“I know how busy we are but, you don’t travel nearly as much as you used to. And…and if we’re both away Chrissie said she’ll take her. A-and if for some reason Chrissie was away, too, I’ve spoken to the Vincents across the road, and they said they’d be happy to pop in and feed her, play with her for a while and stuff.”
He fingered the clasp, popped the lid. Inside, the tiny ball of brown and cream fur peered up at Hugo. “You got me a cat,” he repeated.
“You don’t like her, do you? We’re too busy, aren’t we? Shit. I knew it was stupid. I just thought…she’d be nice to come home to, you know. I don’t know-”
Lips on mine silenced me. Hugo kissed me. Softly. Sweetly. When he pulled away, I saw the kitten in his hands. “Heli, I love her. I love you for knowing I’d love her.”
Oh, thank God. “She’s cute, right? She’s just a moggy. A rescue from Battersea. Someone had found her and her siblings in a box by the bins outside their work, apparently.”
Hugo didn’t take his eyes off her as he tickled behind her ear. “She’s not just a moggy. She’s perfect...and wanted. How could somebody leave you, huh?” He spoke the last part to the new member of our family, his voice high yet gentle, like talking to a baby.
She was so small in his hands. I could barely see her, only her head poking out between the opening in his palms. I reached out, stroked the top of her head. “What are you going to call her?”
“Promise,” he answered without a second’s hesitation.
I held back from saying I thought that was a pretty shit name for a cat. I was glad, too, when I heard his reasoning, because he managed to make me fall in love with him all over again. “Because I promise to take the very best care of her,” he said before kissing the brown fur between her eyes. Then, he turned to me, rested his forehead on mine. “As for you, Helen Jenkins, I promise to never stop striving to be worthy of you. You’re my first friend, my best friend, and I promise to love you beyond forever.” Our noses brushed and he planted a chaste, barely-there kiss on my lips. “Thank you, Heli.”
I closed my eyes, breathed him in. My body never failed to react to his closeness. My heart never forgot to skip a beat, my spine never neglected to tingle… “Can you guess what I’m thinking?”
“Hmm…some random fact about how many taste buds are on a cat’s tongue?” he said.
I chuckled softly, reaching up to cup his face. “Close, but no. I’m thinking about how we’re going to be okay, you and me. I’m thinking about all the ways we’re going to make each other happy, all the places we’re going to see, all the things we’re going to do together. I’m thinking I can’t wait.”
“You, me, and Promise, remember?”
“Actually…” I pried Promise from his hands, set her gently onto the floor. She looked a little lost for a moment, stunned by the vast freedom that surrounded her, but then she caught sight of the cat tower next to the fridge and divebombed for the mouse made of twine that dangled from it. I giggled at the cuteness before returning my attention to Hugo. I grasped his collar, pulled him close. “As I was saying,” I said, smoothing my hands down his chest, unpopping more shirt buttons as I went. “I don’t think you really want the cat involved with what I have planned next.”
“Oh, no?”
I kissed his lips, his jaw, his neck…and then I grabbed at his crotch through his jeans, making his breath hitch in his throat.
“Ohh, you better run, Heli,” he said, smacking my arse. “Because I’m about to do things to you that aren’t suitable for such young eyes.” I followed the nod of his head towards Promise, who seemed determined to annihilate the twine mouse.
Even when I was this turned on, even when my pulse was racing and thighs were clenching… Hugo could still make me laugh.
And run, it appeared, when he smacked my bum again.
“I’m counting, Heli!” he called. “First one to the bed makes the rules!”
I loved him so much. This man that the world thought they knew. He was all mine, always had been. Our future might not be endless sunshine. Hugo would always carry a cloud above his head. He may fall again, but I would catch him.
He would always be my Hugo.
My best friend. My lover. My everything.
Forever.
The End.