Page 44 of Shameless

“Sure.”

Blake got out of bed and stepped into his basketball shorts before leaving the bedroom. I hurried to put clothes on and, listening to hear who could possibly be at my door. Not many people knew where I lived. Trey did because of divorce stuff and a few friends from work, but that was it. None of them should be banging on my door.

Stepping to the threshold of my bedroom, I peered down the hall to see Blake looking through the peephole. He turned and said, “I can’t see the person’s face, but I think it’s a dude.”

“Don’t answer it. There’s no one who should be trying to beat down my door.” My heart was hammering in my chest.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded as the knocking continued. “Open up!” a man shouted from the other side.

“What do we do?” I asked nervously.

“I can find out who he is and what he wants.” He turned back to the door.

“Wait!” I hissed. “What if he has a weapon?”

Blake balked. “Do you normally have men with weapons beating down your door?”

“No.” I shook my head. “But this is so unusual that it’s scary to think of who is on the other side.” I didn’t live in a bad part of Las Vegas, and I’d felt nothing but safe while living alone.

Until now.

“What do you want?” Blake shouted at the door.

“Ricky, open up.”

“You’ve got the wrong apartment, dude,” Blake replied.

“What?”

“There’s no Ricky here.” There was silence on the other side and Blake looked in the peephole again. “He’s gone.”

“Well, that was scary.”

“Yeah. Wish you didn’t live alone.”

I nodded slowly and then a thought came to me. “Actually, I’ve been wanting to get a dog.”

17

Blake

I was in love.

The blue American Staffordshire Terrier Sarah had rescued was so fucking adorable. I couldn’t stand it.

“What are you going to name her?” I asked. The dog sat on my lap in the passenger seat as Sarah drove.

“I’m not sure yet.” She reached over and rubbed the dog’s head. “Need to see how she acts once we’re home. I’m sure a name will come to me.”

“It’s cool you can have dogs in your apartment. A lot of places don’t allow that.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I want to live there anymore.”

“Because of earlier?” Sarah nodded. “But now you have this little lady to protect you.” I scratched the dog’s chin.

“Yeah, but still. Having someone bang on the door like that was scary. I’m not sure what I would have done if you weren’t there or if they’d broken in.”