CHAPTER 3: What Was That?
"Ummm…Bombs?" Alonzo cautiously looked inside the open door, clearing his throat nervously.
"Alonzo? Come on in," Bombalurina invited.
Alonzo stepped inside the overturned box, asking himself as he did so, Should I really be here? Should I be doing this? The answer, he never got to, as that was when he saw the attractive, red queen sitting on her bed, carefully tending to her claws.
She smiled flirtatiously at the black-and-white tom. "Sit down." She patted the spot next to her. "Now, tell me what's been happening."
Alonzo began reluctantly, but he soon found himself pouring everything out. The gist of the account was that Cassandra had suddenly began acting strangely, in that she had been getting moody and angry over every little thing; she would jerk away whenever he so much as touched her; and he would often wake up in the morning alone in bed, only to later discover that she had spent the night on the floor. Poor Alonzo was in a state. Never had his precious mate acted this way before. And now she suddenly was. "What will I do?" he wailed at last.
"What do you want to do?" countered Bombalurina.
"What can I do?" Alonzo counter-countered.
"Well, you have three options: First, you can talk to her about it."
"Tried." Alonzo looked at the floor glumly.
"You can act the same way."
"Would rather not."
"Or you can make her jealous."
"What was that?"
"I said, 'or you could –'"
"Is that the best you can come up with?" Alonzo cut in.
Bombalurina shrugged elegantly. "It's better than doing nothing," she stated.
"Well, I guess the best way to go would be to make her jealous. But how?" He spread out his paws in a pleading gesture.
"Now, you're talking." She moved closer to the tom and placed her paw on his leg.
"What are you doing?" he asked apprehensively. Had he been single, or had it been Cassandra, he would have kissed the queen right there and then. But this time, it was different. He wasn't single. And she wasn't Cassandra.
"Making her jealous."
"But she can't witness it," he protested.
"That doesn't matter. Practice makes perfect." She leaned in closer.
Alonzo could feel her warm breath upon his face. His heart raced. And then he stopped. "Wait…what about Tugger?"
"What about him?"
"Well, he's your mate…say, where is he, anyway?" Alonzo looked around the box frantically.
"He ain't no longer," she pronounced.
"What was that? He ain't? Er, isn't?"
"No. He isn't."
"Oh." Alonzo resisted the urge to ask the reason for this sudden separation.
She cuddled up to him closer, nuzzling his face. "So, what do you say, tiger?"
The tom gulped audibly. "I don't know if this is such a good idea, Bombs…"