My stomach dipped low. Did he mean that? Were we finally past tiptoeing around one another?
I didn’t know if I should respond or wait for my spanking, so I sat there without a single thing to do and stared at the door.
My attention had never been so focused.
I sat on the sofa in my t-shirt thinking about what he might say, my foot waggling back and forth.
Maybe we could try sleeping in each other’s beds from now on, sex and everything.
Or maybe he wanted to discuss the start of the legal separation.
When the lock turned, I jumped and grabbed my phone to look a little less desperate when he walked in.
Instead of the fabric rustle of him unbuttoning his suit jacket to hang, though, a whine came from the door.
“What the–” I looked up and leapt from the couch when I saw–“Moonshine?”
Bastian stood there in his navy suit, brown dog hair on him, and a red leash attached to Moonshine. In one hand he held the leash and a plastic bag filled with toys, and from the other he dropped a big bag of dog food next to the door.
“Bastian…” I backed away, shaking my head. “Why is Moonshine with you?”
“What do you mean? You told me Moonshine was struggling to find a home. I told you she would.”
“Okay…” I let the word linger, my heart beat thudding way too fast. “Where is she going?”
“Well, nowhere now. I just let her piss outside in front of the building and now she probably wants to go to bed. I figure our third bedroom is fine for her. She doesn’t need a dog bed if she has a real one.”
“I’m sorry… Can we please back up? Why is Moonshine here?”
“She found her forever home with us.”
“No.” I shook my head again, stunned. I took another step back and stumbled against the corner of the couch. “No. Nope. Okay, you can call the humane society. We’ll take her back.”
Moonshine whined and strained on her leash, trying to get to me. I knelt down and called her over. Her big body was more and more like a rottweiler and less like a pup. “You have to get back to the kennels so we can find you a good home,” I whispered.
“What’s wrong with our home?” Bastian inquired and pulled a dog bowl from the plastic bag.
“Are you out of your mind?” As soon as he placed the bowl on the ground, I grabbed it and tried to shove it back in the bag. “Do you know how much a dog slobbers?”
He swung the bag away. “That can’t possibly be a concern of yours, Morina. You probably make more of a mess than the dog.”
“Excuse me?” The metal from the bowl clattered as I dropped it and stood, glaring at him. “I’ve kept my mess in my room since the day I got here.”
“I saw your room last night and the night before when I put you to bed. It’s a mess.”
“Well, don’t put me to bed then,” I yelled and Moonshine whined.
“I’ll put my wife to bed any time I want,” he growled, suddenly in my face.
“I can’t believe this.” I spun around and pointed to the dog. “This isn’t okay.”
He scoffed and scooped Moonshine up, taking her to the third bedroom. I watched him walk down the hall with his perfect ass in perfect suit trousers. He disappeared into the bedroom, and I waited for him to return so I could tell him how fucking terrible she was going to be on her own in there. After five minutes, he came out and announced, “She’s fast asleep on the feather pillow.”
I swear his damn smile was the smuggest thing I’d ever seen.
I stomped over to the kitchen sink. “This is going to be so painful for the dog.”
And for me. I didn’t want to give her up and the fact he’d brought her home had a little voice in my head that I didn’t like to entertain screaming that we should tell him we loved him and that we wanted to live happily ever after in a house with a white picket fence and 1.0 rottweiler mixes.