“Oh, the metal one?” He stands back up, then hurries toward the front door. “It fell earlier when I picked up the bag, so I put it right—” From one of the bags he was carrying, he pulls out something shiny. “—there. Sorry.”

It’s like he’s taken three tons off my chest. False alarm.

“It’s fine,” I say as I walk to him and grab the bowl. “Just… Always in the front pocket of this bag, okay?” He looks a little confused, so I add a shaky smile for good measure.

“Got it.”

“Thanks.” Looking away, I go fill Maybelle’s bowl, and while she can’t see with her cataracts, her snout works fine. She gets to her food in less than a minute.

“You want something to drink?” I ask Aaron.

“What do you have?” His sly grin is still present, reassuring me. I’d rather he not see me as a crazy person, even though I might be. He seems to think of me as better than I am, and I’d rather keep it like that.

“Uh…” Yeah, I should’ve thought about that before offering. “Water, coffee, or tea.”

He grins teasingly. “No alcohol?”

“I don’t really drink.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure the day we met, you were drinking at a bar alone.”

Touché. “That was, um…an exception.”

He hums. “I’ll just have water, thanks.”

I go fill two glasses in the kitchen, then come back and invite him to the living room. Since I only have one couch, we both sit on it, and Molly soon jumps up to lie between the two of us.

“So that night was an exception for you, huh?” he asks as I take a sip.

“And it wasn’t for you?” I reply.

He snickers, though there’s not much humor in it. “It was a fucked-up night for me.”

I tuck my feet under my bottom. This conversation feels like walking a fine line. We may not be friends per se, but I’ve been wondering about that evening for so long. And now that it’s been brought up, I can’t make myself move on to another subject.

“What ended up happening after that night for you? Did you end up getting back with the girl?”

He shakes his head vigorously. “I told you I wouldn’t go back to her. I want to be with someone who wants to be with me just as much as I want her.”

I swallow. So he does remember a lot from that night.

“Was it hard?” I ask. “Keeping your word, I mean.”