Page 53 of Base Block

She was right about that. It was why I had suggested hosting a post-Thanksgiving dinner for him and his fellow rookies at our condo, so that they could have a little rest and fun. Except, having twenty-six people in our condo (the players and all their family members) wasn’t sounding like rest and fun. If I was right about the square footage here, and I was pretty sure that I was, then everyone would only be able to stand and usually, people liked to sit to eat things like turkey and mashed potatoes. They would be in the living room and kitchen, where there was only one oven and it was slightly smaller than others I’d used in the past. It didn’t fit a cookie sheet, which I had learned when I’d tried to bake a treat for Callum. The guests probably wouldn’t want to hang out in the bathroom, perched on the toilet or the edge of the tub (although that room was nice and spacious).

“Let’s go for a walk,” Anara suggested. She was frowning at the dog. “Heidi, we’ll talk to you later.”

It was hard to have a good discussion when one person was on a screen, but it had been especially tough because Maverick kept barking whenever our neighbor played his cornet. I said goodbye and agreed to go out, but I wasn’t thrilled about how Anara was acting. Like, she grabbed the leash, told the dog to sit so she could click it onto his collar, and then kept him moving right at her side—her side, not mine.

“I’ll take him,” I said, and she didn’t argue with me. But the minute I had the leash in my hand, Maverick started pulling to go faster, yanking on my arm. “Stop. Slow. No!” I said, but none of that worked. “Why are you doing this?”

He didn’t answer, but she did. “He knows you’re afraid of him.”

“Like he’s psychic? Please,” I answered. My shoulder hurt and I didn’t want to hear about animal behavior right now, even if she might have been correct.

“He can tell, although you try to hide it,” she insisted. She started talking about stress hormones released in sweat, but I was working on dragging the dog out of a bush and didn’t really listen. My takeaway was that I was a bad pet owner and also, that Heidi had been the glue holding together our friendship of three. Now that she and George had moved away, Anara and I were disconnected. I had invited her over partly out of habit, but mostly because she seemed so interested in Maverick.

But now, that interest was annoying me.

“I’m not afraid of him,” I said. “I’m not afraid of dogs.”

“Rainey, you are. It’s obvious.”

“I’m not—ow!” He had yanked really hard, and Anara grabbed me so I didn’t fall down.

“Can I try?” she asked. I allowed it because my entire arm hurt down to my fingertips, and the dog immediately started walking calmly at her side, his tail wagging. Shoot.

“How do you get him to do that?” I asked. “Can he really tell that I don’t like him?”

“You don’t? He’s so sweet,” she informed me. She reached down and scratched behind his ears and his tail wagged even harder.

“He doesn’t like me, either. I thought that he did when I went to see him at the animal shelter, but now I know that he would have taken any attention. It was pretty grim there.” I sighed. “I felt sorry for him and I thought it wasn’t fair. His previous owner left him without a backwards glance.”

“Humans feel terrible when they’re abandoned,” she mentioned. “I know because that happened to me. But I don’t believe that Maverick would have reacted the same way. A canine—”

“What do you mean?” I interrupted. “You’re not talking about Demitrious, are you?”

Of course not, because Demitrious was perfect. She explained that her mom had walked out on their family, leaving her with a dad who didn’t seem to care much about her either. “He liked to work and if I wasn’t helping him, then he didn’t want me around. He was very happy when I went off to college,” she said. “I didn’t care so much about parents by that point in my life, since I was older and ready for separation, but I did care when my mom left. I perfectly remember the day it happened. She came to my bedroom door with a big rolling bag and said, ‘Sorry, I need to find a better place.’ The bag wasn’t zipped all the way because she was in such a hurry to go.”

“What was ‘a better place?’ A new house? A different job? What did that mean?” I wondered.

“She meant that she wanted to find a better version of everything, including a husband and kids. She did get remarried and I have half-siblings, but they won’t be coming to my wedding since I’ve never met them. My mom won’t be there either because we don’t talk, and my dad will decline the invitation because he can’t leave his apartment. Demitrious has a big family and I love them, so it’s like I’m getting a replacement.”

“That’s so lucky,” I said.

“I’m only telling you this so that you understand how human emotions are different from those of animals. If you don’t want to take care of this dog, then I could help you try to find someone else and he really wouldn’t mind. I don’t see much of a bond between you yet.”

“I’m not doing that,” I told her, angry again.

“You shouldn’t make yourself unhappy, though.”

“Why not?” I snapped back. Then I made myself calm and masked my emotions. “I mean, he’s my responsibility now and I wouldn’t—”

“I don’t understand your attitude,” she interrupted. She frowned, like I was annoying her with it. “I always feel like I’ve had enough sadness in my life. If I can get the chance to be happy, I’ll take it.”

We kept walking into a sharp November wind, and Maverick stayed peacefully at her side. “I understand that way of thinking,” I said. “I lived that way for a few years. Everyone in the house went after happiness at all the time, in any way we could get it.” Damian’s life had centered around instant gratification, through drugs, expensive purchases, or orgasms. “I don’t want quick fixes anymore.”

“Are you talking about carnality? Hedonism? That’s not what I meant,” she said. “I’m thinking about the whole arc of my life and trying to make it the best I can for everyone, me and the people I love.”

“That’s what I’m doing now, too,” I told her. That was why I wasn’t going to give up on Maverick. I was going to be the kind of person that a dog could depend on. I was also going to stop being scared of him. I remembered Anara talking about horses and how they had evolved not to show pain, and how guinea pigs wouldn’t show fear. They were prey animals and they couldn’t give the predators that advantage. They had to be so careful, because look what had happened with the sheep and my aunt’s dog.

We continued fighting—no, it was more that we just weren’t getting along. After the walk, she went home and I worked for a while on my post-Thanksgiving party menu. The Woodsmen would play on the actual holiday and Callum would be too busy to help me prepare and cook, so I was doing this on my own. It wasn’t anything that I had thought about asking from him, either. I decided to ask people online instead, the ones who watched our videos. They had loved what I’d posted about buying the chair and showing off how we fit in it, and I had done a tutorial on getting ready for game day that had also gone over well. They were interested in updates about Maverick, and several people had guessed about his breed. Now I started to put together another video, planning this meal and asking for their suggestions.