Agnes’s lips curved slightly, and for some reason, Tom Fritz’s image involuntarily surfaced in her mind. She remembered every frame of their first meeting. She had mistaken him for a cat dealer and held the kitten protectively in her arms, full of vigilance towards him. His longing for Bubu was evident to her and deeply moved her. When he had to return to the lab, his helplessness and reluctance towards Bubu were also clear.
On this quiet night, Agnes put herself in his shoes and thought Tom Fritz must be quite sad. Bubu had been with her for less than a week, and she already couldn’t bear the thought of him being taken away. So, the kind-hearted Agnes picked up her phone. “Bubu, look up at mommy, Bubu!” she patiently coaxed the kitten.
“Meow~”
As the little one looked up, Agnes took a photo of Bubu in her arms and was quite satisfied with the shot. “Thanks for cooperating, Bubu.” She quickly opened her messages and found his contact, which was a small cat avatar. Without hesitation or considering the time, she sent him the original photo and then put down her phone.
At that moment, Tom Fritz had just lain down on his bed. The curtains were half-open, and moonlight streamed in, casting a delicate glow on his handsome face, adding an entrancing charm. He had a habit of setting his phone to silent while sleeping and soon drifted into sleep with a faint sorrow lingering.
In her apartment, the girl holding the kitten and leaning against the headboard wasn’t waiting for his reply either. This meant that even though he didn’t respond immediately, Agnes wasn’t disappointed or overthinking it. At this point, Tom Fritz wasn’t even considered a friend to her.
The next morning.
A phone ringtone woke the girl from her sleep. Groggy, she reached out to the bedside table for her phone without looking at the caller ID and answered in a daze, “Hello.”
“Agnes, are you still sleeping?” Mr. Johnsons’s kind voice came through.
“Mr. Johnsons.” The girl instantly woke up and quickly poked her head out of the covers. “It’s Saturday, so I slept in a bit. What can I do for you?”
She was now fully awake.
“Come over for lunch today. I’ve recently published a collection of works and would like to give you a copy.”
“Sure.” With Mr. Johnsons’s invitation, how could she refuse? It was also time to visit her teacher.
“Then get some more sleep; see you at noon.”
“See you at noon.”
Putting down the phone casually, the girl pulled the covers over her head again and quickly fell back asleep. She had stayed up late playing with the cat last night.
Before long, a message notification sounded. Who was texting this early? It chimed three times in a row.
Agnes irritably threw off the covers. Didn’t they know it was Saturday? She grabbed her phone and saw that it was from Tom Fritz.
Her frown relaxed as she unlocked and opened the message page to find three texts from him:
Thank you for Bubu
Sorry, my phone was on silent last night
Good morning
Staring at these messages, Agnes thought for a moment and typed:
It’s okay; he’s just so cute that he slept with me last night.
After sending this text, she glanced at the little kitten sleeping like a log beside her. At that moment, it slowly opened its eyes and meowed as if saying good morning or knowing she was texting its dad.
Agnes smiled and sent off the edited message.
Soon after, another message from him arrived: Can you send me a picture?
Holding her phone, Agnes took another picture of Bubu but noticed that the bed was a bit messy in the shot. She deleted it, half-sat up to tidy that corner of the bed, and covered the little one with some blankets. “Cooperate; your dad wants to see you.”
“Meow~”