“I knew you couldn’t stay away for long, you’re too yella.”
Fat lies amongst shredded cardboard – it looks like confetti thanks to somebody’s idle talons. Her grey tail lifts and cracks down like a whip.
“Yella? You watch some cowboy movies while I was away?”
One of the bags in my grasp has an open zipper and vomits dirty clothes onto the floor beside the feline with the soft tumbling sound of fabric on fabric. My head hangs while I watch the purging of jeans and shirts, shorts and everything else that would last me a few weeks instead of two and a half days.
“Is that a trick your bag learned from watching you during the weekend?”
I look down at the mountain of laundry, drop everything else in my hands on top of the pile, and step over it. If I don’t acknowledge the mess, I can’t be held accountable for it. I add my flip flops to the chaos and proceed to the living room where I collapse on the couch. I think I slept a total of seven hours over the last two nights. I need to catch up.
Fat scuttles after me and jumps up on the coffee table. She’s still waiting for an answer.
“That wasn’t rhetorical? For your information, the overnight bag wasn’t in the room when my dinner decided to reintroduce itself.” I pause, but then tack on a last comment, “The way I puke isn’t so dainty.”
My eyelids fall to half-mast as I watch the cat. Fat’s paws reach out in front of her like she’s about to stretch, but instead she just sits like the Sphinx. Her head tilts to the side, inquisitively.
“There’s something different about you, boss. Get past all the exhaustion and you seem more settled than you have been in the last few months.” Green eyes glow with salacious delight, “You took my advice and got some strange, didn’t you? Boss, you wild thing.” She takes a cue from me and briefly pauses before adding another remark, “You make my heart sing.”
I wave my hand in front of my face to dispel her accusation and stop the song from continuing. “Still chaste over here.”
Fat doesn’t hide her disappointment. “Oh. So,” now disinterested, Fat’s gaze sweeps over her shoulder to see if the television is on, “what am I picking up on then?”
“I fell through the sky this morning.”
Her grey head slowly swivels back around. “Ah. Drugs. Did you bring any to share?”
A puff of air comes out of my nose, but doesn’t materialize into a full-on laugh. I offer a dry-lipped smile. “Skydiving, Fat.”
The small jaw of the feline hangs open for a moment. Brief silence fills the apartment as her face freezes. It’s quiet for a change.
Just as soon as the pocket of stillness arrives, it’s thrust back into the apartment’s cracks and crevices when the feline’s verbose voice comes a-callin’. “Bitch, you cray.”
My feet kick up and onto the backrest of the sofa as my head rests on a cushion. “It was sensational. Euphoric, even.” I don’t even feel my eyelids close, I remember sailing through the air and feeling so calm about the whole thing. No hesitation.
The soft pad of Fat’s paw touches my nose. I open my eyes, surprised I didn’t hear her jump off the coffee table. She sits so close to my face I can see her tiny cat nipples across her stomach. I shove her arm’s length away, I don’t need cat nipples in my line of vision.
“I’m proud of you, boss. I like that you don’t bore me. There’s always something with you, isn’t there?” Fat purrs, settling onto the couch to nap beside me. “Know what else?”
“Hmm?” I’m already slipping into sleep.
“Wild thing, I think I love you.”
Sessions with Fat 