Page 68 of While You Were Trending

“Even dogs who are the same colors as your cat? Look. She has black and white and orange fur just like Fluffy does.”

“That dog’s a poser.” Lavender slides a sneaky grin at Ginny.

Shade snickers.

“Flow, be a cat,” I say.

My dog drops to the ground again, rolls onto her back, and whine-howls a whine-howl that almost sounds like a cat yowling.

Ginny clears her throat and sucks her lips into her mouth as she pulls herself to her feet, half turned away from me.

Fuck.

I shouldn’t have told her.

I should’ve just done my thing here and left and not told her how I feel.

Felt.

How I felt.

How I can’t let myself feel again.

“That doesn’t sound like a cat,” Lavender says, clearly enjoying this game. “It sounds like a dragon with a stomachache after I slay it.”

Ginny keeps fighting her smile. “Lav, want to go get these gentlemen some breakfast before I take you back to your dad?”

“No.”

“Okay. Then it’s time to go back to your dad right now.”

“Fine. I’ll do something useful so I can be late to school.”

She lumbers to the kitchen, clearly taking her time.

Ginny bends over and rubs Flow’s belly. “Such a good girl.”

“You okay?” I ask her. “I imagine you weren’t expecting that greeting.”

She still doesn’t look me in the eye. “Every day’s better with doggy kisses. Are…you okay?”

No, I’m a pathetic chickenshit who can’t stop thinking about how I didn’t get to enjoy the feel of her on top of me last night. “All good.”

“Good. That’s good.”

An awkward silence falls between us.

Shade shifts a glance between me and Ginny, not asking why I wouldn’t be okay.

I don’t offer.

“You ever have a dog?” he asks Ginny.

“Not exactly.”

My jaw tightens.

Her mother adopted a dog for one season of their show, but rehomed it before the next season becauseGinny just isn’t mature enough to care for an animal.