Sometimes the system goes on the blink, and the whole thing turns out wrong

Drew visiting seemed to bring time to a stand-still. I felt like I was moving in slow-motion, and I just wanted to get to the weekend. I felt like if I just got to the weekend, things would go back to normal, time would start moving again, and I’d finally be able to breathe.
Drew had told me to call him, so I wasn’t really worried that he was angry with me. I knew he was upset, but I knew if I did call him, things would go back to normal.
I just wasn’t sure if normal was what I wanted. I felt like my feelings were being ignored, just because it was something that happened awhile ago. It’s like, well, sure I cheated on you honey! But that was years ago, just let it go! I also felt like I needed time to get over it, and that if I tried to be friends with Drew right now, I would end up resenting him, because I wasn’t over it yet. I thought about emailing him, explaining that I just needed time, because I felt guilty. I didn’t want to make him feel bad, I didn’t want to hurt him. But, then again, anger replaced the guilt. Why should I feel guilty? I hadn’t been the one who lied.
The weekend did finally get here, after what felt like years. I woke early Saturday morning, and took the four dogs in the backyard to hose them down. I wanted them to look good, but washing four puppies was an ordeal in itself.
I felt like taking a nap after bathing the dogs. If you ever want a good workout, try that. I would soap up one dog, fighting off the others who tried to lick him, jump on him, or chase him, and then as soon as I turned to grab the hose, he would run off, flinging soap everywhere, to find the nearest patch of dirt to rub himself on. I finally got all of them washed and clean by putting all of them in the crate and taking them out one by one. I was so exhausted by the time I got done that I just wanted to take a nap. I was, however, running late, per usual. The adoption event started… Well, right now.
I had loaded the puppies into the backseat and was pulling out when my cell phone rang. I reached blindly into my purse on the passenger’s seat for it.
“Hello?” I said, struggling to turn the wheel with one hand.
“Hi, Ella? It’s Matt. I wanted to let you know we were planning on heading down there today. We were going to leave in about an hour?”
“Um. How long is it going to take you to get here?” After the adoption event, I had a home visit with the two families. If all worked out, I was planning on leaving one dog with one of the families today, and would hopefully have more families lined up after this adoption event. But, the adoption event lasted for a few hours, and while the home visits weren’t going to take long, they were on opposite ends of town, so the driving was going to eat up a lot of time.
“Couple hours, I’ll probably be there around five?”
I eyed the clock on my dashboard. “I have some things to do today, so I may not be there, but I’m having a friend bring home the puppies after I’m done at this adoption event, so I’ll have her leave a key under the flower pot on the porch.”
“OK, well, I’ll call you if I can’t find it. See you later!”
“Bye Matt.”

It was not a good day. While I had gotten a few applications for the puppies, it wasn’t nearly what I had been hoping for. I handed three dogs off to Nancy to drop off at home, and took Alto over to visit his potential home. I was satisfied with them, and ended up leaving him there for a trial week, but at the second home, the couple was upset when I showed up without a dog. They did not take my suggestions for an older, calmer dog well, and I got a rant about how this was why people bought pet store puppies, because rescues made people jump through too many hoops. I was already a little frazzled, and I snapped back, letting them know that if people wouldn’t get puppies just because they were cute without thinking of the consequences (chewing, hyper-ness, medical needs, the amount of time it takes to train, ect.), That the shelters wouldn’t be full of what I called “teenaged” dogs, looking for homes. I was promptly kicked out of their house, with threats of calling the director of our shelter. I knew Nancy would agree with me, so I shrugged it off, but I was still upset. To put the icing on the cake, one of our main highways is under major constructions, shutting four lanes down to just one, and closing a ton of exits. I would have made it home in time to greet Matt, if I hadn’t gotten stuck in traffic for two and a half hours.
I came home, hot, sticky, and filled to the top with utter frustration. There’s a certain special annoyance that comes from sitting in a car, not moving, for hours on end, a built up anger with no one to direct it too. I felt especially bad for Matt, knowing that this was the random night he happened to come to stay, and that I might just have to go off on him for no more reason than he was there.
I stood outside the car for a second, breathing in fresh, non-exhaust filled air, trying to let go of my worst anger, before walking into the house. I paused upon entering though, sniffing the air. It smelled… Good.
“Oh, you’re home! Perfect timing.” Matt said, popping his head out of the kitchen. His body followed, and I was once again amazed by just how tall he was. He had to stoop to come through the doorway. “Kellie wanted to stay and meet you, but she needed to get home. You’re back later than I expected.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. It’s been a long day. What’s that smell?” I asked, sitting on the sofa to kick off my shoes.
“Oh, I started dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”
“As long as I get to eat some of whatever smells so good… Hey, where are the puppies?” I asked, realizing that I hadn’t been greeted with yips or nips or begs for belly rubs.
“They’re asleep.” He said, pointing to the corner of the room, where sure enough, they were all piled on each other, a mass of fur. I walked over and bent down next to them, scratching Cumulus’ neck. He opened one eye, and started to lick me, but fell back asleep before his tongue could hit my skin.
“What’d you do? Drug them?” I asked, shocked.
“No, Kellie and I took them to this park we passed on the way for a run. These guys have tons of energy.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. I’m just going to go in and change, and I’ll be back and we can eat, OK?”
“You mind eating outside? It’s such a nice night and I saw you have a picnic table…”
“Not at all.” I answered, “anywhere as long as it’s not in a car.”

My tension was melting away, and it was super nice of Matt to cook dinner AND wear out the puppies. I had been thinking I was coming home to a can of soup and hyper dogs. My fridge had been empty for awhile now, I never kept food in my house when I was at camp, choosing to eat out on the weekends I was home, rather than buying food and having it go bad while I was away. I had been meaning to get to the grocery for awhile now, but kept putting it off. I was now eating the canned foods I stocked up with in case of blizzard or nuclear warfare. I switched to my favorite, and worn pajamas, an oversized tee-shirt that was Jasons, and a pair of Drew’s basketball shorts that I had rolled up and tied tight.
I went outside, where Matt had set up a picnic. I was amazed when I sat down to fried chicken, green beans cooked with bacon and some kind of gravy, and fried chicken. There was a cold mike’s hard lemonade sitting in front of me, and a blue moon sitting in front of him. I spotted a pie out of the corner of my eye.
“When did you do all this?” I exclaimed.
“Well, when Kellie and I got back from the park, we were hungry, and I noticed you didn’t have any food…”
“Yeah, sorry about that, it’s been a little crazy around here lately.” I said, embarrassed.
“No, it’s OK, totally OK. But, I mean, you were so nice to put me up, rent free, and you switched last minute… Kellie suggested I do something nice for you, so we went to the store and I wasn’t sure what you liked… But, who doesn’t like fried chicken.”
“If I ever met a person who didn’t like fried chicken, I think I would be afraid of them.” I joked. “Still, this must have taken forever.”
“Not really. Mashed potatoes are easy, so is the fried chicken. I wanted the beans to simmer a little longer, to really get the flavor, but they’ll work. The pie is store bought.”
“Mmm, apple with caramel.” I said, looking it over. “You have no idea how badly I needed this, this has just been the day from hell.”
“What happened?” He asked, serving me a huge breast, along with a generous helping of mashed potatoes, swimming in butter.
“I actually would rather not rehash it, it was nothing major. Just one of those days where something little goes wrong at the start, and it just snowballs.”
He nodded, biting into his chicken. I did the same. Words cannot describe how delicious this chicken was, and it would do me a disservice to the chicken to even try.
We ate in silence for a few moments, and I could literally not cram food in my mouth fast enough, that’s how good it was. The green beans were a little mushy, but they were drowned in this mouth-watering gravy, and it’s my personal opinion that if you add bacon to anything, it’s going to make it a million times better. I started to feel a little self conscious, inhaling dinner in front of him, so I made myself slow down and speak.
“Kellie’s the girlfriend, eh?” I asked, biting into a roll that I hadn’t even seen on the table. It was perfect, the outside slightly crunchy, the inside soft and warm. The butter he had spread on the top melted and little rivers of butter flowed down to soak the inside. I could live on butter, bread, and bacon for the rest of my life. It would no doubt be a short life, dying of a heart attack in probably less than a year, but an extremely happy life.
“Yup.” He said. He didn’t seem to want to elaborate, but still I was curious.
“How long?”
“Bout four years.” He answered.
“Wow, that’s a long time.”
He shrugged, and I thought that was the end of it, until he cleared his throat and said “it’s one of those things. We’ve been together so long that I don’t know if we’re meant to be together, or if we’re together just because it’s easy.”
I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I just nodded my head.
“Are you excited about work?” I asked, using the rest of the roll to sop up the gravy from the green beans.
“I am. More so nervous though.” He wiped his hands on the front of his jeans. His long legs came across the table, and when he bumped his leg with his hands, his knee bumped into mine. I jerked away, not too quickly, I hoped, because the spark I had felt when I first met him was still there.
“Why nervous?”
“I always am whenever I’m working with new kids. Kids are just, brutally honest. You know? And I think that they read people so well. They’ll point all your faults on in the blink of an eye, tell you who’s a good guy and who’s got bad intentions, and they never seem to care when you point out their faults. They’re indestructible and sometimes it’s intimidating. I know once I settle in, I’ll be OK, it’s just those first couple of days where they’re feeling out me, and I’m feeling out them… It gets a little tricky.”
“Yeah, I agree. But, just a word of advice, don’t let them smell fear.” I said, winking at him. He laughed. “But, honestly Matt, it’s easiest to be tougher on them in the beginning. You can always ease up, but if you start out easy, when they start to take advantage of that, and they will take advantage of it, it’ll be next to impossible to crack that whip. They’re all really good kids, but they don’t need a friend. They need role models.”
“I hope to be one.” He said.

We finished eating, talking more about the job and what we was supposed to do. We cleaned up, and despite my insistence, Matt would not let me do the dishes. He told me to go and relax, read a book or get some early shut eye, and that he would take care of it. I thanked him, and went off to my room to read through the applications I had gotten that day.
I must have dozed off, because I woke up a little while later on top of a pile of papers to my cell phone ringing.
“Hello?” I asked, drowsily.
“Aww, you sound so cute when you’re asleep.” Greg said.
“Oh hey. I’m not asleep.”
“No, but you very obviously were when I woke you. Sorry about that.”
“It’s OK, I didn’t mean to fall asleep, actually. I just had an extremely good, filling meal. I must have been in a food coma.”
“You cook?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” I said, laughing. “I cook, occasionally. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. But I didn’t cook tonight. I told you I had an intern coming to stay with me. He cooked me dinner as a thank you.”
“Awww how nice.” Greg said. I smiled when I heard the jealousy in his voice.
“Don’t worry, Greg, we aren’t going to do the deed or get married or anything.”
“I know, I know. I just wish I could be there, is all. I kinda miss you, is that weird? Considering we’ve never hung out really?”
“I don’t think miss is the right word there. But, I get what you’re saying.”
“So come out to a show tomorrow.”
“Greg-“
“I know, I know.” He said, cutting me off. “It’s a school night and all that jazz, but I’m going on early. You can bring some friends, show the intern around a little bit, watch the show, and when I’m off we can all go out to dinner, or stay at the club for dinner and do some dancing after.”
“I’ll think about it, and I’ll ask Matt and see if he’s interested.” I yawned. “But, right now, I need to cut this short. Someone has kept me up way too late these past couple of days and I’m tired!”
“Alright, well. Text me tomorrow. I’m driving back into town tonight so, I’ll probably get home late and sleep late, but let me know.”
“Be careful Greg!”
“I will. Goodnight Ella.”
“Night.”