My morning wake-up consists of getting jumped on and being given sloppy, wet kisses.
“Morning, Angel.” I laugh. “You’re not supposed to be on the bed. Get down.”
“I told her to go find Mommy, and she took off.” Phillip chuckles, following her into the room. He snaps his fingers. “Angel, down.”
The dog obediently jumps off the bed.
“How’d you do that?” I ask.
“Do what?”
“Make her get off the bed.”
“I just told her to get down.”
“Yeah, but you snapped and then told her.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he says. “I was just getting her attention.”
“Hmm. She never listens to me.”
“That’s because your voice is high, and she thinks you’re playing.”
“So, if I lower my voice, you think she’ll mind me?”
“Yeah, maybe,” Phillip says.
Angel runs out of the closet with a pair of my underwear in her mouth. She’s always stealing dirty clothes out of the hamper.
“Angel, no! Give,” I say in the deepest version of my voice.
The dog grins at me, pink lace hanging out of her mouth, and runs around the room, throwing my underwear up in celebration.
“Angel, no. Give,” Phillip says.
The dog stops, sits on her butt, and drops the underwear.
“I hate you,” I say to Phillip as he picks up my underwear and hands Angel a chew toy in return. “How was your run?”
“It was good,” he says, walking into the bathroom and stripping off his sweaty clothes. “Danny joined me.”
“You got on his ass last night.”
“He deserved it. Not to compare Lori to a dog, but if he doesn’t let her know who’s boss, she’s gonna keep acting like that.”
“We offended her, Phillip.”
“No, we didn’t. We took care of her child as a favor and did a very good job of it. She should have thanked us. And, if she didn’t want us to give her baby formula, she should have given us enough breast milk to last. The reason Danny went running with me is because he wanted to know everything we did last night. Apparently, Lori nursed Devaney when they got home, and Devaney was crying again.”
“Interesting,” I say, getting out of bed to brush my teeth.
“What are you wearing?” he asks.
I look down at the blue skull cotton boy-short undies of Phillip’s that I have on. They are all I have on. “I stole your underwear. They’re comfortable because the waist is big, and they fit low on my hips, just under my bump. You got them in the white elephant Christmas gift exchange. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
Phillip leans his sweaty body into mine. “Oh, I don’t mind at all. In fact, I think they’re pretty sexy.”
