Free The Nine Lives of Chloe King by Liz Braswell Page B

Clark Kent.
    He’s so … cute! Chloe thought again, and it wasn’t for the last time that night. She wondered what the chances were that someone so much like her, so cute and so charming and so funny, could have randomly met her at work. If she had been in the back that day, or if Lania hadn’t been so mean to him, or … it never would have happened. And while mentioning Xavier and his subsequent sickness with him was not the sort of thing one did on a first date (or ever, really), Chloe could definitely see talking to Brian about other things. Her mom, her dad, Paul and Ame, her near-death experience …
    “Well, there they are,” Brian said, indicating the big yellow cats.
    Chloe put her hand out to the rail. She had always sort of dismissed lions before as the popular and inevitable members of any zoo tour. Common, even. But she looked at them more closely now. One female rose and walked languidly over to a water trough. Every step was casual; her shoulders moved up and down slowly. There was no mistaking the power in her muscles. Somehow Chloe wasn’t surprised when, after taking a gentle lap and letting the droplets hang from the fur around her mouth, the lion turned and looked directly at her, golden eyes into her own hazel ones.
    “I never realized how beautiful they were before,” Chloe whispered, unable to turn away.
    Brian was saying something, spilling off factoids about the big cats, but she wasn’t listening. She could feel her dream again, like it was real.
    “… know all about these guys. In the wild they eat like ten pounds of meat a day, sleep up to twenty hours a day, and can run up to fifty miles an hour. …”
    You need a desert, Chloe thought at them. The lioness showed no sign of hearing or caring about her. She wandered back over to the other females and let herself down onto the ground, lazily and heavily. She bit at her paw.
    “Uh, Chloe? Chloe?” Brian asked, waving his hand in front of her.
    “What? Sorry?”
    “I was trying to impress you with my National Geographic-like knowledge of the big cats.”
    “Oh, sorry. Very clever.” Chloe turned for one last look at the lionesses. “These don’t just kill people, like Siegfried and Roy’s tiger?”
    Brian snorted. “Lions aren’t usually as dangerous as tigers. But they’re not house cats, either. They can get annoyed or pissed off—and even the friendly ones, like these, don’t know their own strength compared to humans. They can accidentally kill a zookeeper while trying to play with him.”
    “Oh.” Chloe thought about that last fact, and Xavier.
    “We should probably go; it closes in like ten minutes.”
    “Oh yeah. Of course.” Chloe shook her head. “I have to get you your monkey!”
    Brian smiled shyly. “You don’t really have to. …”
    “Of course I do, silly. This was a great idea for a date.” She grinned.
    “Date … ?” he asked, surprised. Chloe hit him playfully on the shoulder. As the twilight deepened and they headed back to the main entrance, Chloe felt a surge of energy jolt through her, making her skip, babble incessantly, and touch Brian as she talked, without embarrassment or reserve. She even bought him an extra-big monkey, one with long arms and Velcro so he could wear it around his neck.
    They made it out just as the gates closed.
    “This was great—thanks for suggesting it,” Chloe said honestly. Her bus was coming; he was going in the opposite direction.
    “Oh, cool. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
    She waited. He seemed to be looking anxiously for the bus. “Can I see you again?” Chloe finally asked, a little annoyed that she had to be the one to bring it up. Hadn’t she bought him a monkey, after all?
    “Oh—yeah—of course. If you want.” He looked down at her, unsure.
    “Of course I do! Didn’t I just say this was, like, the best date ever?” The bus stopped and opened its doors. “Aren’t you going to kiss me?” Chloe asked, the first real flirty thing she had said