Stuck in the in-between.

The Shame Game.

The following morning Noah was going out golfing with some of his friends to raise money for charity, so he left early which left me alone at 6 A.M and I just couldn't sleep. I decided that I would go for a run to try to keep my mind off everything that happened last night. I put on my running shoes and threw my hair into a ponytail and headed out the door. The condo was right next to a trail so I decided to run on that. I ran and I ran and I just kept running. I looked down at my watch and saw that I had been running for 3 and a half hours. I decided to turn back and pick up something for myself. I ran into Tarrytown. It was cute and always lively and always had the best coffee around. I walked up to a vendor that had an outside bar section to pick up coffee on the run.

"One large iced coffee extra cream and two Splendas please," I said wiping the sweat off my forehead. My phone buzzed and I grabbed it to look at it.

"You look kinda sweaty this morning, who were you running away from? LOL -A.J"

I turned around to see A.J sitting across the street on the bench with a coffee and his dog. He waved and I waved back holding up one finger. I grabbed my coffee and paid and ran across the street and stood in front of him.

"What are you doing here? I'd figure you'd have a major hangover." I said taking a sip of coffee.

"I thought I would too, but someone left me some pills and I took them as soon as I got up," he said smiling. "Don't kid yourself, I'm still hungover as shit but sunlight and coffee helps."

"Did you get your car?" I said bending over to pet Spanky.

"No, I gotta now wait till tonight to pick it up because both my parents are at some outing today upstate.

"Oh, I can drive you there. We just have to walk back to my condo" I said getting up to look at him.

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Yeah of course, why not? I'm not doing anything important today, and Noah is golfing."

"That would be awesome thank you," he said getting up.

"Lead the way," he said taking in more of Spankys leash. I walked in the direction of home. Most of the walk home was silent I kept thinking about everything that I saw last night. My run that was supposed to get my mind off everything obviously didn't work.

~

"This is it," I said opening my front door and walked inside. I put my keys in the bowl next to the door. "I'll be right back, I just want to change out of this sweaty shirt."

"Go for it." He said walking inside and letting the door close behind him.

"Please make yourself comfortable," I said walking down the hallway into the bedroom. I put a clean shirt on and took off my pants to change into shorts.

"Spanky! No! Come! Back!" A.J shouted from down the hallway. Spanky busted through the half-open door and A.J followed. Spanky shoved himself under my bed and I looked up to see A.J standing in the doorway.

"Uh-Oh-I'm....." A.J turned around so that his back was facing me. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know this was your room..... I..."

I slipped my shorts on and bent over and called for Spanky. He came out from under the bed. I stood behind A.J and giggled.

"You can turn around now, It's safe."

A.J turned around, I handed him Spankys leash. His face was bright red and he could barely make eye contact with me. He was clearly embarrassed.

"It's okay, you know? Its nothing you really haven't seen before" I said giggling. "Now hold on to that dog," I said turning off the light. He smiled at me and we both walked down the hallway. I grabbed my keys and headed out the front door.