Free Cat Snips - a Short Story Collection by Cat Johnson by Cat Johnson Page A

Um, sure. I’ll call
you. Bye.” Meg disconnected the call as quickly as she could
with shaking hands and glared at Vicki.
    He had a date with someone else.
Maybe she’d already lost him, just when she finally discovered
she actually wanted him. Now what the hell was she going to do?

    One long, sleepless, harrowing
week later, Meg stood opposite Jeff, who sat at the table in her
apartment. He looked as relaxed as Meg was nervous.
    God, she hated the entire male
species.
    Heart unexplainably pounding, Meg
walked past Jeff as he sniffed the air after her. “Are you
wearing perfume?” He sounded surprised.
    “ What? No. I mean, yes.
Maybe. Why?” Meg could kick herself, stuttering like a
schoolgirl, and around Jeff, of all people. Jeff who probably spent
last Saturday night, and every night in between, fucking his nurse,
for all she knew. Meg probably should be happy he made time and
bothered to come over and eat with her.
    He looked at her as if she were
losing her mind and shrugged. “No reason. You smell good.
That’s all.”
    “ Oh. Um. Thanks.”
    He thought she smelled good. Why
the hell did that make her happy? She reminded herself that he
probably said the same thing to his floozy too.
    She grabbed the two plates she’d
prepared from the kitchen counter and carried them to the dining
table.
    Jeff looked her up and down. “Is
that a new skirt?”
    Did she tell him she had tried on
practically everything in her closet to find the perfect outfit for
tonight and had finally found this ultra-short mini skirt she’d
bought years ago shoved on a shelf with the tags still on it? Should
she tell him she hoped it, combined with the knee-length high-heeled
boots, would make him drool, forget about the nurse and instead think
of nothing but bending her over the dining table as he did wicked
things to her?
    “ This? Nope. Had it for
years.”
    He raised a brow. “Oh? I
don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear it before. It’s
nice.”
    Meg’s mouth twisted in a
scowl. Nice had not been the look she was going for.
    Jeff looked down at the dinner
plate she plunked harder than necessary in front of him. Ignoring
that, he commented, “This looks good. Thanks.”
    It should look good. Everything
had better be more than good .
She’d spent the entire afternoon food shopping, cleaning the
apartment, preparing the meal and then fixing herself up—hair,
makeup, perfume, a special outfit, right down to the brand new and
incredibly uncomfortable thong underwear—all in anticipation of
his arrival.
    “ Good. Great. Hope you like
it.” She plopped down in her chair with a huff and took a large
gulp of red wine.
    Apparently, her nerves were
making her cranky this evening. Acting ornery was probably not the
best way to win a new boyfriend. Too bad her mouth and her brain
sometimes, all right, often, failed to communicate. Jeff glanced at
her with a raised brow before he cut into his painstakingly homemade
lasagna that she hoped had “good cook and potential girlfriend”
written all over it.
    She watched closely as he took
the first bite and swallowed. He dug right in for a second mouthful
but the high praise and confessions of love she’d hoped for
didn’t come.
    Finally, he looked up with a
frown and gestured toward her untouched dish with his fork. “Aren’t
you eating?”
    “ I had a big lunch.”
She lied, rubbing her belly as if it were full for effect.
    He nodded. “Well you’re
missing out. This is great.”
    A bit happier, she digested that
compliment and decided to spin it to her advantage.
    “ You know what else was
great? That sex last week. Huh?”
    The fork halted halfway to Jeff’s
mouth as he looked up at her with surprise. “Um, yeah. It was.”
    “ I wouldn’t mind
doing that every night. How about you?” Shit, she sounded like
one of the guys in the locker room or something. She might as well
slap him on the rear end and then hit the showers.
    Jeff laid the fork back down on
his dish and stared