He removed the kitten from her hands.
She cried and reached out.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Follow me.”
She backed off, got into her car, and followed him down the road.
THEY WALKED INTO THE EMPTY DINER, sat in a booth, and placed the kitten on the table between them.
The waitress glanced at them and the cat, walked off, and returned with a full saucer of cream, placing it on the table with a vast smile. They realized they were in the presence of another cat person.
The cat began to lap at the cream as the waitress brought coffee.
“Well, here we are,” the young man said. “How long is this going to last? Are we going to talk all night?”
The waitress was still standing before them.
“I’m afraid it’s closing time,” she said.
On impulse, the young man said, “Look at us.”
The waitress looked.
“If you were going to give this kitten to one of us,” he said, “which one would it be?”
The waitress studied the young woman and the young man and said, “Thank God I’m not King Solomon.” She wrote up the check and put it down. “There are people, you see, who still read the Bible.”
“Is there another place we can go to talk?” said the young man.
The waitress nodded out the window. “There’s a hotel down the road. They don’t mind pets.”
That caused both young people to half-jump from their seats.
Ten minutes later they walked into the hotel.
Glancing over, they saw that the bar was already dark.
“This is stupid,” she said, “to let myself be brought here for the ownership of my cat.”
“Not yours yet,” he said.
“It won’t be long,” she said and glanced at the front desk.
“It’s okay.” He held the cat up. “This kitten will protect you. It will stand between you and me.”
He carried the kitten to the front desk, where the man in charge took one look and placed a key on the signature book and handed them a pen.
Five minutes later they watched the kitten run happily into the suite’s bathroom.
“Have you ever,” he mused, “when you got on an elevator, refused to discuss the w
eather, but told a story about your favorite cat? By the top floor, there’s a wild mixture of sounds from your fellow travelers.”
At which point the kitten ran back into the room.
The kitten jumped on the bed and settled itself in the middle of a pillow in the center of the bed. Seeing this, the young man commented, “Just what I was going to suggest. If we need to rest while we talk we just let the cat keep to the middle of the bed and we can lie, fully dressed, on each side to discuss our problem. Whichever of us the cat moves to first and chooses as future owner, that one gets the cat. Okay?”
“You’ve got some trick up your sleeve,” she said.