All Chapters of Catch Me, Maybe: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

The next morning, Elliot woke up at six thirty.More accurately, his alarm woke him up.“...I’m tired.”He lay there for a while, staring at the ceiling.It was Sunday. Normally, he could have slept quite a bit longer without any problem.But while looking over his schedule the night before, he had come up with an idea.For one week—he would live as if he already had a dog.Obviously, there was no actual dog. No one needed to be walked or fed.But if he really had to set aside time every morning and evening for one, what would that do to his daily routine?He wanted to find out.Not because his father had told him to.The idea had occurred to him while he was reviewing his schedule, and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to try.Eventually, Elliot got out of bed, changed, and went downstairs.◇At 6:50 a.m., one of the household staff looked mildly surprised to see

Friday night, Elliot sat at his desk, reviewing the notes he had kept over the past week.At the bottom of the final page, he had written two lines.I can’t do absolutely everything alone.But I think I could still be the person primarily responsible.Of course, that didn’t mean he could handle everything perfectly. He had college. He had obligations involving the family business. There would be days when he got home late, and there might be business trips in the future.But deciding that meant he simply couldn’t have a dog didn’t feel right either.If there were times when he couldn’t manage something himself, then he could figure out how to cover those times. Accepting help from someone and handing over all responsibility from the beginning were two different things.After actually testing his routine for a week, he finally felt like he understood that.Elliot closed the notebook, picked up h

Tuesday afternoon, Elliot came home from the university and changed a little earlier than usual.The animal shelter staff were coming to the house today for Maple’s adoption interview and a home visit to see the environment she would actually be living in.The email from the shelter had explained that they would be looking at more than just the size of the house and yard. They also wanted to know where Maple would spend most of her time, whether everyone in the household agreed to the adoption, and what arrangements would be made when Elliot wasn’t home.In other words, having a large house wasn’t automatically an advantage.If anything, Elliot was a little worried about the opposite.The Ashford home was enormous, and there were plenty of people working there. If he wanted to hand off responsibility for a dog, he could easily find someone to do almost anything.Even if Elliot explained that he intended to be Maple’s primary caregiver, he ha

Three days had passed since Maple’s interview.On Friday afternoon, Elliot was sitting in the university library, working through an assignment.The shelter had told him they would contact him within a few days. That didn’t mean he planned to stare at his phone through every class, and for the past two days, he had managed to go about his life more or less normally.But when the phone sitting at the edge of his desk vibrated, all of that disappeared.Elliot saw the shelter’s name on the screen and stopped moving.“...It’s here.”Remembering that he was still in the library, he kept his voice down and stood. Once he was out in the hallway, he opened the email.The first line was simple.Your application for Maple has been approved.Elliot stared at the words for several seconds.He could read them.He understood exactly what they meant.Still, just to be sure, he read the entire email

Wednesday morning, Elliot woke up a little before his alarm.Normally, he would have considered whether he could squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep. Today, there was no point. Even after checking the clock and realizing it was only a little past six, his mind was already running through the day ahead.Classes in the morning.The shelter at two.And on the way home—Maple would be with him.“...Today.”Saying it out loud made it feel a little more real.On his way downstairs, Elliot stopped by the family room. A few days ago, the space along the wall had been empty. Now there was a large dog bed, a crate, water and food bowls, and the rope toy he had bought still sitting untouched on top of the bed.He had prepared.He had researched everything he could think of.And yet, he still couldn’t quite picture an actual dog living here.◇His morning classes went more normally than he expected.