AUSTIN:
I felt a lick on my face and pawing on my chest. I was sure it was the woman I married.
I laughed,
"Ally, stop it!"
Ally laughed and said in her sleep,
"Austin, it's not me."
I opened my eyes. It wasn't Ally who was licking me and pawing at me. It was our adorable little puppy, Gabby. She seemed to be in a better mood than she was yesterday. We had to take her to the vet to get her vaccinated (ten shots!) because she was only two months old and you never know what kind of disease your puppy could be capable of contracting.
She definitely wasn't too happy about it, but clearly she seemed to be in a better mood now. I gasped and said,
"Hello, monster!"
She licked my face as I held her close and scratched her tummy. I kissed her face. She was such a sweet and adorable little puppy. Ally sat up and I cooed,
"Look who wanted to say Good Morning!"
Ally cooed,
"Good morning, babycakes!"
Ally gently took Gabby and whispered,
"Hi. Hi, sweetie. Hi. Hi,"
and kissed her cheek and scratched her head and back. Our puppy gave my wife a huge kiss on her cheek. Gabby eventually walked between us, giving me just the right amount of room to cuddle my wife and her at the same time. I whispered,
"Good morning, beautiful,"
I said to my wife.
She smiled at me,
"Good morning, handsome."
She planted a kiss on my cheek and I planted one on her cheek. I heard my cell phone go off. I was getting a text message from my little sister Leah. Ever since she told me about how her boyfriend had started to abuse her, I was worried sick about her. I loved Leah and I cared about her a lot.
I was glad my sister wasn't requesting to FaceTime because I was wearing only my boxers and Ally was wearing only a spaghetti strap chemise. message to me said,
"Hey, Austin, are you and Ally busy today?"
I texted,
"Well, Ally and I are going to Trish and Jace's baby's baptism tonight, because she's making us the godparents. Is everything OK?"
She texted,
"I kind of had a rough breakup with Kevin."
I texted,
"Yeah, of course. Do you want us to give you anything?"
Leah texted,
"Sure."
My little sister wasn't picky when it came to food. Ever since she was a baby, she'd eat anything. She did sometimes spit up on me when she was a baby, but even then I loved her. Anyway, I grabbed my clothes and Ally grabbed hers so we could get in the shower together (Yes, we were married and we showered together sometimes. We both loved our moments together, whether those activities were intimate or not. Even if it was just drinking wine, eating takeout comfort food and just chilling in front of the TV watching movies from our childhood, having our personal favorites be Disney movies and the Peanuts series.)
After getting out of the shower, Ally was wearing only her hot pink bathrobe and I was wearing only a towel as she was running a wide toothed comb through her wet hair. I asked her,
"Sweetie, sorry it's kind of short notice, but I invited my sister over to have breakfast with us. Is that OK?"
Ally smiled at me.
"With everything Leah's going through right now, of course she can come over. Austin, you're a good big brother."
I got dressed in a wifebeater and layered it with a green hoodie, ripped jeans and white nike high tops. I could hear Gabby's stomach growling and she gave me her puppy dog eyes.
I said,
"You hungry, babycakes? It's OK, let's go get you some food."
I picked her up and walked down to the kitchen and filled Gabi's bowls with water and Beneful. I saw my wife sitting at our kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee with half and half and reading the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. She was wearing a gray cardigan, a purple tank top, dark blue skinny jeans and beige mukluk slipper boots I had bought her for Christmas last year.
"What do you want for breakfast, Ally?"
I asked her.
"I've been having a craving for french toast lately."
"I like French Toast. Not as much as pancakes, but it's still good."
"I'm going to go cut up some fruits and then take Gabby out to do her business."
Ally cut up some strawberries and mixed them with blueberries and took Gabby and a small bag that people use to pick up their pets' excrement. I saw her come back inside with Gabi in five minutes and she threw out the bag and washed her hands. After the french toast was done, I saw Ally get four plates, three glasses, three napkins, three forks, three knifes and a bottle of maple syrup. I heard the doorbell ring. Ally said,
"I'll get it."
I knew who it was. It was my sister. She sure as hell wasn't going to heal from her breakup with Kevin overnight. Things like this took time. I felt sorry for her and I was definitely willing to help her heal.
I mean, Ally and I remembered Trish going through a rough time like this in high school. We were about seventeen years old, and there was this douchebag named Brad who had a crush on her, and Ally, Dez and I thought he was a good guy, too. But it turned out that Brad was a twenty-five-year-old sex offender posing as a teenager, and for like two weeks, he was nice to her. But he turned into a douchebag when he asked Trish if she wanted to have sex with him, and she turned him down. He started stalking her, he raped her at least five times and tried to coerce her to send pictures of herself naked to him.
It was horrible. She was terrified and crying for weeks. She filed a restraining order against him, but he violated it. He kept stalking her, attempting to get her to sext him and trying to rape her. But her now boyfriend Jace Dillon was the one who saved her, got Brad arrested (he had lots of counts of statutory rape) and the two had been happily dating ever since and had a seven-week-old baby girl named Isabella, whose baptism Ally and I were going to tonight, because they were making us the godparents. In the meantime, I didn't want my sister going through the same.