paper planes and playground games

“Dang, can’t even ask if it’d be worth my time watching.” 

“I know that a lot of people liked, it but I think it was just women who got really in to the idea of it”

“Well, now is a perfectly good time. We might need to get a box from somewhere though, I think the only ones in the spa are cardboard.” 

“Do you think we could get a metal one somewhere? Or plastic? Like Tupperware but bigger”

“Never actually seen that, probably should.”

“I haven’t either”

“It’s really no problem, happy to help in any way I can. Whenever you like.” 

“I would like to as soon as possible, maybe put him in a little box so the bugs don’t get to him...”

“Well no, I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, just a bit of fun really. Though  could probably give the girls at Bottoms Up a run for their money.” 

“You know it would probably be a good source of money though, you could be like Magic Mike or something”

He nodded as she spoke. “Of course, you need somewhere to lay him to rest, I don’t see why not. That sounds nice, yeah of course you can put it there. Consider the place where you bury him as yours, whatever you want there is fine by me.” 

“Really? Thank you so much... That really means a lot to me... When can we bury him?”

“I promise I’ll be very gentle,” he said, kneeling down where she’d moved across a little. As he started to wrap up the cat he made sure to do it as gently as he possibly could. Being gentle was something he’d had to practice when caring for his mother, and he was as gentle with the cat as he had been with her. He listened to her speak. “There’s some grass around the spa,” he said after a moments thought. “There’s CCTV, I’m there most of the time, so I wouldn’t let anyone dig him up. And if you wanted to plant flowers, or leave something whenever you liked no one would question it, and I’d make sure it stayed where it was.” 

Sofia watched quietly as he wrapped up her little friend, when he spoke to her about a spa she looked back to him, “Really? You would let me do that? I want to paint him a little head stone, you know? Like just a little flat smooth rock, like the ones you get from a river. I want to paint one for him, could I put that there? With some flowers?”

“Yeah, some places in Europe can have a lot less boundaries than here, and well sometimes it’s fun to just be naked.” 

“Maybe you are in the wrong line of work then, Hunter. Maybe you should go looking for an exotic dancing gig you know?”

Edward let go of Ghost’s lead and looked down at him. “Ghost, stay,” he commanded. Then he walked over to Sofia. “Hey, this is not your fault. Someone kind and caring enough to want to take in a stray is in no way the cause of such a horrid situation.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I promise this isn’t your fault. Would you like me to finish wrapping him for you? You shouldn’t have to do that by yourself, and I promise I’ll be gentle with him. Ghost would be more that happy to act as a teddy bear whilst I do.”

Sofia sat quietly before looking up towards him, “Okay, just be really careful please, I don’t want him to hurt anymore...” Making room for him to get down she scooted closer to Ghost, glancing between him and the small cat. “I was going to bury him, but I would have to find a place, I just have an apartment, so I don’t have a yard...”

“Just the waiting staff, and we;d still have our aprons on. Though Oscar says no one wants to see my pasty white ass, personally I disagree.”

“You can’t be serious? You would actually do that? That’s crazy...”

“Yeah, I’m a waiter there, Oscar still wont let me have naked nights. Personally I think they’d be fun. Betsy’s is a nice place, I love it there.”

“Naked nights?! Oh my, do I even want to know what that is? Doesn’t sound very sanitary...”

“It’s not your fault,” he told her softly. “You couldn’t have know it was going to happen. And you never know how he would have reacted to being taken in, cats aren’t the best in new environments, he might have been in the same place at the same time regardless. And I now that’s probably not helping in the slightest. I’m sorry” 

“It is! I was going to take him, I even bought him a little collar and everything. He would always come up to my window from the fire escape and I would let him in and give him some little bits of food and water.. He was so sweet, who would do this to him? He.. He was.. he was all cut up...”

“I’ll remember to use it then.”

“Oscar’s? Neat, I’m a waitress at Betsy’s”

“I’m so sorry,” Edward apologised tightening his grip on Ghost’s lead. “Ghost, heel,” he commanded, and his dog obeyed happily wagging his tale. “He gets a little over excite sometimes, but he’s gentle. Do you need any help there?”

Sofia sniffled as she continued to wrap the small kittens body, “No, he’s dead... I... I was going to adopt him, he has been hanging around my apartment block for over a week... I just, I waited too long.. I should have taken him in before, something killed him..”

“I’ll take your word for it being charming.” 

“I do promise that it is...”