It felt like an hour had passed when I finally saw the word count display a three-figure number. I was proud of my achievement, and I had to let Parker know.

Me: First 100 done.

I placed my phone back on the bed, meaning to continue with the rest of my conquest, when the screen lit up with a new message.

Parks sent a photo

With no form of hesitation, I opened our chat and look at the attached file. I couldn't fight the smile that steadily crawled up my face, placing itself in a position that had me possibly beaming. Just like Parker seemed to be.

His eyes were drawn to thin lines, and the corners of his lips were stretched in a close-lipped smile as he posed with a thumbs up. The light brown freckles that spread in an undefined constellation on his cheeks and chin glowed with his expression, glowed with my insides, which squirmed more and more with every passing second.

I typed him a reply with one wobbly pointer finger, alternating glances at my laptop and Jellybean who lingered in my room.

She had a tendency to sit on the keyboard, sometimes falling asleep while curled up into a fuzzy orange ball, especially when I was using it. Just like she's doing now that she's on my bed.

"Jellybean, no. I'm busy." I reached for her, intending to lift her off before her paws could get to the keyboard and ruin the document.

She looked at my outstretched hands, then at me, and she fucking hissed. There was not an ounce of obedience in her green eyes, I knew that now. And before she could decide to stomp over my progress and ruin all my effort like I guessed, I lifted her and set her down on the other side of my bed, turning my laptop so it faced the wall now.

Jellybean didn't meow in protest so I figured she had taken the hint and had walked out of the room. I was mistaken.

If I hadn't looked up, I would have missed the part when Jellybean crouched next to my phone, which was currently unlocked, still lit up with Parker's chat.

"Psst," I started, voice in a low---hopefully soothing---tone. "How about we be a good kitty and not play with my phone, huh, Jellybean? How about we go play with---"

I couldn't even finish my sentence because the fuzzball started hitting my phone with her paws of furry. Aggressively. That's it.

As soon as she saw me set the laptop down, her ears perked up, eyes taking in my slow movements. It was a shame I couldn't reach her before she jumped off the bed and darted out of the room. What I could do was yell and lock the door after her.

My phone was in my hand a second later, and I tilted the screen to check for any scratches. I found something much more different from what I expected.

Jellybean had hit send on the text I had no intention of actually sending---after adding her own twist to it, that is.

I didn't know what to do because it already showed that Parker had seen it. So I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was no way I could do anything to erase it from Parker's memory. Deleting it would also be weird, and the thought of texting him "Hey, I didn't mean to send that. My cat did it " would not only sound like a very lame and blatant lie, it would also seem like I didn't think he was actually cute.

Parks is typing...

Maybe I should send a second text and tell him I found him aesthetically pleasing, in a way that made me want to draw him even though I couldn't do a stick figure right, in a way that made me want to try. No, that sounded too desperate.

And it didn't seem to be needed now that another text appeared.

Parks: glad I could be of help. and thank youuuu, Mystery😉