"Where's my ring?" Jamie asked the lynx she followed, voice dripping in desperate sweetness.
"It does not, and will never exist." Max answered.
Max walked otherwise noiselessly down the primary hallway that ran the length of FAM's small company building, no sound at all coming from his steps as his lynx paw pads silenced each one. His BDU woodland camo uniform stood out blatantly against the plain beige walls around him, just as much as that of the female jackal following behind him. He wasn't granting her any heed however, his attention remained entirely on the screen of the tablet he held in his front paws. The jackal behind him walked with a forward lean and her paws behind her back, keeping as close to Max as she could while also keeping her feet from stepping on the back of his. She was always trying to stay as close as possible . . .
And she still was, even after over two years . . . even without an actual knock on his office door.
Max looked up from his desk as the door opened inward, just to make sure it was in fact her. It was, of course. Anyone else would have knocked, plus this late after everyone was gone it wasn't going to be anyone else anyways. Their friends Sarah and Tobias sometimes did stay after their own working hours, but even on those occasions those two would still be gone by eleven, and it was half-past midnight now.
"You're not supposed to still be here." Max said, dropping his eyes back onto the computer screen in front of him. He resumed issuing and confirming everyone's pay, it being the rollover from Thursday night into Friday morning.
"I went back actually," Jamie responded, with no lack of her eternal smile, "and made some cookieees." For a few seconds, her smile turned into a cheery, and toothy jackal grin. She even revealed a cold quart of milk from behind her back as well. She knew, though some he had taught her, the rules of eating cookies. Said rules consisted of such things as: the only kind of cookie is chocolate chip, cookies are never without milk, and cookies taste better late at night.
It took Max a second, like it always did. "Thanks." He managed to say, with the same void and concern that always came when he said anything that was supposed to be . . . he knew how cold and toneless his voice sounded.
It didn't seem to matter to Jamie, it never did. Her smile expanded all the same as she set the small plate of cookies on the desk and handed him the quart carton of milk.
Max grabbed one of them and true to the rules, they were still fresh and warm. The half he bit off melted easily in his mouth, and the two-percent milk afterward perfected the entire match. He ate and drank with one paw and continued issuing everyone's pay at a reduced pace with the other.
"You really should go home and go to bed." He said between cookies, while Jamie was walking around to his side of the desk.
Jamie made some kind of sound halfway between a hmm and a canine whine, whilst tilting her head just a bit and letting her eyes drift off to the side. "Should." She managed to both agree on the concept, but refuse the suggestion in the same single word. And then of course, she threw herself into a giddy hug, wrapping her arms around from beside him. "How long can I have?" She always, since he'd first started letting her, asked how long he was ok with her holding on.
Luckily for Max, or so his mind still framed it, Jamie's eyes were closed, so she didn't see the little smile that he had for however briefly it appeared. "Long enough." He answered.
Jamie squeezed happily ever tighter in response, and even pressed her cheek to his, up to the point of making it awkward for him to chew.
"Make sure you at least leave room for my jaw to move." Max said, before actually making an attempt at eating a third cookie.
A suppressed snickering came from the mammal beside him before she actually apologized. "Sorry." She said, and dropped her cheek down onto Max's shoulder instead.
He went on working, while she went on getting golden-brown jackal fur all over his uniform's left shoulder.
A bit of time passed, enough for Max to finish issuing every payment, and responding to new queries about their security and helicopter services. He'd gotten too used to Jamie hugging onto him all the time; it didn't even affect his ability to work anymore. Nor did the oddity of a jackal perpetually glomping a lynx even register anymore, at least not to him. It still did for certain members of her family though . . .
"It's gonna be time again soon?" Jamie suddenly asked. She and Max both seeing the business order notification pop up.
It was a confirmation for a bulk order of air conditioner units, with a triad of variety. There were several commercial units, a couple dozen home-scale units, and essentially what amounted to a truckful of single-room or window-mounting units.
"No one else is gonna bring them ACs if we don't." Max answered. Their security firm wasn't remotely on any fortune lists, but it was his, so the company's excess revenue was his to do with as he pleased. It was only once a year, but they bought and brought ACs to hot . . . and torn places of the world where no one else was ever going deliver them. Not every such place, FAM didn't make that kind of money, just the few Max had once been in on deployment as a mercenary pilot.
"Ooo, that means we get to wear desert camos again!" Jamie became excited at the upcoming availability. "Dearka and Skyla love seeing me in them." She said of her younger siblings.
Max responded right after, out of habitual reflex. "Woodland is the only true camo—"
"—all else is unacceptable." Jamie rolled her eyes, though her smile held completely in place. "We all know." She knew Max's woodland rule, as did everybody else. It actually was her favorite camo pattern as well, but her younger brother and sister liked the desert colours better. They at least liked Max though; they thought he and everyone else at FAM was cool. Her dad and her older brother were always lax about everything, so they had no issue with whatever uniform Jamie wore. And most importantly, they no issue with her lynx. But . . . her mother . . .
A pause came while Max filled out a charter request form for a cargo flight service, to take them and the AC units to and from Oxbekistan. Jamie's mentioning of her family . . . did bring an issue to mind again. It brought THE issue to mind, and the mental hurdle that had been in front of him today more than any other day, and almost certainly more than any other to come.
"You know," Max offered a reality, "there's probably still a lot of really handsome jackal guys out there."
"No." The response of the jackal beside him was instant, accompanied by her squeezing him even more.
A second or two passed before Max brought up another avenue of offer again. "It would be a lot easier between you and your mother."
The hugging grip around the lynx tightened still further, to the point of actually becoming crushing.
"Ow." Max let out the single, plain word.
"No." Jamie replied the same as before.
"And which part was that a response to?" Max asked in return, bringing up his manageable, faint smile.
Jamie giggled, even almost transitioning into a suppressed jackal cackle.
"Alright, time to let go." Max informed her, as he sent the application and finally shut off his work computer.
A brief, hushed canid whine came in response as Jamie willingly released him so that he could actually stand up. Her face only dimmed for a few seconds though, and was right back to jackal-sweet by the time he was actually up on his feet.
Max stretched some bit after rising, as most felines always did, and turned to step away from the desk finally. A lovely, golden-furred jackal face was right there in his vision's way when he turned, of course, just long enough for another smile to be forced out of him before Jamie stepped aside. She only followed him to and out the office door. Once they were out in the hallway she broke that pattern, as she didn't constantly follow just behind him like she used to anymore. Now . . . now she was always beside him instead.
They'd only walked a few steps along before Max stopped, deciding that this was probably it. It was just the two them there, along with his potential fate. From the beginning it had been a peaceful and stilling atmosphere, the empty calmness provided by the old fluorescent lighting and the faint hum of the nuclear powerplant turbines that made it through the walls. It ultimately gave him the perfect environment he needed right now.
"You know I'm not a suave, romantic guy, right?" He turned his head to ask her.
Jamie looked confused at first, like almost anyone would have. But, inevitably her expression rebounded and she nodded in response, with a look that . . . well she didn't care about the facts he had just stated.
"You know I'm not a handsome jackal guy, right?" Max asked, now actually turning himself to completely face her. He knew her. He already knew the responses he was going to receive, but . . .
"Mmm one of two." She responded with a more disagreeing, narrowed-eye smile.
He almost rolled his eyes, but, he was a bit too tired like he always was. "You know I'm always tired, right?" He asked, leaning his back against the wall behind him, allowing it to take away some of his weight.
"Sleepy Kitty." Jamie answered, nodding again.
"You know I'm a shut-quiet introvert, right?" He asked a fourth line.
Again, Jamie just nodded happily. She already knew everything he could list off if he kept going, though she didn't know why he was going.
"You know your mom really doesn't like me, right?" Max asked again.
The truth of that one stung, more than enough to wince away some of her smile. But, it was still only some, and she did nod again. "She will."
Well, he had to disagree with her on that one, but that wasn't the actual point of the moment. Max let more of his weight lean against the wall behind him, sliding down by an inch or so. "You know you're never going to see candles or luxury cloth dining tables, right?" He asked a sixth.
With the return of the formerly lost portion of her smile, she nodded again.
"You know that I don't get it, right? That you're never going to get whatever the correct romantic response to anything is, and that I'm dead inside, and that I can't act any other special way than I already do?" He asked one more.
"I know who you are." Jamie's response was different this time. There was no nod to go along with the words, and somehow . . .
. . . somehow to Max that only amplified their impact.
A few seconds of silence passed, with nothing but his green-brown eyes staring across into her violet.
"You still don't want to let go?" Max asked the unambiguously metaphorical question.
Jamie's head swung slowly and gently from side to side, with her hands behind her back like she was struggling to keep herself from hug-lunging him.
Max decided his fate was sealed then, and he let out a long and peaceful exhale, while he tilted his head back until it also rested against the wall. It took a moment for him to actually speak, a moment of watching Jamie so patiently waiting for whatever he was doing, arms behind her back and tail swishing back and forth. "I don't lie." He reaffirmed something he'd said a long time ago. "Not when I actually know what I'm saying." He referred back to something else he'd said, to the answer he'd given to a question she'd asked him two years earlier. Thankfully though, for the sake of unbroken surprise, it looked to him like she definitely was uncertain as to what he was referring to.
A little bit of fresh confusion had taken its share of Jamie's expression, while she continued to wonder and also feel like she should know what was going on.
The breast pockets on their uniforms always had a little bit of open space inside, enough that any of a few small things could be kept inside without any noticeable press-out. Max reached into one of his, where he'd been keeping something small by itself, out and apart from the usual little black box that would have never been as concealable as the simple thing itself.
"Did you still want that ring?" He asked, producing the very object he'd just mentioned.
The smile on Jamie's face disappeared, and the brightness faded . . . for a moment, but then the lightbulb was changed. Her ears shot straight up, and then slowly angled themselves back and down. They went in line with the upturning of her mouthline, which eventually broke into an uncontrolled, toothy jackal beam of heart-bursting joy.
Max separated himself from the wall, only to be thrown right back against it again when the weight of a mammal of equal size crashed into him. What air was inside his lungs at that moment was forced out as the two jackal arms that had wrapped around him squeezed as if they had no other purpose. He smiled. Jamie didn't see it, too busy brushing her cheek back and forth against his, but he really smiled.
"MY Sleepy Kitty!" She declared to the empty building, hugging and squeezing her sleepy kitty so intensely . . . and so truly.
"You know I am gonna pass out the instant we get back, right?" He agreed with his title.
"Mmm, and we can snuggle and cuddle and huggle and nuzzle until you do?" Jamie asked, with the ever-undertone of it not really being a choice.
Max finally wrapped his own arms back around her before he answered. "You can have forever now."