Beans gave another purr-meow and looked at me over his shoulder to ensure I was following him to the kitchen. Morph waited until I was beside him before continuing on, leaning against my ankles as we went.

"It went well," I said to the cats, opening the cabinet and pulling out two cans of wet food and their dish for crunchies. "The leadership signed it without hesitation. Honestly, I'm just glad it didn't turn into a political mess—especially since the Alpha was my ex. The one I rejected."

Morph gave a small huff and sat down. Beans impatiently hopped on the counter. I immediately scooped him back up and plopped him on the floor next to his 'brother'.

"Right? Awkward."

I plopped the cans down and snagged two paper plates. Only the fanciest for these two garbage divers.

There was another purr-meow from Beans, followed by a meow that started low, broke and finished two octaves higher. I took that as a question.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary happened," I replied, cracking open the cans and upending one per plate.

Morph gave a small grump of a noise and looked nonplussed.

"What?" I replied defensively. "It's true." That earned me a slow blink of 'uh-huh, sure'.

"Fine, I met someone handsome, he turned out to hate my line of work and I got dunked into a lake. Happy?" I replied back, dropping the plates down as if they personally offended me. The phone in my pocket vibrated and I pulled it out quickly.

My thumb must have hit the green button as I said, "Great. Lost my sanity talking to you two. Fantastic," and put the phone to my ear.

"Is...is this a bad time?" asked Robby's voice on the other line.

"No, I was talking to the cats," I replied with a chuckle, rubbing between my eyes with my middle finger.

He paused before saying quietly, "Allison if that's code for being in trouble or of having lost your mind, cough twice."

"Very funny. Don't quit your day job," I replied back, filling a large mixing bowl with water from the fridge and setting it down. "But back to business, did something come up?"

Robby inhaled through his teeth and I could almost hear him grimacing. "I know it's your day off after traveling."

"But?"

"But" he started slowly before saying the rest of his sentence as fast as possible, as if he would be in trouble otherwise, "you've been specifically requested for an implementation project."

I blinked a few times, and I could tell Robby was bracing.

"What?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note:

I tried to let Allison relax, and her cats said absolutely not.

They have unionized. I fear them.

Tune in every Tuesday and Friday at noon Pacific for more one sided conversations with the cats... I mean, new chapters!

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