He was already thinking about leaving. He had just moved in. He and his girlfriend were living together. They were living together for the first time. But it wasn't all lovey-dovey. They argued a lot. She said he was a slob. "You're a slob," she said. She said he was lazy. "You're lazy," she said. I moved here for this, he wondered. He loved her. But he wasn't a dog. She yelled at him like he was a dog. "Don't yell at me," he said. "I'm not a dog." When he tried to hug her, she pushed him away. Who needs this, he wondered. I'd rather be by myself, he thought. He decided to wait a while. Maybe things would get better. But if they didn't, he was leaving. "If you don't change, I'm leaving you," she told him. Ha, he thought, we'll see who leaves who first.
