Stray Cat on Third

The cable guy was supposed to come between noon and three. It was already 2:47, and Maya was straight-up spiraling.

"Chill, May," Marcus said, sprawled across her beanbag chair, scrolling through TikTok. "He'll show. Worst case, you miss the game. It's literally baseball."

"It's NOT literally baseball," Maya snapped. "It's the playoffs. And Lucas is gonna be there."

Lucas, who'd finally noticed her existence last week when she'd worn that vintage jersey to school. Lucas, who'd sat with her at lunch yesterday and actually laughed at her jokes. Lucas, who'd invited her to his friend's viewing party tonight.

The doorbell rang at 2:53.

Maya practically sprinted downstairs. The cable guy was like, fifty, with a beard that had seen things and a nametag that said GARY. He followed her up to her room where the TV had been glitching out all week.

"Whoa," Gary said, eyeing the shrine to the Dodgers on her wall. "You actually watch this stuff?"

"Uh, yeah?" Maya crossed her arms. "Girls can like baseball, Gary."

"Hold your horses, kid. I wasn't dissing." He knelt by the TV, pulling tools from his belt. "My daughter plays travel ball. Shortstop. Could probably hit better than half the guys I work with."

Maya felt her shoulders drop like, three inches.

Outside, a yowl split the afternoon air. Not a regular cat meow — the sound of something straight-up dramatic.

"That's been going on for days," Maya said. "My neighbor's cat got stuck in their tree again."

Gary's hands stilled. "That sounds wrong. Like, hurt wrong."

"It's fine. He does this."

"Nah." Gary stood up, wiping his hands on a rag. "That's distress. Something's up."

Maya followed him to the window, feeling weirdly annoyed. The cable was literally being fixed RIGHT NOW, and this random dude wanted to play animal rescue? But then she saw it — a ginger cat tangled in the cable wires between their houses, hanging like a fuzzy orange disaster.

"Oh my god."

"Yeah. That's not good." Gary was already moving, grabbing his ladder from the truck. "Help me with this."

So Maya found herself on her roof at 3:15 PM, helping a cable guy she'd met twenty minutes ago rescue her neighbor's cat from the literal wires. The cat — whose name was apparently Chili — had wrapped himself around everything so thoroughly that Gary had to cut him free with wire cutters while Maya tried to keep him calm with very awkward whispering.

"You're doing great, Chili. You're so brave. Please don't scratch my face off."

When they finally got the cat down, Gary's shirt was ripped, Maya's mascara had smudged halfway down her cheeks, and Chili was purring like a chainsaw.

"Well," Gary said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "That happened."

"Yeah." Maya laughed, this short surprised sound. "That happened."

"Your cable's fixed, by the way. Should work perfectly now."

Maya checked her phone — 3:45. She had time to get ready. Lucas's party started at seven. But weirdly, she wasn't thinking about Lucas anymore. She was thinking about how she'd literally climbed onto a roof in a crop top to save a cat.

"Hey Gary?" she said as he packed up his truck. "Thanks. For, like, everything."

"Anytime, kid." He grinned. "Oh, and Maya?"

"Yeah?"

"If that Lucas dude doesn't appreciate a girl who'll climb a roof for a cat?" He jerked his thumb toward the house. "He's not worth your time."

Maya watched his truck pull away, Chili's tail flicking through the neighbor's window. Then she went inside, turned on the TV, and watched baseball alone until her phone buzzed.

Lucas: hey u still coming 2night?

Maya stared at it for a long second. Then: nah. actually. think i'm gonna stay in.

She grabbed her glove from the closet. There was a park nearby with batting cages, and she'd been meaning to practice her swing all week. Gary was right — if a guy didn't get why that mattered, he wasn't worth her time.

Besides, Chili was watching from the neighbor's windowsill, and Maya had never felt more like herself than she did right now.