The shoe exchange

Bri

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you? Oh, you poor things." Melanie my neighbor, looks at me and her dog, beanie, in horror.

"Well, see what had happened was. I walked him around the park a couple of more times, so we stayed longer than we usually do. Before I could make it to the gate the sprinkler system had turned on. Got us both, didn't it beanie?" I tell Melanie the reason why we're standing on her porch, drenched from head to tail.

"Let me get some towels and you can both dry off." She rushes back inside and a few seconds later she has a couple of towels in her hand.

After drying beanie off, which is pretty simple because he's not too big. He's a beagle and you can't help but adore him. I dry my hair and pat my clothes dry as good as I can. I thank Melanie and make my way back to my apartment. At least I don't have far to walk.

I don't have any other jobs to work today, which is unusual for me. But I'm kind of glad because I just need to get some rest for a little while.

Walking up the old worn out rickety steps that lead to my apartment, I see someone standing beside my door. "Charles?"

"Hi, angel" he says with a small smile.

"Are you okay?" I ask him, I know worry is etched on my face.

"I'm okay, are you?" I wave his question off with a laugh and he just smiles. "I just got back from the diner. I'm glad you gave me your address earlier before you left. I was doing some cleaning for Mr. Miller. He asked me if I could drop this off for you." He holds out a take away bag for me.

"Thank you, that was nice of you to bring it for me. Would you like to come in?" I ask while unlocking my door to my apartment.

"No, that's okay. I'll be heading off now. I just wanted to stop by and give you this. Thank you for today." He smiles at me.

He seems so sweet, I wonder where his family is. "There's no way I can eat all of this by myself. Please come in and have some dinner with me. It would be nice to have company for once."

He stares at me for a long minute. I know he is having an internal battle with himself. I nod at him to follow me and slowly he does. He takes a look around and his eyes widen slightly.

"What's wrong?" I ask him. Sitting the food on the kitchen counter.

"I- I guess I just wasn't expecting this. I, well I guess I was expecting you to live with your parents or something. I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm thinking and it's not nice that I assumed."

I smile at him "it's okay" I shrug. "We've all got a story. I don't have much, I never have but I've not done without in a while. I'm happy to help you or anyone else."

I grab some plates from the cabinet and pull the boxes from the take out bag. Inside I find two of everything. Richard knew I'd invite Charles in to eat. I know some people would call us crazy or yell stranger danger but if you could see this man, meet this man. You'd know he's harmless. I could crawl faster than he can walk. He definitely has a story and I can't wait to find out what it is.

But that'll wait until another day.

I'm not ready to share my story with him just yet. So I don't expect him to share his with me.

"Lucky, Richard put two of everything in there, huh?" He asks, giving me a knowing smile.

I can't help but laugh a little.

"Sure is" I say returning his smile. "I'm sorry I don't have a table but we can take this to the couch and eat."

"Don't apologize for things you don't have, Gabriella. If we start that now, you'll never hear the end of it from me." I frown at him.