The story continues...
Surely she’ll be gone. Surely her full belly will have given her the energy to follow her curiosity elsewhere. These and other thoughts attempted to quell his nervous anticipation and growing excitement as he biked through the empty lot.
The last time he biked away, he had taken his time returning to the security office of the campus, gathering his things, and clocking out of his shift for the night. It had been a long day and fatigue weighed his every move. A budding longing in his chest also slowed him. Saying good-bye to his best boy Rodeo almost a year ago had left a bleeding hole in his heart, and tonight a faint silhouette of his new green-eyed friend was unexpectedly starting to take shape there. Even as his tender uncertainty tarried his routine, the pins and needles of a waking in his heart told him to take one last ride back to where they’d met. Just in case. Just in case.
A grin spread wide across his face as his eyes sought and found her where he’d left her. Curled up comfortably in the middle of the parking lot, a ball of fur the pupil of a spotlight eye cast by the streetlamp overhead. Exactly where he left her. She had not moved an inch, only settled in wait for his return. She lifted her head as he neared, and welcomed him back with a single scratchy “meow.” “You waited for me, huh?” he chuckled “Well, I guess you’re mine.” She stood, stretched lazily, and looked at him expectantly. “One last thing,” he said, “my car is on the other side of campus...so you’ll have to ride with me on my bike.” Her eyes stayed on him unflinchingly. “Think you can handle it?” She purred in response as he swooped her up in his arms. Astride his bike, he gripped the handlebar with his left hand as he cradled her in his right. Just as a flash of doubt crossed his mind about the achievability of this comic feat, she stuck her front paws out and casually placed them on the handlebars as well. His laughter rang out clear and pure in the still night air. “Okay, then. Here we go.”
Any passerby would have done a double take at the impossible sight of a man and a cat riding a bike together, but for them it couldn't have felt more right. He looked down to see her pink nose lifted and eyes squinted into the wind. “You know, I’ve never had a cat before” he said, and marveled at the way she turned her head and meow-ed in response. In that moment, his heart was full. “Let’s go home, Nikita” he said. And they did.
***favorite moment of the day: snuggling in bed with Chad, Lola, Bella, and Nikita.
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