I decided to ignore the part about being serious. “I wasn’t sure if or when he’d make an appearance. And I like the name Clay. Besides, he doesn’t mind.” I wasn’t sure if I was talking about Clay-the-dog or Clay-the-man anymore.
Rachel switched topics. “We should probably talk about overnight visitors. What rules do we want to set?”
“Um...no loud noises?”
“Come on!” Rachel laughed louder. “I meant, weekends only? Maybe guests till midnight on weekdays? Notice needed? You know, that kind of stuff.”
She grinned at me, still lounged sideways on the chair. I really didn’t want to have this conversation with Clay present. He lay quietly, head on my lap, considerately pretending to sleep.
“I don’t know. I trust you and your judgment, and you can trust my lack of a social life. I really don’t think I’ll see Clay very often so you don’t need to worry.”
“Oh, he’ll be back. I saw the way he watched you. Are you sure the only rule you can come up with is no loud noises?”
I thought of adding that she should warn me when we had a visitor, but I looked down at Clay and figured we had it covered.
“Yeah, I think we’re fine.”
“Great!” she said with a huge grin. Then she cupped her hands and yelled, “Peter!”
The front door immediately opened and a sheepish looking Peter entered.
“You were supposed to text me,” he muttered uncomfortably.
I laughed. “Come on in, Peter. Clay and I were just going to bed.” Clay jumped off the couch first, and I got up to follow him into my room. “Night, guys.”
“Another early Friday night for us,” I whispered to Clay after I closed the door.
I pulled back the covers and slid between the sheets. Clay settled in his usual spot and began to breathe deeply while I lay awake thinking about the conversation with Rachel.
As she’d pointed out, Clay wasn’t like the other guys. At the Compound, when I’d felt the pull Sam had warned me about, I’d panicked. I’d thought Clay would be just like the rest and that I would spend the rest of my life trying to avoid him.
When he’d shown up at the door as a dog, and not as a man, he’d thrown me off guard. Now, I realized he’d been pretty smart about it. Somehow, he’d known I would be more likely to give him a chance as a dog than as a man. Again, I’d underestimated his intelligence.
Rachel was also right about Clay watching me. He followed me everywhere. I assumed his attentiveness was to observe and learn. What if it wasn’t? His quiet presence had already lulled me into indifference over his company. I needed to be more careful.
Chapter 11
The next morning, I tiredly went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. My deep thoughts had kept me awake longer than I’d intended, and I felt like Sam looked most mornings. Instead of coffee, I wanted my OJ.
I squinted against the harsh light and scanned the sparse contents of my designated shelf for the orange liquid of life. No orange juice. Shuffling the contents around didn’t change the answer. Nope, not there. Straightening, I surveyed the kitchen and spotted its remains in the recycling.
The shower turned on in the bathroom, and I remembered Peter had stayed over. I looked down at Clay, who silently accompanied me, as usual.
“Great. Another non-coffee person,” I complained to him.
Since I drank the last of the milk yesterday, I went for a glass of water instead. The faucet handle jiggled loosely in my hand, and only a trickle came out.
“Seriously?” I mumbled as Rachel glided into the kitchen.
“Looks like I’ll have to call the hottie plumber back.”
“No, thanks. And no big guy showing two inches of crack, either.” I settled for a third of a glass of water and turned off the faucet.
Rachel might have thought the plumber hot, but he’d been bigheaded about it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get rid of him so easily a second time. Having narrowly avoided one potential stalker, there was no way I would invite another one in.
“I was going to go pick up Clay later, anyway,” I lied. “I’ll have him look at it.” I smiled at Rachel as Clay’s head whipped up at me. I’d beg him again if I had to.
“Really? No-talk, leave-early, Clay?”
“Yeah, that one. Not the dog.”
“I believe you said you didn’t think he’d be around much.” She smirked at me while she measured the coffee. I stuck my tongue out at her, but she just laughed.
“Don’t remind me. I’m probably going to need to beg.”
“Does he know much about plumbing?” Rachel asked as she moved to the sink to fill the coffee pot.
“Don’t know...we don’t talk much.” I laughed while she groaned.
With nothing to drink, I dressed to go shopping. Clay waited for me just outside my door.
“Wanna come shopping with me or stay here?” I knew he’d want to go even if he did have to stay in the car. He moved to stand by the back door.
We drove to one of those discount supercenters. I left Clay in the car with the windows cracked—it was more for show than actual airflow. If he got hot, he’d just let himself out.
It worried me a bit that I needed to shop several days sooner than planned. In order to feed Clay and myself, I had already made compromises in my original budget. Yet, at this rate, I would surpass even my revised spending allowance for groceries. That meant I needed to change my shopping habits, not just to save money but to fill the pantry with more food. I didn’t mind eating light, but looking back, since Clay didn’t eat his dog food—not that I blamed him—he ate light, too. A little too light when I recalled how much Sam could consume.
The orange juice I liked cost more than a five-pound bag of potatoes. I put the potatoes in the cart and walked past the fresh juice. Maybe I could buy a decent concentrate. I went to the freezer section, found some cheap veggies, and ignored the speculative look from a man a few yards away.
Everyone found shopping a pain at some point. I found it a pain all the time.
In the next case, I studied the meat options. The flash-frozen chicken breasts were cheaper than the steaks per pound so I went with those. The man moved from the veggies to the meats as I eyed the cart and tried to envision our meals. Meat, potato, and veggie.
Before the man tried to start a conversation, I moved on to dry goods. A large tub of generic peanut butter and another of grape jelly joined the growing heap in the cart. I used my other vision to check for and skillfully avoid as many men as possible while I wove through the aisles. Not for the first time, I wished I could tell men and women apart.
Always on the lookout for deals, I spotted the day-old bakery rack and found two loaves of bread for a dollar. The cart held more than it usually did when I went shopping. Although, it lacked variety, it had quantity; and I’d managed to keep it under twenty dollars. My smug happiness lasted until I recalled I needed something to drink in the morning. Dang. And cereal. Oh, well. Under thirty still helped the budget.
When I thought back to what Clay had already done for me, like putting on clothes last night, I couldn’t regret spending more to feed him. And there was still the faucet that awaited him. I frowned as I realized all he had to wear was the linen getup. Surely, I could spare enough to buy Clay a decent set of clothes.
I turned the cart around and hunted the store for the best bargains. The store had off-brand denims on sale. I guessed at his size and tossed a pair in the cart. Next, I stumbled upon a returned three pack of tshirts that looked poorly repackaged. I saw nothing wrong with the shirts and figured the low price correlated with the packaging. Whatever dropped the price down by three dollars worked for me.