"Do you know what he's up to?" I asked Zack.
"Nope." He shook his head and checked the GPS on his phone. "But there's literally nothing out here." He looked around.
A few minutes ago, Finn called him and asked if he could take me somewhere. I didn't have much choice, so that's how I ended up in Zack's car.
"I think we're almost there. It would be easier if there were normal roads too. Why couldn't he have picked a place in the center of town?" He whined.
"You can ask him." I nodded my head at the windshield, through which I could see Finn at his car a few feet away. "Thanks for the ride." I unbuckled myself and Zack stopped by Finn.
"Anytime." He winked at me and I gave him a tired smile.
I'm sure Finn means well, but I've really had enough for today. I would prefer to lie down and fall asleep, forgetting the whole world.
If only it were that easy.
I got out of Zack's car, shutting the door behind me.
"Hi." Finn walked up to me. "How are you?"
"Fine." I nodded. "You?" It was a stupid question, but I really didn't know what else to say.
"I'm fine." He laughed and bent his head towards me, placing a kiss on my forehead.
"I am good too!" Zack said from the driver's seat, the window to his left open. "Not that anyone asked. Or gave me a kiss." He snorted.
"You want one?" He asked with a playful smile.
"Funny, Finn." He rolled his eyes. "I have a boyfriend, you wasted your chance!" He shouted and started the car.
"Oh, how sad I am about that." He laughed and that brought a smile to my face too.
"So what are we doing here?" I looked around. There were trees all around and only a small clearing in front of us. It looks like exactly the kind of place where wild animals hang out. So I ask again, what are we doing here?
"You had a rough day and I didn't have the nicest yesterday." He grabbed my hand and began to drag me to his car, or rather the trunk. "So I thought we both deserved a little peace from everything."
When we got to the open trunk, I got a glimpse inside. The rear seats were folded, so there was much more space. The entire trunk was covered with blankets and pillows. There were tiny lights on the edge, which will come in handy in a moment, as the sun is slowly starting to set. In the middle of everything were two pizza boxes and two other, smaller, boxes that hadn't been opened, and finally a laptop.
"Finn, what is this?" I turned to face him as I unknowingly took a step forward when I saw everything, leaving him standing behind me.
"That's not the reaction I was expecting." He cleared his throat. "A date? Or just..." He shrugged. "Did I do something wrong? I thought..." He shook his head. "Sorry, I should have realized that you probably preferred to stay at the apartment." He walked over to the car and reached for the trunk to close it.
But before he could do that, I grabbed his hand, which was on the car. "Finn." I smiled at him. "No one has ever done anything like this for me."
"You're not mad?" He frowned.
"Far from it." I laughed. "Finn this is..." I looked at the car. "It's beautiful."
"Oh thank god." His hands flew to my face and grabbed the back of my neck. He pulled me closer and connected our lips in a kiss. "Don't ever scare me like that again." He pulled away. "I really thought I screwed up."
"Oh, Finn." I put my palm on his cheek. "Of course not." I gave him a sincere smile. "But we're going to have to talk about you spending so much money, especially on me."
"That's not going to happen, sunshine. Now," he pointed to the car, "ladies first."
"How did you even think of all this?" I slowly climbed into the car, onto the soft blankets and pillows, Finn close behind me.
"I was on the phone with Val who gave me the idea and Jeremy helped me pick out the food. I really hope he wasn't kidding because if he was I don't think we can get delivery out here." He laughed nervously.
"You're lucky I'm not picky when it comes to food. So I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Awesome." He breathed a sigh of relief. "So, here's the pizza." He pulled out two boxes from behind him. "There's dessert, and there's popcorn, candy, chips, and something to drink on the front seats. The laptop is charged, but in case it dies, I've got it covered. What else?" He looked around. "There's enough blankets to keep us warm, but I've been looking at the weather forecast and it's not supposed to be cold. And that should be it."
As I looked at him while he was saying everything, my heart was so full I thought it would burst. And I just wanted to cry a little. From joy and happiness, of course.
My god, I think I really love him.
"I think I'm going to explode." Lexi clutched her stomach. "Why did you let me eat the dessert? I won't even be able to stand up."
"If you wanted me to carry you, just say it, you don't have to blame the dessert." I laughed, standing by the trunk, waiting for her to climb out. "Come on, I'll help you." I reached out to her, grabbed her hands, and started pulling her towards me.
"I'm ready for a shower and bed." She swung her legs over the edge of the trunk, but remained seated. Neither of us let go of the other's hands.
"What?" I asked, seeing her dreamy look.
"Nothing, just..." She smiled. "Thank you for today, I really needed it."
"Anytime, sunshine." I leaned down and kissed the back of her hand. "But there's something I want to tell you." I pulled back and swallowed hard. Come on Finn, you can do it. "Lexi, I..."
"Do you hear that?" She jumped into my speech and suddenly stood up, letting go of my hands.
And just like that my chance was gone.
"I swear..." She looked around, listening to nature. "You hear that, right?"
"My heart slowly breaking? I can hear that." I muttered under my breath.
"I can hear meowing, can't you?"
A small kitten slowly came out of the thick bushes that were near us. It was almost impossible to see, but the closer it got to us, the closer it was to the car light.
"Oh my God." Lexi dropped to her knees. "Hello, little one. How did you get here?"
Without any instinct of self-preservation, the kitten started walking towards her.
"Well hello." She reached out to it when it was close. "Oh, you're dirty." Even so, she pulled it to her chest. The moment Lexi took it in her arms, the meowing stopped.
And even though the little one ruined my declaration of love, I couldn't be mad at it. How could I when it looks the way it does?
The kitten is ginger with bits of white around his green eyes, dirty pink nose, paws and the edges of its ears. It's so small that I could hide it in my palms if I tried. It can't be old.
"Do you think it's alone?" I asked before Lexi stood up with the kitten in her arms.
"I don't hear more meowing." She looked at the bush from where the kitten in her hands came out. "But it's too small to be alone."
"I'll look." I walked towards the bushes, treading carefully, but even after searching around I couldn't find any more, so I went back to the car.
"Nothing?" I shook my head. "It's okay." She looked at him sadly. "If we leave him here, he won't survive. We're too far from town."
"You want to keep him?" I raised an eyebrow.
"What? No." She shook her head quickly. "Of course not. I barely have a place to sleep, he'll be better off with someone else. I'll call Luca at the clinic, he'll know what to do. Can you hold it for a while?" She walked up to me and before I could answer, she put it in my hands and walked over to the car, where she had her phone on the front seat.
"You really are dirty." I looked at the muddy kitten in my hands, which just meowed.
"Hi, sorry, I know it's late, but is there any chance you're still at work?" Lexi spoke up, slowly coming back to us. "Well, we found a kitten and it would be good to have someone look at it...Oh really? That's awesome. Can you call him to say we're stopping by? Thanks, Luca. Good night." She took the phone off her ear.
"Is he still at work?"
"Not him, but his colleague is. He will call him to wait for us, but we should leave as soon as possible." She took the kittenfrom my hands. "He'll check you out. He'll make sure you're safe and sound." She smiled.
"Then let's go." We got into the car and started to drive back to the city. She talked to him the whole way. It was adorable. She stroked and scratched it, and you could see and hear from its purring that it enjoyed it.
The navigation got us safely to the vet in the center of the city. There was only one car in the parking lot, which I assume belonged to whoever was still working.
It was a small building with huge windows that overlooked the reception area, which was engulfed in darkness except for a small light coming from the back.
"Tyler?" Lexi said out loud as we walked in.
"In the back!" A rough male voice called out.
We started walking to the back of the reception and went through the half-open door. Behind the door was a small clinic, a large counter, instruments and everything else.
A man was washing his hands a few feet from us. He was tall, taller than me, with thick brown hair and a little stubble. He looked about the same age as me. Bit older maybe.
He was wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt and blue pants. I don't know why I expected him to have a white cloak, but he didn't. In my defense, I've never been to a vet. All the problems with Odin were always solved by Killian since it's his dog.
"Just a second, I'll be with you right away." He turned off the water, wiped his hands with a towel, and walked over to us. "Hi Lexi. Nice to see you again." He smiled at her. "Tyler." He gave me his hand.
I knew there was a possibility that they knew each other since he works with Luca, but I still didn't feel good about this.
"Finn." I squeezed his hand tightly, I don't even know why.
"Some strong handshake there." He laughed and I let go of his hand.
"Now who do we have here?" He reached out to the kitten and took it.
"We found it in the woods, it looks fine, but..."
"It's a good thing you brought it." He walked with it to the counter in the middle of the room. "It's a little dirty, but..." He held it up in the air and examined it. "Boy." He put it down. "He's not shaking or meowing too much, which is good. Did he throw up or do anything unusual? Excessive scratching and such?"
"No, not at all." She walked closer to both of them.
"So let's check and make sure everything is okay." He began examining him, squeezing his little belly, which he didn't like very much, checking his ears and all sorts of other examinations. "He looks fine." Finally he said. "But I'll give you some pills, you'll just crush them and mix it into food. It's against parasites. Overall..."
"Wait, wait, wait." Lexi interrupted him. "We?" She raised an eyebrow. "No, we can't take him."
"Oh. I thought..." His gaze skipped to me and then back to her. "Look Lexi," he walked closer, "he's adorable and all, but we're full. I could put him with other cats, but they're a lot older and might not react well to him."
I don't react well to how close he is to her.
"But..."
"I understand." He grabbed her hands. "You want to help him."
He's going to need help if he doesn't let go of her hands. Why the fuck is he touching her? Does he do that with all his clients?
"Maybe in a few days, there will be a place for him, but he can't stay here now. If you could..."
"We'll take him." I walked towards them, fists clenched at my sides. I don't care what I have to do to get him from Lexi and get out of here.
"What?" She looked at me. "No, Finn, I can't ask you to..."
"I'm offering it myself. Come on, it's getting late, I'm sure Tyler wants to go home too." I said with a clenched jaw. What is happening to me?
"Alright then." He finally let go of her hands. "I'll give you the pills." He stepped away from us and Lexi walked over to the kitten. She took him in her hands and pulled him to her.
"Looks like you're coming home with us." She laughed. "You can thank him by not peeing in his bed." She pointed her finger at me.
"These two. You can give them both at once." He handed them to Lexi, but I was the one who took them from him. "Also, you should leave your number here if a spot becomes available. I'll let you know."
Lexi opened her mouth to answer him, probably give him her number because that's just how she is, but I cut her off. "If anything changes, Luca will tell us."
"Right." He looked down at the ground and ran his tongue over his front teeth. "So that's all." He took a cautious step back. "Good night."
"Good night Tyler and thank you." He gave her a narrow smile and she started walking the way we came. I followed her without saying a word, glad to get out of there.
"Finn?" She asked when we were already sitting in the car.
"Hm?" I looked at her.
"Inside." She pointed behind her at the clinic. "Were you..."
"Yes, I was jealous, sue me." And it's funny because I've never been jealous in my life, but with Lexi, it bothered me when he only said her name.
"It shouldn't be attractive." She whispered. "It shouldn't be attractive." She repeated.
I notice Lexi talks to herself sometimes but I'm right here, she knows I can hear her right?