The next morning, I tiredly padded to the kitchen and opened the fridge. My deep thinking had kept me awake longer than I’d intended. I felt like Sam often looked in the morning. Instead of coffee, I wanted my orange juice.
Scanning the sparse contents of my designated shelf for the orange liquid of life, I squinted against the harsh light. No orange juice. Shuffling the contents around didn’t change the answer. Nope, not there.
I surveyed the kitchen and spotted its remains in the recycling. The shower turned on in the bathroom and remembered Peter had stayed over.
I looked down at Clay who silently accompanied me as usual, and complained, “Great. Another non-coffee person.”
Since I drank the last of the milk yesterday, I went for a glass of water instead. The faucet handle jiggled loosely in my hand and only a trickle came out.
“Seriously?” I mumbled as Rachel glided into the kitchen.
“Looks like I’ll have to call the hottie plumber back.”
“No, thanks,” I declared, and then added, “No big guy showing two inches of crack either.” I turned off the faucet settling for a third of a glass of water and thought quickly. “I was going to go pick up Clay later anyway,” I lied. “I’ll have him look at it.”
“Really? No talk, leave early, Clay?”
“Yeah, that one, not the dog,” I joked, smiling as Clay’s head whipped up at me.
Rachel might have thought the plumber hot, but he’d been bigheaded about it and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get rid of him so easily a second time. Having narrowly avoided one potential stalker, there was no way would I invite another one in. I’d beg Clay again if I had too.
“I believe you said you didn’t think he’d be around much,” she smirked at me while prepping her coffeemaker.
I stuck my tongue out at her, but she just laughed at me. “Don’t remind me. I’m probably going to need to do a lot of begging.”
“Does he know much about plumbing?” Rachel stood by the stink trying to get enough water for her morning coffee.
“Don’t know. We don’t talk much,” I laughed while she groaned.
With nothing to drink, I dressed with the intent to go shopping. Clay waited for me just outside my door. “Wanna come shopping with me or stay here?” I asked rhetorically. I knew he’d want to go with even if he did have to stay in the car.
I went to one of those discount supercenters, leaving Clay in the car with the windows cracked open more for show than actual airflow. If he got hot, he’d just let himself out anyway.
Shopping several days sooner than planned did worry me a bit. Feeding Clay meant making compromises in my original budget. I didn’t mind eating light, but looking back, since Clay didn’t eat his dog food, not that I blamed him, he ate light too. A little too light when I thought back to how much Sam could consume.
It called for a change in shopping habits. The orange juice I liked cost more than a five-pound bag of potatoes, which I put in the cart in the juice’s place. Maybe I could buy a decent concentrate.
I headed toward the freezer section and found some cheap veggies and meat, ignoring the speculative look from a man a few yards away. Everyone found shopping a pain at some point. I found it a pain all the time. The flash frozen chicken breasts were cheaper than the steaks per pound so I went with those. Eyeing the cart, I envisioned our meals. Meat, potato and veggie.
Before the man tried to start a conversion, I moved on to dry goods. A large tub of generic peanut butter and another of grape jelly joined the growing heap in the cart. I used my other vision to check for and skillfully avoid as many men as possible while I wove through the aisles. Not for the first time, I wished I could tell men and women apart. Oh, well.
Always on the lookout for deals, I spotted the day old bakery rack and found two loaves of bread for a dollar. The cart held more than it usually did when I went shopping. Although, it lacked variety, it had quantity and I’d managed to keep it under twenty dollars. My smug happiness lasted until I recalled needing milk. I needed something in the morning to drink. Dang. And cereal. Oh, well. Under thirty still helped the budget.
I couldn’t regret spending more to feed him when I thought back to what he’d already done for me. Let’s not forget the faucet waiting for him. I needed to pay him back for putting on clothes last night and for looking at the sink today. I never thought for a moment that he’d opt not to help.