Page 26 of Life, Love, and Other Messes

“Do any of your friends know?”

“No. All of my friends are either Corey’s friends too or people that I work with.”

“And it would complicate things with Corey’s friends. Which school are you at?” I knew exactly which school she was at, but I didn’t want to sound like a stalker.

“St. Mark’s. It’s not as stifling as you’d think. The other two pre-K teachers are cool and the kindergarten teacher is a big furry gay man.”

“Furry? Like with the costumes?” The best friend of the main character in my latest romance novel was a bunny rabbit furry named George. The research on that one had been fun.

Now, Lisa laughed for real. “No, like he’s round and has all this fuzzy curly red hair. I mean, I guess I don’t know that he’s not a furry.”

“This is deteriorating.” I could tell she was feeling better, though, and at that moment, Ollie hopped up on the sofa next to her and started licking the tears off her cheeks.

She tried to move away but it was pointless. The dog was on a mission. “Totally deteriorating.”

“You want a glass of wine?”

“Yes, please.”

Chapter Eight

August became September. It was still unusually hot and I walked Ollie in the mornings before class and the evening close to sundown. I hoped to see Lisa, but I didn’t. Everything felt different after we’d talked the other night. I didn’t think that needed to mean we’d never speak to one another again, but I was beginning to worry until nearly a week later when I saw her edging her lawn as we came down the block.

She started it. “Hey!”

“Hey.” I smiled. “How’re you doing?”

“Fine.” She gave me a crooked smile back. I could tell she was still a bit embarrassed about the other night, but that just made me smile bigger. “Can I join you guys? Or you were probably heading home.”

“We can go another loop around.” Ollie was lying on Lisa’s lawn like he was already done, but I knew he could find a second wind. Anyway, he liked to double back on the spots where he’d peed.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Let me put this in the garage.”

A moment later, we were on our way. We were quiet for a while aside from laughing about how Ollie looked back at Lisa every few paces to make sure she was still there. She was very patient about waiting for him while he sniffed and snuffled. Ollie did try to head up the driveway when we came to my house, but I nudged him along and he continued fairly amicably, with just one fuck you look in my general direction.

“So how’ve you been?” I finally asked.

This time, she thought about it. “Lonely, which makes me mad. I just wanted him out, but it’s so quiet in there and I can only mop the floors so many times.”

“I understand.” I’d never lived with a girlfriend, but I hadn’t realized how much time I spent with Veronica until it wasn’t happening anymore.

“Who do you hang out with? People from work or…?”

I shrugged. “I talk with people at work and I go to football or basketball games sometimes with Vera, but she’s the head of the department and it would feel weird hanging out for real. Most of my friends…” I stopped short.

“What?”

Ugh. My friends. We had started out as a bar crowd, but we’d all pretty much grown out of that, although some of the guys still went clubbing. Lately, we’d hung out in smaller groups or had big backyard barbecues. Well, we had until Veronica supposedly left town. Or, rather, I had, past tense. “There’s a big group of queer people I sometimes get together with,” I said vaguely. “I haven’t really seen them in a while though.”

“How come?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“We’ve got several more blocks if you’d like to tell it.”