Gray by Shaw Hart

 

One

Gray

“I thinkthat we should get a dog,” Nora says as soon as I walk into our apartment the next night.

“Okay, and what brought this on?”

“You love dogs. Why wouldn’t you want one?”

“I didn’t say that I didn’t want one. I just wanted to know why you did all of a sudden.”

“‘Cause I volunteered at the animal shelter this afternoon. I’m going to redo their website for them and they had the cutest little puppies there.”

“And how many did you already adopt?” I ask her as I toss my keys down on the table by the front door.

“Six.”

“Six?!?”

“Nah, I’m just kidding.”

I roll my eyes, about to take a seat on the couch when two little balls of fur come skidding into the room, dragging one of my shoes with them.

“I thought that you said that you were kidding?”

“Yeah, I was. I only adopted two. I also signed us up to be a foster home,” Nora says, scooping up one of the puppies and pushing his nose against mine. “Aren’t they cute?”

“Adorable.”

“I think so too,” she says, snagging the other one before he can completely destroy my shoe.

“What are they?” I ask, staring at the black, brown, and white furball in my hands.

“They’re just mutts. That’s the boy and this is the girl. I haven’t named them yet. I thought that we could do that together.”

“How about Moose. I have a feeling that this guy is going to be huge,” I mumble, staring at the size of his paws.

“Aww, that’s cute. And you can be Marley.”

Nora kisses the top of Marley’s head and I’ve never been so jealous of a dog in my entire life. I wish that she looked at me like that.

“Are they house trained?” I ask her, trying to hold on to the squirming pup.

“Not yet,” she says with a serene smile as her puppy curls up against her chest. Meanwhile, Moose looks like he’s experiencing some kind of demonic exorcism.

“Don’t worry though. We have puppy training classes starting on Saturday and Sunday mornings. They’ll be trained in no time.”

I make a mental note to clear my mornings at work for the next few weeks as I settle in next to my best friend and the love of my life.

The puppies jump down and I watch as they drag my shoe with them.

“Did you buy them toys?”

“Yes, they hate them.”

I laugh at that, leaning back against the couch cushions.

“But they’re really enjoying chewing on your shoes,” she adds.

“How many did you let them chew on?”

“Just the one and before you can say anything, I already ordered you a new pair.”

I relax back against the couch, too tired to go see what other things they may be chewing on. I just worked my fifth shift in a row at Eye Candy Ink, which means that tomorrow is my day off and I was looking forward to sleeping in and then doing nothing all day with Nora. Guess that won’t be happening.

Nora and I have been best friends since elementary school. We both grew up in the same small town of Rosewood, Colorado. It wasn’t a happy place for either of us, which is why we moved away as soon as we both were eighteen. It’s also why Nora is always trying to get us to do nice, normal things like adopt a pet or learn how to cook. She can’t help but go a little overboard each time though, which is why we now have two puppies and each know how to make macaroons but have a hard time making spaghetti.

We tried living in New York for a minute because Nora had always wanted to visit and I would live anywhere as long as Nora was there. New York is expensive though and much too cutthroat. When a position opened up at the new Eye Candy Ink location, I applied and when I got hired, I told Nora. She had been so happy for me and so we both packed up and moved to Pittsburgh.

Nora is a web and software developer and can do anything with a computer. She can also pretty much work from anywhere as long as it has Wi-Fi.

“I saw my brother today.”

“Yeah, before or after you adopted the pups?” I ask her.

“Before. Niall was the one to give me the idea actually.”

I’m not at all surprised. Niall likes to stir up trouble, especially if it’s for me. He knows that I’ve been in love with Nora for decades and he wants me to make a move so that he can stop worrying about her.

“How’s he doing?” I ask.

“Good. He’s busy training for some fight.”

I nod, watching as she closes her laptop and heads over to her desk to plug it in. Niall is an MMA fighter and trains around the corner from Eye Candy Ink at Kings Gym. He’s always training for some fight or recovering from another one.

“Are you hungry? I got you some takeout from lunch.”

“What is it?”

“Jerk chicken.”

My stomach growls at that and Nora laughs, heading into the kitchen to heat it up for me. The puppies come running into the kitchen and Nora bends down to pet them.

“Do you need to go outside?” she coos at them and I grab their leashes off of the counter.

“I’ll take them,” I say and she grins at me.

“Thanks.”

It takes me a few minutes to catch them and get their leashes hooked on their collars. They keep chewing on the leashes as we try to make our way down the stairs, so I end up picking both of them up and jogging downstairs and outside.

We start to walk around the block but they don’t know how to walk on a leash yet either, so it’s more like a fight and me dragging them. They do go to the bathroom though, so I guess that’s something.

I carry them back upstairs and unhook them, watching as they run over to Nora where she’s warming up the food in the kitchen.

She looks up, smiling at me, and my heart races in my chest. Even after all these years, she’s still the most perfect thing that I’ve ever seen. She can still have me feeling like I’m riding a rollercoaster with just one look.

“Ready?” she asks as she plates the food and I nod.

Yeah, I think I might finally be ready to do something about how I feel about Nora. How I’ve always felt about her. I just hope that it doesn’t ruin everything between us.