Page 45 of Before We're More Than Friends
Kami flipped her ponytail back, but her face pinched. “Don’t have to worry about it.”
“They might be the ones who need to be groomed,” I said to lighten the mood.
Kami elbowed me in the ribs, and I elbowed her back.
Mrs. Landers glanced at us from above her glasses, and we went our separate ways to start our task. I grabbed the bunny and hamster food from the food pantry and walked to the bunny and hamster section.
I headed over to the first bunny cage that belonged to Fluffs, and I gagged. Whatever they were feeding her, she was not digesting it well. Manning up, I hummed along to a song playing in the background as I did the labor of cleaning her messy and stinky cage, my confidence lifting with every area of uncleanness disappearing. Disgusting animals were no match for me.
By the time I made it to the last bunny cage, sweat ran downmy forehead. It didn’t help that Biscuit’s cage hadn’t been cleaned in a while and most of the mess was stuck to it. Holding back a gag, I pulled out a new wipe and put my left hand back in the cage.
My wipe, however, decided to fall out of my hand, making my hand land on a bunch of bunny poop.
“Crap!” I lifted my hand up and quickly wiped it with a new wipe, hoping the uncleanness would wear off fast enough.
“You look like you’re having fun, huh?”
The blood drained from my face as my stomach turned over, my eyes daring to look up at the person in front of me.
Raina crossed her arms and gave me a cheeky grin. “Need some help?”
CHAPTER 12
Raina
Dallas narrowed his dark eyes at me. “I’ve dealt with this and worse several times, thank you.”
My grin widened and I put my hands on my hips. “Are you sure? Your face wouldn’t look like that if you’ve dealt with this and worseseveraltimes.”
Dallas looked like he’d just witnessed two babies having blowouts while he ate pudding. I had to restrain myself from taking a picture.
“Take it or leave it.” He waved his hand to shoo me away. “I have business to do.”
“You sure do.”Doo.
He muttered what was probably a curse word and grabbed another wipe with his poop-free hand.
“I guess I don’t need to ask how your first day is going,” I said.
“It’s going fantastic, thank you very much,” he grumbled. “Why are you still here?”
“I wanted to apologize for last night again.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “But it seems like I came at the wrong time.”
“You think?” He shook his head. “It’s fine. We already resolved things.”
We clearly hadn’t from how pissed off he was. “I just want to make peace. It wouldn’t be fun volunteering here if we hated each other.”
“I don’t hate you.” His tone went from agitated to serious.
I adjusted my posture. “Good. I don’t hate you, either.”
“Good,” he echoed, too occupied with cleaning the bunny poop off his hand to look at me.
Not knowing how to continue the conversation, I said, “Mrs. Landers assigned me to help you put the bunnies back in their cages and feed them.”
“Oh.” His voice was flatter than soda left open in the fridge.
Yeah, we still had a little bit of bad blood. Whatever awkwardness between us could be resolved when he was in a better mood.
