AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yay, me,” I mutter, picking up the bowl and setting it on the counter then grabbing the little ceramic basin that serves as Steve’s water dish and moving to the sink. I fill it with water, snag one of the dish towels I washed the night before, spread the cotton on the floor, and place the bowl on top of it.
Hopefully, in a place I won’t trip over it and spill it everywhere.
That might stain this beautiful wood, might cause some of the gorgeous, hand-scraped planks to swell and morph, to grow misshapen.
That’ll serve him right.
I narrow my eyes in the direction of the hall then decide that’s not helpful to my pretending this all doesn’t hurt, that this all is totally fine and I’m unbothered, so I force my expression to smooth out and go to my bags, pull out my snow boots, snag my winter coat.
I’m not a total idiot—even if I missed the whole Snowmageddon thing.
I knew I was driving up to the mountains in the middle of winter, so I made sure I packed the necessary garments.
Something that wasn’t hard to do, considering I was packing up my entire life.
Still, I made sure they ended up near the top of one of the bags, so…winning?
And whether my Bay Area heavy coat and boots will hold up to the blizzard still pumping out snow outside the house is another story.
I’m going to find out, aren’t I?
Steve’s harness and leash, jacket and booties are next and he drools all over me as I get everything on—remnants of scrounging up those last couple of kibbles and attempting to drink his water dish dry before he heard the jingle jangle of his leash and abandoned all searching for consumables in lieu of the potential to bark at a squirrel or a plastic bag.
I wipe my arm on my pants and decide to swap them out for something thicker.
See? I can think ahead.
Can pause without rushing stupidly headfirst.
So says the girl who was nearly fucked on the counter by a man I barely know all of five minutes earlier.
At least I got an orgasm out of it.
Jeans on. Jacket over my shirt and hoodie. Thick socks on my feet. Waterproof boots on.
Camera over my shoulder, extra battery and memory card in my zippered pocket.
Beanie on my head.
Ready to brave the blizzard outside.
I look down at my baby. “Let’s go, Steve.”
His tongue lolls as he trots over to me, leash dragging behind him, tags on his harness tinkling as he meets me by the front door.
I tug it wide, feel the cold gust of wind.
It cuts through my layers, a frozen razor blade glancing over my skin. But it’s too cold for me to bleed, all of the blood in my body leaving my limbs and coalescing deep in my belly, hidden in that safe spot buried beneath layers and layers of protection.
For a second, I had thought—
Well, it doesn’t matter.
I know better now.
I know it’s the same as always.
Which is why I snag Steve’s leash and we walk out the front door.
