“Well, I’d love it if you called me dad,” said Dad. “Absolutely love it.” He winced a little, then said, “I was worried you wouldn’t want to. And I didn’t want you to feel obligated.”
Chase’s face lit up. “I don’t mind. In fact I love it. Dad.”
Dad grimaced, then managed an ingratiating smile. “That’s the spirit. Son.”
“We’re one big happy family,” said Mom. “And that’s just the way we like it.”
“One big happy family but I’m not included,” Gran muttered as she walked by on her way to the stairs.
“Ma!” mom yelled, but Gran ignored her. “What did she say just now?”
“Oh, she’s mad because she doesn’t get to go to Thailand,” Odelia explained.
“She’ll get over it,” Mom said. “Now there’s one thing I want to tell Chase before we sign off. Whatever happens in Thailand—“
“Stays in Thailand,” Dad said with a grin, earning himself another slap from Mom.
“Whatever happens, Chase, remember one thing.”
Odelia smiled as she fully expected her mother to tell Chase that his future wife loved him, and that no seductresses could ever come between him and true love.
Instead, Mom said: “There are infrared cameras in the bedrooms capturing your every move. In fact they’ve got cameras hooked up all over the island.”
“Oh-kay,” said Chase, a little startled.
“Mom!” said Odelia. “Chase doesn’t need to know about the cameras because there’s not going to be anything worth filming. Isn’t that right, Chase? Honey?”
“No, of course, of course,” said Chase, a little too quickly, Odelia felt.
Dad suddenly leaned closer to the screen. “I also got something to tell you, son.” The upper half of his face now filled the screen. “If you cheat on my daughter you never get to call me dad ever again, is that understood?”
“I understand, sir,” said Chase soberly.
“I mean it, son. If you ever so much as lay a hand on one of those sedu—“
But the connection cut out before he could finish his sentence. Possibly because Mom and Dad had bad Wi-Fi in the hotel in Rome where they were currently holed up, or—more likely, Odelia felt—because Mom had ended the conversation, not wanting Dad to start threatening Chase with grievous bodily harm.
And not for the first time since she’d accepted the assignment, a tiny sliver of doubt entered Odelia’s mind. And when she opened the email Kimmy had sent, containing pictures of all six seductresses, those doubts only multiplied.
These women were every man’s wet dream.
She just hoped they weren’t Chase’s.
Chapter 11
Cats don’t fly. That’s always been my contention and I stick to it. We’re not built for being hurled through infinite space in a narrow metal tube. Still, if we’re compelled to fly, on account of the fact that our human doesn’t take no for an answer, best to do it in style.
And it has to be said: Sunshine Pictures had spared no expense to transport its contestants from one part of the world to the other. On the flight over, Dooley and I even had our own cubicle where we were being pampered to our hearts’ content.
“Air travel is starting to grow on me, Max,” said Dooley once we were well underway. We’d just tucked into our bowls of gourmet lasagna—Garfield-approved, no doubt—and a very nice young lady had fluffed up our cushions to perfection, and as we gazed out at the deck of clouds below, the plane’s powerful engines taking us ever closer to the land of the Thai, I endorsed my friend’s view wholeheartedly.
“It doesn’t really feel as if we’re hundreds of feet in the air,” I said.
“And those clouds look like soft pillows,” he said, a little lazily. “So if we fall from the sky, we’ll probably land very softly.”
“We won’t even feel a thing.”
“Just a very smooth sensation of landing on top a giant ball of cotton.”
Suddenly, the intercom crackled to life and the captain’s voice croaked, “Be advised that we’re approaching some minor turbulence. Please fasten your seatbelts.”
And even before the words were out of the man’s mouth, suddenly the plane dropped from the sky and my stomach collided with my teeth.
“Max!” Dooley cried. “We’re going to dieeeeeeeeee!”
I would have dissuaded him from this bleak view hadn’t I taken the same view myself. “This is the end!” I cried, as my friend clasped his paws around my, admittedly, pudgy midsection.
“Max, you’re my best friend and I love you so much!” Dooley tooted in my ear.
“Likewise, Dooley. I love you, buddy!”
The plane suddenly lurched, and both Dooley and I were swept up into the air and almost hit the ceiling, before returning with a plop to our cushioned seats. Meanwhile, we both yelled our little heads off.
“I once ate a piece of kibble that belonged to you, Max!” Dooley said, having entered the confession stage of this impending-doom scenario.
“I forgive you!” I returned.
“And I once peed in Brutus’s water bowl after he said some nasty things about you!”
“Oh, Dooley!”
“He told me later his water tasted funny and thought it was ozone.”
I laughed, and so did Dooley. And then, as unexpectedly as it had started, the plane steadied, and the captain announced that the ‘mild’ turbulence was a thing of the past.
“Um, Dooley?” I said after a moment’s pause.
“Yes, Max?”
“You can let go of me now.”
“Oh, all right.”
Odelia popped her head into our little cubicle. “Are you guys all right?”
“I thought we were going to die,” Dooley confessed.
“Me, too,” I said.
She smiled. “You didn’t die, and you’re not going to. Now try to get some rest. It’s still a couple of hours before we land.”
She withdrew, leaving us to ruminate on our most recent brush with death.
“Max?”
“Mh?”
“I don’t think I like airplanes all that much after all.”
“Me, neither.”
I must have fallen asleep then, for when I woke up the plane was already landing. We’d arrived in Thailand, and our new adventure had begun.
The moment we were off the plane, a fancy black car took us to our hotel, where Odelia proceeded to introduce us to our room. The next day we were traveling to the island that would be our home for the next couple of weeks. But for now we were in five-star lodgings in the heart of Bangkok, which is Thailand’s capital, and probably its most famous city.
As I gazed out of the hotel room window, I saw a hubbub of life outside. Little cars called rickshaws or Tuk-tuks crisscrossed the streets, and it appeared as if there were people and cars and buses everywhere.
“This looks a lot busier than Hampton Cove,” Dooley remarked.
“Yes, it certainly does,” I agreed.
I also saw plenty of dogs that didn’t seem to belong to anyone, and wondered briefly if the rumors about the Thai eating cats and dogs weren’t true, after all. At least they couldn’t eat us, ensconced as we were in our fancy hotel room.
“Let’s go out,” Odelia announced.
“Are you sure? I’m pretty bushed,” Chase replied, indicating her words hadn’t been meant for Dooley and myself.
“Yeah, I’ve never been to Bangkok before. We should take this opportunity to see something of the city.”
“As you wish,” said Chase with a smile.
Odelia crouched down next to us. “Will you guys be all right in here?”
“Oh, sure,” I said, and stifled a yawn. In spite of the fact that I’d slept on the plane, I was ready for another nap. “You and Chase have a good time,” I said encouragingly. “Dooley and I will nap until you get back.”
She petted my head and then they were off, leaving us in the relative silence of our room on the fourth floor of the hotel.
And it has to be said, I slept like a log, and didn’t even notice when Odelia and Chase returned.
“It’s jet lag,” Dooley knew when we both woke up in the middle of the night. “I saw it on the Discovery Channel. Your body travels through several time zones and it takes a while to catch up.”