As he flipped the light switch, he heard Dierdre’s voice behind him, “Why don’t you have your robe on, baby?”
Of course that was what she noticed—that he wasn’t wearing the blue robe she’d given him as a gift. The woman was obsessed with that robe, constantly asking him to validate the gift by telling her how much he loved it.
He turned halfway around to look back at his blonde girlfriend. Dierdre looked at the smudged shit on the carpet and then back up at Orlando, giggling.
“Ha-ha-fuckin’-ha,” he said. “Could you please get me a rag?”
She moved past him, making her way to the bathroom where he’d originally been going before stepping on the dog shit. Orlando heard the faucet run for a moment and then Dierdre was back with two maroon face towels in hand. She handed one to Orlando to wipe off his foot while she went to work cleaning the brown stain from the gray carpet.
Once his foot was clean, Orlando went to the restroom and took a leak. He flushed the toilet and washed his hands. As he turned back toward the hallway, Dierdre stood and turned toward him. Now face to face, they both smiled.
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said. “I promise Dax won’t do it again.”
Orlando looked at her beautiful face, taking it in, “You can’t promise that.”
“I can,” she said. “I’m promising.”
He grinned. “Then we’re in agreement that if he does it again, he goes to live someplace else.”
“Like where?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe doggie heaven.”
