The Imperfections

I’m gonna feel stupid if this girl’s playing my ass. As I head to the door to put my shoes on, I think about changing my mind. Could be she’s lying and saying all this so I will leave and let her stay here unattended. Could be as soon as I’m far enough down the road she knows I’m not coming back, she hightails it out of here and never looks back.

I linger at the door, unsure what to do. I walk back to the kitchen as quietly as I can and peek in on her, just to see if her mannerism has changed since I left the room.

She’s still standing at the sink, scrubbing a plate from breakfast and smiling down at Scout sitting on the floor by her feet.

“Do you like to play fetch?” she asks him.

As if answering, Scout barks at her and wags his tail.

I sigh, deciding just to leave her be. Maybe she’s a damn good liar and I just don’t see it. Either way, I guess I don’t have a right to complain.

If I come home tonight and she’s still here, I’ll know I was right to trust her.

If I don’t get to come home because cops show up at the bar to arrest me, well, I guess I earned it.

At least if she does turn me in, I won’t worry Scout’s going hungry here all by himself. Whether or not Alyssa decides to keep me around, I know she’ll take care of my dog.

5

Brant

As days go, this one’s the slowest.

Even though the cell signal’s shit on some parts of my property, I’ve never regretted getting rid of my landline until now. I don’t have much use for a phone most of the time, but today, I wish like hell I could call my house and just make sure she’s there to pick up.

Despite spending half the day convincing myself she’ll be gone by the time I get home, I take a break before the grocery store closes and run over to do some shopping. I don’t have an exhaustive list of what my house needs, but I do know Alyssa told me I needed to buy more eggs. While I’m there I pick up a couple steaks, some bread, bacon, another grapefruit, a couple of bananas, a box of spaghetti, and some red sauce. I know Theo said she made spaghetti one night, but I don’t know what else she makes.

As soon as I can shut the doors to the public, I do. Normally, my employees hate closing with me because my standards of cleanliness are higher than the Sunday night manager’s, but tonight I decide the place is as clean as it needs to be and we all leave early.

I never work Sundays, so I have the day off tomorrow, and dumb as it is, I’m kinda looking forward to spending it with Alyssa.

Assuming she’s still at my house, anyway.

When I get to the end of the driveway and see lights on inside, I start to get my hopes up that she’s here. I tell myself she could have just left them on before she left to throw me off for a few extra minutes, but when I get the front door open and my nose is assaulted by the aroma of a fresh lemon scent, my hopes rise higher.

That’s gotta mean she mopped the floors. Who mops the floors and then leaves?

She’s not in the living room or kitchen. I check the screened-in porch, but she’s not there, either.

My hopes start to fall, but I tell myself she’s probably just upstairs. Instead of going to check right away, I lock the front door, shut off all the lights, and put away the groceries I just bought.

As I’m doing that, I can’t help noticing how she tidied the place up. All the counters are sparkling clean, the sink is empty and clean as it’s ever been, and the floors have been swept and mopped. Scout’s dish is empty, of course, but the bowl isn’t just licked clean; it’s obviously been washed.

I don’t usually have the time to do that stuff, so it’s nice that she did.

Once the food is put away, I turn off the lights and head upstairs. I don’t hear anything, though, and I’m starting to worry she did leave, and she just cleaned my goddamn house first. That seems like the kind of thing she’d do, knowing she had all day. I’ll go upstairs and find no Alyssa, no Scout, just a clean, empty house.

That depresses me a little more than it should, and that doesn’t bode well. I don’t know why I like having her here. Usually I like being off on my own, just me and Scout, but somehow it feels like she could fit into my life if I wanted her to.