Fork in the Road

Chapter Seventeen

He put her arms around her kissing her again as they reached her apartment door. "Goodnight, Sarah," He said pulling away with a smile.

"Night," she said pulling him back to her for another kiss.

He pulled away again. "I better go."

"Don't," she said taking his hands.

"I don't want to rush you into anything," He protested.

"Just coffee. One coffee."

"Coffee," he said with a sigh running a hand through his hair.

"One. And then you'll be kicked out."

He nodded slowly knowing it would probably be a mistake, but what the hell, he'd made so many already anyway, what was one more.

"Trey!" she called when they came in.

"Oh, let him be, puppies need their sleep."

"He probably needs to go!" Sarah protested.

"If he had to go, he'd be sitting by the door waiting for you. Or come bounding down the hall when you called. He hasn't. So obviously, he's sleeping."

Sarah peered down the hall worried.

"Do you know anything about puppies?"

She eyed him. "Well...."

"They're like babies. They need their sleep. They sleep hours and hours at a time. Especially during the day," he added so he could get some sleep during the day without her poking him to go for yet another walk.

Sarah sighed. "How do you know so much about puppies?" she asked going into the kitchen.

He ran a hand through his hair trying to think of a response. "I've had them before."

"Not anymore?" She asked taking two mugs out of a cabinet.

"No, they grew up and...died."

"I'm so sorry," she said clutching the mugs to her chest.

He shrugged and looked away. He stopped having pets. It was worse than getting to know a human and having a human die. At least a human lived about eighty years this century. A pet always lived around ten years. It was a blink of an eye for him yet it killed him every time his dog had died. No more. He'd be his own, damn dog, if he wanted a dog.

"Um, have seat. I'll be there in a minute."

"Sure," he said taking a seat on the couch.

"How do you take your coffee?"

He shrugged. "Black's fine."

"Yikes," she said with a cringe.

"I'm not particular," he said with a shrug. He couldn't really taste much so adding milk or sugar didn't change the taste very much for him.

"Then you won't mind instant?" She asked with a hopeful smile.

He shrugged again, "Whatever you have is fine."

His cell phone rang. He groaned.

"It's okay, you can get it."

He pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at the caller-id. He cursed in Italian.

"What?" he barked putting it to his ear. "Oh. Sam. Sorry, I thought it was Em or Raven. They are driving me insane."

Sarah's ears perked up. She knew it was rude to eavesdrop but she wanted to know him. All of him. And she was curious about his life outside of what little time they had together. And if she really strained with her mind sometimes she could hear other ends of people's conversations over the phone. She was particularly interested why his voice had softened when he learned it was this Sam person and not who he was expecting.