Page 87 of Meet Cute Reboot
I tell her about my conversation with Janice, the details about my ghost, Betsy, and the presumed ghost of Lou Lou the cat. On cue, Cassie’s cat jumps onto the table and walks lazily to Cassie, its fluffy tail waving seductively.
“This is Pudge,” she says after nuzzling the cat.
“Here, kitty kitty.” I try to entice the cat with my wagging pointer finger.
Cassie giggles. “You’re such a dog person.”
“You know I like cats. They just don’t always like me.”
Pudge does a one-eighty and sniffs my finger. Satisfied, she goes to work nudging me with her cheeks. I feel like her personal masseuse.
“I think she does like you,” Cassie says looking surprised.
“How are your launch plans going?” I ask after Pudge snubs us both and jumps from the table.
Cassie leans back and covers her face with both hands. “Good,” she says when her face reappears. She stretches her arms to the sides and yawns. “Everything is set to go on Tuesday. We have radio segments set up in Atlanta and Tampa. I spent all day yesterday making TikTok videos. Thirty of them.” She groans. “I hate TikTok.”
“That took you all day?”
“I’m not good at lip-syncing. Also, I had to get ready. I couldn’t let people see me like this.” She presents herself to me with a grand gesture.
My expression sours.
“What?” she asks.
“Ninety-nine percent of the women on this planet would die to look like you do now.” Cassie looks gorgeous with her hair wrapped in a bun on the top of her head, the updo emphasizing her high cheekbones.
“If they died to look like me, they’d just be rotten corpses,” Cassie says.
I break into laughter. “That took a dark turn. I think it’s called a figure of speech. Meaning you don’t take it literally.”
“I literally smell like ground cumin,” she says, “I haven’t showered in two days.”
“Are you coming on to me?”
“If you want to smell like a beef enchilada, then sure.”
I scratch above my ear. “I mean no disrespect, but I would patiently await our food by myself if you wanted to take a shower.”
Cassie bugs her eyes. “Do I really stink?”
I shake my head feverishly. “No, not at all. But if you’re worried about your pits, a short shower does all kinds of wonders.”
She sticks her nose into her armpit. She still feels comfortable with me after all our years apart. A good sign.
“You know. Actually. I may take you up on that,” she says. “The food is already paid for, and I left a note telling them to ring the bell.”
I nod. “Me and Pudge will use the time to get to know each other better.” Pudge is sitting on the back of the couch, oblivious of my intentions.
“I’ll only be five minutes. Or ten.”
“Don’t fall asleep in there. I’m not going in to wake you.”
“You better not.”
She climbs to the loft to grab a change of clothes and comes down with a pair of sweats and a towel. I plop onto the couch and forcefully deposit Pudge onto my lap. She puts up with my rubbing for a few minutes and then deploys her claws and flicks her butt in my face. I get the hint and shoo her away.
Cassie’s ten minutes turn into fifteen. The doorbell buzzes and I head through the office to grab the pizza. I set the boxes onher coffee table to keep her away from her laptop for as long as possible. This way we can eat casually on the couch and avoid all talk of business, livestreams, stats, and launches.