Page 45 of Pete and His Precious

Chapter 14

Pete

We’ve been talking for more than thirty minutes and have been all over the place, before I realize that I promised her takeout, and I haven’t delivered, sorry about the pun.

“You’re probably starving. You were expecting me to feed you,” I say, getting up from the couch where I had been very comfortable. I really didn’t want to move. Even though I knew it was getting late and both of us had to work early in the morning.

For me, spending time with Zoe was so much fun that I really didn’t care how tired I am going to be tomorrow morning.

“Goodness. I’m fine, although I guess I am hungry. I kind of forgot about the takeout.” Zoe stands with me, although she puts a hand up. “You really don’t have to get anything.”

“No. I promised to feed you. I hope you don’t mind we’ll have to order it and then go get it.” I pause, not wanting to say this but the gentleman in me insists. “You can stay here. I can get it myself.”

I don’t want to miss even a single second of being with her, but thankfully she immediately shakes her head.

“No. We were going to go get it, all along. It’s a nice evening out.”

She’s right, it’s warm and smells like fall. I would rather be outside than in, but being inside just got a whole lot nicer when Zoe’s around.

I grab the takeout menu out of my drawer, and she tells me what she wants. “It’s not what I usually get, because I don’t usually get anything,” she laughs. “But the few times I’ve been there, I really liked it.”

She really has been tight with her money, and I wish there was something I could do to help her. But, I don’t know anythingabout audiobooks, voice acting, and whatever it is that she’s trying to do. Does she ever think she’ll be making money? That she could make a living? Or is it just something she’s going to do until she is forced to go back home?

I kind of want to talk to her about it, but I don’t want her to think that I’m judging her.

But she’s so easy to talk to. I think that I can ask in such a way that she won’t take offense. So far, she’s not gotten upset about anything I’ve asked.

I know that sometimes people put on a pretty big front, to hide the person they truly are. I’ve tried hard not to do that, although I’m not always completely successful. After all, don’t tell anyone, but I do pick my wedgies in private. But I try not to do it in public. That seems more like a manners thing to me, but... Some people hide their true personalities.

I call in the order, and they tell us it’ll be fifteen minutes.

“We can start walking if you want.”

She nods, smiles, and I think she’s looking forward to walking with me as much as I’m looking forward to doing it with her. I’m really starting to feel like maybe there could be something between us. That’s something else that I’d like to talk to her about. I have never believed in moving super fast. It seems like anymore, people meet, they hook up, the next thing you know they’re spending the night together. I am not that way. I don’t think that Zoe is either, but I could be wrong. If I am, I’m going to be really disappointed. And maybe that’s another reason for moving slow. I want to see what her character is. I think I already know, but character is forged in times of trial, and that’s when it really shows.

“Do you think these two are going to be okay together?” Zoe says as we step into the kitchen.

I looked at her cat, who is still sitting on the table with a lovesick expression on her face as it looks at Trixie.

“I’d say yes, if I was one hundred percent sure that the expression on your cat's face is because it’s in love with my bird, and not because it wants to eat it.”

“Flipper would never eat him,” Zoe says with such confidence that part of me wants to ask her how she truly knows.

Of course, one way of finding out would be to take my bird out of the cage and set it on the table. Then we’ll see what Flipper does. But, it’s not my bird, and I’m not sure how I would explain to the ladies downstairs that I took it out of its cage to see if the cat was in love with it, and the cat ended up eating it, which I kind of figured was going to happen but I wanted to prove it wasn’t going to happen so I could prove somebody else wrong, and... Yeah. Talk about someone who’s unfit to birdsit.

I just can’t see me saying that, so I don’t make that suggestion.

“Flipper, have you found a friend?” Zoe says in an affected voice to her cat.

“Pete and his precious. Pete and his precious.”

We both look at the bird.

Then Zoe looks at me, and I look at her.

There’s no doubt he is saying Pete. And I’m pretty sure my bird knows it is me, but where did precious come from and why is he using it that way?

“I think your bird wants the two of us to get together,” Zoe says with a nervous laugh as she gives her cat one last pat on the head. “You be a good girl while I’m gone,” she says, sweetly.

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