Page 101 of Out Of Time

Remi smiled up at him, it was a good fucking smile, two dimples, wild blue eyes, long sandy blonde hair tucked behind her ears, the soft glow of the sun on her cheeks, and his name on her back.

This was going to be okay.

He was going to be okay.

Max unloaded the last box of full-sized candy bars into the massive black plastic cauldron in his entryway. He and Remi had gone all-out with decorations this Halloween. Spooky music, fog machine, spider webs and, orange lights. Remi was dressed up as a dog, she had floppy ears, and a brown body suit of sorts that she had glued spots onto—she looked equally sexy and cute. Max decided to return to his roots and wear his cat ears, this time allowing Remi to tack a fluffy black cat tail onto his dark Levi jeans. It was, he decided, his new tradition. He was slowly replacing his superstitions with them, one by one.

“Do you think we’ll get many trick-or-treaters?” Max shouted from the hall.

Remi met him there, her phone in her hand buzzing three times before she clicked the home screen dark and pressed up on tiptoe to kiss him. “Are you kitten me?” she said. “We have full-sized candy bars. We’ll be a hit.”

“Purrrrrfect,” he said back, doing his best cat paw hand motion.

Max clicked the switch that turned on the fog machine, the cackling pumpkins, the ghost that played eerie music, and the orange lights Remi had wrapped around the mini palm trees.

“And now we wait,” he said with a huff. Remi leaned up to kiss him again before pushing him away quickly towards the living room.

“Go turn on the movie, and I’ll get the junk food,” she said, looking back down at her phone.

“Okay, but if we get a trick-or-treater, I want to be there to hand out the first candy bar,” he said, looking over at her only to catch her on her phone, again.

“Mmmhmm,” she said, still looking down at her phone, seemingly distracted as she loaded up the wooden snack board with all of their favorite things.

“You know,” Max said, “you look super good dressed like acactus.”

She sent another text. “Mmmhmm, it turned out cute,” she agreed absently.

“We should watch a Christmas movie instead,” he said, just to see what she would say.

“Screamright? We decided onScream?” she looked up momentarily only to be pulled back to her phone ringing. “Be right back, I have to take this call.”

Max didn’t know what could have made her so distracted tonight of all nights. It’s not like anyone was cleaning houses at this hour, so it couldn’t be work-related.

He shouted out to no one, “Do you mind if I put hockey on for now?”

Remi didn’t respond.

He clicked on the TV; the Sports Center pre-game was on. The announcers stated there was news of big trade deals happening. Max flopped down on the couch, his tail creating a weird bump under his butt, so he lifted his hips and pulled it outfrom under him when he heard the doorbell chime. He jumped up so fast his vision blurred, but not wanting to miss the first kids of the night, he grabbed his cane and headed for the door.

“Rem, we got trick-or-treaters,” he called out excitedly.

He looked for her in his bedroom quickly, then knocked on the bathroom door. She was nowhere to be found.

“Rem, you’re going to miss the first trick-or-treaters of the night,” he shouted, and the doorbell rang again.

He couldn’t put it off any longer, he pulled the door open, and to his surprise, standing in front of him was Remi, and at her feet sat the tiniest golden retriever puppy he had ever seen.

“Happy Halloween,” she said, letting go of the black leash. The puppy bolted straight for Max, covering his face in puppy kisses.

“Remi, what is this?” he asked stupidly. He couldn’t even comprehend what was happening.

“Well, it’s a puppy, Max,” she said sarcastically.

He picked up the pup and felt his shirt go warm and wet along his chest. He pulled the puppy back to notice the dog was pissing.

“And,” Remi said laughing, “he seems to be so excited to meet you that he did a little happy pee on you.”

“Is it… Is it mine?” he asked, sincerely shocked and completely unbothered by the puppy piss on his shirt.

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