Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood

            “I know who you are.” Sadie’s eyes narrow. “What I asked is: Who do you think you are, to come into my house and steal my cat?”

            “Um, technically, Garfield is my—”

            “His name is Cat.”

            Anders blinks. “Pretty sure I named him Garfield.”

            “You named him Garfield. Past tense. Then Erik took him in because you were Eat Pray Loving your way through Europe. Erik opened his home and his heart, and renamed him Cat. And Cat likes it much better than Garfield. Don’t you, babe?”

            On the windowsill, Cat licks his orange paw in what almost looks like a nod. Mmm.

            “Knowing Erik, I seriously doubt he opened his heart to—”

            “Things have changed around here, Anders.” Sadie’s tone is so sharp, Erik’s six-foot-something, two-hundred-pound brother presses himself deeper into his chair. Yeah, Erik thinks, watching little wisps of hair come undone from her bun and frame her face. She’s terrifying. And cute. “Especially between Erik and Cat. They are bonded now.”

            They are not. Cat hates Erik, and Erik hates Cat, especially after watching him scoot his asshole against Erik’s toothbrush less than twelve hours ago. However, they are both very fond of Sadie, and have therefore established a truce of sorts.

            To facilitate peaceful cohabitation, Erik has disseminated decoy toothbrushes all around the house.

            “Okay, listen . . .” Anders scratches his neck. “Don’t you guys have a budding engineering firm to run? Do you even have time to take care of Garf— Cat?”

            “We have nothing but time,” Sadie cuts in, as though Grantham & Nowak is not growing exponentially, as though they haven’t been busier than ever. Erik fondly remembers how anxious Sadie was when they both left their previous jobs. What if, with working and living together, you get tired of me? It sounded so unlikely, he could only laugh. “And as you know, the house we’re building upstate is almost finished. Cat could come up with us on weekends. In fact, we’ve been thinking about getting a dog—and I think we can all agree that Cat would love to torment a puppy. Wouldn’t you, Cat?”

            “Meow.”

            Erik’s phone buzzes again. This time he takes his eyes off Sadie to check his texts.

            Clearly, Mara told Liam about the baby. Clearly, she told him last.

                             Erik: Congrats, man.

                Erik: Unrelated question: Are you guys ever scared of your wives?



            The replies are instantaneous.

                             Liam: 100%.

                Ian: Hannah’s still not my wife, but yeah. Shitless.



            Erik sighs, slides his phone back into his pocket, and decides to intervene. He goes to Sadie, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Her slight weight settles into his side. Sorry, Erik tells his brother with a look. But she’s very cute and very terrifying. “What about joint custody?” he proposes.

            Anders glares at him, and then nods, defeated.

            Sadie smiles, triumphant.

            Cat is nowhere to be seen. Must be in the bathroom, Erik thinks. Looking for toothbrushes.





IAN


            The words come out of Ian’s mouth before he’s fully processed them. By the time he notices Hannah’s raised eyebrows and her dubious expression, it’s just too late to take them back.

            She stops in the middle of the hallway.

            Ian stops, too.

            She looks at him, skeptical.

            Ian tries not to avert his eyes.

            It’s not easy: The Jet Propulsion Lab is crawling with interns, students, engineers. They’re all at the end of their workday, and they’re all trying to exit the building from that door over there. The one that’s maybe ten feet away.