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“Are you happy to see me?” Meegan asked.
“No, ma’am. Please leave before I call security.”
Meegan nearly had a brilliant comeback on the tip of her tongue, but then Olin was kissing her. She kissed him right back, that giddiness rushing to the surface.
“Come on, I wanna show you something,” he said when they finally came up for air.
“Olin,” she gasped. “I just got here.”
“I planned to keep my pants on for at least an hour. I’m gonna show you something else.”
“Lead the way.” Meegan followed him through the mudroom to the ultra modern kitchen that was open to the living room. Meegan could see right through to the small backyard and the canal below. The neighbor’s bungalow across the water had cute string lights. It was quite the view, but it was hard to ignore the life size Batman statue standing in the corner. An honest to god statue, not a cut out. Meegan kept her comments to herself and continued to look around the space.
She took in the large mounted TV and the caramel leather furniture. On the surfboard-shaped coffee table sat a fancy chess set, a large art book that looked like a documentation of Nike’s designs over the years and a book that boasted the complete collection of Batman covers leading up to the year 2000. An expensive looking dog bed with PAMELA stitched into the fabric was in the other corner. The vibe suited him. Crisp, yet comfortable. She didn’t feel like she was in a museum and, thank god, she didn’t feel like she was in a frat house either. He was living like a grown up, for the most part, which some single guys found hard to do.
“You see I wasn’t joking about the statue?” Olin said.
“I’m just wondering about coming downstairs in the middle of the night and having a heart attack because you think someone is standing in the corner.”
“It took some getting used to, but that’s the best spot in the house for it. Come on.” Olin took her bag and set it on one of the arm chairs before continuing to another room on the other side of a wide staircase.
The room was filled with Batman and Batman-related things, which was all very interesting, except that Meegan could only focus on the big, yet adorable floppy-eared brown and tan dog laying patiently on the floor by the window.
“Um, is this Pam?” Meegan asked. The dog looked at Olin, her tail beating against the edge of the carpet.
“This is Pam.”
“Listen, I love what you have going on in here, but I think Pam and I are gonna burst if you don’t let me pet her.” Another smaller Batman statue stood in the corner and framed original sketches hung above the bookshelf against the rear wall . They were gonna have to wait.
“Squat down and call her to you.”
Meegan dropped down on one knee on the black and gray abstract rug. “Come here, Pam. Come here.” The dog unfolded her long, lanky legs from the floor and wiggle trotted her way over to Meegan’s open palms. She stopped just inches short of letting Meegan pet her, thinking about it just for a second, before shoving her whole head under Meegan’s arm. Meegan fell right on her ass, but she didn’t care. She was pretty sure she’d won Pam’s approval.
She did her best to avoid taking Pam’s doggy kisses directly to her face. With Olin’s help, she got back to her feet. “Oh, Pam,” she said, catching her breath. “You are the cutest dog I have ever seen.”
“Go sit,” Olin said, snapping his fingers. Pam trotted right back over to the window and plopped down.
“She’s my new favorite dog ever,” Meegan said. “Can we keep her? Can we?”
“I think she’s secured a spot under this roof.”
“She’s so stinkin’ cute.”
“Glad to hear it.” Olin was clearly a proud dog dad, but the dog wasn’t the main reason he brought her into this room.
“Sorry, you wanted me to see your inner sanctum, your Batcave if you will, and I let Pam steal your shine. Please, I need the tour.”
“There’s not much else to share. I have more prints framed throughout the house and Michael’s kids gave me two Batman plushies that are upstairs. They were devastated to find out I live alone. This was before Pam.”
Meegan did a little loop around the room. The bookshelves held neatly packaged and organized comics and larger bound volumes. One of those plexiglas grid shelves had more action figures and mini statues. On the corner of his desk, that he clearly didn’t use for work, there an old school plastic Batman watch was still in its original packaging. In the center there was a pretty big Lego replica of the Batmobile. She loved the idea of Olin sitting up some nights, putting it together with Pam at his feet.
“Contained. Tasteful. I like it.”
“My grandfather was a hoarder. I had to keep the collection under control for my sanity.”
“That’s smart. What is it about Batman?”
Olin glanced down for a moment, like he was considering how layered this explanation was gonna be. When he looked back at her, a sort of calm came over him.
