Uno didn't know what to make of it now. Especially when he found a black cat in his bed. Of course, immediately, the cat was affectionate in his arms.
He winced hard, thinking back to where it all started. He sighed, shaking his head. This couldn't be. Just couldn't. He stroked the cat's neck, and the purring was of contentment.
Meanwhile, he nursed his bottom lip as he walked around his old apartment, trying to put the pieces together.
Kat had been let go from the maintenance department. Part of the downsizing at the hospital. They'd gone to high school together. She'd always been a wild one. Much too wild for Uno. Yet, they'd always found time to talk in Art class, and then they kept in touch once they went their separate ways. Usually, he expected a phone call from her every Friday night. Maybe that's why he never found a date.
After all, working in customer service at the health insurance place was depleting his adventurous nature. He couldn't remember the last time he ever ate at a restaurant. He was a fairly homebody who liked to know what was in his own food. So he didn't get out much.
Maybe it was more serious than he thought with Kat. He didn't know of love. She was just a friend he worried about because she was a bit reckless. Going to parties, meeting doctors, even smoking pot with a custodian at work. Yes, he did worry.
And then he got news she'd lost her job. He didn't want to think the worst of her. After all, she was fluent in Spanish. Although she never found a stranger she didn't like. Of course, she'd told him early on that it could happen, the downsize. Then she mentioned how she'd had some bouts where she couldn't come to work.
"Are you sure that's all it is?" He'd asked months ago. "Are you still a party girl?"
She'd been moody the moment he'd asked. "Why can't you believe me?" She said she had some stomach issues. She didn't know the reasoning behind it. But she told him not to worry. She'd get by, somehow.
"What if you can't afford your place anymore?" He wasn't asking her to move in, but she had a mother and a step-father she couldn't stand, who lived nearby.
"I'd sooner live on the streets than live with them!"
Uno didn't like the sound of that. Of course, he didn't want her moving in either. But from the sound of her calls, she was getting desperate. She cashed in what she could to get the rent in on time for the first three months after she lost her job. However, she said she didn't qualify for much. It seemed these days there were more obstacles than ever when it came to compensation.
He'd listened to her bitter rants about the political atmosphere. Honestly, he wasn't sure he could take being her friend anymore, but he listened, unsure what was really going on, even if she went to job interviews time after time. Uno wanted to help.
Whenever he had cash, he'd send her a twenty or a gift card to a local grocery store. Even then, he wondered if she would just spend the money on booze or pot. She had no idea how she kept him up at night. Although as the weeks rolled by, he was certain she'd give him the heads up that she'd moved back home.
And then he saw her at the old thrift store, which he never went to. He didn't know what led him there, but she looked happy even if she was jobless. It felt like old times. Her smile was infectious. She did have a certain joy that left a laugh in the core of him. But he wondered if she was high then.
"We could get something to eat," he'd said which even shocked him. Honestly, he didn't think he was a very giving person. Even Kat had assured him this long ago when they were teens, while she, on the other hand, would give a homeless person her last dollar bill.
It was only meant to be take-away at the pizzeria. After all, his place was very close. Had she just hoped to bump into him?
Back at his place, she said they needed something to drink, but she didn't wait for him to look in his thin galley kitchen. It seemed she was drawn to the Soju immediately. Uno had forgotten he had it. He didn't drink. It was a gift from a co-worker who teased him about Korean Dramas.
"Soju?" He asked himself now. He winced hard. Why did he partake? It was just a little. What harm could it do?
Oh, it wasn't hard to find the bed in his little place. Two old friends laughing about old times. Wasn't that all it was? And here he was with a black cat in his arms now. What had happened to Kat?
