'How did you find out? How long have you known?'
Keziah kept pestering me with questions the entire morning. Yes, I knew about her calling me names.

'I'll tell you over breakfast. This pompous peacock is hungry.'

Her gasp was as dramatic as they came from her.
'You. You listened in on my conversation with Tommy.'

'It's not my fault you cannot keep your voice down. Plus my door was opened.'
I grabbed the car keys and my wallet with Keziah steadily on my trail, her hand bag with her as well.

'So it's my fault you eavesdropped.'

I pretended to think about it.
'Well, that's not what I'm saying. But the other time, it was your fault for not ending the phone call or making sure the line was really dead before you started calling your boss names.'

'Ex boss.'

I briefly looked at her. We won't stay here forever. Soon this too will come to an end.

She covered her eyes, standing there in embarrassment.
'I knew it.' She said. 'I just knew it, I had that sneaky feeling that you had been on the phone.'

I stood with the door open waiting for her to get in. We had a late start this morning because we'd both laid in bed with the day off. So I don't want to miss breakfast at our reservation.

'Why didn't you say anything until now?'

I shrugged, I had my reasons. Her theatrics then had been humorous. I wasn't mad at her, I was battling feelings for her. And back then I had escaped the victor.
And now we were friends.

'You were planning something huge, weren't you? To get back at me?'

'Get in and I'll tell you all about my notorious plan.'
She reluctantly did muttering
'I'm going to regret this so much.' Under her breath.

'Did you regret it?'
I asked her when the bill arrived.

'Not yet because you keep skirting away from the conversation.'

'There was no plan, Keziah.'
I decided to drop the honorifics.
'And since we are friends why don't you just call me David?'

She gave me her famous look.
'But are we though?'

'If we aren't, I think we should be. If you don't hate me as much.'

She sighed.
'Not as before.'

Then she smiled beautifully.
' I'm playing.'

'So we split the bill.' I said and she happily nodded.

And then it was off to the movies later that night.
We had decided beforehand to pay separately for the tickets and snacks at the movies since this wasn't a date.
We finally decided on a lighthearted adventure flick. Apparently, Keziah wasn't a big fan of dark dramas or horror movies.

'We should see a horror movie sometime.'

'I'm not out of my mind.' She replied.

I'd find a way to convince her eventually. It'll be nice to see her terrified and jumping into my arms.
That thought was just a joke, I wasn't that shallow.

'I could really go for some ramen.' Keziah decided to share immediately I put the car on park in the driveway.

She scoured the entire kitchen cabinet for a pack.
'We ran out.' She whined.
'Oh no.'

She stared at the cabinet filled with other snacks, neither one holding the lull as the idea of a boiling pot of ramen with one egg and spicy sides.
It sounded delicious but the idea of watching Keziah devour an entire bowl with a happy face sounded even more so.

'I'll grab the car keys.' I announced heading to the table beside the front door, where I'd dropped them.

'It's fine I can walk to the shop down the road. I'll burn the calories I'm about to consume.'
She grinned grabbing her jacket.
She stopped me in my tracks,
'It's fine you don't have to come along.'

She must have short term memory loss. It had to be that or she thought I had memory loss.

'I have to come along and you know why.'

I stood outside and waited for her to join me on the front porch.

'I'm not helpless you know?'
She complained as she locked the door behind her.

'I know that. You are a very brave woman.'
Her expression didn't say she believed the words I spoke.
'I mean that Keziah. You are brave and strong.'

'But you don't want to treat me like I am.'

'I'm coming along for my sake. If you left me home alone, I'd stress so much you'd return to find that I have aged ten years in ten minutes.'

She chuckled, 'You certainly know how to say the right things.'

'Not all the time. You especially can attest to that.'
And she gladly did.
She retold her horrific adventures with me at the office.

'Oh, you were such a jerk.' She punctuated her tirade.

'I can't believe that's how you saw me. I was being critical because I saw how hard working you were. I knew you'd go places.'

'You should have tried a much friendlier approach. I'm not a fan of tough love.' She admitted.

That would have been hard because then I would have fallen on my face in love with her.
I would silently admit that at times I was a little harsh but those were as a result of my battling a crush in order to remain professional... and sane.
But aside from those isolated moments...
Okay, maybe there was also the fact that she was Hezekiah Mills' daughter. There was a slight resentment there but that, I rapidly overcame.
I'm not even sure I acted on that information.

'You know I always prefer the professional approach. But I have heard your suggestions and I shall take them into serious consideration.'

The plastic bag of ramen swung to and fro in Keziah's hands.
I took it from her.
'Let me, they look heavy.'

She laughed.

Then she stopped short suddenly looking around as if she dropped something. Both her eyes were blue so she hadn't dropped a contact lens. Unless... my heart slammed against my chest in immediate panic.
The safe weight on the inhaler in my back pocket comforted me, I was ready to leap into action.
'What's wrong?'

'Shhh.' She placed a finger against her lips.
'Listen.' She whispered. Her head whipped around to the nearby dumpster shrouded in darkness.

I was fast on her heels.
The whines became clearer as we got closer, it seemed to be coming from a partly opened cardboard box.

Keziah got on her knees and pried open the first fold.
'David, it's a puppy.' She said as though she's struck gold.

'Okay, so let's go before something other than a puppy jumps out of that dumpster, Keziah.'

'We can't just leave him, her... it here.'
As she pleaded her case she was already gathering the box in her arms.

'No. We aren't allowed to have pets in the house.'

'But we just can't leave. Please. What they don't know won't hurt them. We'll just take it home and feed it.'

I didn't think even she believed her words.
I got the door for her and she quickly set the box on the floor, impatient to invite the stay guest out of the box.
She gasped, a large smile brightened her face and her eyes shone like diamonds. She looked at me.
'Come and see this.'

I was doomed.
In the box with the little puppy was a rousing kitten. The small yawn revealed its tiny teeth and its green eyes registered its audience.
I'f been had again.
I lifted the little furball from the box and placed it on my lap.

'I think I have a can of tuna somewhere.' I said.

With the little one on my hand, I hunted for food. Water, tuna, sardines, mackerel. Anything I believed it would like- point of correction: anything she would like.

'Did you find anything for Junior?'

I frowned.
'Who is Ju...'
I sighed.
'You named the puppy?' That was the first step to getting too attached.

'I grabbed a can of sausages and he can share the cat's tuna and water.'

Hold on a minute.
'Why is the dog called Junior?'

Keziah but down on her smile.
'I just like the name. Besides his light fur looks like yours, don't you agree?'

I laughed mirthlessly.
'And her eyes resemble yours, wouldn't you say so?'
My next smile was truly genuine and from the bottom of my heart.

'Come, Keziah. Eat your food.'

'You're calling her Keziah?'

I shrugged.
'It's a good name.'

'Junior isn't your name,'

'But you associate that title with me.'

She scoffed.
'Come here David.'
She caught the puppy before he made his way to Keziah, the cat and me.
'Have some of this.'

'You know we aren't keeping them. Or at least the pup.'

'Why not?'

Oh, I knew this was coming.

'Well, this puppy hasn't been trained. He's going to crap all over the house. On the expensive carpets and maybe even on the bed.'

'What about Keziah. She's going to do the same thing.'

I grinned.
'I believe she knows better because she's a lady.'

She eyed me catching my double entendres.

'I can train David to be good.' she giggled as the pup licked her face.
'Look, It's love at first sight. He's already in love with me. Unlike his namesake, I know he won't give me any trouble.'

That's what she said. But what my brain processed at first was,
'He's already in love with me, unlike his namesake.'
To which I replied.
'You couldn't be any more wrong.'

'Oh, but I'm right. I know he'll change into a refined gentleman now that he worships me.' Then she switched to baby talk.
'Isn't that right pookie? Oh, you are the cutest male in this room, yes you are, yes you are.'
And then David peed in all his excitement.

I fell back in laughter at Keziah's shocked face. I reached for my phone shaking the entire time taking the picture of her holding up the pup frozen in shock.

'It's not funny.' Yet she was smiling just a little.

'You listen, mister. We are going into the bathroom, there you can continue your shenanigans.'

'I think the bathroom would be the best place to keep them.' I said after I caught my breath.
I followed her into her room and to the bathroom where she set the pup into the bathtub. I followed suit, leaving them to play amongst themselves.

'What are you doing in here?' She panicked snatching away her exposed panties hang out to dry. I did the gentlemanly thing ad looked away while she got her affairs in order.

'What? Did you think I was going to take her to my bathroom? Shes's a young female.'

'Were you always this silly or is this something new?'

'You just chose to see something else.'

And what I also discovered was that it was around her, I was even more carefree and comfortable to be my usual self. With Keziah, I didn't detect any ulterior motive behind her smile or action and that was refreshing.

'Besides, I didn't want to keep Keziah and David apart, she would be devastated, how could she possibly live without him?'

'I'm sure it's David who needs her.'

I shook my head. 'He certainly looks like the one taking care of her. If it wasn't for him they wouldn't have been saved.'

'I think I heard the mewl first.'

She was lying and she knew it.

'We can take them to the shelter tomorrow after work.' I said watching them play.

'Stop being heartless. Why leave them at a shelter where they would have little hope of being adopted. We can take care of them. '

'They are still babies, they would find families two days top. We are both working who would take care of them when we are gone?'

Clearly, I was being the reasonable one. We weren't ready to become parents.

'We can pay the maid who comes in here extra to watch them until we get back.'

I wasn't too sure. It sounded like a terrible plan.

'Come on, David. Let's give it a try before you completely throw away the plan.'

'One week and then they are out of here. I'll take Keziah and you keep Junior.'

'His name is David, sir.' she corrected me.

'Good night.'

                                ***

'He has abandonment issues.'

I looked up at the ceiling for strength and patience.

Another small furry head with sharp ears poked out of Keziah's tote bag.

'You brought her as well.'

She placed her hands on her hips passing me a 'duh' look like I should know better.

'She would have been lonely.'

'I thought we agreed to have Bin Min Nam watch them? I even left her a note.'

She opened her mouth, 'Oh, I didn't know you left a note. I thought we would want them here until she is comfortable with watching them.'

I was struggling to keep the exasperation in my voice.

'This is a place of work, Miss Mills. We have a lot of work to do.'

She pouted her lips, 'It's Miss Mills now?'

Naturally. We were at work.

'We are in the office, how are you going to hide this?'

'Me? We are in this together.'

My eyebrows rose, 'Do you want to come again because I did not sign up for this...'

There was a knock on the door.

My eyes grew larger, In the light of current events, the fact that we would be meeting the new team today slipped my mind, that knock, it had to be them.

'Oh, no. What do we do?' she whispered. 'We have to hide them.'

The idea couldn't have come at a later time because now David had escaped and was running amock in the office.

'You keep using we? I don't understand why?'

She fumed. 'Fine, throw me under the bus. I'll be fine on my own.'

She was lying and I knew it and she knew it.

I got to the door, forcing the team back as I stepped out quickly closing the door behind me.

'Oh, it's just you?' I asked the nervous man.

'Yes, sir. I was told you asked for only me?'

Oh, Yes I had. Because I had specially requested Eun Soon and a few others to be transferred to the Gangham office for the period they were needed.

'Yes, that's right. Why don't we take this briefing into the conference room on the next floor? Wait for me there and I will grab my partner and our things.'

He bowed and went his way.

Keziah looked so relieved to see me.

'I'll put it on your tab.' I went after David who assumed we were playing catch-the-mutt and became impossible to catch, running under tables and barking excitedly.
Keziah the cat calmly sat in my chair watching us.

And I'll add that to reasons why I like cats.