Chapter 13
Kitty´s smile grew wider and wider with Yuri's every word it seemed.
"…and so, that is my say, cheri," Yuri finally finished, standing back so she could look into Kitty's face, trying to gauge her reaction. Yuri need not of ever worried about Kitty not helping…as Kitty's smile was such that had Carmelita been there beside her, she would of most definitely proclaimed one very worried 'Uh-oh!'.
Kitty grinned still, her blue eyes deep in thought, as she rubbed thoughtfully at her chin. "Hmm, so my Russian buddies might just have found themselves some new beaus, huh?" Kitty softly remarked, her eyes flicking briefly over to Yuri's a moment.
"That is what I am thinking, cheri," Yuri replied, a grin blossoming on her face as well.
Naomi's amber eyes narrowed in disapproval, shaking her platinum-haired head. "Yuri. Kitty. Both of you should be most ashamed of your behavior!" she exclaimed softly, turning on the two schemers. "Leave our poor friends alone, you two!" she warned. "If you really love our Svetlana and Maria---as I think you both do, non?---then allow them to figure out their feelings all on their own…" Naomi lifted her hand so she could shake a finger first at Kitty, then at Yuri, "…with no 'assistance' from you two meddlers!"
Kitty smiled, Naomi's disapproval seemingly rolling off her back like water off a duck's. "Oh, you mean, just like you and Murray did then, hmm?" she pointed out.
Naomi blushed hotly at first, shaking her head, but frowning dangerously. "That was very different, Kitty Petro…and you know it!" she growled, her expression indignant. "Besides, as I recall…did you not make a---"
Kitty waved Naomi's agruments aside with a flippant wave a her hand. "You worry too much, Naomi. Relax…I know what I'm doing, girl. Trust me," Kitty replied, infuriating Naomi when she patted Naomi's cheek like she was some petulant child. She then made matters even worse, ignoring the surly cheetah woman altogether! "Hey, not to worry, Yuri," Kitty soothed Yuri, who was blinking at the now outraged Naomi in concern. "If those two are in love, I'll know it straightaway, no problem. And, if that is the case, why…why, I'll see what I can do to---shall we say?---help things along." Kitty's grin was almost indecent.
"Fagh!" Naomi grumped, stamping her foot down in her anger. "You two! I swear, it is if I am talking to a brick wall!" she exclaimed, glowering. "Make that a pair of them!" Naomi's fist clenched and unclenched in her frustration.
Yuri blinked, but decided to take a page from Kitty's book, and tried to ignore the glowering Naomi…which was most difficult indeed for Yuri! "I would appreciate any help you might be able to provide, cheri," Yuri answered. "Because…er, I have…um, invited Monsieurs Turner and Mallory to dinner here tomorrow evening." Yuri bit her lower lip, closed her eyes, and counted softly in French, "un, deux…"
"You what?" Naomi exploded right on cue, her eyes going large a moment, before she narrowed them, grumbling irately under her breath.
Yuri blinked her green-gold eyes several times, then swallowed hard before continuing. "You, Kitty…have of course been invited," Yuri then added, her ears angling down flat against her skull as she awaited Naomi's inevitable storm of protest.
However, Yuri was disappointed---though pleasantly so!---when Naomi simply closed her eyes a moment, and sighed expansively. "Very well," Naomi then said, clearly surprising the two scheming women she called friends. "I will agree to this 'innocent' dinner of yours," Naomi added, being sure to use her fingers to accentuate the term 'innocent' with quote marks, "though only on one condition…"
"Only one, Naomi?" Kitty asked, her eyes clever, but pleased. "And that would be…what, exactly, my friend?" The matchmaking vixen smiled indulgently at her seemingly sudden good fortune.
"That Madame invite Carmelita to this charade of dinner as well, nes pas?" Naomi explained, with a sweet smile of her own.
"Crap," Kitty grumbled, her smile disappearing. "Aw, c'mon, Naomi…what do we need to go and invite her---"
Naomi narrowed her eyes, and rumbled a growl deep in her chest.
Yuri sighed, smiling a bittersweet smile. She put a hand on Kitty's forearm, trying to forestall a confrontation between the two. "Please, Kitty…do not try to dissuade my Naomi, cheri," Yuri began to explain. "It is pointless to argue when my Naomi makes her mind known. Trust me, I know…from long experience, cheri…"
Kitty looked over into Naomi's outwardly pleasant, but steely unyielding expression and nodded. "Naomi?" Kitty ventured, pleading.
"Kitty," Naomi replied brooking no dissent…oh, though she did smile…with a smile that made Kitty shiver with alarm.
Yuri shook her head, knowing this was the best she and Kitty would be able to wangle out of Naomi. "Eh, c'est le guerre," she murmrured, then began again. "Well then, mon amis, that is that then. Now, let us all take to our beds, non?" Yuri added. "We will talk about this tomorrow, no?" Kitty eyed Naomi a moment, then shivered once again and nodded her acceptance.
Naomi smiled sweetly yet triumphantly. "Of course, Madame…it shall be as you say…"
"Wakey, wakey, Princess," boomed a voice that Kitty knew all too well, come the next morning…that surprise coming just before a more unpleasant one. Kitty pulled her pillow over her face as Carmelita snapped the blinds in Kitty's bedroom open, allowing the bright Parisian sun to bathe the room in its golden-white splendor. "You heard me, Petro," Carmelita barked her best drill instructor voice, her face only inches from Kitty's pillow-topped head. "Up and at 'em, Sloth Girl!"
Kitty groaned, bleary-eyed. "Gah! Carmelita…geez! What time is it anyway?" she complained from under her pillow. "Just let me sleep!" she pleaded in a whine.
"No can do, amiga!" Carmelita answered, stripping the covers off of Kitty's form, causing the blond-haired vixen to curl up in a fetal-like position. "It's nine o'clock, buddy girl. You've got less than an hour to get your sorry butt up and dressed, get some breakfast in you, and then get you and your friends to that meeting with the Chief," Carmelita pointed out to her.
"All right, all right, I'm up!" Kitty groaned, but nodded, reluctantly getting out of her warm bed. She quickly changed out of her nightclothes and slipped into her favorite jeans, a plain black t-shirt, and her light leather jacket. "You know," Kitty mused even as she ran her fingers through her blond locks in front of the mirror, "I envy Yuri," Kitty told Carmelita. "Man, those silk sheets are awesome! I've had the best night's sleep I've had in ages!"
Carmelita smiled, shaking her head, watching as Kitty went into the bathroom to wash her face. "Oh, hey sport…by the way, Naomi told me that Yuri's asked you to play matchmaker again. That right?" Carmelita posed to her friend.
"Yeah," Kitty called out as she rubbed her face dry with a towel. "She thinks that Svetlana and Maria might want my help," Kitty admitted warily. "Apparently, Yuri tells me that there's a cute couple of fellas that've set up shop accross the street from C´est Sing. Our Russian buddies met them the other day, it seems, and according to Yuri at least, those boys are head over heels with our Soviet-bloc beauty queens."
"That a fact?" Carmelita returned, crossing her arms, and narrowing her pretty brown eyes. "I'm sure Yuri means well, and all…but, well…have either of you though to ask poor Svetlana and Maria yet?"
Kitty blinked, then blushed a bit. "Well, um, no…not yet I haven't," Kitty replied, smiling a sketchy smile.
"Hadn't thought so, sport," Carmelita retorted smugly. "Well, you know what that means then, don't you?"
"No, what?" Kitty replied as she applied the scarcest thin line of mascara to her big lovely eyelashes, then just the barest of hints of eyeshadow to her lids. She'd began doing this ever since she saw the effect it had on Ling. Now, that wasn't to say she was any less a tomboy, mind you…no, but she was a woman in love, and well…the warm, loving looks of affection Ling sent her way each and every were hard to pass by now, weren't they? You bet!
"You know precisely what, Kitty Petro," Carmelita replied sternly. "It means you aren't going to play matchmaker then, sport."
"What? Whyever not?" Kitty asked, nay, demanded!
"Here…let me refresh what passes for a memory for you, okay?" Carmelita said cleverly.
Kitty responded the only way she thought fitting for that remark…she stuck her tongue out at Carmelita, and crossed her eyes.
Carmelita was less than impressed, which showed when she busted out laughing. "Okay, goof girl…remember back…let's see, why after we for dined at Le Bistro Bourgeot the first time? The first time you met Yuri's girlhood pal, that Jean-Pierre?"
"Yeah, so?" Kitty said, as the two of them left Kitty's room, and headed toward the stairs that led downstairs.
"Good, you remember…I'm impressed," Carmelita teased, garnering her another instance of Kitty sticking her tongue out at her. Carmelita grinned, but perservered. "You remember then how you and I argued---rather vehemently, I believe!---about how I thought that if I left you to your own devices, you'd have all of Paris matched up and married off by the end of the month. Remember that?"
Kitty nodded, but warily. "I seem to remember that you said weeks, but yeah, I do remember that. Go on," Kitty replied.
"Well, sport…do you also recall how our pal Naomi---to keep the peace between we two---proposed a compromise of sorts?" Carmelita reminded Kitty.
"Um…yeah. So?" Kitty answered, not particularly liking the direction this conversation was heading, but carried on nonetheless.
"She proposed that you could continue playing the matchmaker…however, only if you received direct permission from the persons you intended to play said matchmaker with," Carmelita pointed out, lightly punching Kitty's arm to make her point. "So, Ms. Petro, my friend…if you intend to play matchmaker for our Russian friends---as you've told me---why, then before you can even start to ply your 'magic'…you're gonna need both Svetlana's, as well as, Maria's permission to do so. Oh, and I'll be double-checking with them, so no funny business, understood?"
"Yeah, yeah," Kitty replied with her typical confidence, snapping her fingers. "You know…I must of totally forgot about that! Go figure that, huh?" Kitty grinned, making Carmelita shake her head…again. "Okay. All right…I guess I'll need to work my own brand of 'magic' on them is all. They'll be putty in my hand, friend!"
Carmelita sighed, half-expecting her answer would be along those lines. "Right, the ol' Kitty Petro charm," she replied, sighing again. "Well, if that doesn't drive them off screaming, nothing will." She paused, received a glare from Kitty, then chuckled, and continued on. "Hey, look…at least give them benefit of seeing if they really do hit it off already before you start in with your crap. All right?" Carmelita then looked away a moment, then returned her gaze to Kitty's…her eyes oddly serious now. "C'mon, Kitty…you're gonna have to handle those two with kid gloves, you know? Maria's tough…but, hey, she's been let down before too, okay? And, you know as well as I do, that I don´t think Svetlana's heart can take another beating…like it did with that Rezneykov bastard. Poor kid's had it rough enough as it is, the last couple of days…"
"Yeah, I know, Kitty nodded, knowing Carmelita was right in that regard, at least. "I promise I'll be careful, okay? Hey, if I'm not…you could always use those killer elbows of yours on me again, right?" Kitty grinned…though, she was careful enough to be out of range as she did so.
"Don't think I won't, pal," Carmelita promised, her brown eyes very serious. Kitty gulped a moment…but, then again, it didn't last. This was Kitty we're talking about here, after all, right?
Upon entering the kitchen at the Sing chateau, Kitty glimpsed both Svetlana and Maria sitting beside each other at the table, eating their breakfast. She noticed that both normally hungry young women didn't seem to have much of an appetite this particular morning, at least…
Kitty fetched herself a bowl, a spoon, as well as some cereal and milk, and headed over to sit across from the strangely quiet Russian duo. Kitty poured her cereal, then looked up and smiled at the two before she poured her milk. "Relax, you two," she counseled professionally. "You're going to do just fine. Trust me…it's not going to be any big deal."
Svetlana smiled weakly, then nodded.
Maria turned toward Kitty, her blue eyes speculative. "Sorry, but Svetlana and I…we are just a tiny bit nervous this morning, Kitty," Maria informed the Interpol Lieutenant. "You see…although we are most pleased to help, there just might be a few of these cases that may make us remember things we'd just as soon never remember, nyet?"
"It might, girls…hey, all you can do is the best you can, okay?" Kitty advised them patiently. "The Chief'll understand. Look, he's been with the force a long time now, right? Trust me, he knows how to treat civilians like you two. Plus, do keep in mind that you two are doing him a tremendous favor, all right? He'll treat you both right. Besides…" Kitty then added a moment later, around her cereal, "I'll be there too. So, quit your worrying and get your coats and gloves, girls."
Svetlana and Maria smiled at Kitty, then each other, then got to their feet to get their coats and outerwear. Kitty shoveled the last of her cereal down, then rinsed her bowl out and put it in the dishwasher. She then donned her coat, then her gloves, and finally her scarf. "Ladies, after you," Kitty quipped, ushering the two nervous Russian girls out the door. After all, it was time to visit Interpol and the Chief…