Page 94 of Love Limits

It was an easy way out. They tried not to get their hopes up.

Zhong: Sure. Let me know where to send it.

For real? For real, for real?

Ash sent them the link. They added a picture of a puppy holding an envelope in their mouth and looking adorable.

OK, so having Josh cancel on them kind of sucked, but this was much better. So much better.

Zhong: I think I filled everything out. Coming over this afternoon?

They kept searching for happy puppy pictures and sending them to Zhong, one right after another.

Zhong: Calm down, puppy! Are you dancing around the room, too?

Yeah, they totally were. Ash felt like they were going to explode. Just fill up with excitement and float away.

Chapter 19

Zhong

Zhong read through the list in his notebook one more time. It had everything that he needed to know about pup play, or at least he hoped it did. Yet it didn’t really tell him anything.

Human pups could get dehydrated easily, but couldn’t actually drink out of dog bowls with any efficiency. The blog he’d read recommended feeding them cucumber or watermelon chunks and bringing a water bottle that they could suck out of from under the mask.

Ash had also told him that someone in the “pack” had a gluten allergy and someone else had a peanut allergy, so dog treats couldn’t contain either of those things in case they got smushed into the ground.

He hadn’t been able to get a lot of clarity from Ash on whether there were already dog toys at this Escape place, either. He hadn’t thought to ask yesterday, and when he’d texted Ash at work the reply had been “sometimes.”

So now he was standing in the kitchen with a gigantic bag, and he was probably going to look like an idiot walking into the place with it. There was a plastic container of watermelon and cucumber speckled with mint leaves from the pot on the window sill. There were three other bags of snacks in case he showed up and someone had a chocolate or corn allergy or something.

There was a new package of paper bowls in case Ash wanted to eat the watermelon that way and needed more than one snack. Or if Ash wanted to share with their friends. Was that even a thing? Either way, he didn’t want Ash getting any germs with dirty bowls.

He’d also bought some dog toys and human toys. Would Ash want to put them in their mouth? There was a big rainbow-colored ball from the kids’ section which he thought would be big enough for them to push around if they weren’t using their fingers.

From the actual pet section he’d gotten a rope with some knots in it that seemed like something they could pick up with their teeth. It was supposed to be organic, and he’d actually stood there in the aisle and licked it to make sure it wasn’t disgusting. It was only a little bit disgusting, kind of like chewing on a t-shirt, so he figured that was alright.

Then he’d gone back to the toy section and gotten some squeaky baby toys. Those had to be safe for Ash to put in their mouth, right?

After that, he’d spotted Candy Land and tossed it in the cart with a few other kids’ games, even though there were much more interesting ones online. And that turned out to just be the beginning of his shopping trip.

Once he got the games, that led him down a whole other path of trying to figure out what Ash would want to play with as a little. Probably beautiful, creative things, like the wooden blocks designed by an artist, and the magnetic tiles with their jewel tones that could snap together in complex shapes.

He’d hit up the art section and found glitter glue and chalk markers. He tried to get all of the basics, but at the higher end of the quality scale. The watercolors with twenty-four colors instead of eight. Thick watercolor and smooth drawing paper. A range of markers with different tips and hues, and what he hoped were good brushes.

And then juice boxes and straws. Snacks in little packages. Plastic plates with colorful patterns.

The last time he’d spent so much time shopping he’d been moving into his apartment. As he’d lugged it all out to the car, he’d had to ask himself what he was doing.

Was he trying to show Ash that he could give them just as much as this new guy, Josh, could? He obviously couldn’t.

He just didn’t want to be caught out again. The first and only time that Ash had asked to regress with him, he hadn’t been ready for anything. Now he had a closet that was in danger of overflowing.

It made him happy to tuck it all away, though, prepared for the next time. He wanted Ash to feel safe and happy. To want to spend time with him. To maybe not completely abandon him when Josh, or some equivalent in the future, came along.

Zhong felt a quick vibration in his pocket and fished out his phone.

Ash: i’m downstairs!