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Annie feels a jolt of alarm.
“I might simply set her there,” Doug says. “That’s straightforward sufficient.”
“I do know, however it might be higher if she might do it herself.”
“Why?” Annie asks.
“Our sexuality is an integral a part of who we’re,” Monica says. “How tapped in you’re to your sexual needs might be each a mirrored image of and a stimulus of your total psychological well being. For those who make a aware effort to be conscious about what turns you on and when, it’d allow you to really feel extra alert and alive in different methods too.”
Annie doesn’t need to really feel stimulated. She doesn’t need something to do with that aspect of herself. It’ll harm.
“She’ll work on it,” Doug says.
“Annie, what are you pondering?” Monica says. “What’s it about my suggestion that’s troubling you?”
“Nothing,” Annie says quietly. “I can do it. I can attempt.”
Monica doesn’t say something. Annie has discovered that is Monica’s technique, her means of ready for extra, and she will resist it. From the sting of her imaginative and prescient, Annie watches for cues from Doug to see if he’s displeased, however he’s sitting on the sofa beside her, his posture revealing no uncommon rigidity. Maybe he has discovered Monica’s strategies, too, and is healthier at hiding how he feels round her.
After they stroll the canine, they go in silence alongside the paths of the park. It’s normally twilight by the point they begin out, and true evening by the point they return, chilly as solely April might be. Paunch, who has grow to be much less timid, has a proclivity to cease and nostril out each potential tree trunk, lamppost, and plinth earlier than gracing it with a tag of his urine. Doug indulges him up to a degree, and the canine appears to grasp when to knock it off.
They’re rounding the pond when a goose wanders up onshore. With one sharp quack, it sends Paunch scrambling backward, and his leash wraps round Annie’s legs.
“He’s such a dubber,” Doug says fondly, disentangling the mess. He thumps the canine’s aspect in reassuring pats. “You’re OK, Paunch. Good canine. It’s only a goose.”
Paunch pants, wagging his tail.
“Did you’ve gotten a canine once you had been a child?” Annie asks. “Sure, a beagle.”
She considers a second. “I had a golden retriever.”
“Is that proper?” he asks. “Named what?”
“Rover.”
“You’re going to must do higher than that.”
It’s an precise dialog. Not sensible, however not hostile both. Annie decides to not push her luck, and so they circle again towards their constructing.
Ten minutes later, they’re ready at a nook for the sunshine to alter. As Doug shifts to step off the curb, Annie hears an approaching rush of noise and reaches out to catch his arm, restraining him simply as a bicyclist flies round a parked truck, inches from Doug’s face.
“Jesus!” Doug says. “That man wants a fucking gentle.”
“Sure.”
Half a block later, he provides, “Thanks.”
She, too, continues to be pondering that they had an in depth name. It’s unnerving, what may need occurred, however they’re fantastic. They’re fantastic, all three of them. “After all,” she says. “Do you assume possibly Paunch wants a coat? A doggy coat?”
They have a look at him collectively. Positive sufficient, the canine is shivering. Doug picks him up. “I’ll order one,” he says.
Excerpt tailored from Annie Bot, by Sierra Greer. Printed by association with Mariner Books, a division of HarperCollins Writer. Copyright © 2024 by Sierra Greer.
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