Chapter 31：Perfect gift

In her peripheral vision, Cassandra saw how good Cathy and Kaiden were getting along and decided to try and give them some... help. She smirked and put down her drink. Pretending she needed to go to the bathroom, she stood up and "accidentally" nudged Cathy's back and pushed her forward.

Cathy was completely caught off guard and fell forward, her head was facing upwards towards Kaiden. Her lips fell right on his lips. Since Cassandra's light nudge was so forceful and Cathy wasn't expecting it, she fell forward quite a bit. Alas, the kiss wasn't just a light peck.

Cathy almost immediately pulled back and hung her head to try and hide how red her face was from Kaiden. She was so flustered, even her ears were red. That's how hard she blushed.

"Oh... I'm so sorry!" Cassandra gasped, her hands covering her mouth as if she was shocked, but behind her hands she hid her smile. "Are you okay? Are you injured anywhere?" She added to make it seem like she didn't do it on purpose.

Cathy lifted her head and looked straight at Cassandra. She replied, "No, not at all! From such a light push, I couldn't have been hurt." After hearing her reassurance, Cassandra nodded and left for the toilet she oh so needed.

"I'm sorry... even though I know you like-" "What are you talking about? Anyways, how's your drink? We've been talking for sometime but I haven't asked about your drink," Kaiden interrupted her. Cathy was a little surprised but went with it anyways. He sighed in relief. If that was Renae, she definitely would've brought it up even though he tried to change the topic or forget it. He thought to himself.

The whole reason Kaiden wanted to forget it, though, was that when they kissed, he felt something within him say that it was right. It might sound cliché, but it was true. It was the truth he wanted to deny, but wasn't able to. The rest of the day, he tried not to think about it but it was almost impossible. Everything he thought about would link back to that incident.

While Kaiden was completely stressing over this, Cathy.... was also stressing over it. Why? Because she also had that feeling within her. But she knew that Kaiden had feelings for Renae FOR SURE, and she didn't want to be a homewrecker, so she tried to push the feelings away and focus on the mixer.

"You want me to drive you home?" Kaiden asked as they were leaving. "Sure," Cathy replied as she grabbed her things.

Before leaving, Cathy asked Cassandra before they parted ways, "If you have other mixers, could you tell me about them? I think it's time I find a boyfriend." Cassandra was a little stunned. "What about Kaiden?" "What? We aren't dating or anything, and he has a crush on someone else already. There's no way I can have feelings for him," she said, then chuckled. "Ah, I see... I misunderstood," Cassandra said with an apologetic expression. Cathy shook her head, "It's nothing. So can you?" Cassandra nodded.

The two said their goodbyes and split ways.

-

Matthew and Renae finished up their dinner at the restaurant soon after their food had been served. Matthew called for the bill and paid for the dinner. After which, they left the restaurant for home. As per normal, Matthew sent her back home, just as he did after school. On the way back home, he recalled that Renae's birthday was coming up. Matt did some mathematics, counting the date of that day and Renae's birthday, to find out how much time he had to plan for what to do on her birthday. He counted that her birthday would be in 3 days. That leaves him with 2 more days to plan and buy the perfect gift for Renae.

He reached home and went straight into his room. He took out his notebook, a pen and started to plan and think of ideas on what to buy for Renae. Matt scrolled through Renae's Instagram to find that she wore a hoodie in all her pictures. Could a hoodie be the PERFECT gift for her? He thought through carefully and decided not to get her a hoodie. This was his logic, since Renae wore different hoodies in all those pictures she posted, it meant that she already had a ton of hoodies at home. Although gifting her a hoodie would be something that he knows she would definitely love, it wasn't the PERFECT gift. He wanted the gift he would give her to be special, to be something she would love yet, something she didn't have.

He thought for a long time but still had no ideas. He finally had an epiphany from what Renae texted him about. Renae sent him a photo along with a text message, the photo was a dog, and she said, "Oh my this dog is so sweet! I wish I could have one" Matt without hesitation, called his uncle. He did this because his uncle had an Australian Shepherd mix that he adopted 2 years ago, which recently had puppies. And his uncle had put them up for adoption.

"Hello Uncle Julian, I'm calling to ask if the puppies have all been adopted," Matthew asked courteously.

"Oh yes thank you for your concern. There's still one puppy that has yet to been adopted. Nobody wants this puppy... Do you know of anyone that has a love for dogs, currently wants one and can take up the responsibility of a dog owner?" Uncle Julian responded.

"Yes indeed. A friend of mine meets with all the qualifications you just listed," Matthew said.

"That's good to hear. I'll still need to interview her unless you'd be free enough to do that for me? I have some work to finish up."

"Yes I'll do the interview for you, just send me the questions and I'll ask her right away," Matthew said cheerily.

"Will do. Thank you for helping look for potential adopters, nephew."

"You're most welcome, Uncle Julian. OK, I wouldn't want to disturb you further so I'll end the call now."

A few seconds later, Matthew received a message from Uncle Julian. He sent him the questions to ask Renae with another text message to tell him the answers she said through WhatsApp [1]. Now, this would be tricky. He had to ask her these questions while not making it too obvious or he'd spoil the surprise. Matt then gave Renae a call to ask her these questions while having their own conversation about dogs to avoid getting caught.

"Hey, sorry I called you without telling..."

"Oh, no it's fine... What do you want to talk about?," Renae asked.

"Let's talk about dogs since you are so interested in them," Matthew suggested.

"Sure this is a topic I definitely wouldn't say no to talking about!"

"Let's just say, if you had a dog, would you adopt or buy?"

"Obviously adopt! The things most people do to breed those dogs are just cruel and awful!" Renae replied.

"Yeah I know right! I can't believe people would do that just to make money! That's just cruel," Matthew agreed. He knew of what most breeders do, as he, himself, was a dog lover.

"Let me ask you some questions to get you prepared for when you adopt one next time. To practice for the interview?," Matthew said, trying his best not to sound suspicious.

"Sure! Ask away!"

"I've thought of a few questions, the first one is are you willing and prepared to assume the financial and physical responsibilities of caring for this dog?," Matthew asked.

"Yes, I've saved up money to own a dog. I will bring it for regular check-ups at the Vet and grooming. I will be sure to give this dog the attention and time it requires. That will be my answer and woah that is one great question," Renae responded seriously then her tone changed back to her normal self.

"OK, next question. Does everyone agree to adopting this dog?"

"Yes. My parents agreed and they aren't allergic to dogs," Renae's tone changed back to serious.

"If this were like real, would your parents agree to adopting?"

"Yes, I've asked them before."

Then, he continued to ask the rest of the questions. He took down all of the answers Renae said in his notebook. After that interview, he continued to talk about dogs, and ended their conversation shortly after. Renae didn't suspect a thing. Matt sent the answers Renae gave him to Uncle Julian. He read through them and replied that she is a potential adopter and that she can take the puppy home.

[1] WhatsApp uses the internet to send messages, images, audio or video. The service is very similar to text messaging services, however, because WhatsApp uses the internet to send messages, the cost of using WhatsApp is significantly less than texting.