"Austin"
"I'm getting dressed right now meet you at the shelter in an hour," I texted to Noel. I was thankful for Chloe for sending me his number. I watched as the text bubbles appeared on my screen for a longer time than needed for the "k" text I had received. He seemed always to type out what had to be a paragraph and then end up sending me less than a sentence. I had been texting him all week seeing if he would back out of today's activities which I was admittedly surprised that he hadn't found a way to renege.
He intrigued me in a way I couldn't describe. He seemed to keep his guards up at all-time but still had a softness to his personality that made him approachable. He wore a lot of his insecurities on his sleeve without knowing it which made you want to protect him, though he was grown and probably could do that for.
I got up off of my bed and looked around my studio apartment that was coming along nicely from the rundown shack it was when I first got the place. I walked the few feet over to my closet and grabbed a thermal shirt and a pair of sweats that were nice enough to go out in but were not so special to me in case it got ruined. Usually, I ran late, but today I had everything together and was out the door at the time I had set out for myself when I woke up. I walked out in the cold air and made a u-turn back to my building and ran to my apartment and grabbed a coat before leaving again out to my Jeep and hopped in quickly turning the heat on so I wouldn't be freezing. Once I was no longer an icicle, I cranked my music up and backed out of my parking spot and made my way down the street.
I wondered what Noel would be like today, would he be mellow and calm or would he be reserved and emotionless. That was his two states of being since I'd known him in the hospital. Some days he would be calm and somewhat engage in conversation and others he would be dismissive or pretend to be asleep.
It was a short ride and only took me about fifteen minutes to get there and park out front. I didn't see Noel's shiny silver Volvo with all the bells and whistles pull up. He made so much more money than I did, lesser men would have been intimidated by that, but I knew I would be on his level pretty soon. Firefighting wasn't a dream of mine, but it paid the bills while I was in law school at the University of Texas during the week. I looked out at the road for Noel not too upset about waiting since I was warm inside my vehicle. About five minutes later his car pulled into the parking lot, and he parked three cars down. I removed the keys out of my ignition when I saw his door open and got out of my car before jogging over to the side of his car watching as he stepped out of his vehicle. He was wearing a full sweats set and had a hat on low on his head covering part of his face.
"Hey, how are you," he asked, and I could immediately tell that he was in one of his mellow moods.
"I'm good, just ready to go play with some dogs," I said to him.
"Cool," he responded as he was entirely out of the car and stretched.
"Alright let's get in there," I said to him and waited for him to start walking to the front door of the shelter. Before he could, I grabbed the door and let him inside of the building that smelled like lemons and animals which wasn't bad but also wasn't right.
"Hello, can I help you guys with something," a dark-skinned woman in cartoon scrubs said with a smile.
"Yeah we're the two volunteers for the day," I said to her, and she nodded.
"Let me get Mrs. Ansliey, so she can give you the assignment for the day," The woman stood up and left through a door that led to the back. It was only a few moments till she came back, but the whole time Noel was fidgeting with his fingers.
"Just make your way to the back she's in the cat housing room to the right," She said pointing us to the back just as the phone began to ring.
"Come on," I said walking to the door and pushing open. I could feel Noel walking not too far behind me with his feet just barely scuffing the floor. I was a little confused as to where I was supposed to go, but luckily I noticed the signs of animal silhouettes. I walked over to the one of a cat which looked somewhat similar to the Babyphat symbol and a house next to it. I walked into the room which had its door wide open giving me the view of an elderly white woman stroking the back of a fluffy brown cat's ears.
"Hello ma'am," I began to say, but Noel started having a coughing fit.
"Sorry," he said before stepping back out of the room.
"Bless you, and I'm assuming you two are the volunteers. Glad you guys could make it, was short on staff today. I hope you're okay getting wet it's washing day for the dogs," she said in a voice that seemed to come straight from a fairytale book.
"No problem at all," I said with a smile and Noel's only response was another cough.
"Well just go to the dog room, and there are instructions on the wall, it will tell you everything you need to know, and you can always find Denise or me for help," she said with a smile.
"No problem ma'am glad we can help," I said before walking out of the room to where Btl was standing.
"Are you allergic to cats," I asked him before grabbing his arm and pulling him with me to the dog room which was spacious and organized. I spotted a large sink that had a sign that had the word baths typed in big blank ink on it. I was glad we wouldn't have to go outside because being wet and cold wasn't any fun.
"I don't know," he said which confused me.
"How don't you know," I said while walking to the large yellow binder above the sink and cracking it open. It was filled with laminated diagrams about washing and drying the dogs. Everything from where to find supplies to which dogs to do first.
"I've never been around cats," he said in a defensive tone. I looked over at him as he had his back turned to me sticking his hand into a cage of a small pug.
"How have you never been around cats," I asked him and looked down to the binder and seeing the first step was to turn on the water and make sure that I was warm. I made sure my tone wasn't aggressive so that Noel wouldn't shut down on me.
"None of the foster homes had pets, and I never had one, so I'm not sure if I'm allergic to them," he responded still not looking at me. I had known he was a foster kid, but the way he said homes as if he were stretching the definition of home gave me a little insight into his childhood which was a big thing since he didn't share much.
"I don't know if you mind me asking but how many homes were you in," I asked him. He was silent for a while I watched as he removed the dog he was messing with from its cage then walked over to the sink with her and sat her in the tub. He looked up at me slightly before looking down at the open binder and walking over to a drawer and pulling out a bottle with tan liquid in it. Within a few minutes, he had washed the dog, dried her off and placed her in the cage and had a Weiner dog in the sink with fresh water.
"I was in seventeen homes total," he said as I began washing a medium-sized Labrador in the adjacent sink.
"Wow, that's a lot or is that average. I honestly don't know much about the foster care system," I said to him without looking. I was trying to get a feel for getting him to open up. One thing I had noticed was that he seemed to shut down when I looked directly into his eyes.
"It's a lot," he responded. I could hear the sadness in his voice and wished that I knew the magic words to make him feel better.
"What was that like for you," I asked while working the shampoo into the chocolate brown dog who was splashing around in the large sink.
"It was... Hard but I have my brother and sister who helped me," he said. I looked over at him seeing he had worked up a sweat and had suds on his face.
"Let me get that," I said slowly reaching over to him and placed my thumb on his cheek. His skin was warm and soft, and he looked slightly uncomfortable obviously not liking to be touched. I slid my thumb over the patch of soap on his cheek and removed my hand from his face. I could see a rose undertone making an appearance as he began to blush.
"Sorry I didn't ask if it was alright for me to touch you," I said to him.
"It's alright," he said in a low tone moving his hands away from the dog he was washing. I returned my focus to the dogs while asking Noel questions here and there slowly learning more about him. His favorite color was gray; he hated country music because one of his foster parents would play it through speakers all day every day until his brother smashed them with a hammer. The way he talked about his little family was admirable. I wasn't close to my family not for any negative reason, but we all just lived different lives. After four hours of washing dogs then walking them we were finished. We thanked the ladies for letting us mess with the dogs and walked to the parking lot. I trailed behind Noel to his car and waited for him to get it.
"It was nice talking to you today, how about I take you to get something to eat next week. Around like eight," I asked my hand on the door.
"That sounds like a date," he said blushing slightly.
"That's exactly what it is, and I'll take that as a yes. Text me when you make it in, and I'll tell you what I have in mind," I said and flashed him a smile before closing his door gently for him and walking to my car with a smile on my face and a pep in my step. There was something about the somewhat guarded personality that made me want him, and I was determined to have him. He didn't come onto me which a lot of guys and girls I'd talk to would try to do. He came off as bashful and reserved allowing me to chase him which was a nice change of pace and a challenge I had already accepted.