Page 5 of Group Hug

During the drive back to Crawfordsville, I stop and buy towels and sheets, and the whole time, I think about howfortunate it was that I noticed the alert on my phone for a new Carmel rental. The apartments I’ve looked at wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun as sharing a house with those two. Now I’ll have two people I can test out recipes on, and they have terrific dogs. I think this is going to be fun. I need to keep my attraction forbothof them under wraps, though.

If Weston is a psychologist, I wonder if he likes to be called Dr. Alister. That’s kinda hot. I wonder how he managed to buy that house at his age. It’s not a huge house, but it’s a really great property, and it’s in a fairly expensive neighborhood. Maybe he’s really, really good at his job. His vibe makes you want to open up to him, so I can imagine how his clients—or are they patients? Whatever. —How his people like talking to him about their troubles and worries.

As for Petra Feeney… Hmm. Our Petra seems to be wound a little tight. She sure is pretty, though. She looks like a china doll with that porcelain skin, kissable, pouty lips, and big brown eyes. That almost-red hair of hers is stunning, and her tight little body just begs to be… oh I have to stop thinking about her that way. We can’t turn our living situation into some kind of orgy, although a guy can dream. I can’t help chuckling to myself at that idea. It’s time to focus on my job, not getting laid. And certainly not where I could mess up our living situation.

As soon as I get to my mom and dad’s house, I start packing up all of my crap. I’m sure my brother will be thrilled to have the rest of his bedroom back—at least until he leaves for college. As much as I love Declan, I’m sure glad to be leaving his dirty laundry smell behind.

While packing, possible menus run through my head. I can’t spend a fortune on groceries since I’ll be sharing the cost with the others, and I’m not sure about their budgets yet, but I want to knock their socks off with my skills. And maybe not just cooking skills, if I’m honest. Geez, there I go again—fantasizingabout things I ought to ignore. Maybe I should find a place to live where I won’t feel so tempted. Too late now, though. I’ve signed a lease.

I can’t deny that during college I was kind of a player, and I sampled everything that was offered. I practiced safe sex, but lots and lots of it. Good times. I thought maybe I’d figure out what I preferred if I tried both men and women, but more and more I realized I craved both equally. It was a very liberating discovery. I finally discussed it with my family, and they were cool about it. They didn’t seem at all surprised, so I wonder what clues I gave. Anyway… doesn’t matter. I am what I am.

As I watch the pile of junk I’m taking grow, it occurs to me that I ought to be starting a second pile I can drop off at one of the charity places. I don’t need a lot of this crap. I just need my clothes, linens, the cooking equipment I have here at the house, and a few items for entertainment and communication. This whole process of having a great job, moving, and purging my junk makes me feel like a new man who’s ready for a new adventure. Look out, world! Callum O’Malley is coming!

I bet my parents will be even more relieved than my brother when they see me move out on my own finally. I’m anxious to tell them as soon as they get home from work.

Four

Weston

“So how didyou wind up getting Gus from a shelter, Petra?” I ask as I grab another excellent taco. I’m surprised when her face colors, and she suddenly seems at a loss for words. We’ve been having a comfortable conversation up until now, but it’s as if the light has gone out of her pretty eyes. Strange.

With her eyes fixed firmly on her plate, Petra answers in a small voice, “I just… felt like I needed a dog. Like that would… um… help. Maybe.”

I lean in. “Help what? Were you lonely? Scared? Wanting to get more exercise and thought taking a dog for a walk would fill the bill?” She looks miserable, so I ask, “What am I missing here?” She carefully sets her half-eaten taco onto her plate and puts her hands in her lap and twists her napkin. She hasn’t met my eyes yet, so I prompt, “I’m like a vault, you know. If there’s something you want to get off your chest, I listen to people for a living. I don’t mean to pry though, so if I’m overstepping, just tell me to back off.”

Taking a deep breath, she finally raises her eyes to mine, and the depth of worry and perhaps a shadow of fear I see in them rattles me. “A couple of reasons really. First, I’ve always wanted a dog, and I was especially lonely after breaking up with my fiancé,” she finally blurts out in a sad voice. “But also, he had this friend.”

She swallows hard, and I feel my protective hackles rising. “Did he hurt you?” I rasp.

“No, he didn’t…” Petra starts. “But he was strange. Obnoxious. And I did worry, I’ll admit, that I wasn’t completely safe. I wanted a dog around for possible protection, although I think Gus might just lick anyone who got near me.” She laughs a little at this idea. “And the worst damage he’d do is leave a bunch of hair on someone’s clothes. I don’t know if he has a protective bone in his body. When I started looking, I was focused on a pitbull, or a German shepherd. But then I found Gus, and it was love at first sight. I couldn’t just leave him there and find a more ferocious-looking dog when I might not even really need protection.” She lets out a huge sigh. “Oh, I don’t know. I just knew that Gus needed a home and someone to take care of him.” She smiles sadly and adds, “Plus, he looked at me with that face.”

I can’t help it. I reach out and take one of her hands. “Gus might surprise you. Even the mildest mannered dogs can sense when there’s danger. And I think it’s great that you found him. He’s lovable and great company, and I bet you need that more than a watchdog. But… now you have three of them—not that any of them seem aggressive—and you have me. And Callum. We’ll all do what we can to watch out for your safety.” Although I hope there isn’t any real danger involved in this scenario, I like the feel of her hand in mine, and I can’t help myself from stroking her with my thumb. I’m telling myself that it’s me offering comfort, but I’m taking as much pleasure from the feel of her as I’m soothing her, I’m sure.

Petra doesn’t remove her hand. She just looks at it for a moment and offers a small smile. “Thank you, Weston. I could use some reassurance that I’m safe. Living here with you, Callum, and the dogs feels really good to me.”

“Do you want to elaborate on that?”

She seems to have given up on her dinner for the time being, so I continue to stroke her hand softly. She sits up straight and answers, “I was engaged to be married, and I was living with my boyfriend Ben up until about four months ago. We were planning to save up and get married in two years. We weren’t in a big hurry, and we wanted to be practical. But Ben had this creepy old friend from high school named Randy, who started showing up at our place at weird times and often seemed to be high or something. Ben spent more and more time with Randy, and when I was around, Randy always looked at me like I was a piece of meat. He gave off the strangest vibe, but he never did it in front of my fiancé. In fact, when we were all three together, he’d mostly ignore me.” She lets out a long sigh. “Over and over, all that had to happen was that Ben might get up to go to the kitchen or the bathroom, and in those few minutes, I would be treated to sexual innuendo, and Randy would tell me to ‘dump the loser and try out a real man.’” She makes air quotes with her fingers, and I’m sorry to lose contact with her hand. “At first, I laughed it off figuring he was teasing, but when he wouldn’t stop, I told him to knock it off. But it went on and on, and Randy became bolder and would try to touch me.

“When that started, I tried telling Ben about it, but he wouldn’t believe his buddy would act like that. It totally pissed me off that he didn’t believe me, and I tried to tell Ben his so-called friend had nothing good to say about him and insulted him behind his back, but he didn’t believe that either. I have no idea why I turned into the one who was supposedly lying, but I’d also noticed a change in behavior in Ben, like maybe they wereboth getting high and trying to hide it from me. He knew my feelings about that, and it was just another nail in the coffin for our relationship.

“Finally, Randy became so bold and nasty, he’d do things like grab me by the hair or my boob and curse in my face, accusing me of thinking I was too good for him. He tried to get my attention once when I walked away from him and grabbed me so hard, he left bruises on my arm that I showed Ben. Ben refused to believe me no matter what, and said I was just clumsy. I felt like I had no choice; I broke off our engagement and moved out. I heard from a friend a couple of months later that Ben stopped going to work and got fired from his job.” She shakes her head sadly. “Randy was such a bad influence on him. He went from a nice, upstanding, hard-working guy to a loser, just like Randy characterized him. Ben has some trust fund money and won’t end up starving, but he is far from wealthy, and certainly ought to be working to support himself. I just wonder how Randy managed to get to change his behavior so badly.” She looks heartbroken as she says, “I was devastated to watch someone who professed to love me disintegrate before my eyes and accuse me of lying. It was horrible.”

“Wow. I’m awfully sorry to hear this. Life can certainly deal us some blows, can’t it? Have you heard any more from either Ben or Randy after that?”

“Not Ben, but Randy showed up at my apartment one day and tried to talk me into letting him in. He acted so sure I’d be happy to see him and said we were lucky I broke up with ‘that pussy Ben’ so we could be together.” She gives a shudder. “I absolutely refused to talk to him beyond telling him to leave, but then after that, I started having some awful things left on the doorstep. Of course, it’s not certain they came from him, but it’s a possibility that he felt rejected and wanted to retaliate. Hecertainly has the personality to come up with something gross like that.”

I am curious about the disgusting doorstep presents, but I don’t want to push her too hard, so I ask instead, “You tried to have Gus in an apartment? I can imagine how well that went.”

“Yeah. Not well. I had to take him out on a leash several times a day, but he needed a lot more exercise than I had the time to devote to him. That’s one of the reasons a house with a yard and at least one other dog sounded so great to me. He already seems calmer, and it’s the first day. Anyway, my roommate got all upset a few times when Gus would start randomly barking in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. That’s when she told me I needed to leave. The last time it happened was two nights ago, and the next morning there was a dead bird on the doorstep. It might have been left by a neighbor’s cat, or it could have been something else. I planned to clean it up and not tell her, but she caught me in the act and was pretty grossed out.”

“If it was Ben or Randy, how did they know where you lived?”

“I stupidly gave the forwarding address to my ex, thinking something important might show up in the mail or something. I now use a PO box for all of my business dealings. I doubt he’d have bothered to forward anything anyway, so it was a dumb move on my part. If it’s not him, Ben could easily have left my address lying around for Randy to see. I don’t know for sure, but I think they live together now.” She gives a small snort. “Maybe that’s what Randy wanted all along—a place to live. I was so stupid.”

“It sounds more trusting than stupid to me. I’m sure you loved Ben at some point, so you had to have trusted him.”

Petra shrugs. “I guess. In retrospect, I wonder if I did love him or if I just wanted to be engaged to someone because it seemed like the time to do that. As I said, I wasn’t in any big rush to tie the knot with him. That can’t be good. And I’m awfullyglad to be rid of him. I should have felt some regret, shouldn’t I? I mean other than missing regular sex?” She gasps as her face goes beet red, and she blurts out, “I can’t believe I just said that. Please erase it from your mind.”

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