Nico's Cruse by Jennifer Kacey Page B

taunting her since he wouldn’t respond to her
chat messages.
    The connection timed out and then his icon went dark. He’d
logged off and her heart sank. If he wasn’t even on the other end she had no
hope of convincing him to give her the password.
    She picked up her phone and texted him, “ Please, Sir,
please .”
    Miss Priss jumped up on the table, meowing to be fed. She
petted her and put her down, not needing the distraction. “I’ll feed you in
just a few minutes, pretty kitty. I can’t let him do this.”
    Texting him several more times got her exactly zero
response. She left her laptop up and paced around the apartment trying to think
of some way to fix everything.
    She wandered into the kitchen and fed the cat, which
continued to meow and wasn’t interested in the food at all. “I’m not certain
what you need then.” She picked her up and carried her around with her to pace,
scratching her ears and beneath her chin.
    She set her on the floor in the bathroom and decided to
brush her teeth with the cat making figure eights around her legs, which she’d
never done before.
    Absentmindedly, she slipped on a silk nightie, wishing Nico
would come over to see it. She hauled her laptop with her to bed and crawled
under the covers. His icon still showed offline but she tried to connect to him
one more time.
    The password screen blinked empty boxes at her again,
blinking, blinking. The clock ticked closer and closer to midnight and she
became frantic, having no idea what to do. She texted several more times but
those went unanswered too.
    The cat jumped on the bed, meowing in Rose’s face, rubbing
on the edge of the laptop screen.
    “What do you need? I’ve fed you, loved you, petted you. I
just don’t know what you need tonight.” Rose moved to brush her off the bed but
the cat ducked behind the laptop screen.
    She peeked her head over the top of the monitor, sitting on
her haunches so she could drape her front paws over the screen along with the
key on her collar. Her meow sounded like a plea as she seemed to beseech Rose
for something.
    Light from Rose’s lamp on the nightstand lit up the key as
it danced in front of the laptop screen.
    The code on the key was six digits, just like she needed for
the password to access his laptop. “But… That couldn’t work.”
    She stared at the cat that held her gaze. She didn’t move,
didn’t make a sound, imploring her, Rose thought, to believe in miracles.
    With a shaky hand she steadied the key so she could read the
numbers and she typed them in, one digit at a time.
    The connection opened immediately and Rose gasped, covering
her mouth.
    She held her breath, her heart pounding away at her ribs and
she tried to make out what was in the dark. Nico shifted in bed and she could
tell he was already asleep in bed.
    “How did you…” she started to ask the cat, but she padded
over to the corner of the bed and circled up to go to sleep.
    Surprise, fear, and hope swirled inside her as she stared at
Nico in bed.
    It didn’t matter how it worked, she decided. She grabbed her
cell and USB stick off of the nightstand, looking around the apartment one more
time.
    “Thank you,” she breathed out in a soft voice to the cat, so
she didn’t wake Nico.
    She reached toward the screen and her fingers passed right
through. It didn’t feel strange or cold or anything. It was no different than
crawling through a window.
    Standing beside his dresser, she looked back at her bedroom,
seeing for the first time what he had seen. Pics of her parents were pinned on
picture boards behind the bed. The pretty pillows she bought the year before
leaned against the headboard. She ordered them wanting to spice up her bedroom
and libido and it led her to Nico. He was what she needed to find herself and
she wanted to return the favor.
    That’s what you did for people you loved.
    She set her phone and stick next to the keyboard on the
dresser and closed the laptop, breaking the connection.