Lacey stood there, feeling dumbfounded. Zenfred made a small "boof" noise, which knocked her back to her senses. She reached down and scratched behind his ears.
"I don't believe that went all that well," she whispered.
Zenfred boofed again.
"Hmm?" Her brows furrowed in thought. "I suppose you're right. There's no point in feeling defeated just yet. Not until we've tried everything!"
But there wasn't all that much for her to do. Lacey didn't have any classes scheduled for Monday afternoons. That was when she was supposed to be working, but she hadn't been assigned a job yet.
So she decided to take the trolley to one of the city's libraries. The largest one, which had been built fifty years ago. After some conversation with the woman at the front desk, she was allowed to bring Zenfred in.
"Wow," she whispered. "Would you look at it, Zen?"
Wall to wall books, so high up that rolling ladders dotted the building, waiting for someone to need a text. But there was hardly anyone here. All of the texts had been digitally copied a decade ago and not many had the free time to visit the library, even if they wanted to.
"It's like a secret palace, just for us," she whispered.
Lacey walked down the aisles of shelves until she found a sitting area. She curled up on an old leather chair that had seen much better days. "This is as good of a spot as any, hmm?" She said to Zenfred. "We shall begin our search here."
Zenfred nosed her bag. She reached inside and opened the bag where she kept his treats. They were all homemade. Pets weren't allowed in the city. Any food or snacks she could get her dog would have to be specially shipped, and she didn't trust anything that could arrive old and stale.
She took out a single treat and put it on Zenfred's nose. Then Lacey twirled a finger about the air. Zenfried twisted his snout in the same direction, neatly catching the treat in his mouth.
"A few hours, and then we'll go home," she said, giving her dog another pat. He understood that treat meant that he'd have to wait for a long time and curled up at her feet.
Lacey pulled out her tablet and opened the art app. She was a good artist but didn't want to get a degree in it. Both her parents had encouraged her to find a profession with less competition.
That's why she opted to go into education. There were always going to be children who needed lessons. Nearly every family of her home city of Springs had easily eight or more kids. She was the younger of two.
It was very awkward growing up, because she always had to explain that she only had an older brother, and that was very confusing to other children. Some thought it was a luxury, since she got her own bedroom, but it seemed like the majority of them pitied her. As though she would end up very lonely.
"Done!"
Lacey held up the tablet for Zenfred to look at. On it was a decent representation of Fenton's face. It was a little on the red side, and his hair was messier than usual, but Lacey had remembered every detail. From his slightly crooked nose to the acne scars on his forehead.
Zenfred tilted his head. Faces weren't his thing. Now, if Lacey had the ability to draw up smells, he wouldn't be having a completely different conversation.
"I suppose you're right, but it's the best that I have," she spat back.
Arguing with Zenfred was quite normal for Lacey, but she never sounded serious in her scolding. She didn't believe he could understand much of what she said anyways. It was all about the tone she used.
She opened up True and posted the picture with the description of, "Help! Trying to find him! Blue Ginger Emergency!" That should do it. True had never failed her in the past. It'll help her out now.
"Miss?" A man set his hand on her chair. Zenfred immediately stood up and positioned himself between the man and Lacey. "The library is closing in fifteen minutes."
Lacey glanced at her tablet. "At 1600 hours? That's so early!"
A pained look crossed the man's features. "It's what happens when you aren't a popular place to visit."
Lacey studied him. Both he and the woman she had talked to were around her age. They were likely student workers who had been assigned here. She sighed at the thought. Maybe she could ask to be here too. It didn't seem like much happened.
"Alright." She bobbed her head. "Thank you for letting me and Zen stay a little while. We had a good time."
She packed away her items and took the trolley home. Lacey lived at the edge of Blue Ginger. Active students had priority on better neighborhoods, but she needed a place with a kitchen.
Not to mention that there were thousands of people within the city who had never seen an animal in person. It was the same in Springs. People were scared of Zenfred, but he was her life. She couldn't survive without him, so it didn't matter what other people thought.
But that meant that she had a long way to travel home. An hour had passed before she entered the front door. That's just how long it took for her to get dinner and go home. Sometimes it took two hours in the morning, but that was only if she chose to get breakfast.
Lacey set the bag down on the kitchen counter. Zenfred trotted over to his food bowl and held it up for her. Sundays were his food prep day. She was able to give herself some extra free time in the evenings by prepping all of his weekly meals in one day.
Today was Monday, which meant that he got homemade dry food, chopped liver, steamed sweet potatoes, blueberries, and a whole sardine. She heated up some bone broth and dumped it in, and that was dinner served.
It didn't smell all that appetizing for her, but Zenfred went crazy for it.
Before she could get to her meal, her phone began to make a little "fee bee" noise. It was her alarm, set to make the call of a chickadee. Lacey groaned. There was always so much to do.
She got her bottle of medication out of the fridge and a fresh syringe. "This is why we can never invite anyone over, Zen," muttered Lacey. They'd think I was a drug addict."
Lacey undid the scarf from her arm and examined the port that had been surgically installed. No signs of redness or infection, which was great. She stuck in the syringe and gave herself a dose of medicine.
Quickly, before it kicked in, she cleaned up and flopped down on her loveseat. She doubled over, leaning heavily against her knees as a wave of nausea hit her. Having finished his meal, Zenfred trotted over and sat down near her feet. His cold nose pressed against her forearm.
"I'm alright," she whispered.
Zenfred got up and nudged a stool towards the counter. He used it to carefully grab the bag of food. Very slowly, as to not shake it around too much, he walked back and placed it next to her on the loveseat.
"I'll be fine. I had a big lunch."
He boofed.
That's right. Lacey normally had a big lunch and often skipped dinner, but today was the day she had met her soulmate. She was so startled by his appearance and disappearance that she had completely forgotten to eat.
It was supposed to be a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with potato soup tonight, but she had a feeling that she'll wake up barfing it she ate the whole thing. Lacey only pulled out half the sandwich. She was careful to tie up the rest.
"Fridge," she commanded.
Zenfred obediently put the bag on the bottom shelf of the fridge. He quickly came back with a water bottle. Lacey mindlessly drank it while cramming the sandwich in her mouth. Only enough to give her some energy. She swished the last bit of water about her mouth and swallowed.
"Blanket," she muttered as she flopped over on her side.
Lacey didn't have the energy to brush her teeth and make it to bed. Luckily, Zenfred was there to take care of her. He pulled a blanket off the bed and forced it into her hand. She was able to tuck herself in.
Still... Even with Zenfred...
Lacey felt incredibly lonely.
Her eyes scanned the room. This was one of the apartments they gave those who were "in-between places." They had graduated from the university, but neither had a soul mate or the skills to be assigned to one of the upper class marked cities.
It was all very sad. She had heard that there was another matchmaking city for older people, but at the same time, you should never want to go there. The whole point of being chosen was so you could be happy.
But why didn't she feel happy?
Her eyes fluttered closed, and the sun was already up when they opened again. She began to paw around for her phone, which Zenfred brought to her. 0700. If she got up now, she could feed Zenfred and be a bit early, just in case she went to the wrong building.
But she also didn't have the energy. Leaving after feeding Zenfred would be fine. Lacey rolled onto her back, tossing her legs over the loveseat's armrest. The phone hovered above her as she began to check True.
Notification after notification popped up on her feed. Did people like her picture that much? Lacey clicked on her post, just so she could see all the comments at once.
"... Oh no," she whispered, horrified at what she had done.