Grey Matters by Clea Simon

something, not even looking up, and Dulcie took off, warmed with the feeling of a job well done.
    But any hope Dulcie had of sharing her speculative gossip faded when she got back to the Central Square apartment she shared with Suze.
    ‘Anybody home?’ As she let herself into the front door of the duplex, Dulcie looked up the stairs that led to their first floor. At the top landing, a little face looked down. ‘Hey, kitten. Is it just you?’
    But if she expected an answer, none was forthcoming. Instead, the kitten waited until she’d climbed up before throwing herself at Dulcie’s shins.
    ‘Hello to you, too, little one.’ Dulcie dropped her book bag and reached for the kitten. Plump as the kitten might be, compared to Mr Grey the tiny black and white cat barely made a handful. She pressed the little body to her face and heard a purr – but nothing else. ‘You ever going to talk to me, kitten?’
    A wet nose pressed against her cheek as she carried the kitten into the kitchen. ‘Suze?’ she called, before spotting the note on the fridge:
    Totally forgot Jeremy’s birthday dinner , the note read. She tried to place the birthday boy. Jeremy? Wasn’t he someone’s roommate? That was it, she thought. Jeremy lived with Suze’s boyfriend, Ariano. So sorry to leave you alone! Call or come join us – Burrito Villa – if you want!
    ‘Bother.’ Dulcie sank into a kitchen chair, depositing the kitten on the table in front of her. Burrito Villa was back in the Square, and while that was usually a manageable hike, tonight she didn’t feel like tackling it again. It wasn’t that she needed the company. Considering what had happened the day before, she felt surprisingly good. It’s just that she really could have used someone to talk to. And more and more often, she admitted to herself, Suze was not around. ‘It’s the university,’ her roommate had explained only the week before. ‘I’ve got to get away. I know you see your future in academia, Dulcie. But for me, it feels like some kind of very nice, very safe chrysalis. It’s served its purpose, and I’m ready to break out.’
    Suze had meant well, and Dulcie could see the truth in her friend’s words. Even her choice of a boyfriend – Ariano, a non-academic – reflected her movement away from the tidy world that Dulcie loved. That they both had, for close to seven years. But Suze was moving on, and Dulcie felt abandoned.
    In front of her, the kitten started to wash.
    ‘Join me in dungeon?’
    The strange text-message invitation, tendered as it was by Chris, had considerable appeal. Although the idea of crashing someone else’s party hadn’t interested Dulcie, as the evening had worn on the apartment had grown a little too quiet for comfort. She’d tried settling in on the sofa with the Gunning, but the tight type and myriad footnotes had soon made her eyes heavy. Even when she exchanged the heavy research work for something lighter, the magic just wasn’t there. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, the last forty-eight hours had taken their toll. ‘Maybe,’ she’d texted back, but whatever reply she was hoping for, all she got was silence.
    ‘At least you’re here.’ She looked over at the kitten, who was busy battling one of Suze’s shoelaces. ‘Why don’t you come read with me?’ Cats don’t usually come when called, but when Dulcie grabbed her worn copy of The Ravages of Umbria and lay back down on the sofa, she was pleased to feel a light thump as the kitten landed by her feet. ‘Good girl.’
    This was how it used to be with Mr Grey. She could think of him these days without even tearing up, and as his successor kneaded a pillow, Dulcie dove into her book. Not for the plot this time, although the adventure of beleaguered Hermetria and her duplicitous sidekick Demetria could usually suck her right in. Now she wanted to focus on the language. What were the hints – the idiosyncrasies – that might lead her to uncover the