Page 21 of Karma Kitty Christmas
He seemed to remember—back before Todd, before his parents had passed, when he’d been an undergrad crushing on his fellow students and necking at parties—kissing had been fun, hadn’t it?
Suddenly he wanted to kiss Luca in theworstway, to see if it could be fun again. He felt that magnet pull of the man as he strode through Isaac’s house in his stocking feet. Kissing him seemed like it could bereallyfun.
But Isaac remembered that tangled ball of Todd—uhm, of yarn—again and resolved to simply make Luca feel welcome until he could sort that shit out. It just wouldn’t do to wrap those tendrils of shit-brown yarn around this nice man.
Isaac had his plan firmly in place by the time Luca came into the kitchen to sit at the island.
“So,” Isaac said, his voice brimming with excitement, “let me tell you what happened today….”
As he launched into the telling of Mr. Euclid, the father of geometry, in relation to stoned orange kitties, his brain went on record to tabulate all of Luca’s expressions as he listened.
Not once was he bored or disgusted (except by Paula, but even then he showed a certain delighted incredulity that the woman was notactuallythe Wicked Witch of the Math Department). Instead, he was interested, bemused, and, in the end, so very happy.
“So you’re getting a cat?” he asked.
“Yes,” Isaac said, and by that time, the casserole was done, and Isaac pulled it out and set it on the stove to cool. “In fact, I amwaitingfor my cat to finish his, uhm, operation”—he lowered his voice and whispered the word so Luca would know they were talking about poor Euclid’s balls—“so I can go fetch him home.” He paused. “They were going to give him his first round of shots and flea treatments and a bath too.” He glanced at the clock and saw he had about forty-five minutes before he was due at the vet’s. “In fact, we have just enough time to eat before I have to go pick him up.”
As he turned to get the salad mix from the fridge, Luca said, “Hey, can I come with you? I’m super excited. Ilovecats.”
“Really?” Isaac grabbed the salad bowl from the shelf above the counter. “You want to see him?”
“Wellyeah!” Luca regarded him with puzzlement. “Who wouldn’t?”
Isaac knew his expression closed as he busied himself with the little bags that made up the salad mix.
“Of course,” Luca murmured. “The whole reason you don’t have a cat in the first place.”
“I was going to go get one after summer vacation started,” Isaac told him.
“But the cat distribution system had other ideas,” Luca said, perking up again.
Isaac shook his head. “What is this cat distribution system everybody keeps talking about? Why didn’t I know about it until now?”
Luca shrugged. “Because you don’t know about the cat distribution system until it distributes a cat to you. It’s like kitty karma—very Zen.”
Isaac snorted. “Yes, it’s so Zen this cat just wandered into my classroom to get fed, fixed, and baked. Where was theboyfrienddistribution system when I was in high school, that’s what I want to know.”
“Same place it was when I was in high school,” Luca said reasonably. “In the cheerleader’s pants, pretending it was straight.”
Isaac snorted and put the salad on the table. “You were not,” he said.
“Well, for a couple years, yes. And then it hit me that it probably shouldn’t be that hard, and I shouldn’t have been dreaming about the school quarterback while I was doing it.” He sighed and moved the salad so there was room for the casserole when Isaac took it from the stove. “The years after that were muddled. I think even if the distribution system had been working, it would have skipped me entirely. I was not fit for distribution for a couple of years.”
Isaachmmed, because he doubted Luca hadevernot been fit as boyfriend material. Even those cheerleaders had probably had nice things to say.
AFTER DINNER,he dished up the extras and put them in the refrigerator in a big container, showing it to Luca as he did so.
“This is for you and your sister,” he said seriously. “I will not eat it—it will gobadif you don’t take it, do you understand?”
Luca chuckled. “I understand I’m bringing Allegra by tomorrow so you can teach us both to yarn is what I understand, so don’t panic. Now let’s go get the cat.”
On the way out the door, Isaac realized that he’d spoken to a grown man the way he spoke to his students. Oh God. OhGod. He did that sometimes—he knew it. Todd used to get cold. Cold and disdainful and superior.
When we met you were too stoned to remember the rubber, Isaac—don’t talk to me like a student.
Except Isaac had nevermeantto talk to him that way—it just slipped out!
No amount of apologizing to Todd had made that better until Todd had frozen Isaac out for at least two days, but that didn’t stop Isaac from apologizing now.
