Fit4love

Fit 4 Love

By Eve

A stranger sat at her table, claiming to be her soulmate.

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes, she sat across from this stranger, her mouth filled with spaghetti Bolognese.

They were in an Olive Garden, other customers who overheard what this strange man said were peering with concerned eyes.

Everyone knew Kaitlyn. She was a regular, she had a table she booked herself every Saturday.

Kaitlyn was a woman in her thirties, well-kept and strong. Wayback-when she was a boxer. She boxed now-and-then, keeping herself relatively fit and entering in local tournaments when she can.

Her skin was a rich dark brown, hair was an ebony black tied in a bun and she wore a simple jeans-and-dark green tee shirt combo.

The stranger in question appeared to be close to her age, at least mid-thirties and had shorter brown hair, was a lighter skinned man who seemed to have at least been to a gym. He also wore dark jeans and had a red sweatshirt on.

She had half a mind of telling this creep to buzz off. It’s not the first time she’s been hit on or given ‘advice’ from ‘gym bros’ about her diet and routine. Olive Garden was her treat to herself and darned if she wasn’t going to enjoy it.

This was, however the first time she heard someone approach her like this. Honestly, she had a rough week at work and decided could use a laugh.

“Oh, are you?” she said sarcastically, finishing her bite and wiping off the pasta sauce. “You’re not just trying to get a free meal from me?”

“I’m dead serious. I had a dream about you, it was so vivid. We were married, and we ran a company together.”

Kaitlyn looked at this guy with a concerned eye, he was, indeed, dead serious. Was this guy off his medication?

“Listen dude, I’ll buy you a plate, but anything else is on you.” She shook her head.

“Please, Kaitlyn. I’m not here to mooch of your or get a free meal. The dream I had was REAL. We had a place outside Calgary, it was small, but it was ours. Then we invented a new type of gym equipment together, it wasn’t hugely popular, but it worked, then in the days we ran a gym...in the evenings you would still take care of your mom and—”

Kaitlyn cut him off. She stopped eating when she realized she didn’t give him her name. Which wasn’t a big deal—she was fairly known around here, but how did this guy know about her mom?

“Have you been following me, dude? “She rose her voice.

The man panicked “no no no no no no, I promise! It was all in the dream I had. It’s like we lived another life! I knew your name and everything from my dream! We never met before today.”

At this point the Manager of Olive Garden carefully walked up to Kaitlyn. “Kate is…everything ok?”

She stared at this man in the eyes. She saw he was very serious. She looked at him with suspicion, but she felt like she didn’t have to be scared.

“No, Mr. Harrington. I’m alright.”

The Manager nodded and stared at the strange man.

She turned to the stranger “What’s your name?”

“John, Call me John.” He said, calming down.

“How did you imagine this going, John? When you came to sit down. Did you think I was gonna just swoon and walk with your home, or something? I was married once. I can’t say I really want to go through that again.” She said with a no-nonsense tone.

“I -uh- I Don’t know, I had to say something---in the dream you were leaving for Winnipeg and if you did you would have died. But if I got you to stay in Calgary we would..”

“Live happily ever-after?” She said with a raised eyebrow. “Well. I was going to Winnipeg next week, but I certainly ain’t going now. Not because of the soul mate thing, but ‘im not stupid enough to ignore a crazy guy saying I’m gonna die in Winnipeg.”

John seemed genuinely relieved.” Oh, thank goodness…to answer your other question, no, it’s not ‘happily ever after’ we have our struggles, but we make it work.” He was very confident in his words. Like a man who, indeed had saw the future.

Kaitlyn sighed. At this point, she was committed. “Can I buy you a drink, John?”

“No, it’s ok I can buy my own. If its ok that I sit with you though!”

They ended up chatting for an extra hour. The Manager checked a few times to make sure Kaitlyn was still ok, which she would give a gentle nod.

John went into full detail about the extremely vivid dream he had. He described the house they had outside of Calgary, how their business was running, even who they hired to help run the gym they had.

Kaitlyn was still fully skeptical, as anyone would be, but her curiosity did rise the more he talked.

“Well, it’s been an interesting talk with you John, but I have to get going.” Kaitlyn said, getting up to pay her bill.

John quickly scuffled out a business card.” WAIT, please. I know you still think I’m crazy, I can’t make you believe me, but can we still…get to know each other more?”

Kaitlyn looked at the business card. John, as it turns out, was a trainer at a Fit4Less.

Kaitlyn was also a trainer for the same company, just a different store. She didn’t feel like he should know that right now though.

She couldn’t shake this eerie feeling that, somehow, John was completely right.

She stared at the card and put it in her purse. “…erm, Ill….uh. Call you.” She said, and quickly rushed to her car.

John looked sad, and bowed his head and went to his own. He did not press further.

That evening Kaitlyn was telling her best friend, Nicole, all about her encounter on the phone.

She had the cell phone in-between her shoulder and head as she was doing laundry.

“—and then, this guy pulls out a business card, and you wana know where this guy works? FRIGGIN FIT4LESS! The one at Pacific place! Like this guy has worked at the mall down from me for how long?”

‘There ain’t no way that’s real, how come you never heard of him? Like not even through the grapevine? You guys aren’t far from each other. This is creepsville, Kate.” Nicole said in disbelief over the phone. “That business card gotta be a fake.’

“No, its real, I’ve looked it over. Unless this guy went the extra mile to make a realistic-looking business card, I don’t know why someone would do that.” Kaitlyn said, feeling the wording over the business card. It looked just like the one she had for herself.

‘Wait-wait-wait wait-‘Nicole said suddenly. ‘Whats his last name? Girl, just google this dude.’

It didn’t occur to Kaitlyn to do that, she sat down on the couch and pulled out her old silver Dell Laptop.

Kaitlyn put the phone down and put it on speaker. “Good call. Let’s see…” She put the business card next to her computer.

‘Jonathan McGregor. Personal trainer’ it said on the card. It had the address of the Fit4less Pacific-place Mall. It had a phone number for John and the company’s official phone number. She compared it with her own. It looked almost like it, the placement and everything. This was indeed an official business card made by the company.

She put his name in google and lo-and-behold John’s name popped up under the Fit4Less for that location.
“Well, he was telling the truth.” Kaitlyn said. “Looks like he’s been there a while. For like 10 years!”

‘He’s how old?’ Nicole said over the speaker.
“I dunno, he don’t look that old. He looked about thirty. “

She continued looking, she looked to see if his name popped up in any news article, or criminal cases, just to be on the safe side. It did not.

“This is weird, Nicole. How do you think he knew about my mom?”

‘Stalking! Clearly. I mean if you found him so easily on google, he could have looked you up the same way! Saw you worked at the one by Sunridge.’

Kaitlyn indeed did google herself and saw the same information. She was a little spooked, but honestly, didn’t really think that John was stalking her.

‘What car does he drive? Did you see?’ Nicole asked.

Kaitlyn totally forgot to really look, she left before him, and only saw him head toward the parking lot.

“I don’t know, Nick.”

‘Maybe it’s ‘bout time we do some investigating ourselves.’ Nicole said. ‘What time y’all open on Sundays? ‘

“we’re open 24 hrs.”

‘Hmm... Well, if he works for the same company, can you find out what his hours are? Like he’s gotta

Be in your system somewhere.’

“That’s a good call, I’m in tomorrow, I’ll see what I can find out.”

‘oooh I can’t wait! Text it to me right away’ Nicole said, with a kind of investigative excitement in her voice.

The Next day Kaitlyn went in early. She was one of the day-trainers from 9-5. But she got in around 8:30.

Her boss greeted her. “In so early today, Kate?”

“Yeah, I wanted to do some reps before getting to work.” Kaitlyn said.

“I love the determination!” her boss was a woman in her mid-forties. A type who worked out every single day, she was a light-skinned woman with blonde hair. She had a black sports shirt on and leggings with a nametag saying ‘Jennifer, Manager. Fit4Less’

“I’m not going away next week, there was uh—a issue with the hotel I booked, they got the wrong date. I gotta figure that out.” Kaitlyn said, putting her bag down.

“Oh! No problem, where was it you were trying to go to?”

“Oh, Winnipeg, but it doesn’t matter now.” Kaitlyn said.

Jennifer was once a cheerleader in a past life, and still had the same attitude to this day. “I’ll go cancel that on the schedule!” she went to her office with a pep in her step.

While her manager was distracted, Kaitlyn went into the schedule system, using the front desk computer, looking up the schedule for the location that John worked at. It appears he worked the same type of hours. Sunday-Thursday 9-5. She couldn’t find any other information past that though, not wanting to dig deeper and risk getting into trouble. She slyly texted Nicole ‘sun-thurs 9-5’

Nicole texted back ‘kk will stop by to see what car he gets into.’

It was a strange day. Kaitlyn felt all sorts of strange knots in her stomach. Part of her felt bad she was sending her friend to essentially spy on him, and part of her was still reeling in from the conversation she had last night with him. She couldn’t see how he wasn’t genuine. The way he spoke felt so honest, like there was no lies. His reaction to her not going to Winnipeg was real too—he was, indeed, genuinely relieved, like seeing someone escape death.

She tried to not let her mind wander throughout the day. Later, close to 5pm when Kaitlyn was getting off—and therefore also John--- Nicole texted Kaitlyn.

“kk. I’m at the mall. Will text what car.’ Nicole was aware of what John had looked like; Kaitlyn sent her the image he had on his business card.

As Kaitlyn went out the door at 5pm she didn’t quite get into her car. She knew she wasn’t cooking tonight, no way. She went to a food court in the mall to grab something for dinner.

The walk to the food court felt like forever. She was walking slowly, waiting for Nicole to text her, checking her phone constantly.

She didn’t know why it was so important, but she needed to know if she saw his car around her place, if he had been stalking her, or was actively stalking her.

But what if he wasn’t? what if, the first time he actually saw her, was truly in this vivid dream he had? Was the truth that they were coincidently at Olive Garden the same day? Or was he looking for her? Did he know she would be there? Would she truly die in Winnipeg, if she had gone? There were a lot of unanswered questions that were running through Kaitlyn’s head.

‘White Buick, small car, looks old.’ Was texted from Nicole. Followed by a ‘cuter in person!’

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. ‘Anything like else? Stickers, maybe something hanging in his mirror?’

‘Just a pink tree air freshener. Nothing else. No kids’ seats or anything’

‘Good to know I guess, thanks girl, I guess I’ll watch out to see if a generic white car follows me at all’

‘He’s headed the direction of where you work, he just turned left.’

Kaitlyn paused and her eyes got wide. ‘WAIT ARE YOU FOLLOWING HIM?’

‘well yeah. I need to make sure this guy isn’t a creep LOL’

‘I just wanted you to see what car he was driving so I can look out for it, do NOT follow him!!! “Kaitlyn texted at fast speed.

She sighed. She knew she should have never gotten Nicole involved.

Her and Nicole grew up together. Practically sisters. They were two black girls at a mostly white elementary school. Unlike Kaitlyn, Nicole was Petite and smaller. When they were younger Kaitlyn protected Nicole with her strength from the meaner boys and Nicole would protect Kaitlyn with her wits and quick remarks from the bullying girls. If she were a dog, Nicole would be a Jack Russel.

For Nicole to decide that she was a detective and follow John, was no surprise to Kaitlyn, but she had hoped she wouldn’t do it.

She looked up from her phone and realized she was in the food court. She went inline of New York Fries to grab dinner for two.

‘all clear, he passed your work and isn’t going anywhere near you live.’ Nicole messaged.

Kaitlyn sighed in relief. She went to her car outside the mall and went to go home.

She opened the door to her to her second floor apartment. “I’m home, ma.” She said as she entered. “I got us some New York.

A Elderly dark skinned woman with grey hair hobbled out of a side room, one hand using a cane. The other had an oxygen tank. She was in her late sixties, but could have been mistaken for 80. She had lavender pajama pants and a XL blue tee shirt.

“ooooh what are we celebrating today?” She said with a smirk.

“Nothing, Ma, I just… couldn’t see myself cookin’ tonight. “

Kaitlyn’s mother went up to her with a knowing mother’s eye. “What happened, darlin? Some creep try to do something at work? I’ll find him and kick his ass!” She said with spite.

Kaitlyn chuckled “No Mama.“ She pulled out two poutines from the to-go bag

“Well, what is it then? C’mon I know you tell Nicole everything, but you can tell your mama too. “

She sat down at a small dinner table made for two.

Kaitlyn sighed. “It’s this guy mama…I met him at Olive Garden the other day and he was going all about this wild dream he had, how we were soul mates and meant to be together and all this stuff..”

Kaitlyn’s mother laughed. “Oh, darlin’ he was just trying to rizz you up! Gotta give him points for creativity though.”

“But mama, He told me if I go to Winnipeg I’ll die. He said in his dream he knew I was taking care of you. Like there’s no way he could have known all that. “ She said with a serious tone. “Like, even at work they just had me as absent next week—they didn’t put where I’d be going. No-one but you,Kevin, Nicole and the airline knew I was going.”

Kaitlyn’s mother paused.

“My Dear I need to tell you something.” She said seriously.

Kaitlyn stopped eating her poutine.

“Ever since you said you were going to try to make it work with Kevin in Winnipeg, I was extremely worried, Like seriously worried. There’s a darkness over that man. I didn’t know how to describe it to you…

When you were married I had hoped I was wrong, but then I saw your face and how sad you were. Like you were defeated...When you divorced, I was genuinely relieved.”

Her mother reached out and held her hand. “There’s a point you gotta listen to the universe, darlin’.”

Kaitlyn teared up and sighed.” You’re right mama. I-I-really wanted it to work out but I think I knew in my soul it was a bad idea. I-I already cancelled the airline. I just haven’t told Kevin yet.”

“Then you do that right now.”

“No…no ill call him later.”

“Nope. You do that RIGHT now. Her mother said in a stern tone. “We get this over with.Im here.”

Kaitlyn took a deep breath. She called her ex.

‘Hello?’

“Hey Kev.” Kaitlyn said. ”I, uh, I got something to tell you.”

‘Oh whats up? Is there something wrong with the airline?’ he said with a tense voice.

“No, I—I cancelled the flight. I decided to not come to Winnipeg”

Kevins tone went from 0-60 in just a few seconds. He was immediately angry.

‘what do you mean you cancelled the flight? What ‘bout coming by, I thought you were going to come make it up to me!”

Kaitlyn paused. She was immedaitly disgusted and responded defensively “What do YOU mean ‘make it up to you’? YOU were the one who cheated on me. YOU were supposed to make it up to ME! “

‘Listen here you stupid…if you weren’t so busy with your stupid MOM and your stupid boxing I wouldn’t have—’

“Yeah, I’m not having this conversation again. I’m not apologizing for taking care of my mom or trying to focus on what I love. ‘glad I’m not coming. Go be unfaithful to someone else and god, help her.”

‘LISTEN YOU—’Kevins yelling voice got cutoff.

Kaitlyn hung up.

There was a silence.

Her mom got up, abet weak, but with the strength to go and hug her daughter, who broke down in tears.

“ We gotta listen to the universe sometimes, darlin.”

The next day, Kaitlyn was at the front desk, typing on the computer. It was a quieter day, and she was taking calls.

She looked around the gym. It had died down since January’s annual Fitness boom.

Her mind kept racing. Thinking about last night. She shook her head, looked up Kevins number on her phone, deleted and blocked it.

She Pulled out John’s business card, staring at it, feeling her fingers going over the raised text.

She dialed his number on her cell, taking a deep breath. “Listen to the universe...” she said quietly to herself.

‘You have called Fit4Less this is John!” He said, in a perky attitude.

“Hey John. Its Kaitlyn.”

There was a pause. “I thought I’d never talk to you again, I thought for sure I scared you off.”

Kaitlyn chuckled. “Nah, if anything you probably saved me. Listen--- can we arrange a meet up? I wana talk.”

“ABSOLUTELY!” an excitement could be heard in his voice. Genuine and kind. Kaitlyn felt happy to talk to him.

“Cool, uh, when’s your lunch?”

“Noon.”

“Perfect, ill meet you at Pacific place just outside the entrance for then.”

“Oh! ok ok… w-will do” He sounded nervous.

Kaitlyn smiled softly, got off the phones and went to go assist the people working out in the Gym.

Noon rolled around and she quickly drove to the other mall, which wasn’t a very far drive considering it was just down the road.

She waited outside and saw John walk out. He saw her and came to a complete stop.

“No. Way.” He said in a gasp and then approached her.

They were both wearing their purple ‘fit4less’ work tee shirts and had their plain white name tags.

“Yeah.. looks like we both got the same place in employment too, huh?” She chuckled.

“Which one do you work at?” John asked with a laughter in his voice.

“Your never gonna guess.” She replied. Walking with him to the food court.

“It can’t be---don’t tell me you’re the one down the road.”

“Yup.”

They grabbed some subway and then sat down. “So how long have you been there?”
“Only a few years. I got the job when I moved back here.”

“Oh, nice!” John laughed. “How funny, so close but we never met each other.”

“Yeah, small world…Listen John, I uh, I wanted to thank you.”

His mouth was full of a cold cut trio from subway. “Mm?”

“I cancelled my trip to Winnipeg, you were right. If I had gone, something bad would ‘a happened to me.”

John was happy, but it was bittersweet. “I’m sorry, for like everything. I know it was strange

“Did you like, KNOW I was gonna be at Olive Garden that day? Like I’ve been there a lot and I don’t think I ever saw you there.” Kaitlyn asked with a raised eyebrow.

“To be honest with you, it was just a feeling. The whole day was so weird for me, I had that dream, and then decided I needed to take a drive to clear my head. My gut… just kept telling me to go there.” He said, and then shook himself, like chasing a chill. “Ugh, it’s hard to describe. It’s like having someone scream at you, but you don’t hear them. You feel a pull to go a direction, but no-one pulling you, you know?”

“That is one hell of a gut you have.”

“Yeah, that’s one thing my mom told me to always listen too.” He shrugged.

“Yeah, my mom told me I gotta listen to the universe sometimes. I used to think she was crazy but honestly, I don’t even know anymore.” She took a bite of her sandwich.

“I mean, most times, it just tells me to eat at certain places or things... Like today I think dinners gonna be tacos.” He said in a joking manner.

Kaitlyn chuckled. “Your gonna make me spit out my sandwich.” She wiped her face with a napkin and reached into her pocket, grabbing one of her business cards, flipping it over to the back of it, writing her personal cell number. “This is the number I called you at today, I gotta get back to work, but you think we can hang again on Saturday?

Johns eyes lit up. “ABSOLUTELY!”

They said their good-byes and Kaitlyn went back to work with a small smile on her face, she left a text to Nicole that she would call her later, after work.

---

Later on, at home, Kaitlyn was sitting at her table with her mother, eating a home-cooked, healthy meal of chicken salad.

“So, how was work today?” her mother asked. Her mom had a glimmer in her eye.

“It uh, was good.”

“MHM? Was there something -good- that happened?”

Kaitlyn looked at her mother and tried to hide her smile.

“I know that look. C’mon, give your mother some good news.”

“I, uh, talked to John today—To thank him.”

‘Mhmm?” Her mother smiled at her. “Annnnd?”

“We had lunch together. I gave him my number, and we might hang out this weekend.”

“Oh, darlin you have no idea how happy that makes me!” She said excited, followed by a cough.

“easssy there mama, it’s just a little hang. I’m not rushing into anything yet.” She got up to check her mother.

Her mother waved her hand to get Kaitlyn to back away, she coughed hard into a tissue.
“I’ll be alright darlin. But seriously, after last night, I’m glad to hear it. He sounds like a good guy, listens to his heart.”

“More like his gut” Kaitlyn chuckled, thinking about earlier.

“What’chu mean?”

“Oh! He said earlier that it was his gut that told him to go to Olive Garden, something about hearing a voice scream at you that you don’t actually hear..someone pull you that isn’t there, something like that.”

“Ha!” Kaitlyn’s mother exclaimed, followed by another cough. “He listened to the universe!”
“You should go lay down mama.” Kaitlyn got up and held her mother.

Her mother nodded, and Kaitlyn helped her into bed.

She cleaned up the dishes and then sat on the couch, looking up local boxing tournaments.

Her phone rang, it was Nicole.

“Hey Nick.”

‘Hey girl I got your text from earlier. Everything alright?’ Nicole asked concerned.

“Well, I told Kevin last night that I wasn’t coming.”

‘Oh? Did it go over well?’

“No, he started yelling at me. Saying how I ‘owe’ him. We fought a little but I just hung up, I blocked his number this morning.”

‘F--- that guy Kate. I was kinda worried about you going to see him.’

“Yeah, so was my mom, she was right.”

‘Part of me thought I’d never see you again, like you’d move out there again for another 10 years’.

“Awww, NICK! You know I woulda visited.” Kaitlyn smirked. “Anyways, it doesn’t matter now.”

‘So, what about that John guy?’

“Well, funny you should say that…I-uh. Kinda called him, and we had our lunch break together.”

‘NO WAY! Oh, why didn’t you tell me sooner? How did it go?’

“it was... good! We got a sub and I thanked him for warning me. He’s…honestly, growing on me.”

‘oooh! Did he say why went to OG that day? Did you ask?’

“I did. He said his gut took him there.”

Nicole laughed over the phone. ‘That’s one hell of a gut.’

“That’s what I said! “ Kaitlyn laughed.
“I -uh- asked him to hang with me this weekend.”

‘Oh HELL yeah girl. Look at you! Out with the old, in with the new!’

“Oh Nick, it was ‘out with the old’ a looooong time ago.

Nicole chuckled over the phone. ‘Where you guys going?’

“I don’t know! I guess I better think of someplace.”

All of a sudden, Kaitlyn got another text from an unknown number.

‘hey its John! I forgot to give you my cell so here it is; wondering if you wanted to go to the Zoo for Saturday?’

“Speak of the devil” Kaitlyn said.

‘What?’

“He just texted me. Asked if I wana go to the Zoo.”

‘The ZOO? That’s kinda cheesy.’ Nicole said with a chuckle.’ You really wana be around smelly animals half the day?’

Kaitlyn looked at the text and smiled.

She texted back ‘Sure! that sounds cool lol’ and she saved johns personal number in her cell.

“I’m around smelly-ass people all day, couldn’t be any worse. Maybe I deserve something fun and cheesy.”

‘Aww, ok but you keep me in the loop you hear?’

“Will do, Nick.”

John sat on his small, slightly worn and older brown recliner holding his phone nervously. He was in cargo shorts and a red Calgary flames tee shirt. He lived in a small, one bedroom apartment.

Next to him on a small chair was a 2-year-old calico, sleeping peacefully.

He got Kaitlyn’s text response, “…sounds cool lol’ “Yes!” He said to himself, doing a small air fist bump.

He took a deep breath. “Ok John, play it cool.”

He texted to Kaitlyn. ‘ok! How about I meet you at the Zoo parking lot around 11am? Is that too early?’

“That might not have been cool, per-say….” He said muttered himself.

He chugged some water from a Flames water bottle. Waiting eagerly for a response.

His phone binged ‘Yeah that works! I’ll meet you there’ he got in reply. He got up excitedly, awaking the calico.

“Oops! Sorry, Penny.” He said and picked up the cat.

The cat relaxed and purred in his arms, John sat back down and let Penny rest on his lap.

“I got a date, Penny! Well, maybe not a date-date. But just wait till you meet her, you’ll like her for sure.”

The cat continued to purr as he petted, he mumbled to himself “I hope she will at least like me. But the fact she’s giving me a chance is good, right?”

Penny stared at John curiously with big green eyes.

“Yeah, I think…. I think that’s a good sign.” He said to himself.

Saturday came, Kaitlyn drove to the zoo and parked, it was almost 11 AM, she was a little early. She texted John ‘I’m here.’ And got out of her car.

It was getting crowded. Although, it was June after all. the Calgary Zoo is usually on any tourists list when visiting the city.

Kaitlyn checked her phone ‘ok, I just got here too! I’m by the entrance’

She looked around and saw John waving his arms in the air. Kaitlyn just had knee-length jeans on with a sleeveless black tee shirt that had a hibiscus flower on it. John had beige cargo shorts and a Hawaiian shirt on.

Kaitlyn looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “So, you’re a Hawaiian shirt guy?”

John smiled. “Yes ma’am! It’s the zoo! This is probably one of the few places where it’s appropriate.”

“Alright, alright…. I won’t judge.” Kaitlyn stared at the brightly coloured shirt with a smirk.

“Hey! you got a flower on your shirt too, we kinda match!” He said, all chipper.

Kaitlyn groaned. “OH, no we do.”

John laughed as they went together to the ticket booth.

Kaitlyn pulled her wallet out, but John pulled his out more quickly.
“I’ll pay for this. I want to make up for wrecking your meal last week.”

“What a gentleman.” Kaitlyn said with a slight sarcasm. “Thank you.”

They got past the gates and were greeted by their Asia section, with Markhors, Amur tigers, Red Pandas, and other such creatures from that part of the world.

“I do love a cool tiger.” Kaitlyn said, they went toward the pen.

“Oh yeah? Fan of big cats, huh?” John asked.

“Big, small, whatever. They’re just so cool.” She peered through the glass, watching the tigers that were laying on the large wooden platforms.

John, feeling nervous and trying to make conversation piped up. “I uh, have a cat!”

Kaitlyn looked at him, “You know, I’m a bit surprised, you seemed like a dog person to me.”

“In the apartment I live in? No way. Besides, my little Penny is an angel.”

“Oh my GOD you are a cat guy.” Kaitlyn chuckled.

“What about you, any pets?”

“Nah, my mama can’t really have that around.”

“Oh, right...she’s ill! I’m sorry, I forgot about that.”

“That’s ok, you didn’t know.” Kaitlyn said, they started walking toward the red pandas. “Out of curiosity, did your ‘dream’ tell you what she had?”

John thought for a second. “I don’t know, in my dream, I just saw her using a cane and she carried some…bag.. around.”

Kaitlyn’s skin shook. “That is…really accurate John. Like Creepy accurate.”

“Um, can I ask…why were you going to go to Winnipeg…. in the first place?” He asked awkwardly.

Kaitlyn sighed. Her eyes remembering the argument on the phone. “Well, to be honest, I was going to try to patch things up with my Ex Husband. We were gonna…’try again’ I guess.”

Johns face went pale. “OH! I’m—im-so sorry I hope I didn’t….i-i-..mean…”

Kaitlyn looked at him with a bittersweet smile. “I meant what I said the other day. Something would have happened to me if I went. We split years ago because he cheated on me. Honestly, he was showing major bad-man signs. Starting to punch holes in walls, putting me down, yelling... that sort of thing.”

John looked sad for her. He put his hand on her shoulder. She resisted tears.

“I guess I just missed the nostalgia of it. We were a pretty cool couple back when we were younger, always going to sports events and parties. he was my ‘first love’ and he hid who he was until we got married.”

“And then the real man came out from the shadows.” John nodded. He was filled with many thoughts;. He was reeling in from what he heard her say. Thankful he talked to her that day.

Kaitlyn nodded. They continued to walk a few steps. When a light struck into her head.

“But you know what John?”

He looked at her concerned. “What?”

“I met a guy who sat down, totally randomly, across my table at Olive garden. He went on about how he was my soul-mate.” She said with a smug look.

John laughed. ”Hey, that’s me!”

Kaitlyn reached for John’s hand and they continued through the Zoo.

To be continued 😊