Precious (editing)

Last night, we let the cats stay out with us instead of in their own cattery, and surprisingly, my female and male stayed on the bed with me.

He was at my feet or in-between my legs, sleeping outside my covers, and she nestled in some curled positition gainst my head, neck, or shoulders, kneading into my neck and purring.

He is my rough-and-tumble, brown tabby guy: the harder I pet, massage, and gently pull on his tail for spinal tension release, the better.

She is my queen: silver and soft furred – and seems to adore me, though I don’t know why since I’m always moving in a blur past her.

You’d think that after an evening of such love given to me, I’d wake up refreshed and in a good mood.

But my hound had been jealous in her crate all night and kept waking me up, trying to get attention.

In the morning, I had a sudden panic attack when I thought about driving with the trailer and getting our stuff and pets out of here.

Luckily, my ex -husband picked up the phone and was a sounding board for me to break-it-down a bit, and relieve some fear.

After we hung up, I spent the next two hours going over details of the moving pieces, working the problems I could see and searching for solutions.

Then, I pushed outside, fiesty and to the point – moving things around, caring for the animals, and making sure the dogs got exercised before I left them with youngest to run errands in town.

I wasn’t calm or relaxed while driving and listening to “The In-Between” on replay while getting into its best passionate moments. And when I arrived at a stoplight, my angst diverted to a man and woman directly across the street from me in front of an office.

They seemed to be discussing the plants in huge pots outside, as if he was her contractor.

I noticed he had a strong beer belly and red face, denoting possible frequent beer consumption, and I thought, “how like this region where we’ve lived around others living unhealthy lifestyles.”

Then, I saw something as the light turned green and my path curved me left in passing them.

They were laughing as if teasing.

He leaned down as she looked up chuckling – and then she looked shyly away.

She looked up again and paused, realizing he’d tried to kiss her.

Then she reached for him as he leaned down again – and they kissed!

Right there, in front of traffic, unaware that all could see.

My heart melted.

I had just witnessed two people falling in love.