Black Cat (Part I)

Black Cat

Chapter 1: Thursday Evening – Asking for a Favor

I had just come home from work when Cynthia from downstairs knocked on my door. Cynthia was a single mom and even though she was technically my tenant, we had become friendly over the last couple of months. I had helped her out a couple of times, sometimes with small repairs, and sometimes I had let it slide when money was tight and the rent was a bit late. Cynthia was home during the day and often took deliveries and parcels for me. Sometimes I found a small tupper container with a homecooked meal at my door when I came home.

Cynthia was what they call “fun-sized”, a little over 5’ and quite curvy. Her skin tone was the blackest black that nature has to offer. She had a broad smile with shiny white teeth and sparkling dark eyes. I liked her – but she was not what I would call “my type”.

“Hi Cynthia! What’s up?”

“Hi Dan! Sorry to barge in on you when you just got home… but I have a little problem and I was wondering if you could help out. I’m really, really sorry to put you on the spot like this but I need to sort this out this evening… as in in the next 30 minutes or so.”

“No worries, how can I help you? And come in, please…”

“Thanks, but I have to go right back downstairs and tell them. Thing is, I have an offer to join the catering team for those new Hampton cruises. Small cruise ship, maybe 200 guests, leaves tomorrow at 6, comes back Sunday around 12. It pays quite well, and I really need the money…”

She was talking super fast and I could see that she was tense, her eyes darting left and right while we talked.

“…and I wanted to ask you if you could maybe have an eye on Cat while I’m away”. Catherine was her daughter and even though Cynthia and I knew each other quite well, I barely knew Catherine. What I knew was that she was tiny (something like 4’5’’?), always wore a black hoodie that hung loosely down a petite body, her hair and face hidden under the hood and rarely more than a mumbled “Hi” from under the hood when I happened to see her on the stairway or outside. I didn’t even know how old she was.

“I don’t mean like babysitting, don’t worry. She’s old enough to take care of herself. But I don’t want her to hang out alone all weekend, invite god-knows-who to our home, go out, come back late, you know…”

“OK, you mean like check on her every now and then?”

“Yeah, like… maybe she can stay at your place during the day, do her homework, maybe help with household chores… and she can sleep in her own bed downstairs. Again, I’m sorry to spring this on you, but I kinda like really need this job.”

“It’s no problem, Cy. She is welcome to hang out with me – or just stay away from me and do her own thing. She can watch movies, play XBox or whatever. I don’t know what kids do these days”.

Cynthia smiled. “Thank you, I owe you big time. She’s locked up in her room most of the time, reading this Japanese comic stuff on her phone. She’ll probably lock herself in your den and you won’t even know she’s there.”

“Well, my ‘den’ is also my home office and my home cinema, so if she tries to lock herself in there she will have to fight me first.”

Another smile from Cynthia. “Better hope you don’t have to fight her. She’s one stubborn lady…”

“Hahaha, we’ll see about that. But really, it’s no problem. I have nothing planned for this weekend. I’ll just stay in, do some paperwork. If she wants we can do stuff like go out for ice cream or pizza or maybe a movie, I dunno”.

“As long as you have enough water, she doesn’t need much else”

“Wait, what? Water?”

“Yes, water. Don’t ask me why, but this little package can down like a gallon a day. I don’t know where she puts it. I have to discuss for half an hour to make her eat something other than rice crackers – but I never have to ask twice if she wants something to drink.”

“OK, good to know. I hope I’ll have enough water on tap…”

“Thank you again, Dan, thank you”. For the first time since we knew each other, Cynthia hugged me. I’m 6’4’’ and her head barely reaches up to my chest, but she still held me for a good 10 seconds and then scuttled down, giving me a happy look back over her shoulder as she went down the stairs.

Chapter 2: Friday Late Afternoon – Meeting Cat

I work from home on most days. I’m an SAP consultant and working remotely, be it logging in to a client’s SAP system and configuring or fixing stuff or be it meetings with clients, I did all of it from what Cynthia had called my “den”. My apartment occupies the two top floors of the house. First the main floor with a big living room, spacious open kitchen, and dining area, all in one large room. Apart from that, just a small hallway and a guest toilet. Upstairs was my home office/cinema, my bedroom, and the bathroom.

When I bought the house, I had been with what I thought back then was the love of my life, Jenn. Our plan was to convert the upstairs floor into several smaller rooms, one or two rooms for what would be our kids, and maybe an additional guest room. I had met Jenn when I had just turned 40 and she was 32. We had three good years. Like really good years. Then one year of house hunting and planning renovations – and during those hectic and stressful times I hadn’t even noticed that we had already started to drift apart. I signed the papers, I had bought a house, we moved in and three weeks later I found a note on the kitchen table. A fucking note. On the fucking expensive kitchen table Jenn had chosen.

No rooms for kids. No guest room. But a big-ass home cinema for me and the biggest desk with the most expensive ergonomic chair I could find. Midlife crisis here I come.

That was four years ago. Four years also happened to be the longest dry spell I had in my life (of course not counting the first 16 years which were technically a dry spell but sure didn’t feel like one). For the first year after Jenn left, I basically became a hermit and spent hours playing video games and even more hours watching old movies. All James Bond movies in a row. A complete Hammer box set in one long weekend. All seasons of The Sopranos and The Wire over Christmas and New Year’s.

In therapy-speak one would say that I needed this time to “heal”, but in guy speak, I needed this time to masturbate and feel sorry for myself. I started dating again after that… but (a) every single date I had after that year was a disaster (and I had this nagging feeling that the reason was me) and (b) Covid happened. Another two years wasted, more video games, more movies, and box sets of series I didn’t even like but I had run out of other stuff to watch.

And I hate to admit this, but then… something strange and unsettling happened. My libido went down. Like really down. I didn’t feel like dating. I didn’t get hard when I saw a beautiful woman. I got hard when I watched porn, but even that went from at least once a day to maybe once a week just to relieve some pressure. I didn’t even care what kind of porn it was, I only made sure that the girl looked nothing like Jenn. And for the last few months, even this had dwindled down. I can still hold an erection. But getting one takes a long time. I can still cum. But what used to be a decent-sized gob of cream is now more like a few drops. I went to see a doctor. Everything is ok. Great, so it’s all in my head. Just great.

I had taken the afternoon off to clean the place. I wasn’t really sure why, it certainly wasn’t dirty or untidy. But this was in fact the first time in… fuck… 5 years I had a guest. Apart from my mom who visits twice a year.

I made sure the fridge was stocked with all kinds of easy-to-make meals. My cooking skills are, let’s say: limited and I had grown used to living off takeout, sushi, Mac’n’Cheese, and pizza. Healthy diet, I know. Well sushi is healthy, isn’t it?

Cynthia had said that she would drop Cat off around 5. I still wasn’t sure what “drop off” meant. Cat says Hi, we do a formal handover and then she goes back downstairs to her room, and I check every half hour that she’s still there and that there are no guests? Or would she stay and I had to come up with something I can do with a… a… I still didn’t know how old she was. Asking felt like a real douchebag move. I remembered that Cynthia had sometimes mentioned something about Cat’s school but I couldn’t remember if she had ever mentioned a grade or which kind of school (high school probably?) or anything. Just another sign of what kind of loner I had become. Here’s pretty much the only person who comes even close to being a “friend” and I know nothing about her daughter, not even how old she is.

Should I put music on? If so, what kind would make me look cool and relaxed? Another thing I hate to admit, but I was genuinely nervous. I couldn’t even explain why exactly. Because this apartment was mine and mine alone and for the first time I would share it with somebody? Somebody I didn’t know and who probably thought that I’m a boring old fart who prevents her from having whatever kind of fun she would like to have on weekends?

The doorbell rang just a few minutes after 5. I opened, Cynthia stood there, already in her navy blue catering service uniform – and a visibly annoyed Cat next to her. 4’5’’, black backpack, black hoodie, hood up over her head and all I could see was a bored face and half-open eyes.

“Thanks again Dan… I’m really sorry, gotta run, the gal who offered me a ride to the harbor is already waiting downstairs. Now, Kitty, be good, ok. If you are, extra WiFi time. If you aren’t, extra dishwasher time. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Mom”. Cat’s voice sounded like that of a little girl, but there was something else. Just two words, but it sounded like a strange kind of grown-up poise.

“Hi Cat. I think we’ve never really met like for real… so… welcome. Come in”. It was bad enough that this sounded lame. It was even worse that my voice croaked like that of a teenager hitting puberty. What was wrong with me? I need to get out more.

Cynthia hugged Cat, looked at me, gave me a small but heartfelt nod, and took off. Cat walked by me, dropped her backpack on the floor, and took her hood off. I could only see her back, but her hair looked… cute. A little more than shoulder length, tied up into a high ponytail. It wasn’t curly, just straight and an even darker shade of black than her skin.

“Wow, this place is huge. You like live alone here?”

“Yes, I do. It was supposed to be a family home but…” Stop… too much information. She doesn’t care.

“Nice. I’ve never seen a room this big. You should see our living room… no, wait, you know it because you rent it out to us”. I don’t know if she meant it like that, but it did feel like a one-two punch. And with this, she turned around.

Damn. She was pretty. Like really, really pretty. Same deep dark skin as her mom. High cheekbones, delicate lips, a tiny nose, and the biggest eyes I have ever seen outside of Comics or weird AI art on Twitter (or X?). Dark eyes. Not brown, dark.

She sure didn’t look like a kid… but the rest of her body, the way the hoodie hung over her small frame and obviously had absolutely no curves to hide… how old was she? Anywhere between 10 and 20? As estimates go, this wasn’t really helpful, but was really the best I could come up with.

“Where can I put my stuff?”

“Depends what you have… if it’s like for homework, you can do it here at the dinner table or there’s an extra desk up in my office.”

“You have an office in here?”

“Yeah, I work from home.”

“Isn’t this like… lonely? That’s like being homeschooled. I know some homeschoolers. They’re weird as fuck”

One-two punch. Again. And should I say something about the swearing? Not my place.

“I like it this way. I like being alone”.

“Sorry for ruining your weekend then”. She said this with a big smile, first time I’ve actually seen her smile – or have any facial expression at all. Did she just wink at me?

“No, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean I like to be alone when I work. Most of it is pretty technical stuff and I can concentrate better when I’m alone. Plus, I can play the music I like, go for a snack or a walk whenever I want, I can even take a nap during work”

Cat’s face changed from a smile to “boooooring” and I stopped talking.

“Office is ok I guess. I don’t want to disturb you when you enjoy your alone time in the living room. And yeah, I kinda also work better when I’m alone”.

“You can give me your backpack and I take it upstairs. You can take a look around if you want”.

Cat picked up the backpack and handed it to me. She had to raise her arm to shoulder height so I could take the backpack from her. She looked up at me and the smile was back. Not the mischievous smile from before, but actually a warm, genuine smile.

“Thank you”.

I walked to the back of the living room.

“Didn’t you say you want to take it upstairs?” Cat asked with a puzzled expression.

“Yes. I have stairs inside the apartment”

“Of course you do”.

No one-two punch this time, still just a big smile. I felt butterflies in my stomach. I’m not into teenagers. I even stayed away from teen porn. But this was the first smile in a long, long time that really made my heart skip a beat. Damn.

I took the backpack upstairs, made sure that she hadn’t followed me. I took a quick look inside the backpack. There it was. A math book. I opened it. 6th grade. I closed it. I felt a lump in my stomach. A lump in my stomach and a strange tickling further down. Stop it. No way.

I went back down. Cat was standing at the window, looking outside.

“You have the same view as we do – but one story up really makes a difference.”

“If you like that, the view from the top floor is even better.”

“From your office?”

I paused. Damn.

“No, from… from my bedroom”.

Cat turned around. Looked at me, her smile had changed. Still warm but… I wish I hadn’t said anything. This was awkward.

“Good for you. Too bad I won’t see it then.”

“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t…”

“Shush, it’s ok”.

Had this kid just shushed me?

A long pause. Long enough to be uncomfortable.

“Would you like to have dinner with me?