine.”

Walking up the steps and onto the wraparound porch, I wait for him to move. When he finally does, he watches me walk inside, patting Colonel Fourpaws on the head. I take my Converse off, shutting the door behind me and setting him on the floor, undoing the leash and collar before hanging it on the hook next to the coats.

“We’re having meatloaf.”

“Ohhh yum!” Shucking off my jacket, I hang that up too. “Do you need help?”

He shakes his head as Colonel Fourpaws wanders off. “The table is set and Dad said it’ll be ready in…” He looks down at his watch. “Seven minutes.” He looks back up at me, his eyes widening. “What happened to your face?”

My hand lifts, my fingers skimming over the bruise under my eye. “I erm… I fell.” I shrug it off, knowing J knows what I’m like. I can’t count the number of times I’ve knocked his displays over now.

“Did you seek medical attention?” he asks, his eyes flashing with concern as he lifts his arms, twisting his fingers around one another. “You could have a lesion on your eye, it could make you lose your sight. You have to—"

“J.” I place my hand over his hands, stopping him. “It’s okay, honestly. I got checked out.”

He lets out a deep breath, his gaze not moving from my eyes as his mouth moves silently. He’s counting; calming himself down.

He spins around abruptly, walking toward the living room, all thoughts of the bruise on my eye forgotten. “I also set a game out to play after dinner. We’ll have one hour to play and then you have to go.”

To anyone else what he’s saying would be abrupt, but to me it’s just J. He can’t understand all social situations and things have to be the right way for him to feel comfortable, but who the hell cares?

I want to say we haven’t had customers who look at him like he’s weird. And not the good kind of weird, the weird weird kind of weird. But he doesn’t notice the looks or the snarky comments. I do, and I want to smash each and every one of their faces in. I become she Hulk when it comes to the people I care about—minus the ripping of clothes and green-skin thing.

I shake those thoughts off, following him into the living room and sitting on the sofa. I’ve only just got my ass in the seat when Jeffery shouts dinner is ready.

We both make our way to the table, Jeffery at the head with J next to him and me next to J.

This new “Wednesday night dinners,” became a tradition after two weeks and they’ve continued on. J adjusted his routine to include me in it, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

With El in New York, I don’t really have anyone here, so J and Jeffery have become like family.

“I’ve finished,” J announces, placing his knife and fork on his plate at just the right angle, waiting for us to finish.

“Have you heard back about your drawings yet, Vi?” Jeffery asks, taking a sip of his drink as he looks at me.

Clearing my throat, I place my own knife and fork down, straightening in my seat and preparing to ask for time off.

“I have.” I nod. “They want me to fly out in just over a week.”

“Really? That’s great!”

“It is.” I wince. “But I need to take some time off to go and… I was wondering if you could look after Colonel Fourpaws too?”

“Time off is no problem,” Jeffery says, finishing up his meatloaf and leaning back in his seat. “J, how would you feel about watching Colonel Fourpaws?”

I wait while J mulls it over, his gaze batting back and forth between the wall opposite us and the chair in front of it.

“How many days?”

I double-check the email they sent with all the travel details on. “I leave on the twentieth and come back on the twenty-second. So I could drop him off with you the day before and pick him up the day after?

“Five days?” He pauses a beat. “I can do that.”

“Really?” I smile wide, standing up and wrapping my arms around J’s neck. “Thank you, thank you!”

His body is as stiff as a board but I don’t let go. He’ll just have to deal with my gratitude.

“It’s 6:45 p.m. Time to clean up.” J pushes his chair back, standing up and walking out of the room. I wonder if maybe I went too far, but when Jeffery smiles at me, I know I didn’t.

We both head into the kitchen and I grab a towel, helping dry the plates and pans. We all work in rhythm, cleaning the place up and keeping an eye on the time. As soon as the hand lands on the twelve, signaling 7 p.m., we all make our way into the living room to play the game J has chosen.

“Awww man! I love Mouse Trap!”

“Me too,” J says as he sits on the floor. “Better keep Colonel Fourpaws away.” He throws his head back at his own joke, laughter pouring out of him uncontrollably. Even though it’s not your normal kind of joke, I find myself laughing along with him.

And just as his laughter dies off, Colonel Fourpaws strolls in, staring at each of us in turn before jumping up onto the coffee table where the game is ready to play.

* * *

Clicking play on my playlist, I turn the volume up before dipping down and grabbing the box of supplies. Once I’ve checked everything I need is in there, I head toward the back to clean the puppy cages for the night.

Letting them all out into the main pen, I get down onto my knees—insert euphemism here—and spray the entire inside.

I’m on the third across on the bottom row when the bell sounds on the door.

“One minute!” I shout, giving it a final wipe and standing up. Swiping the hair out of my face, I walk toward the front of the store, coming to a standstill when I see the back of a suit jacket. A musky cologne wraps around me, taking me back to the first time I met him.

I’d recognize that back and cologne anywhere.

What the frack is he doing here?

“Axel?” I whisper, not believing he’s standing here—in the pet store, in L.A.

He spins around at the sound of my voice, a grin on his face that starts to wane when he looks directly at my eye.

“What happened?” His voice is deep, concern etching its way onto his features.

I lift my hand to my eye and wince as it throbs. I had a good run there, not falling over, but it all changed a couple of nights ago at Mr. Chung’s.

I let my hand drop as he steps forward. I’m speechless, not able to get a single noise out of my mouth as he lifts his arm, his hand cupping my cheek. His thumb rubs under my eye where the purple bruise is the worst.

My eyes close of their own accord, unable to stop the shiver rolling through me at the feel of his skin on mine.

“I’m guessing you fell over.”

His voice brings me out of the bubble he created and my eyes whip open. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think I’m doing here?” he asks as I step away from him, wrapping my arms around my waist.

“I don’t freaking know, Axel! That’s why I’m asking.”

He frowns. “You’re not answering my calls and when I turned up at the L.A. office today, imagine my surprise when Della said you quit.”

“What—”

“You didn’t have to quit, Vi. If you wanted to put a stop to all this, all you had to do is—”

“Unbelievable!” I throw my arms out wide. “I called you, I goddamn called you to see why you got me fired and you hung up on me!”

His head reels back. “Wait… what?”

“Don’t even act like you didn’t, your new PA put me through and you called me Violet.” I sneer my name, looking at him like I wanna kill him. Which I kinda do by the way. “You full-named me!”

“I…” His brow furrows as he swipes his palm over his jaw. “I did?”

“You did,” I confirm, gritting my teeth.

“I didn’t mean to.” He lets out a long breath, his blue eyes flashing as he looks me dead in the eyes. “I’ve been busy. Majorly busy. A new contract came in and it’s—”

“Excuses,” I murmur, rolling my eyes.

He jerks forward but stops himself. “It’s not… I didn’t realize—”

“That Della fired me the second day I got back?” I start pacing along the end of the aisles. “She did it in front of the whole floor. She said I broke the contract by sleeping with a co-worker…” I spin around, pointing at him. “You. I got fired from your company for sleeping with you.”

“Vi—”

“Then she tells me you told her we’d slept together.” I stare at him, laser beams shooting out of my eyes. “So, imagine my surprise,” I mock. “When you hang up on me and confirm it all!” He opens his mouth but I cut him off before he has a chance to say anything. “So fuck you, fuck your company, and… fuck you!”

“Vi, I swear I didn’t know—”

“Of course you didn’t,” I scoff.

“Looks like someone forgot the no interrupting rule.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t work for you anymore so like I said: fuck you.”

I cross my arms over my chest, my eyes narrowed on him, waiting to see what he’ll do or say. When he steps toward me I mimic his move, my back colliding with the counter of the register. His arms come on either side of me as he dips his head, his face centimeters from mine.

“Are you done?”

“No—”

His finger presses against my lips, a ghost of a smile on his face. “I didn’t tell her; I didn’t know she’d fired you, and most importantly... I can’t stop thinking about you.”

I want to throw my hands up in the air, spin around and shout he’s lying. But the honesty in his eyes is all I need to see he’s telling the truth. Shit. Did he really not know what was going on?

Ugh. Della is a conniving birch.

“You should seek help then,” I mumble, still trying to save face.

He raises a brow. “You’re on my mind all the time. I look out my office and want to see your face, I get into bed at night and wish your body was against mine.” He lets his finger drop from my lips and grips my hip, moving even closer. “You’re driving me insane from thousands of miles away.”

“Well…” I clear my throat. “I haven’t thought about you at all,” I announce, the bitchy tone in my voice evident.

“Liar.” He nuzzles my neck, bringing his lips to my ear. “I can’t stop even if I wanted to. I need you, Vi. I need you in my life because without you in it it’s all darkness. You’re my light and I need you to shine bright.”

I snort at his corny, little speech. “Where did you get that from? A Hallmark card?”

He leans back, his lips spreading into a grin. “Maybe.”

I shake my head, not able to stop my responding smile. “Okay, I may have missed you, too. But I’m mad at you, madder than the Mad Hatter.”

He steps back, leaving some space between us. “I swear I didn’t know she was going to fire you, Vi. I wouldn’t have let her if—”

“It doesn’t matter now,” I tell him, knowing I’m much happier working here than chained to a desk all day.

The silence wraps around us becoming thick with tension as he takes another step back, pulling on the cuffs of his suit jacket. Is the great almighty Axel Taylor nervous?

I shuffle on the spot, my hands clutching the counter. “So…”

“So.”

I roll my eyes. “You came here to see me, you saw me, so… you can go now.”

“No, I can’t.” He runs his hand through his hair, pulling on the ends as he turns his body so his side is facing me. “Fuck, Vi, this was never meant to happen. It was meant to be a little fun and now…” He turns back to face me. “I need… I… shit!”

“Spit it out, Axel.” My voice is confident but my insides are quaking because this is what I wanted to hear the day he drove me to the airport.

“I need to be with you.”

My heart thumps in my chest, my pulse racing as fast as a racehorse on a track.

“It won’t work,” I tell him, but even I don’t believe myself. However much I try to say it can’t happen, I can’t deny the feelings flowing through me when I sit and watch his photo at night with Colonel Fourpaws.

“Go on a date with me,” he announces, stepping forward but stopping before touching me. “Let me do this right and take you out.”

I bite down on my bottom lip. “I don’t know…”

“One date. If you don’t want to see me again, I’ll obey your command.”

I raise a brow. “You will, will you?”

He tries to keep a straight face but fails when I grin at him. “I will, anything you say goes.”

“Anything?” I push up off the counter. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Mr. Taylor.” I place my hand on his lapel, smoothing it out. “Pick me up at eight tomorrow with a box of cat treats and you have yourself a date.”

“Really?”

I walk toward the door. “Really, but you have to go.” I tap my empty wrist. “I’m on the clock.”

Pulling the door open, I wait for him to walk toward me.

“Tomorrow then?”

“Tomorrow.”

He leans down and I close my eyes as he places a kiss on my cheek but hovers longer as he breathes me in. I’d be a liar, liar, pants on fire if I said I wasn’t doing the same.

I open my eyes when he pulls back, watching as he walks out the door. He heads toward a shiny, black sports car parked outside and as he opens the door, I shout, “Don’t you need to know where I live?”

“Nope.” He turns to face me. “I’ll find you.”

It’s not until he’s pulled away and driving down the street I realize he found me here.

What a freaking stalker!