Stray Cat

Chapter Twenty-One

At 8:55AM, Phil was pacing before the door Neko House. The blinds were now drawn back and a receptionist was tracking Phil's movements as he walked back and forth, staring longingly into the window. She got up, seemingly out of annoyance, and unlocked the front door. He followed her back to the front desk.

"Can I help you, sir?" she asked through her teeth.

He passed her the bill of sale. "I'm here about this Neko. He shouldn't have been sold to you. Can I speak to someone about this please?"

She tapped her red-painted fingertips on her desk as she read. Finally, she decided to be helpful and she picked up her phone. "Reg, I have someone here asking about a Neko we recently bought. Can you talk to him?" Phil couldn't hear what Reg said, but a moment later the woman hung up. She gave Phil a smile that was so phony he thought it might crack. "Reg is sending someone to escort you to his office. Feel free to take a seat while you wait."

Phil glanced at the plush sofas and magazines in the waiting area, but he had no desire to rest there – he couldn't imagine that Dan was resting comfortably in a similar place right now. Before Phil could walk far from the receptionist's desk, a man entered the room. He had a ruddy complexion and his eyes searched the room until he found Phil, so this must be the man who was sent to bring him to Reg.

The man extended a hand to him. "Hello there, I'm Shaw. If you'll just follow me?"

After they shook hands, Phil followed the ruddy-faced man. They walked down several hallways of what appeared to be a normal office building where people were just settling into their desks with their morning coffee. They came to an office where Shaw knocked briefly before opening the door. Shaw announced, "Man to see you."

Phil allowed himself to be escorted to the desk of a man with ginger hair that was going silver at the temples. The man rose from his desk and shook Phil's hand with another phony smile. Phil was getting tired of these smiles. He wanted to see a smile with dimples and freckles that was accompanied by sparkling brown eyes with laughter in them. He wanted Dan, but this was the only way to get him back, so he returned the man's smile and shook his hand. "Hi, call me Reg. I hear that you are here about a Neko we bought?"

"Yes, hello. I'm Phil." He handed Reg the bill of sale. "I'm here about this Neko."

Reg looked at the paperwork and then glanced at the ruddy-faced man who was leaving the office. "Shaw, you bought this one. Would you sit with us while we discuss this?"

As they settled into the chairs across from Reg's desk, Phil remembered what Linda had said about Dan's sale: I just didn't picture that it would be so... awful. He was scared. What had Shaw done to Dan? It took all of Phil's self-control to stop himself from openly glaring at Shaw.

Reg looked up from the paperwork. "Okay, it says here that we purchased a young male Neko yesterday afternoon from a Ms. Linda Masters. This is the original bill of sale that we made out to her. What are your concerns?"

"Dan wasn't hers to sell. He was living with me. Linda is my ex-girlfriend and she had no right to do this. I've talked to her, and if you call her she will corroborate all of this. Please, I got the money from her." He put the paper bag on the desk. "It's all there. Check it. Please, just take your money back and let Dan go."

Reg looked at the bag and then back to Phil. He shook his head. "We don't sell Nekos for the same amount that we purchase them for. If you want him, you're going to have to pay the standard price."

Phil stared at him in disbelief. "But... he's been here for less than a day. Just undo the sale. I don't want to buy him, just take him back. The sale wasn't legal!"