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“Shit. Oh shit shit shit, no, that looks bad.”
Granted, Dave doesn’t know a whole lot about succulents, but he’s pretty sure these things weren’t yellow when Jade left. He’s also pretty sure, now that he’s thinking about it, that Jade explicitly said he didn’t have to water them every day. He looks down at Bec with a panicked expression. “Man, why didn’t you stop me?”
Bec looks up at him, and Dave can see judgment in his eyes. Then the dog closes his eyes and lets out a long sigh through his nose, which Dave knows from years of experience at this point means, Sorry man, you’re on your own for this one. “I’m always on my own. Next time she goes out of town I’m taking you to the pound.”
He’s supposed to go to the airport to pick Jade up in an hour. How does he fix overwatered succulents in an hour? Can he just, like… dump them out? He’s pretty sure he’s seen Jade repot them before. Where’s her repotting soil?
He steps over Bec, who’s lying in his favorite place in the middle of the floor, and shuffles out to the sun room, where Jade keeps her full sun plants rather than the partial shade things that live in the kitchen. “Alright, I know she’s got potting soil out here…”
Jade does have potting soil out here—three different kinds of potting soil. It’d be easy if they were all totally different, but two of them are labeled as succulent soil, and Dave can’t tell what the difference between them is. He thinks maybe one of them is a little bit darker? Are the indoor succulents in the lighter or darker soil? He remembers it looking darker, but that might have been because of all the fucking water he put in it.
He jolts as his phone rings in his pocket, fumbling it as he pulls it out of his pocket and nearly dropping it on the floor. He’s panting a little when he holds it up to his ear. “Uh. Hello?”
“Hey! My plane landed a little bit early, do you think you could come pick me up now?”
Shit. “Oh, hey Jade. Yeah, I can pick you up now. Are you hungry? I can stop and grab you something to eat. Or we could stop on the way home or whatever. I think Taco Bell is still open this late.”
“No, that’s okay! I’m not really hungry. I’m just tired, I wanna come home and go to bed.”
“Right. Yeah. You were on a long flight, of course you’re tired. Totally. I’ll be right there. You want me to bring Bec?”
“No, that’s okay, he’ll be fine just for the drive to the airport and back. It’s less than an hour. Is everything okay? You sound kind of nervous.”
Dave grimaces. “Yeah, no, I’m good. I’ll be right there. Love you.”
“Love you too!”
Dave hangs up the phone and stares at the potting soil for one last moment, contemplating if he still has time to try to repot the succulents. No, definitely not. Jade’s tired—plus, he misses her, so he doesn’t really want to stall picking her up any longer. He’s just going to have to accept Jade’s heartbreak when she sees how bad he fucked her plants up.
“Bec! Watch the house! I’m going to get your mom!” Bec doesn’t even pick his head up, and Dave rolls his eyes. “Lazy old dog,” he mumbles as he grabs his keys, stuffs his feet into his shoes, and steps outside.
Jade travels for work often enough that they live close to the airport, and it’s late enough that there’s not much traffic either. It takes Dave twenty minutes to get there, and it takes five more for him to track down Jade. She spots him first, and she starts sprinting toward him. He knows this routine by now, and he holds his arms out wide for her, wrapping them tight around her to squeeze her close when she leaps up off the floor to kiss him.
Kissing Jade after a week feels like heaven. When she starts to pull away, he leans after her, and he doesn’t set her back down on the floor just yet.
Jade laughs, and his chest squeezes with fondness. “Dave, I still have to get my bag!”
He spares a brief glance toward the baggage check without really looking at it. “I don’t see it yet. You can stay here for a minute.” She grins, leaning up to kiss him again, and he lets out a slow breath through his nose. “Damn. You’re not allowed to leave again.”
“You say that every time!”
“And I mean it every time. I’m not the boss of you, but, y’know, I miss you and stuff.”
Her smile softens and she tilts her head up to nudge her nose against his. “Can we go home now?”
“Yeah. Let’s go get your bag. It’s been spinning around the baggage claim for a while.”
“Dave!”
Honestly, Dave is sort of stunned that Jade doesn’t fall asleep in the car on the drive home. He smiles over at her at every red light, and she keeps her hand on his leg while he drives. “You go ahead. I’ll grab your bag.”
Jade smiles and leans over to brush a quick kiss against his mouth. “Thank you. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
He slides out of the car, walking around to the back to pull Jade’s suitcase out of the trunk of the shitty little Honda Civic he bought off of John when they graduated college. It takes two attempts to close the trunk again, and then he locks the car and heads inside just in time to hear Jade cry, “Oh, Bec! No!”
Dave’s heart starts to race, and he rushes into the house behind her. “What? What happened?” As he steps into the kitchen, he sees the succulents that he’d overwatered on the floor, soil spread out everywhere and pots broken.
“He hasn’t gotten into my plants like this since he was a puppy!” Jade’s brow furrows, and she leans down to look closer at Bec. “Can dogs go senile?”
“I’m sure he was just mad that his mom was gone for a week. Why don’t you two go snuggle up in bed and I’ll sweep this up?”
Jade purses her lips for a moment and then sighs. “Yeah, okay. I think I’m gonna take a shower first.”
Dave raises his eyebrows. “I can wait to sweep this up.”
“Daaave!” Jade laughs and rolls her eyes, and he grins as she steps out of the kitchen. He glances down at Bec with a sigh and crouches down to scratch between his ears.
“Alright, good dog. I guess I won’t take you to the pound.”
Bec huffs through his nose, closing his eyes.