Disclaimer: If it's familiar to you, it doesn't belong to me.
Nick sat at the dining table, a fiercely determined expression on his face as he tried desperately to glue the tiny bat back into the hands of the baseball player atop his trophy. When his fingers slipped for what seemed like the hundredth time, he let out a frustrated groan. While debating whether he should give up, he heard footsteps behind him and then felt a pair of slender arms drape across his shoulders and wrap around his neck.
"Hey."
It was only one word, but he knew her well enough to know that the tone she had used meant that her 'hey' was more than just a simple greeting. And he knew it was meant to soften the blow of whatever she was about to say next. "What?" he replied, his frustration over his trophy evident in his voice.
Sara paid no mind to his grumpy demeanor. "Just after you left for work last night, our lovely neighbor stopped by."
"Nosy Nellie?" Nick quipped.
"Hey, her name is Charlotte and she's a perfectly nice woman," Sara defended.
"No, she's a nosy old lady who has nothing better to do than to spy on us. It was bad enough when I lived here alone, it's even worse now that you moved in."
"She's just trying to be friendly."
"Whatever."
Sara sighed. "Well anyway, she said that she'll be out of town for a few weeks. She's going to visit her sister in Denver."
"Good." He continued with his bitterness.
Sara swatted at his head before continuing. "She was looking for someone to watch her cat for her."
Nick turned to look at her. "Tell me you didn't."
"What was I supposed to say?"
"No!" He exclaimed as he shot up from his seat, nearly throwing Sara off balance as he freed himself from her grasp.
"It's only for two weeks."
"Two weeks! You know how much I hate cats," he glared.
"I know, but she didn't have anyone else to ask."
"She has neighbors on the other side."
"She said she doesn't trust them."
Nick continued to try and weasel out of it. "We're barely even home, we don't have time to take care of cat."
Sara rolled her eyes. "She's not asking us to raise her child, Nick. We'll open up a can of food once a day and clean the litter box. It won't be that hard."
"You'll clean the litter box," he corrected her.
"Fine, I'll clean it," she conceded as she wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him, hoping to get him into a better mood. "So what are you doing?" she asked when they broke apart and she noticed Nick's trophy on the table.
"My trophy broke and I'm trying to glue it back together. But that bat is so damn tiny." Nick narrowed his eyes in anger as he glared at his trophy.
"It's just a trophy."
Nick scoffed. "Just a trophy?" He picked it up and waved it in front of her face. "This is my Little League MVP trophy! The year we won the championship!"
"Alright, alright, calm down Sparky. Let me see."
"It's impossible, I'm telling you. It's too small."
"Maybe for your fat fingers," she quipped as she reached for the trophy.
"Wait, don't grab it-"
But it was too late.
"…there," Nick finished.
Sara tried to let go of the trophy but found her fingers firmly stuck.
"I had to glue that part too," Nick stated the obvious.
She glared at him. "What kind of superglue takes so long to dry?!"
He picked up the tube on the table and read the label. "Super Goop Superglue," he grinned.
"You think this is funny?"
Nick failed to stifle a laugh. "Yeah."
Sara raised the trophy over her head. "You want a fat lip to go along with those fat fingers?"
"Sorry." He tried to swallow his smile.
"Well how am I supposed to get this thing off?"
"I think you're supposed to run it under warm water."
She let out an exasperated sigh as she attempted to get by Nick and head for the kitchen sink.
"Look, I'm sorry," he stopped her.
"No you're not," she glared at him.
He broke into a smile. "Okay, so I'm not. But you are cute when you're mad."
Nick stopped the small smile creeping to Sara's lips with a kiss that quickly began to dissolve her anger. As she drifted her arms, trophy and all, over his shoulders, she felt Nick's fingertips grazing her hips as they found their way under the hem of her shirt. When his hands settled firmly on her hips and he began to pull her toward him, he suddenly broke the kiss.
"Uh oh."
"What?" Sara looked at him, a little annoyed.
"I think I had some glue on the palm of my hand."
"Nick!" she whined.
"Just one hand," he raised his free hand to show her, as if that was any consolation.
Sara rolled her eyes. "I can't believe this."
"Well, look on the bright side."
"What bright side?" she smirked.
"In order to get my hand unstuck we'll have to jump in the shower," he grinned. The ringing of the doorbell interrupted the thoughts that started running through his mind. "That must be Warrick."
"Warrick? Why?"
"He's leaving for that conference in Sacramento tomorrow morning so he's dropping off some stuff for the department rummage sale."
"What rummage sale?"
"The one on Saturday, the one that's supposed to raise money for that youth center over on Olive Street." The doorbell rang again. "Don't you ever read any of the memos?" He pushed her toward the door with his stuck hand.
"We can't answer the door like this!" She protested.
"We can't just leave him out there. Besides, it's just Warrick."
They walked to the door. "Hey," Nick greeted as he opened the door.
Warrick raised a suspicious eyebrow when he noticed a trophy in Sara's hand and Nick's arm awkwardly bent as his hand rested on Sara's hip. "Uh, I can come back."
"It's not what you think," Nick gave him a look.
"Right." Warrick stepped inside.
"Superglue. Don't ask," Sara gave a semi-explanation. She peered into the box Warrick was carrying and used her free hand to pull out a stuffed killer whale that was too clean and new looking to be an old toy from his childhood. She looked at Warrick. "Shamu?"
"Uh, some old girlfriend must have left it at my place or something. I just found it the other day when I was cleaning out my closet."
"Uh huh."
Nick looked into the box and pushed aside a tennis racket and a New York City edition of Monopoly before pulling out a stud finder. "Hey, can I have this?"
"You'd take away money from those little kids at the youth center?" Sara eyed him.
"Well no, but, uh…I…well you don't want me hammering nails into the wall all willy nilly, do you?"
Warrick rolled his eyes. "Fine. Take it. Crush those dreams of those kids longing for a new PS2."
Nick glared at him as he threw the stud finder back in the box. "Never mind. I don't want it anymore."
"So are we still getting some food, or do you guys need to take care of, uh, this?" Warrick gestured to the sticky situation Nick and Sara were in.
"Yeah. Just, hang out for a minute. We'll be in the shower," Nick replied.
"Thanks for putting that image in my head," Warrick quipped as he plopped down onto the couch and turned on the TV.
Despite Nick's best efforts, their shower was a quick one.
"Hey, some lady came by and left her cat here, said you're supposed to watch him or something," Warrick said as Nick walked into the living room with his still broken trophy. "She was kinda nosy, asked me practically everything but my shoe size."
Nick groaned as he went to sit down at the dining table and saw a box filled with cans of food and various cat toys.
Warrick shut off the TV and joined Nick at the table. "I thought you hate cats."
"I do. But animal lover," he gestured toward the bedroom, "couldn't say no." Nick glared at the tabby cat as it jumped onto the table.
"Meet Harley," Warrick said.
Harley licked Nick's trophy before lying down next to it.
"Mangy cat," Nick muttered. His gaze settled on the tube of superglue still on the table. He looked at the cat toys in the box, and then at the cat before turning to Warrick and raising his eyebrows with a mischievous glint in his eye.
"That's cruel, man," Warrick warned.
Sara turned off the hair dryer and heard the faint sounds of jingling bells coming from the hallway. She smiled as she realized their neighbor must have dropped off her cat. When she heard laughter from the living room, she figured Nick and Warrick were watching TV, but when a cat with several of its toys glued to its back nudged its way through the partially open bathroom door, she knew they weren't.
"Nick!"
The End