And After All This Time, I'm Still Into You

The pounding in my head was something I wasn’t used to. Maybe once upon a time I was, but now, not so much. Groaning, I turn over, my arm hitting something warm and fleshy. I immediately shot up, panic coursing through my veins. I blinked back the tiredness from my eyes, ignoring the massive kick drum beat in my head.

The blinds were closed shut and with what little light streamed in, I could tell I was in a hotel room. I squinted, trying to piece what little information about last night that I could. I had vague memories of me laughing, outside in the cold New York snow as the whole city counted down to midnight, drinking various shots in a bar sometime later, and lastly, of Jack and Lisa singing along obnoxiously to some Britney Spears song by my side. When my eyes adjusted, I could see the blonde and black hair and my heart returned to it’s normal pace.

Jack Barakat, mouth hanging wide open, was peacefully snoring next to me on the queen sized bed. His girlfriend, my best friend, was tucked under his arm, her head snuggled into his shirtless chest as his arm was wrapped around her, keeping her there.

I groaned, finally acknowledging the pounding in my head. I knew I either had to take it, or actually get up and do something about it. Deciding I wasn’t going to find anything in the room to help me, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried going back to sleep. After a while, I realized that wasn’t going to happen so I slipped out of the bed, grabbing my purse, and heading into the bathroom. I pulled out a small bag, opening it up to take out a travel sized toothbrush.

Being a wedding planner, I was used to disasters happening. In this bag, was everything from bandages to anti-static spray to thread and needles. It always came in handy and I never traveled anywhere without it. I saw the empty bottle of Advil at the bottom, a reminder that I needed to refill it.

When I was done, after running a brush through my hair a few times, I slipped back into the room to find Jack sitting up, rubbing his eyes.

“Hey sleepy head.” I said softly, dropping my purse onto one of the small tables as I pulled out a chair next to it and sat down.

“Hey.” he mumbled, getting up and going into the bathroom, keeping his eye half closed. I chuckled as he blindly struggled to find his way.

“My head.” Lisa groaned from somewhere on the bed. She threw the covers off of her and stood up. I watched as she crossed the room, digging through her overnight bag to pull out a bottle of aspirin.

“Ugh. Hand me a few of those please.” I told her, holding my head in my hands.

Lisa stood, grabbing two water bottles from the mini fridge as she made her way towards me. I thanked her, unscrewing the water cap and downing the pills.

A door banged and we heard Jack curse as he walked out of the bathroom.

“Fuck hangovers. I don’t think I’ve drank that much since...forever.” Jack said as he threw himself on the bed. “I need a bloody Mary.”

“I don’t want to stand up though. It’s dark and warm in here and bright and cold out there.” I whined.

“I’ll buy you breakfast.”

“Deal.”

We found ourselves at a diner down the street about half hour later. Jack and Lisa had put on clean clothes, while I was still in my clothes from yesterday. Had I known things would get so crazy last night, I would’ve brought a change of clothes.

“Mmm.” Lisa moaned as she took a bite of her pancakes. “Either I’m still drunk and that’s why these taste amazing, or these pancakes are just that amazing.”

I laughed. “This place does has some pretty good pancakes.”

“I’m going to have to come down and visit more often just so I can come get some of these.” she joked.

“Yes, you do. I can’t believe you guys are leaving today. It was kind of amazing seeing you guys. I don’t really...get out much now a days.” I confess.

“Are you a loner, Jenna?” Jack asked with his mouth full. Lisa smacked his chest lightly, earning a whiny grunt from him.

“Sort of. I guess. I just, work a lot really.” I tell him.

“But you won’t be busy when I come visit, right?”

“I’ll never be too busy for you guys.” I say and he smiles.

“Good. Because we need to party like we did last night more often. I forgot how much such a tiny person could drink. Which is a lot, by the way.” he said, surprised.

Me and Lisa laughed. “You seem to forget that just because I am tiny, and a girl, that I can’t out drink you. Which, by the way, was a bad idea because I haven’t done that in so long and my head is still killing me. So not used to that anymore.” I groaned.

“Well, we’re just going to have to get you back to being used to it.” Jack said, smirking. “I’m thinking next time, we bring Zack and Rian. Oh, and you have to meet Cassadee. Wait, I think you met her. I’m not sure.”

“You did meet her. She was in that band, Hey Monday.” Lisa said.

“Oh, right. Right. The girl with the blonde streaks in her hair. She was nice. Gosh, that was such a long time ago though.” I said, reminiscing.

“Yeah. Her and Rian have been together practically forever. I seriously think he was talking to her right before he broke up with Kara. But, that’s not any of my business. As long as he’s happy.”

I sighed, poking around at my eggs. Jack cleared his throat, looking away. “Um..so how, um, is she? Kara, I mean.” I mumbled.

“Uh...she’s good, I guess. I don’t talk to her that much, really. She lives out in L.A. now.” Lisa answered hesitantly.

I nodded, unsure of what to say next. Thankfully, Jack took the conversation a different route, asking me when was my next visit to Baltimore going to be, to which I laughed and shook my head.



When it was time for Lisa and Jack to head home, I felt the familiar feeling of loneliness. That’s why my work was always good, why I was always referred to other people by my clients. I was lonely and because of that, I pushed myself to work hard. It was the only thing that took my mind off of it. It was that loneliness that pushed me into buying a puppy.

I found myself at the pet shop the day after Jack and Lisa had left, ready to pick up said puppy. I was nervous, to say the least. Having to take care of yourself is one thing. But having to take care of a puppy is different. They need constant attention, love, and care. They need- I shook my head. It’s not another human being, Jenna. It’s just a puppy. Calm down. I thought.

“Okay, here he is.” I heard the worker say and she brought the dog out. His eye zoomed around the room, happy to be out of his little cage. She handed him over and I immediately smiled, feeling his soft fur. After I made sure everything was in order, putting on his collar and leash, it was finally time to head home.

“Let’s go, puppy. Time to see your new house.” I told him, not really having a name yet. I set him down on the snow covered sidewalk and he started sniffing everywhere. While researching about dogs last night, I found out that these type of dogs loved cold weather. So I bet he was loving all this snow.

When I got home, I showed him where all his things were. Where his food and water was, where his bed was, and his toys. Grabbing one of the toy ropes, I threw it, watching as he chased it into the kitchen. Tired after a long day, I collapsed onto the couch, my eyes closing. A few seconds later, I felt the puppy jump up next to me, his fur tickling my face as he got closer. I opened my eyes, looking up at him. I smiled.

“Okay, puppy.” I said as I sat up. “You need a name.” He looked at me, cocking his head sideways as if he understood. Grabbing my phone from my purse, I pulled up a website with dog names, reading some off the list.

“Hmm. Ace? Otto? Lucky?” I read as I looked at him. “No...you don’t look like a Lucky.” I put my hand on his head, scratching under his ears. “What about Buddy? No. Evan? No, I don’t think Evan would like sharing his name with a dog.”

Groaning, I leaned back. How hard was it to name a dog? Did other people have this much trouble? Puppy jumped on my lap, licking my arms. I laughed. “Hey, don’t lick my arms.” I looked back at the list. “Maximus?” His ears perked up. “You like that? What about Max for short?” He barked a whiny bark. “Well, I guess you do look like a Max.”

Getting up off the couch, I headed towards to kitchen but a spot caught my eye. “Oh no.” I groaned, looking at the yellow water on my kitchen floor. “Max! I thought we were cool? Ugh.”

One thing I forgot about dogs. They needed to go out and do their business. And with me living in an apartment, on the 18th floor no less, bathroom breaks outside would be difficult. I would need to buy some sort of pee pad for dogs. I looked over at Max, playing with one of his toys. “Too bad dogs don’t use litter boxes. Come on Maxy, we’re going on an adventure.”

I found myself at the pet shop some time later after I had thoroughly cleaned the pee spot. Max’s tiny puppy legs made it so I had to walk slower than usual, but his enthusiasm towards being in the snow made up for it. When we got there, I found what I was looking for and went to pay, grabbing a bag of treats as well.

“Would you like to donate to our local vet office?” the young girl at the checkout asked. She handed me a flyer. “It supports the vet that donates free shots and neutering to the local animals in the neighborhood.”

“Um, sure.” I said as I picked a card that you sign your name on with different amounts. I settled on $25, signing Max down as the name.

“They’re having an event this weekend. Free checkups and shots. You should bring your puppy.” the young girl smiled, making sure to put an extra flyer in my bag along with my purchases after she rang me up.

I looked at the flyer as I walked home. Since I bought Max from a pet shop, he did have his first few shots. But I was going to need to follow up with them. My cousin bought a puppy a few years ago and I remembered that she needed to take him every few weeks for the first few months.

So on Saturday afternoon, I found myself at the address printed on the flyer, making sure I had Max’s papers with me. There was quite a few people. Booths with different things surrounded the parking lot. From homemade treats to places with info about grooming places. I made my way inside, Max safely in my arms even though he was on a leash. There were dogs around and I was nervous because he was so small.

The wait was about half hour due to so many people taking advantage of the free checkups. When they called Max’s name, we were led into a room. The nurse instructed me to put Max on the table. I had to keep placing my arms in front of him so that he wouldn’t fall off. Soon enough, the door opened and the vet came in.

“Okay, we have Max here?” he asked as he looked at his papers. When he looked up, I was surprised.

“Xander? I didn’t...I thought you worked at the pet shop.” I said, confused.

“I help out a few times a month. But I work as a vet the rest of the time.” He smiled. “So is this your new puppy?” I nodded. “Hey Max! How are ya buddy?” he cooed, Max wagging his tail at the attention. I watched as he did his work up, examining every inch of Max.

“Well, he seems to be healthy. Which is good. Sometimes, we get dogs that people buy from those dog shops and they have issues. Usually because of being caged up for a long time. Not that we see that very often, but we have.”

“That’s terrible.” I said.

“Yeah but, people tend to buy them before they spend a long amount of time there.” He mumbled, seemingly not happy about those types of places. “He’s up to date on his shots.” he continued. “I think you should come back in about three weeks for follow up shots, and every two weeks after for about 2 months.” He looks up at me, his eyes a shade of blue that left me missing the spring time in Baltimore. That blue sky without any clouds was what kept me going as we all waited for summer when we were in school. “You know, I never did get your name.”

“Oh, uh. It’s J-Jenna. Jenna.” I stutter, suddenly aware of how weird it must be for me to be staring at his eyes.

He chuckles. “Well, Jenna, it was nice to see you again. I guess I’ll be seeing you in three weeks.” I nod and look down, seeing that he put out his hand for a handshake. That’s what doctors do after they see their patients, right? I have vague memories of shaking hands with my doctors, so I stick out my hand, noticing how clammy it feels. Too late to retract it.

Once he lets go, I wipe it on my pants discreetly. He gives me a smile and leaves the room, making me groan as soon as the door closes. “Well, that wasn’t awkward or anything.” I mumble to Max as I pick him up. “Not awkward at all.”