It wasn't until around eight when the hound woke, sitting up with a soft groan and stretched. Trying to blink the sleep away that was fogging his brain and making his eyes heavy. A few chirps of a bird twittered from the bedroom's window. He stood on his feet with a shake of his head.

Over his shoulder, Bud watched as Kimbra shuffled a little in the bed, mumbling under her breath as she pulled the blanket tighter around her.

"Get up, we have things to do today." He said, leaning forward and pressing a light kiss against her cheek.

Kimbra let out a quiet huff. Wondering if it would be cruel to whack him over the head with his own pillow. "It's literally Saturday."

"It's eight o'clock, it's not that early."

"It's early for a Saturday." The Samoyed stayed curled up into the bed, blanket pulled tightly around her, only her nose sticking out from under it. "Newsflash, Flud, I sleep in on weekends."

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "So that's a no on coming with me to the country club?"

"Do I look like I play golf?"

"Well… you do have good form."

Kimbra sighed, turned over to face him with her cheek squished into the pillow. "No, I don't want to play golf. Even if I have excellent form."

Bud smiled gently at his girlfriend as her cheek smooshed into the pillow.

"What?"

"You're just really pretty, is all." He gave her a lovesick smile while resting his head back on the door frame.

"You're just saying that, so I won't push you down the stairs."

"Nooo I'm not." He drawled softly with a shake of his head.

"Okay, Bernie boy."

"Fine, you don't have to come, but quit all that callin' me Bernie boy." Bud drawled thickly. He cocked his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "And what? You don't want to spend time with your boyfriend?" He accused, placing a hand against his heart in mock hurt.

"I live with you, we spend time together constantly." She retorted, pulling the blanket back over her head. "Bye Bud, have fun swinging a club around all morning."

Kimbra then buried her face under the mountain of blankets and pillows. Bud rolled his eyes as the Samoyed buried her face away from him, underneath the fortress of coziness around her.

Because Saturdays were for sleeping in, after all.

Before long, Bud had pulled up into the parking lot of the country club. Beautifully landscaped and immaculate on the outside. A grand sign with shiny golden letters sat on the front of the lot.

Juniper Golf and Country Club

The hound stepped out of the car, locking it behind him. He meant to grab his golf bag, but stopped. He had expected the place to be lively today. Full of golfers taunting one another. But there wasn't a single soul out on the green. Usually, you'd see several golf carts driving around or a handful of golfers playing. Not today. Today the course looked completely barren.

That couldn't mean anything good.

As Bud stepped through the front doors of the club, his dark eyes scanned the room. Looking for a familiar face. His eyes landed on a small seating area by the large glass windows. Somewhere you could easily overlook the golf course. There, sat Samuel, Ripley, and Andy. When Bud approached, Andy gave him a wide smile. Ripley graced him with a glance, but didn't say anything.

Bud stood in the middle of the group, holding out his hands. Confused. "I thought we were playing today."

"The course is soaking wet," Samuel said with a one-shouldered shrug. One hand held on to a glass of whiskey, swirling it around as he leaned back into the chair with a nod towards the course behind him. "I'm not going out there and ruining my shoes."

"It rained here a lot yesterday," Andy stated the obvious. "The front of my driveway looks like a river."

He then shuffled awkwardly, scratching at the back of his neck when Samuel rolled his eyes.

Ah. That was why. "What's Ripley doing here?" Bud then turned his attention to the disgruntled eel sitting across from Samuel.

"Contemplating suicide." Answered Ripley, who looked like he craved nothing more than the sweet release of death. His elbow rested on the arm of the chair. And his cheek against his hand. Looking bored and eager to be anywhere but here.

"Don't be so dark." The raccoon paused, head tilted in thought for a moment. "We have business matters to discuss. I thought we could do it over golf, but apparently not."

"What business matters?" Andy, poor sweet Andy made the mistake of asking.

"None of your business." Samuel snarked. "It's personal so–"

"He wants to drop a guy in my shark tank, again." Ripley interrupted, still bored out of his mind.

"Ripley, ya ain't supposed to kiss and tell."

"Not all the money in the world could get me to kiss your ugly ass."

"And I thought Silas and Ray would be here."

"Silas is busy."

"Him and Marissa are trying to have a baby." Andy spoke, again saying more than he should. "He said not to bother him, or he'd throw one of us in the lake."

Samuel had to hold himself back from rolling his eyes again. "Andy, he's going to be so mad when I tell him you're yapping out his business to everyone."

"But Sammy, Bud asked where he had–"

Samuel only glared at him in response.

"Sorry." The hyena whispered, barely loud enough for any of them to hear. "I probably shouldn't mention that Ray and Lynette are separating either, then."

Wait. What?

Bud hadn't known Lynette all that well. Besides the fact she was a Siberian musk deer (only knowing that due to the fact Kimbra had told him after meeting her) and worked as a real estate agent. She always clung to Marissa's side, basically becoming best friends with Silas's wife.

Nothing about her and Ray's relationship ever gave Bud the impression that they were having problems. Of course, Ray being the state senator meant he kept his personal life under wraps. He never liked talking about himself or his relationship to begin with.

"Why are they separating?" Bud cast a glance at Samuel, figuring the crime boss would know. Silas would have been the best bet considering that his wife was Lynn's best friend, but again, he wasn't there.

"I don't know, Silas would probably know since Lynn tells Marissa everything. You'd just have to ask one of them." Samuel replied, seeming uninterested in the lives of his friends. "It's just boring relationship shit. Nothing we should care about. Now Chet, about that shark tank…"

Internally, Bud groaned.

Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea, after all.

The group had only hung around the country club for an hour.

They shared a few drinks and conversation. Mainly about how ridiculous the thought of Silas, the gruff loan shark, being a father. Samuel insisted that he'd do poorly at it. But Andy argued it sounded sweet and that Silas would be a wonderful dad. Ripley didn't have an opinion on the matter and listed off things in the room he could end his life with (solely to end his misery of having to converse with the likes of Samuel and Andy).

After that, Andy had a doctor appointment to attend. Ripley just left in the middle of the conversation without a word. And Samuel… Samuel had… other matters to attend to.

And so, Bud Flud went back home to Sunset Heights. Back to Kimbra and the quiet life he was slowly building for himself.

For them.

Bud came into the kitchen and stopped to just smile lovingly as he watched his girlfriend at the counter, smoothing his hair back, before crutching up behind her. He rested his head on Kimbra's shoulder, turning to kiss her on the cheek gently. "Hi."

She smiled, continuing to slowly chop up carrots with a knife. "I wasn't expecting you back here so early on a Saturday."

"No, I changed my mind. Thought I'd spend the day with you." His hands brushed against her hair and she leaned into the touch.

"The course hasn't dried out yet, has it?"

Bud put up his hands as if he'd been caught in the act. "Okay that may be partially why I came back home… maybe."

"You could have stayed at the country club with them."

The water bottle salesman took a long inhale in through his teeth, then admitted, "They didn't want to. Samuel had to meet some… girl. Ray needed to file paperwork. Silas just didn't want to be there, and Andy had a doctor's appointment." Bud moved by her with a faint waft of expensive cologne. Feeling guilty for lying about Ray and Silas, but it wasn't his place to expose his friend's private matters.

Samuel's on the other hand… he felt fine with telling her.

Kimbra dropped the knife and buried her head in her hands with a sigh. "I don't see why Samuel stays married to Ardwin if all he does is cheat on her."

"It's for public appearance sake," he shrugged, opening up a cabinet and pulling out a glass. "And her family is loaded. It's just an arranged marriage situation. I don't think either of them want to be in it, but it just happened."

The scientist dropped her hands from her face, returning to her task of cutting up carrots. Deep blue eyes narrowed as she spoke. "Still, it's wrong for him to put her through that. Samuel is just an ass, plain and simple. I don't know why you're even friends with the guy."

Bud struggled to come up with a decent argument, and subsequently failed.

Sometimes it was better just to keep your mouth shut.