Jim came home to an empty three story house that he could not afford. It didn’t even feel like home without her. All of her rich girl decorations were gone and the lonely house was left with white empty walls and picture frames with unknown faces, dimensions and prices. Jim didn’t know anyone in Vail, he was simply dragged by his wife. He lost track of all his friends back in Wisconsin, where they had met back at a wedding event Jim had worked at.
He flicked on the T.V, just in time to catch the football game. Elizabeth used to make her famous bean dip and play “house wife” for all Jim’s colleagues. But they only came because they thought Elizabeth was hot. Everything reminded poor Jim of his beautiful gem in the middle of no where. Even the empty shelves reminded him of how she cleaned them twice a day in hope that they would look like a hotel room’s empty beauty. But Jim’s house wasn’t empty in the beautiful way. Empty hotel rooms or new houses showed potential for life lasting memories. But old empty houses only show what he had lost.
The truth was that as much as this place reminded him of his perfect couple, he didn’t have any other place to go. He would have to make it work. He would need a new job, some less reminding furniture, and eventually...a new wife.  Jim’s sadness slowly shifted into anger when he thought of her and the guy she cheated on him with. Probably engaged already, glad he was out of the picture. 
The crowd on the T.V. cheered as a public service announcement for the SPCA came up. The T.V announcers voice seeped into his ears with sadness. The cute animals faces quivered with fear. Jim’s heart began to ache as his mouth closed tightly trying to fight back the tears. A tabby cat filled the screen with longing. He hears footsteps pound on the doorsteps, then the sound of paper slam on the WELCOME mat. He scanned for the “flower a day” calendar that Elizabeth left and realized it was the first of the month, which is when he received his Consumer Reports magazine. He jumped up from his now indented leather couch and pulled up his Sears sweatpants which were ripped at the cuff. He moped to the door, his hand rubbing his eyes awake. He pulled the door open and squinted at the bright winter light, His eyes still closed, he bent down and reached for his magazine. He felt the cold plastic covered in snow seep into his callused skin. He felt a piercing pain scrape across his pointer finger as he heard the soft purr of a wild animal. He quickly panicked, opening his eyes to see it was just a outdoor cat. He sighed in relief as he sat up and felt the nails of the cat scrape over his soft sweatpants. Kicking the cat off his bare foot, he noticed that it wasn’t exactly a sweet cat. This cat was brown with reddish stripes and had a bright white tummy. His face, frowning, and his eyes squinting downwards, were engulfed in the excess fat building around his tiny mouth. The cat had an evil grin that startled Jim as he ran in the house and shut the door behind him. He shut his eyes, too tired to even keep them open as he felt for the leather couch he was earlier sitting on. Just as he re-molded his leather indent he heard the hard purr of the same grumpy cat. He groaned and opened his eyes only to see the cat sitting at his feet and staring up at him with the same grin. Jim wondered how the cat got in the house and reached for the light switch. He leaned forward and intertwined his fingers around the fat cat. Trying to lift him up with his flabby muscles the cat squealed and scrambled out of Jim’s weak grip. Jim gave up and let the cat flop down on his foot. The game went on as Jim tried to cancel out the ear piercing noise of the cat’s purr. He had no other choice but to deal with it. He figured the cat, being as grumpy as it is, would just have enough of Jim’s lazy TV night and just start purring near the door. Then all he would have to do is get up, (which is hard enough), and open the door. But the cat kept making noises as if it was a two song CD from a cheap giveaway that kept repeating two songs: Purring, and Squealing. Jim had had enough of the cat when he heard another squeal that went on for 10 min. Slamming the pillow against the armrest of his couch he jolted up from his not so deep sleep and started yelling at the poor fat cat “ What do you want? What do you want-huh? I’m just trying to get some sleep and I REALLY could use some alone time! So why don’t you just slide your fat furry body across my floor and leave! I don’t need this right now and I certainly don’t need you.” Jim, amazed with his sudden act of yelling noticed that the cat was not grumpily responding to his fit. The cat sunk into his 40 pound furry blob of a body and stared at him, eyes wide open, quivering with fear. Jim frowned and and nodded to the cat. The cat shut up for the first time that night as Jim motioned for him to stand near his legs. Reaching down once again, Jim picked up the cat and felt the weight of it plop on his legs. Positioning himself to take the weight, Jim’s hand shook as he reached to pet the cat. The cat’s eyes squinted up at Jim and purred one last time. Jim chuckled and smiled for the first time in a while as the his and the animals eyes met, slowly falling back to sleep.