False Engagements

Chapter 1

It was raining again. Ordinarily, Lila was fond of the rain, but she wasn't indoors at home now, all cozied up. She had just ended work, outside a fancy fusion cuisine restaurant on an island resort about an hour and a half away from her warm and snug apartment. About too far a distance if you asked her.

This had been a long day, and she didn't much relish the idea of squishing back home in soaking wet sneakers. Ugh. She looked up at the sky, before narrowing her eyes at the covered walkway some metres away. Was it a good bet to run?

This really wasn't her day. First, she'd been asked to extend her working hours, then she had to wait on two especially tardy customers who didn't seem to realize the restaurant had been closed for at least 20 minutes already. Then after locking up the place and sending her last coworker home, she had searched her bag for an umbrella to brave the storm with- only to come up empty as she remembered she'd left it out to dry outside her apartment just the previous day.

Stupid rainy season.

She was just about to make a dash for the walkway anyway when a small sound caught her attention.

A small sound, like... a mewl, almost. That was weird. Lila had been working here for over a year, and she'd never heard anything like that before. Curious, she waited to see if she'd hear it again.

The mewl seemed louder this time, and vaguely whiny. Was a cat caught in the rain too? Ever tender-hearted towards animals, Lila backtracked, listening carefully for it. She walked around half the perimeter of the restaurant, brow furrowed in confusion as the sound alternated in volume between loud and soft- until the realization hit her. The cat wasn't caught in the rain, it was in a drainpipe!

She stopped in front of the drainpipe that snaked its way down from the roof of the building down to the ground. It was clogged up with leaves, and she grimaced as she started picking out the grime and half-rotted plant matter from the pipe. The intensity of the rain was worrying her- in other circumstances she could probably have left the cat there for a while as she tried to find resort services to come help her. But as things were, she wasn't sure if the cat stuck in there wouldn't drown in the half hour she would need to walk across to the only help desk left open at this late timing and back.

The pipe was located in an uncomfortable corner, half open to the rain, and Lila resigned herself to being spattered with rain on her back as she pulled out the leaves.

Until it stopped, and she looked up in confusion.

Two faces peered down at her, and it was all she could do not to jump in shock.

"Um, what are you doing?"

The friendlier of the two faces was smiling at her, albeit confusedly, a handsome, chiseled face with kind grey eyes and a mop of brown hair. Lila couldn't help but stare for a moment until the next mewl pulled her attention back.

"Oh! Um. There's a cat stuck in there, I'm trying to get it out. I'm afraid it'll drown if it rains any harder."

The two men exchanged looks, and the other man, more stony-faced than his companion, continued to hold an umbrella over them as the first man squatted down to help.

"Well that sounds terrible, let's both dig and see if we can get it out any faster."

The work went a lot faster with two pairs of hands. It definitely helped that Lila wasn't also feeling grossed out by the previous trickle of rainwater dripping down her back.

In a few minutes, they carefully pulled out a dirty cat- or well, really, it must have been a kitten, it was far too small to be a properly sized cat. With the leaves out of the way, the drainpipe gushed water freely onto the ground.

She held the kitten to her, trying to warm it up with her own body temperature. It was so muddy she couldn't even tell what color it was. Now out in the open, the kitten meowed more loudly than ever, clawing and trying to escape onto the ground. Cradling it firmly, she turned back with a small smile to the two men.

"Thanks. It was really kind of you guys to help."

Friendly-face returned the smile, more broadly. "Not a problem! This was a pretty exciting adventure, huh?" Then tilting his head at the state of her clothes and the kitten, he ventured, "Can we send you back home? It's raining hard, and I don't imagine public transport back to the mainland would be comfortable with a muddy kitten..."

Lila hesitated. Rescuing a cat with the help of two strangers was all well and good, but was it really wise to let them take her back?

Stony-face came to her rescue. "Where are you going to get a car now?" he reminded him. "We're on an island resort. I think we can just call her a cab from the hotel."

"That's true! Let's do that then!"

It was a bit of a walk back to their hotel, since it was situated at the other end of the island, even if the island itself wasn't very big. Friendly-face introduced himself as James, and his companion as Blake. Lila wasn't the best conversationalist, so she silently blessed James for being such a cheerful, chatty presence. It was a bit less awkward at least.

She definitely would have walked to the hotel in the most awkward silence if she had been alone with Blake. There was just something about his gloomy countenance that didn't invite conversation. Real pity, she thought, since he was so very handsome. Almost painfully handsome.If he had the slightest bit of charm, he could probably have bowled over anyone he pleased with just a smile.

The kitten seemed to protest less since they were sheltered from the rain under James' umbrella now. She peered down at it, stroking it. James smiled softly at the gesture.

"Poor thing. It's very lucky you heard it."

Lila waved it off. "It's lucky you two were around to help... Speaking of, if your hotel is on the west side of the island, why are you around here? All the tourist attractions are on the other side."

"Ah, we had a meeting at the conference halls here, and our work partner's hotel is the one behind that restaurant. As much as I would have liked to be a tourist here, we're really here for work."

"Hmm, that's a pity. Sateen Island is pretty fun. You should make out some time to check out the sights, like the aquarium or the natural history museum. Or go to the beach, play some water sports."

James tapped his chin consideringly.

"Maybe we should take a couple days off... Blake, what do you think?"

To Lila's utter lack of surprise, Blake simply shrugged. James took it as an affirmative.

"Yes! Let's call back later, push our flight back. I don't know why I didn't think to do this earlier. Do you have any suggestions what to do if we want to pack everything on the island into three days of touristing?"

James was almost like a big golden retriever puppy, Lila thought, as she listed out the main attractions that people liked to go to while at Sateen Island. She couldn't help smiling to his every enthusiastic response, to how he seemed to see everything with an attitude of sunshine. It was even more stark when one compared him to his companion. Were they actually friends, Lila wondered, or just colleagues? She would have thought the former, except now that she'd had a chance to talk to the two of them, it seemed that James was innately tuned in to Blake's silences and what he meant by the smallest of gestures.

There was certainly a lot of interpreting going on, since Blake seemed entirely indisposed to friendly chitchat at all.

Not that Lila was likely to see them again, to be very honest. Maybe a few more times, if they were going to hang around the island and maybe if they went in the restaurant, but other than that...

When they reached the hotel, James stayed with her while Blake went to the receptionist to call for a cab.

"It's really kind of you guys to call me a cab home." Inwardly, she sighed a little, since it was past midnight, and the cab fare was likely to be expensive. But she supposed that taking public transport back would be super annoying with a muddy cat and her own clothes ruined. And she would have to clean the poor thing and arrange a bed for it for the night too... This was definitely going to be a long night. Thank god it was her off day tomorrow.

James shrugged. "It's not a big deal." And there was that bright smile again. "I guess you can call it fate! Hey, can I get your contact? Or maybe you can have mine! That is, if you don't mind me checking in to see how the little guy is doing?"

Was this an attempt to flirt or really just keep in contact for the cat? Lila had no idea. She supposed she would find out. Instead of giving him her number though, she scrolled through her mobile for a chat app, and handed it over for him to key his details in. Probably safer this way, and easier to block him if he turned out to be a weirdo creep in her convos. Even if she didn't really think he seemed like one.

Blake returned momentarily with a cardboard box and towels in his arms.

"Here," he said, passing the box over to Lila. "The kitten can rest in there, so you don't have to keep holding it. And I asked the hotel if we could clean it up in the sink. They offered us the back room to wash up in since it's super muddy."

Lila blinked. That was... surprisingly thoughtful. Who would have expected it from that grumpy face?

Washing the kitten was a messy process, but at least she wasn't doing it alone. The kitten squirmed even under the warm soothing water, protesting with loud wails as it tried to escape her hold. But Lila had experience with escape artist cats as a child, and the muscle memory came back easily. As the mud scraped off, she realized that the kitten was a beautiful shade of orange-brown. How did such a cat even fall down the drain pipe to begin with?

James watched her with some admiration for how at ease she seemed.

"You look like you have a lot of practice with cat-wrangling," he remarked. "Do you already have cats?"

Lila shook her head. "Not at the moment. My family had them when I was younger."

"I always wanted cats." James shot a look at Blake. "Mr. Fancy-pants there had a Persian growing up. I was so jealous, but my parents said no, so I had to sneak over to his place all the time."

"You had a German Shepherd, a tank full of koi carp and a turtle. Don't whine about my cat."

The bickering was unexpected, if kind of sweet, and Lila couldn't help snickering. Definitely childhood friends then, and not just colleagues. She patted the kitten dry with one of the towels when they were done soaping all the mud off it, only to be offered the extra one by Blake.

"This one's for you," he said blandly. "And I got you a clean t-shirt from the hotel to change into."

Maybe she had misjudged Blake. Bringing stuff for the cat was one thing, but noticing that her own shirt was dirty and wet? And having the foresight to bring her something to change into? Quietly, she accepted the towel and shirt and slipped into a cubicle to change.

She supposed the two of them weren't such mismatched friends after all. Just that James showed his nature openly, while Blake put up a wall of silence in front of his own kindness. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of James having owned a dog, while Blake had a cat. Very indicative pets.

The taxi was waiting outside the hotel by the time they were done, and James waved merrily at her once she was safely ensconced in the car, cardboard box of kitten and a fluffy dry towel tucked in beside her.

"Safe ride home! Give me an update about the cat!"

She gave a smile and a thumbs up, and settled in for the ride home as the cab sped away.

James slung an arm around Blake, watching the back of the cab.

"Pretty, soft-hearted and good with animals. Too bad she's not the kind of girl your parents would wanna push on you huh?"

Blake scowled, shrugging his arm off. "Don't remind me. I just had a call from my mother about the same damned thing. She's really insistent that I propose to Annette soon."

"Well she's reaalllyyy hoping for that merger so I can't say I'm surprised... But you're not interested in Annette are you?"

"No."

"... You know, she's not that bad. She's smart, she's cool, she's got tons of men chasing after her. But she seems to like you better than any of her other would-be husbands."

Blake spared his ever-optimistic friend a glance.

"I don't love her. I want to marry for love."