His office door was closed around ten p.m. that night, and I could hear his heavy sighs. I knocked twice, and he invited me to come in. I carried a package behind my back to help persuade him to give himself a break.
“Hey, Red. What’s up?” He smiled genuinely, but I saw how tired his eyes were.
I leaned against the doorframe. “You need an RB.”
He raised an eyebrow. “A what?”
“An RB—a roommate break. Come on. You’ve been killing yourself in the office, working way too hard, and you need a break.”
“As nice as that sounds, I don’t really have time for a break.”
“Well, you need to make time. Otherwise, your body will start to break down, and you need your body to function correctly. Nothing good comes from working yourself to death.”
“You sound like my mother,” he muttered before growing wide-eyed. “Ah, shit, I forgot to call my mom back. She’s going to leave me a million messages about it.”
“It’s okay. You can call her tomorrow after a night of good rest and some RB time. Come on.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to let up on this, are you?”
“No, I’m not. Plus, I have a surprise for you if you agree.” I pulled the box from behind my back and held it out in front of me.
His eyes narrowed. “What’s in the box, Red?”
“I guess you’ll have to stand and walk away from your paperwork to come find out, Captain.”
With hesitation, he pushed his chair back and walked in my direction. He ripped the tape off the box and gasped when he saw what was inside.
“Are those…?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“And they’re for me…?”
“Uh-huh.”
He reached into the box of treasures, also known as Cheetos Paws, and I smacked his hand away before he could grab a bag. “Nope! None for you until RB is agreed upon.”
“Where did you even find these?”
“A good player in life never shares her secrets. Now what do you say? Do we have a deal?”
He swiped one of the bags from the box, opened it, and began shoving the Cheetos Paws into his mouth. “Deal,” he said, with his face stuffed, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.
We took the chips along with some other snacks and drinks up to the rooftop to talk. My only goal for the night was to get Connor to relax a little. I could tell he put too much pressure on himself to take over the world and do good with the power. All I needed was for him to take over himself for a bit of time and learn to slow down.
We asked each other all kinds of questions. Like always with him, the conversation came easily, and I witnessed when the relaxation finally began to settle over him as he chose to live in the moment.
“If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?” he asked me as he finished off his third bag of chips.
“Oh, that’s easy. A dog.”
“I knew you’d be a dog person.”
I nodded in agreement.
“I used to volunteer at a humane society for abused dogs. It blew my mind the kind of torture humans would put those poor babies through. We’d gotten some who had been hurt and harmed more than they ever deserved. They had a lot of trauma, anxiety, and depression when they arrived, but over time, they still let us near them. Did it take time for them to build up their trust? Yes, but once it was there, they gave us love so freely. No creature on the planet loved unconditionally like a dog. Sadly, if their abusers came back, they’d still give them love. This world doesn’t deserve dogs.”
“I couldn’t agree more. If I had time for a dog, I’d definitely get one.”
“Sometimes in life, you have to make time.”
He smiled. “I think I’ll start with RB time and ease my way into getting a dog.”
“Make sure to adopt, don’t shop! There are a lot of babes out there who would change your world for the better.”
“Yeah,” he said, his blue eyes looking into mine. His dimples deepened. “I bet there are.”
I had to look away from him because whenever he stared for too long, my stomach filled with butterflies. I began picking at my fingernails to distract myself. “You know what saying I’ve always hated?”
“Do tell.”
“Men are dogs. Why would people disrespect dogs like that? Dogs are loyal, even on your shittiest day. You can yell and scream at them, and they still are going to crawl into your lap and love you. Sure, maybe they have accidents in the house or chew your shoes, but you see the real guilt in their eyes from making the mistake. And they learn. Dogs are loyal and they learn! Men are just…men. And that’s the worst thing I could think to call them. Not pigs. Not rats. Not snakes. Men are men.” I looked toward him and offered an unapologetic smile. “I mean, no offense.”