------
Prologue
------
"So? Why are you here, then?" she asked.
Well ... This was a darn good question. How did it come to this? Only a year ago, I was sitting in front of my TV all day when not at work and barely had any friends that I cared for. Living alone made it easy for a person to forget about those friendly relationships as it was not the missing part of life. That was me, my routine. Monday to Friday, I was going to work to fill up the bank account, then returned home and did easy things to keep boredom at bay.
My sexual life consisted of watching porn and masturbating; no wonder why I was not happy. It was too easy, and it pulled me down into despair and loneliness until, finally, a voice in my head interjected to my lack of momentum with a classy 'what the fuck are you doing???'. Of course, that didn't change anything at first. The voice had to repeat itself hundreds of times before I could finally understand what it meant. The message was, 'Go out and get yourself a real human girl.' Yeah, my fundamental needs had to tell me what to do with my life, it was rather embarrassing.
One would think that this cute woman sitting in front of me, sipping her beer and waiting for my answer to her simple question, was a potential date. She was not. Or maybe she was. I didn't know just yet. No wonder that with an ambiguous statement like this, she was confused about me. I was confused as well.
"So what? You are not going to tell me?" she insisted.
I took another sip of beer before giving her something to work with.
"Hey, no, it's nothing like that. It's just that I don't know what to start with."
Her name was Erika, and she was now looking at me with a puzzled look before acting reassuringly and providing me with a pair of crutches to palliate my non-ability to communicate correctly.
"Look, if you want to fuck me tonight or if you just want to talk and have fun, just tell me. We are all different, and that is fine. I just need to know so we can move on and enjoy ourselves. I'm not saying that I will let you fuck me right away, but if it ends up that way, I'm good with it, you know. I'm a grown adult."
At least she was super easy-going. I should be grateful to her for breaking the ice like this. But as appreciated as it was, it didn't help me very much at the moment.
"Well, Erika, I am not sure yet about what I want. I'm currently in a strange situation at home, and I'm not sure how to handle it exactly."
She scoffed at me.
"AH! That's what it was. The cat gets out of the bag. Let me guess. You are married, and now you are doing things behind her back! That seems to be the trend these days. And no, I'm not interested. I have no issues with people sleeping around with multiple sex partners, but when you are seriously engaged with someone, and you put her trust at risk, then I want no part of it. If she is okay with it and you are fishing for a threesome, I don't think I want this either ... Mind you, I've never been offered one before ... let's label that as a 'to be considered.'"
I let an audible groan out.
"No, I'm not married! However, there is someone in my life already ... but wait ... before you ask any more questions or come up with new theories, let's order two more beers, and I'll explain everything to you. I'm pretty sure you are not expecting what I'm about to tell you. Once I'm done, then you can judge me all you want. Deal?"
She leaned back in her lounge chair in the corner of the pub, and a smile appeared on her face.
"Oooh ... I get the feeling this is going to be an interesting one ... Well, you know what? I like beer. So I'm in. Try to make it entertaining," she said.
"Oh ... it will be ... it will be ...," I said.
------
Chapter 1 - The naming of the cat
-----
It was about a year ago.
"Hi, my name is Mark, what's yours?"
"My name is ... Theresa ... but ... I don't like it ... I don't know what my parents were thinking ... It makes me feel like I was born in the 60s."
The little librarian was embarrassed by her name. I had to admit, she looked like 25 years old, and Theresa seemed a very odd choice for that age, it didn't match her look either. She was short, about 5'2", she had some Asian genes, tan skin and relatively long black hair mounted in a simple ponytail. Her glasses contributed to her librarian look, an image that made sense since she was working in a bookstore.
I usually didn't do that, but for some odd reason, when I walked past her, my heart skipped a beat. I didn't know if it was pheromones or something, but we both stopped and looked at each other, knowing very well what was happening at that moment.
"Hey, Theresa is fine. A name does not define who you are, I suppose. Look ... I don't want to be inappropriate; I know you are at work ... but ... could we ..."
Before I could finish my sentence, she interrupted me.
"Yes!"
We could only stare at each other past this point. It took a moment to resume the awkward non-conversation. I pulled out my phone from my jeans pocket, created a new contact, and punched in the letter T in the first name field before handing it over to her.
"Hum ... okay then ... here ... Enter your phone number, and I'll text you, so you get mine."
She eagerly entered her number in the contact, and before I knew it, she sent a text message to herself. Bold, but that worked too. She handed me my phone back and looked at me with a beet-red face. I didn't know what took over me at that time, but her burning face was so cute. I extended my arm and patted her head.
"Okay... then ... I'll talk to you later, Theresa."
I walked away, leaving her paralyzed behind me. I came here for a book, but I was going out with a date instead. It was not a bad deal.
Just before exiting the store, I heard a random voice far behind me, probably a nosy co-worker that rushed to Theresa to inquire about me. All I overheard was, "Who was that weirdo that touched your head?", which was enough for me to lower mine and leave this place in a hurry. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.
I drove back to my small townhouse. It had a garage at the ground level, the kitchen and living room were one floor above, and the three bedrooms were on the second floor. Still thinking about what just happened at the bookstore, I let myself fall on the couch and pulled out my phone.
"Is it too soon to text her?"
I went into the messaging app and looked at my sent texts. I clicked on T and read what she sent to herself.
"Meow!"
Meow? That was hilarious. She texted herself, "meow." I mean, that worked, it was just to get my number. But still ... Was she a crazy cat lady or something? It was a good thing not to be allergic to cats in case we started dating. It felt pointless to wait any further. I used my thumbs to send her a real message this time with a touch of humor.
"Hey kitty, it's Mark. Are you free after work? Wanna do something?"
Bzzz! It took only a few seconds before I got an answer back. "Yes!"