“Not really.”
“I’m gonna crawl in the shower,” she croaked, “then crawl back out of it. Then I’m gonna beg him to put clothes on me so I can leave the house. Then…”
As interesting as the breakdown was of her future plans, I interrupted her anyway. “Who is this?”
“Tabby,” she croaked. “Who’s this?”
“Hey, Tabby, it’s Kat. Where are we going?”
“The writing on my hand says, ‘call Kat, get dog’. I thought it meant I needed to call my cat and then go get my dog, by the cat has a K like your name, so I guess we’re getting a dog.”
Groaning, I got up onto my knees, keeping my head on the floor until the last second, and then slowly lifted my upper body up too. “Ok, I’m getting in the shower.”
Tabby just got out a, “See you soon,” before she hung up, and I dragged myself back to the bathroom for a shower, praying throughout the whole thing that I didn’t drown.Two hours later…
In all my life, not once had I felt the pain I felt when I opened the door after she knocked on it and I got the sunlight in my eyes. I’d broken my arm and my ankle, and the pain they’d caused didn’t even come close to that sunlight. Grabbing my sunglasses out of my purse, I pushed them up my nose and squinted at Tabby who was wearing a cap and sunglasses as she used my door frame to hold herself up.
“Car. Now.”
With my hands cupped around my eyes, I stumbled behind her, only just remembering to close the door behind me and lock it. When I turned back, I took one step and heard, “Yo, Tab, Kat.”
With my hands still up, I turned and saw a group of guys from work moving things into the house next to mine. I’d rented one of the newly built houses on the outskirts of Piersville after falling in love with it on first sight. They were small and they were close enough to town that I didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get to work, but far enough away that I had peace and privacy.
Or at least I had had privacy until a group of men moved in next door who knew my name.
Tabby called, “Hey… Oh, hey, Jarrod!”
Before I could ask her where she was looking to see him because I couldn’t see him at all, she grabbed my hands away from my face and tugged me to the car, waving over her shoulder. Fortunately neither of us were driving because we were more than likely still over the limit and I wasn’t even sure what hand-eye coordination was and you needed that to drive, so I sat in the front next to Dave as Tabby got in the back with her daughter, Sheena, and we headed to the Dog Rescue place Dave knew that about twenty minutes away.
As Tabby and I got out of the vehicle, I warned her, “I need to cover my eyes because the second I make eye contact with a dog I’ll want to take it home.”
“You said last night it had to be a small dog so you can put it in your purse. This place has them sectioned out in small, medium and large breeds, so just cover your eyes until I say you’re safe.”
I’d just reached out for the handle of the door that said ENTRANCE in huge letters, when she said it and it all became clear. “Wait, I’m the one getting the dog?”
“Yup, girls are out getting what you need for it, so we just have to take it back.”
“Tabby, I don’t think…”
Ignoring the fact my hand was on the handle, she tugged the door open and gestured inside. “Good, because I can’t think right now. I’m never drinking with you guys again.”
Following along behind her, I was in full agreement with her on that one.
“It’s unlikely they’d let me take the dog home today anyway,” I muttered to the back of her bright pink head – hair that normally made me jealous, but right now was killing me. “They’ve got to do background checks, checks on your…”
“Why, Katy Crew, I’m so excited to have you here for your first puppy!” A voice screeched from the office and made it clear I was totally screwed because I would be taking the dog home with me today. “Whatever she wants, Beth, Katy gets. She’s totally clear on all the checks.”
And why was that? Because I didn’t realize that my parents neighbor was the director of this rescue center.Ten minutes later…
I had my hands over my eyes as Tabby pulled me along behind her. I wasn’t exaggerating, I was terrible when it came to dogs. My uncle now had three because when I’d gone with him to adopt one from a place near where he lived, I’d dropped a hand to cover my mouth so I could cough and had made eye contact with a dog. Then, I’d tripped over a bucket and put both hands out to catch myself, and made eye contact with another dog. Then he’d pointed the one out that he’d actually wanted to adopt while he was filling in the paperwork for the other two… and he ended up with it, too. We’d also had four dogs in the house when I was a kid because of that exact reason. I was the worst person to ever go dog adopting with.