Page 115 of Rules of Association

This girl.

“Ceci, I don’t like cats,” I tried to explain as I held her fucking cat in my arms like it was a baby. This was the only way I could hold her without waking her up, though.

It was necessity, not nurture.

Ceci’s eyes tracked the very motion though, as if it was all the proof she needed. “But you’re so good with her! And you said I could keep her!”

“Yeah,youcan! Not me,” I specified. And anyway, I had said no such thing. Hell would freeze over the day I told her what she could and couldn’t do.

“I can’t have a cat in my building!”

“Youownyour building. You can have whatever you want,” I said. My voice rose just slightly, but the little ball of fur began to move in my arms, reaching her paw up and lazily patting the air. Both of us noticed and lowered our voices. Like two arguing parents.

Ceci took a step forward so I could hear her whisper. “Yeah, but I want you to help keep her. Your house is cozier than my place. And I’m over there every night anyway.”

“I still don’t see the point of this.”

“To give our cat a better life, she can’t be cooped up in my apartment all the time. She needs space to roam free and grow.”

“How big do you expect her to get?” I asked incredulously.

She shrugged. “As big as cats get?”

When I just looked at her, she huffed. “I don’t know! Too big for an apartment, Connor,whatever!”

I blinked at her. It’s crazy to me how she truly believed she was making sense.

“Your apartment is too big for you, let alone a cat, Celestia. And it’syourcat, notours,” I said while staring down at the thing.

Shewascute. And sweet. And pretty quiet.

“Right,” Ceci said slowly, trailing off and just waiting as she watched me watch the cat.

“Right,” I repeated just as slowly, flicking my eyes over her features as she watched me with eyes just as big as the cat’s and a face that pulled off both hopeful and knowing. I shook my head suppressing a growl.

This.Girl.

“So then, we’ll take her home to your place?” she asked, and damn if the cat’s stupid big eyes didn’t open at that very moment just to work double the voodoo on me in the middle of the pet store. How could I say no?

Grumbling, I moved past her to grab the cat tree box so we could take it to the front. “That’s what you want, isn't it?”

And what Ceci wants, she gets.

So now I had a catanda live-in best friend. One of which I was intent on keeping and the other I would keep if it meant holding on to what’s important to me.

Just because something was important to me, did mean it didn’t irritate the shit out of me, though.

“Connor,” Ceci said through gritted teeth. “Hold. Onto. The. Cat.”

“I amtrying, Ceci. But she’s slippery,” I grumbled. Flicking my eyes up to her burning ones, I watched as she bent over the tub beside me and tried to pour water over Lila’s head.

Our little angel reared her teeth and hissed at her, causing Ceci to jolt away. I placed a staying hand on her back as I laughed.

“Just like her mom,” I sing-songed. Then looking down at the wet cat I altered my voice to that of baby talk. “Aren’t you little Lili?”

Ceci glared jabbing me with an elbow before sighing exasperatedly. “Connor, she iseight pounds. You lift, like, a hundred times that every day. Are you really telling me you can’t hold a little cat still?”

I resisted giving her a funny look. Eight hundred pounds? What did she think I was made out of, titanium?

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