Page 23 of Counting the Stars

“I didn’t want to insult you. You always make such delicious meals.” He looks down at the floor. “I may need my stomach pumped.”

“I would agree if you ate the entire thing, but I think you’ll be okay.” I figured dinner would be subpar, but I wasn’t expecting it to be inedible. “How about we order a pizza and watch a movie?”

“That sounds like a much better plan,” Alex agrees.

While I place an order for a pizza, Alex cleans up our disaster dinner. We argue over what type of movie to watch. He wants a thriller while I prefer a fluffy rom-com.

“You win.” Alex plops himself on the couch. “I think we had enough horror with that meal you made.”

“You’re not going to let me live this down, are you?” I groan, taking a seat next to him.

“Nope.” He grins and presses play on the remote.

Our food arrives about twenty minutes later, and we decide to eat our meal in the living room while continuing to watch the movie. Since things have calmed down, I decide there’s no time like the present to have the hard conversation I’ve been putting off.

“Alex.” I turn to him. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

He cocks his head to the side, watching me curiously. God, I love his face, his defined features, and his enormous smile. Those dimples. Those freaking dimples of his always send my stomach into a flutter, making me feel like I’m a teenager with a huge crush.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, umm…just got distracted there. As I was saying, I wanted to talk to you about…” I stop and sniff the air. “Do you smell something?”

“Yeah, where’s it coming from?” He looks around the couch. “It almost smells like how those fraudulent cheeseburgers tasted.”

As if we can read each other’s minds, we both turn to look at the love seat, which has been abandoned.

“Where’s Gus?” I pray he went into another room to nap and the smell is just some random phenomenon.

We spring off the couch and run toward the kitchen island.

“Oh no!” I cover my mouth with my hands as I take in the overturned garbage can and Gus happily devouring what’s left of our grotesque dinner. His floppy ears are covered in ketchup and melted fake cheese. A squeaking sound comes from Gus’s rear and his wagging tail helps spread the smell throughout the room.

“Oh God, that’s so bad!” I wave my hand over my nose, hoping to fan the stench away. “He’s the slowest dog in the world. How can that food process through himso quickly?!”

“Maybe because it’s not real food,” Alex deadpans.

“You really want to debate that right now?” I put my hands on my hips.

“Later? Yes. But right now, I have to get him away from that plastic food.”

“It’s not plastic!” I smirk. “Remember the label said it was BPA free.”

“Woman!” he huffs. “I’m not in the mood to argue about this!”

The muscles in my face begin to ache as I try to hold back a laugh. He usually refers to me as “baby girl” when he’s flirting and “woman” when I get under his skin. Honestly, I adore both.

Alex walks over to Gus, bends down, and gently tugs on the smelly hound’s collar. “Come on, buddy, you shouldn’t be eating that.” Gus responds with a warning growl and Alex immediately straightens. “Oh, boy. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“He’s just hyper focused on the food right now. He’s not even registering who’s behind him,” I reason and try to think of an alternative plan. The garbage can is wedged in the corner between the counter and fridge. With Gus blocking the way, the only other way to access the trash is from above.

I hop up on the counter. “I can lift the garbage can up and away if you can just pull him back an inch or two.”

“Okay, but we need to be fast.” Alex gets into position by squatting down and hovering his arms over Gus’s torso.

“On the count of three. One. Two—” PRFFTT!

I stand upright on the counter with the garbage can in my hands feeling super proud that my plan was successful. But…

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