Page 27 of No Interest in Love

I check the seal on the water. It’s good, so I crack it open and chug it down. “Not currently.” Which blows. But it’s hard to own a dog right now. Little money, small apartment. Dogs deserve a lot of running space. Another thing that’s on the bucket list—get to the point that I can travel the world, but still own a dog. An RV or something maybe…

“I grew up with a lot, though,” I add.

“How many?”

“Seven total. There were always three in my house at a time.”

“You still got some at home?”

I scratch Truffles’s neck by his collar. “Nope. My dad died last year and my mom couldn’t take care of Tony and Pepper by herself, so they went to my brother and his wife.”

“Tony and Pepper.”

“I named them after Marvel heroes. Kind of my thing.”

Milo nods, grinning as he checks his blind spots before changing lanes. “Truffles got his name that way. Shane, the dog’s actual owner—because I think I’m more of an adoptive parent. See, Truffles always goes to Shane whenever I’m home, and he sleeps on Shane’s side of the bed, and whenever I mention Shane’s name his tail goes crazy…”

“I agree,” I say with a laugh as Truffles’s tail beats me across the face as he tries to crawl into the front seat.

“See, see? He thinks we’re going to see him.” Milo gently pushes Truffles back so he can keep driving. “Anyway…he names all his dogs after candy. Truffles is the second dog we’ve had in our place. The first was Kit Kat. We had to put her down a couple years ago, unfortunately. That was the hardest damn thing I’ve done in my life.”

“Sorry about that.” I’ve had to put down a few family dogs. They’re all hard, and it never gets easier either. But giving a pup a good fifteen-plus years makes up for those hard parts.

“Shane had him for thirteen years. For a while we’d walk into the apartment and he’d still expect Kit Kat to come bouncing around the corner. The place felt so empty. And then one day this beagle showed up outside, and his foot was caught in a bunch of garbage and mud. Shane pulled him out, and we put up flyers in case he belonged to anyone, but no one called. It was a good thing too, because Truffles and Shane got attached to each other.”

“And you were cool with your roommate having another dog?”

He laughs a giant bolting laugh I’ve heard a lot during the hour and a half I’ve known him.

“Even if I had a problem with it, Shane gets two votes in our house.”

“Why’s that?”

“He wears the pants in our relationship.”

I grin and shift Truffles onto the seat next to me. “I thought he was just an old college roommate or something,” I say with a laugh.

“Nope. Been together for eight years now.”

I let out a long whistle. “You have my sympathies.”

He lets out another bolting laugh. “Not the commitment type, huh?”

My eyes drift to Shay, ready for her derisive snort or smart comment, but she’s out like a light, fingers curled tight around the iPod. Something tugs in my chest seeing her so content and, well,quiet. It’s the Venus flytrap thing, I think.

“Not exactly…” I scratch the back of my head, ripping my gaze away from Shay. “I mean, I’ll commit to them for a night.”

“That’s very sweet of you.”

“I’m just not interested in…relationships. Sounds like a drag.”

Milo fixes his hat. “It can be. There are a lot of times I wonder if it’s worth it, because I’m on the road all the time and he’s at home…See, Shane’s a graphic novel artist. Yeah, his job is a lot more awesome than mine. And he’d come with me on trips like this, no problem. But he’s got deadlines, and it’s not exactly easy to have a steady hand while on the road. So he stays home, sometimes lets me take Truffles, and we have to deal with the long-distance and short-distance relationship all the time. But even with the shit-filled drama, I’m thinking of ways to prolong our relationship. Make it permanent.”

“You want to get married?” I’ve met another romantic sap. Just when I was starting to like the guy.

“Yeah. Now that gay marriage is legal everywhere, we’re just trying to figure out where we want to…or if we want to…”

My mind drifts off—I think because I’m so tired I’m about to pass out—so I don’t catch what Milo’s saying. I’m actually wondering about how it goes down. Who proposes to who in this scenario?

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