Page 137 of She Wolf

I take him in. He’s more anxious about her leaving than I thought. “Let’s ask your mom if we have time to run out then,” I say, which perks him up instantly.

Kate’s constantly got her phone glued to her hand which one hundred percent has a calendar app, but it seems like this is really important to him.

“We can get Kate and Mom some flowers too.”

“You know what dude, that’s a great idea.” He dashes upstairs ahead of me.

What the fuck am I going to do when this house becomes still and deafeningly quiet again? I try to shake the overwhelming feeling of emptiness away. I’ll still have all of them, they just won’t behere, here.

“Mom, Kate, do we have time to go out for a bit? But not to any stores, just like um, some boy place.”

Coralie cocks an eyebrow at me, staring up from the pile of folded clothes she has in front of her, and I shrug.

“Yes, you have time to go to a boy's place. We’ll be ready by the time you get back.”

“Okay, see you soon. Not a long time, just a bit of time,” he tells her.

I laugh and follow him out to the car.

“They sooo don’t know where we’re going,” he says, going in for a high five.

“Yeah dude, you were really subtle. Totally threw them off the scent.” He’s super pleased with himself as he buckles himself up.

“Now where do we get calendar books from?” he asks.

“Planners?”

“Yeah.”

“I know just the place, and it’s right by the florist,” I tell him.

The shopping plaza is just a short drive away. We park outside the pharmacy and decide to shop for the stationery first. Luckily there’s a boutique on the corner that sells exactly what we’re looking for and then some.

As we enter the store the bell rings above the door and the girl behind the counter looks up, giving us a warm smile. It’s light and airy with soft grey walls and whitewashed floors, glass topped tables displaying desk accessories arranged by color and use.

The signage above the racks and shelves that read; Academic planners, Life planners, Meal planners, and planners that combine all three sit neatly in organized sections and every other available space is filled with pens and pencils.

It’s dizzying.

To top it all off there’s a station that holds refills for when the pages run out.

Although surely, it’s yearly.

Why would you use up fifty-two weeks before the fifty-two weeks have run out?

Jack and I literally have no idea what we’re looking at when we step inside.

“The patterns are cool though,” he says completely dazed. I nod, I suppose they are.

“We’re gonna need some help over here,” I say completely at a loss, grabbing the desk clerk's attention.

“That’s no trouble.” She says, making her way over to us. “What are you boys after today?”

“My sister-friend is going off to college and we need to write lots of stuff down for her and she needs to write lots of college stuff in there too.”

“Ah, right, then may I suggest this academic planner? It comes in two sizes and has sections for assignments and notes as well as a diary.” She walks over to a wall—yes, a whole wall of thick notebook looking things in every variation of pattern you can think of. Some simple, some intricate. Some are super jazzy and others with a sleeker look.

“I think the bigger one, don’t you Gunner?” Jack asks.

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