Bad Friend

17- Ask Me

I woke up the next morning in an empty bed. For a moment, I thought Harry had left and I began to panic. "Harry?"

When he didn't answer, the fear really began to set in. Maybe I freaked him out yesterday and he finally went back to LA, or maybe he realized that all my problems weren't worth the trouble. My cheeks flushed with shame and embarrassment, but I tried not to let it bother me so much. It would've been easier if Harry hadn't been so tentative and caring last night, but maybe he was just being nice. He had always been compassionate, he was just being Harry. And that also seemed to mean that his habit of disappearing in the middle of the night was just as prevalent as it was two years ago. I reached over to my night table to check my phone, only to find that it was dead. Plugging it into the charger I kept by my bed, I slowly got up.

It was then that I realized that Cher was gone too. Last night was something of a blur, but I distinctly remembered her curling up at the end of the bed while Harry held me close as I fell asleep. I remember having never felt so safe before, like nothing bad could happen to me at that moment. But now the moment was over and the world seemed to be crashing down around me.

The door of my bedroom was open, so I quickly brushed my teeth and slipped the thick blanket from my bed over my shoulders so I could start looking for my dog. Hopefully she'd just grown tired of waiting for me to get out of bed and decided to wait by the front door for her walk or by the cabinet where her food was so she could be fed. It didn't happen often, and if she had moved, I was usually a light enough sleeper to have felt her moving around the apartment, but I guess last night took more out of me than I expected.

Cher wasn't by the door or next to the cabinet where I kept her food. She wasn't sleeping on the couch or on the dog bed she hardly used. Like Harry, she was just gone.

Now, if I was thinking straight, I would've been able to put two and two together. But I was still tired and my mind felt foggy, and the only thing on my mind was that Harry and my dog had suddenly disappeared. Hurrying back to my room, I pulled my phone from the wall charger despite it not nearly being fully charged. I reached into my closet for a pair of shoes and a jacket, ready to run around my neighborhood in search of Cher.

As I was struggling to get my arm through half of my jacket, I heard the front door open. With my jacket only partially on and my shoes dangling from my free hand, I walked into the main area of my apartment.

My heart settled back into my chest when I saw both Harry and Cher enter the apartment, clearly having just come back from a walk. I felt like an idiot, and a little ashamed, for jumping so quickly to the worst case scenario, but I couldn't help it. After the day I had yesterday, I wanted to wake up with at least one of them at my side, and both were missing from where I'd last seen them before I fell asleep.

"Oh, you're awake. I thought I'd let you sleep in and take Cher for a walk this morning, and then I came across a little cafe, so I figured I would pick up something for us to eat. I got you your vanilla latte, but they were out of caramel—Hey, are you crying?"

I'd been frozen in my spot since Harry and Cher had come through the door, listening to Harry but not quite hearing what he was saying. That is until he asked if I was crying, which seemed to stir me from my daze. Wiping the corner of my eye, I shook my head and came closer to them. I smiled as Cher's wagging tail moved faster as I reached her. Bending down, I began to unclasp her harness, brushing my hands through her fur affectionately. She licked my cheek and chin as I did so, as happy to see me as I was her. Now that she was here, now that I knew where she was, I felt calmer and less likely to freak out.

Harry seemed to understand that I needed a minute, so he walked into the kitchen and set down the bag of food he was carrying and went into the cabinet where Cher's food was so he could fill her bowl. I watched as she trotted over to him when she heard the sound of her kibble pelting the metal bowl, surprised by how easily she seemed to have changed her opinion about him. Just yesterday morning she was growling if he got too close to her or me, and now he was feeding her willingly and she was letting him scratch the space between her ears.