“That dog’s name is Peanut,” Emily corrected. Adam didn’t pay attention to her. “I named all the dogs,” she said to Jillian. “That dog responds well to Peanut. It’s best to pick two syllable names.”

Crispy licked the donut sugar off of Adam’s hands. Jillian gave Emily the money order, and then Jillian, Adam, and Crispy loaded themselves into the car.

“Hey, maybe we can talk about other names,” said Jillian.

“Why?” said Adam.

“Choco’s a cute name, what about Choco?”

“But, the other one was Choco,” said Adam. “This is Crispy.”

He was so delightful and strange. Her hands were still wet, maybe even wetter. She had enough cash, she’d made sure, to pick up dog food and a dog bowl and a leash at the Petco. The dog started trembling in the back seat and Adam unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed into the back and sat between his car seat and the dog and whispered “doggie” while he pet Crispy and Crispy began to hyperventilate.

“WHERE ARE YOUR COLLARS and leashes?” asked Jillian. She was bent over, holding Crispy by the shoulders and waddling towards the cashier.

“Right there,” said the cashier, pointing to them. Jillian put her arms around the dog while Adam picked out a neon green collar and a red nylon puppy leash that was maybe a little too short. Jillian attached these items to the dog and stood up. She stretched her back and Crispy shook her skin. They walked to the dog food aisle and picked out the food, two plastic bowls, and a fifteen-inch rawhide bone.

“This is our first dog,” said Jillian to the cashier. She looked around and half picked Crispy up. “Can you just ring up these things while they’re on her?”

“Can you just rip the tags off and hand them to me?”

“Oh, yeah, duh,” said Jillian. She ripped the tags off and the cashier beeped them onto her total. Everything was a little over a hundred dollars. It was more than the adoption fee, but fuck it.

“Ok, ok,” said Jillian in the car.

She walked the dog up the stairs to her apartment. “Welcome home, Crispy.” Crispy walked around the apartment and sniffed things and looked generally confused. Every minute or so she would stop and jump backwards, take a few steps sideways, look around, and then continue sniffing.

Jillian turned on the tv and gave Adam the remote. “Just let her sniff around a second, but let me know if she starts squatting.”

The house wasn’t picked up yet.