“So,” I said, taking a bite of the omelet. “Are you going to tell me now where you’re taking me?”
She smiled. “No, not until we get there, or at least, almost there.”
“I want you to know that I really hate surprises,” I said, scrunching my nose.
“No, you don’t. No one hates surprises.” She laughed. “You’re just being impatient.”
“How have you been?” I asked.
“Good,” she said, looking down. “I mean, the best I could be with all of this plaguing my mind.”
“I don’t understand why you can’t just tell me,” I replied. “I mean, wouldn’t it be easier?”
“I don’t know,” she said, sighing. “But I do know that by taking you where I want to take you, I am killing two birds with one stone.”
“All right,” I said, sighing. “Do we need the car?”
“No, I’ll drive,” she said. “It’s not too far from here, and I want it to just be you and me.”
“Sounds good,” I replied, eating another bite.
We finished up breakfast, and Reese did the dishes before we headed out. I was nervous, not being used to someone planning a surprise for me, though I had this gut feeling that the surprise wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I hopped in the passenger side and buckled in, smiling at Reese as she started her SUV and put it in drive. We pulled out of the parking garage and out on the street, heading away from the center of the city. She took several turns as we made our way to the mystery spot, and it was quiet while we drove. I glanced over at Reese’s hands, and she looked nervous, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were turning white. I wanted to comfort her, but I had no idea what I would be comforting her for. After about fifteen minutes, she pulled into a small parking lot on the outskirts of town. The building in front of us was small and gray, and she had parked in the back.
“So, here we are,” she said with a deep breath. “I want you to promise to hear me out completely before reacting.”
“All right,” I said suspiciously.
“This is my company,” she said. “I own a pet care business. I’ve owned it since after graduation, like I told you. It started out as a small business out of my parents’ house, and it grew fast. So, last year, we bought this building, and the rest is history. We board dogs, care for them, do minor treatments for fleas, vaccines, stuff like that. And I take in puppies that people can’t find a home for. I take care of them and then find them homes through my network of people.”
“Wow,” I said, completely blown away that she had kept this from me.
“When you told me your story the last time I saw you, I freaked out,” she admitted. “I mean, I didn’t purposely never tell you that I owned this. In fact, I thought I had. But when you told me the story, I realized that it was going to look like I hid it from you. Leena, my best friend, and I have made this our career, building it from the ground up. Animals have pretty much become my life. Your story broke my heart. I mean, it really broke my heart. I know that dogs can be bad, the ones that are mistreated, abused, and even inbred, but what I know of them is smart, kind, and compassionate beings. I thought maybe if I brought you here and introduced you to some of my puppies, it might help you move past your fear. I thought maybe it could help you, and at the same time, explain why I went off the grid.”
“That’s a really sweet story,” I said, feeling the anger rising in my chest. “No, really. You put a lot of thought into how to ‘help’ me. But I don’t need your help, Reese. I need you to respect my feelings on things. You think that me going to some animal care facility and playing with some puppy will magically cure me? I’m not going in there, end of story.”
“Blaine, I—”
“No,” I said, interrupting her. “You really have some nerve, coming into my life, making me trust you, and then pulling this kind of shit. Do you really think that animals have all the answers? Because if you do, there is something seriously wrong with you. Animals are just that, animals, and they are unpredictable, sometimes mean, and definitely not what I want to see on my Sunday afternoon. You know what? I don’t want to do this anymore. Take me home.”
“You don’t want to do what?”
“This,” I said, motioning between the two of us. “Any of this, really. You had no right to bring me here and put me on the spot like this. It was immature and inconsiderate, and if you didn’t see that from the beginning, then you and I shouldn’t see each other anymore. God, Reese, how stupid can you be?”
“Enough,” she yelled, gritting her teeth. “I get it. I get that you want to go. I don’t need to hear anymore. I’m sorry for this. I really thought that you would at least give it a chance.”
“Why? Because you feel sorry for me?”
“I don’t feel sorry for you,” she said quietly. “I just wanted you to be a part of my life, but that doesn’t matter anymore.”
She pulled out of the parking lot and stepped on the gas, heading back toward my apartment. Part of me wanted to feel bad, but in that moment, I was absolutely livid. She had tried to back me into a corner, and I never did well when someone tried that. I liked to be in control of my own life and not be forced to do things that made no sense to me or made me uncomfortable as hell. She had no idea how I was feeling and what it meant to be truly afraid of something like that.
When we arrived back at the complex, she pulled up out front and kept her body facing forward. I looked at her for a moment and shook my head, expecting her to say something, but she stayed silent. I could see the tears pulling at her eyes, but I just looked down, grabbed the handle of the car door, and got out. As soon as the door was shut, she drove off, and I turned, furiously walking toward the building. I steamed all the way to the top floor, trying to tell myself that I had every right to be angry. At first, I paced the floor, but after about twenty minutes, I calmed down enough to sit on the couch and start to really think about what happened.
I knew Reese, even if we hadn’t been dating that long. I knew her, and I knew she wouldn’t intentionally do something to make me upset or angry. Still, I couldn’t believe that she had put me in that position. I started to question my reaction, though, and wondered if maybe I had been too hard on her. She was a sweet person, and it was obvious from her reaction to my story that she was terrified to lose me. I believed that she really thought that this was the best answer to the issue. She really believed that she would be helping me get past the horror from my childhood, and it was obvious that she really cared about these animals. She wanted to share that with me, but after I told her what happened, she didn’t know how to handle it. This was so confusing, especially since I was finding it really hard to believe that I had just completely broken things off with her. I never made emotional decisions, because when I did, things like this happened.
Still, standing there in my apartment, staring out at the Philly skyline, I couldn’t help but think about all the times I dropped friends, girls, and even family members because they wanted to push a dog on me. If I knew you well enough to come to an intimate gathering at your house, then you knew I couldn’t handle dogs, but people still tried to force me to like them, waiting until I arrived to let the dog out around me. I didn’t understand what these people didn’t get about the fact that I didn’t want to be anywhere near these kinds of animals.
I really liked Reese a lot. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was falling for her in a big way. I knew that I wouldn’t be anywhere near this upset if I didn’t have strong feelings for her. However, what was happening now was me facing down my pride and trying to decide if this intrusion on my comfort was bad enough to let her walk away forever. I wasn’t very good at these kinds of things, nor did I have anyone I could talk to about it, so I was left alone, bending my brain and trying to decide what I should be doing. I considered asking my AI but realized she would do nothing more than point me to whatever internet search was triggered when I asked the question. Besides, Caleb had already warned me that the day I start talking to my AI was the day he’d put me in a home.