onto her belly, burying her face in her pillow, her arms splayed wide. Man down. Baxter managed to haul himself up on the bed and licked her arm until she finally sank her fingers into his flesh and petted him.
This was a Saturday night when really good sex would come in handy. She thought of sex with Max, which was probably amazing, but that seemed like a pretty far-fetched possibility, and if she didn’t stop thinking about it, she was going to make herself crazy.
She rolled over and sat up, and on a whim, she texted Naomi. What are you doing?
Three dots appeared on the bottom of her screen and danced around for a few moments, then disappeared. Naomi was doing something fun, she guessed. Probably having really good sex like most of the world on a Saturday night, and she did not have time to entertain her broke friend in Texas.
Baxter pressed the length of his body against her leg and sighed loudly.
“You know what, Baxie?” she asked, stroking his back. “If this was a rom-com, my application would land in the in-box of a handsome executive who would send it back with a gruff demand to submit the application again but with the correct information, and I would take issue with his tone and demand my application back, which of course he would not give me because he would realize he needed someone as spunky as me in his company, and then, of course, in his life.”
Baxter lifted his head down by her feet and looked back at her.
“But this ain’t no rom-com, kid. I’m in serious trouble. I might have to get a job at the barbeque place on the corner.” She shuddered.
Baxter lay his head across her shin.
“I know,” Carly whispered. “Not ideal.” Unshed tears blurred her vision.
Eventually, she did fall asleep, because the next thing she knew, sunlight was streaming into her room. Baxter was gone, probably having retreated to his corner. She sat up and pushed hair from her face. She looked at the window and the dappled shadow of leaves dancing across her wall. And then she remembered.
Today was Sunday. Today was the Yard Bar.
She hopped out of bed with a squeal, her good spirits returned to her. “Baxter!” she shouted. “Let’s go see Hazel today!”
She heard Baxter scramble to his feet and heard him racing down the hall. He tried to leap on her bed but couldn’t get enough lift and fell backward before popping back up and prancing around, panting with delight.
So what if her life was falling apart? Carly was almost as excited as Baxter.
Eleven
Carly was the first to arrive at the Yard Bar that afternoon. She paid the daily fee, stepped inside the gate, and set Baxter free. He took off, his nose to the ground and tail high. He stopped to investigate a woman who was setting up to play guitar. She politely ignored him, and Baxter moved on to more interesting smells.
Carly headed to the bar.
An older woman, with a round face and gray hair cropped so short that it stood up on her head, and a glittery gold nose ring, stood in the window of the food trailer. “Hi!” Carly said brightly. “I would like something to drink that is sunny and fun after a very bad Saturday. What do you recommend?”
“The Rescue Me,” the lady said. She leaned over the counter window and pointed at a chalkboard. The Rescue Me boasted vodka with ginger beer and spices and flavorings.
“That looks so sunny I might get sunburned,” Carly said.
“That looks like a good Sunday to me,” the woman opined.
Carly looked at the ingredients again. “Okay!” she said. “Let’s do it.”
“Make it two.”
Carly turned around with a smile so wide she could feel her cheeks cramping with it. “Well, hello, Professor Brainiac.”
Max smiled with his snowy white teeth and his dimples and his dark scruff, and Carly felt very fluttery. Max opened his mouth to reply, but before he could utter a word, the baying of a hound interrupted them. She and Max burst into laughter at the same moment and turned to see Baxter and Hazel in the middle of the yard, wrestling each other to the ground. Hazel broke free and took off on a new scent trail, and Baxter trotted besottedly behind her. They were joined today by a small brown mutt desperate to gain the bassets’ attention, but Baxter only had eyes for Hazel, and Hazel only had eyes for possible food sources.
“I