Closer

196.

Thankfully, the shark did survive the trip in the washer and Elise slept through the rest of the night. Ray was quite ready for Elise's nap when that came around around mid-day, though, as he had ended up texting with May for quite a while the night before. Turned out she was studying dance at a nearby school, working at the grocery store to earn enough money to take a master's degree abroad after her bachelors.

Ray had even taken up her offer to meet in a nearby park the next day after she finished work, of course bringing Elise. It was a bit insane to meet someone he didn't really know, but she seemed nice, and she was really interesting to talk to.

"So, what do you think? Wanna wear your pretty new dress today?" Ray asked as he tried to figure out what to put her in that wasn't her pajamas. It wasn't that he was trying to use her as an accessory to meet girls, but it certainly wouldn't hurt if Elise looked adorable and happy in his care. Elise didn't seem to mind, and was more focused on trying to pull his hair out apparently, so he decided it would be fine.

After dressing Elise up in the new peach and white striped dress he had bought for her for her stay, he looked to his own closet to figure out what he was going to wear. Elise was sitting in the middle of his bed playing with Ray's pikachu now, only waiting for him to be ready befor ethey could head out.

"Tell me what you think, Elise," Ray began, taking out a checkered blue and white shirt with a white t-shirt to have under it and a grey t-shirt with some pastel coloured logo on it. He held both options in front of Elise. "Which should I wear today? I'm thinking either black or beige shorts."

He watched her as she looked at what she perceived as likely new toys. Then she reached for the grey shirt, trying to put the fabric in her mouth.

"You sure? Alright, I guess the logo of this kind of matches your dress anyway," he shrugged, pulling off the t-shirt he slept in to get the grey t-shirt on instead. Then he grabbed the beige shorts, figuring he'd look a bit brighter like that. Elise went back to playing with the pikachu, chewing on one of the yellow ears.

"How about we bright Sharkie along to dry in the sun, hm?" Ray suggested with a big smile as he lifted a giggling Elise high in the air before placing her safely on his arm. "Yeahh that's the best idea uncle has ever had, right?"

He giggled to himself as he went to the laundry room to fetch the shark he had placed on the heated tile floor to dry. Elise immediately reached out to try and hold it. He let her, as it wasn't too wet anymore, figuring she'd dry up quickly in the sun anyway.

"Alright, let's see if we can make a new friend today, then, princess," Ray chuckled as he grabbed Elise's bag with some diapers and other stuff to bring with him and headed out to get his shoes on.