Page 41 of Home With You

It's strange to think of a chore like washing clothes as something you'd want to do. Something that would make you feel better. But the way she explained it, it makes sense.

"C'mon," I say, motioning her to follow me as I walk back to my car.

"Wait, I don't want to drive anywhere."

"We're not. I'm just getting you a t-shirt. Then we'll go to that place Gladys was talking about."

She catches up to me at the car. "Miles, just forget it. I can't wear your clothes. They'll be way too big on me."

She's right. She's tiny. My shirt would hang down to her knees. But luckily I have one that might fit. I open my trunk and pull out a long-sleeve black t-shirt.

"Here." I hand it to her. "Try it on and see if it fits."

She holds it up. "This is a woman's shirt." She eyes me suspiciously. "Why do you have a woman's shirt?"

"I have a whole box of them. Men's too." I point to the boxes in the trunk.

"Why do you have all those shirts?"

"It's for work. We're having the firm's logo put on them and because I'm the new guy, I got assigned to taking them to the place that stitches the logo on. They're closed now so I'll do it in the morning."

She shoves the shirt at me. "I can't take this. It'd be stealing."

"It's not stealing. We ordered a ton of them in case they make a mistake. We have more than enough. In fact you could take two and they wouldn't even notice any are missing." I reach in and take out another one. "Here. It's yours."

"I can't take it."

I shut the trunk. "Too late. They're already out of the box. They're yours."

"Miles, I mean it. You could get in trouble for giving me these."

"Who's going to know? Raine, I'm telling you, nobody's going to miss a couple t-shirts. You know how much money the firm wastes on stuff that just gets thrown out? Like today, they catered lunch from some fancy restaurant for a meeting and almost all of it got thrown out. That lunch cost more than all the t-shirts in that box. So trust me, they won't care if two are missing."

She considers it. "Okay, but I'm only taking one."

"Just take them both. They're warm and they'll fit you. You can wear one tonight and wear the other one the next time I take you out."

"Next time?" she says, raising her brows. "Maybe this will be the only time."

"Or maybe this will be the first of many." I smile.

"You're getting way ahead of yourself."

"I like to think positive." I nod toward the coffee shop. "Go in there and change. I'll wait out here."

"While I'm in there, could you go check on Gladys?"

"Sure."

Raine goes in to change while I go back to the alley. Gladys is sitting in her lawn chair, her eyes closed.

"Gladys?" I say quietly as I approach her.

Her eyes open. "Miles? Where's Raine?"

"She's inside changing shirts. I had some extra so I gave her one."

"And she took it?" Gladys asks, sounding surprised.

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