Page 23 of The Ghost of You

I turn around to see Anna on the side of the road, her window rolled down. “Only when it’s thundering,” I joke.

She smiles. “You need a ride?”

“Brutus might. I’ll keep running. Like the cold,” I joke.

She smirks. “Get in, dummy.”

I pick Brutus up because he still doesn’t want to move himself and put him in the back seat of Anna’s car. I open the passenger door and sit next to her. “Sorry about the wet dog. I’ll pay for a car wash for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. This car is a piece of shit anyway. I keep putting off getting a new one because I don’t want to put my money toward a car payment. I’ve got other things to save for.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” I ask as she pulls away.

She looks over at me confused, like she didn’t realize what she was saying. “Huh? Oh nothing really.”

I know when someone is avoiding a question so I let it go.

“So why were you running in the rain?”

I push my hair back as water drips down my forehead. “Brutus decided he wanted to go for a long run, four miles one way. Until he decided he didn’t want to run anymore. I had to carry him. Made it half a mile and it started raining. Started running and somehow ran with his fat ass a mile until I felt like I was going to die.”

I look over at her and see her holding in a laugh. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” she says, no longer holding in her laugh. “But why would you think Brutus would run that far. He’s a bulldog.”

“He’s part rottweiler.”

“Still doesn’t make him a runner.”

“Should’ve gotten a hound,” I mutter.

We pull into her driveway and I notice her outside lights are on and mine aren’t. None. My house is dark. I know I left lights on. “Shit.”

Anna looks over at me and then looks over at my house. “Shit. Is your power out?”

“Looks like it,” I say as I get out of the car.

“How is yours out and mine isn’t?”

“Breakers split between our houses. They changed them in the summer when that mansion at the end of the road got remodeled,” I tell her as she walks around the car to my side.

“Huh.”

I let Brutus out of the car and he keeps shaking.

“He okay?” she asks.

“Yeah, gets anxiety from the thunder. Usually turn the TV on or music and he is fine.”

She toes the ground in front of her, a hoodie pulled tight over her head keeping her dry. “Do you have a generator?”

I shake my head.

“Well, I have a fireplace and power if you want to come over. Brutus is welcome.”

I can tell she is nervous asking me, though I have no idea why, we’ve seen each other naked. Not that it was on purpose.

“You sure?” I ask because I’m not sure she is.

---