Free Fuzzy Logic by Susan C. Daffron

but this subject wasn’t much better. “What didn’t happen? Anything having to do with my mother is always strange.” She exhaled loudly and then explained who her mother was and whom she was marrying.
    After Jan had described the Toilet King’s commercials, Kat started giggling quietly. By the time Jan had finished relating the entire tale of the torn dress, lost dog, the merengue, puppet shows, Bob the drunk guy, and Swoosie’s digestive indiscretions, they were all laughing uncontrollably. In retrospect, the whole situation was funny, even to Jan.
    Maria had rolled off her chair and was lying on the floor next to Linus. “Oh man, my stomach hurts. That’s the best wedding story ever. I want to be invited to your mom’s next one.”
    Jan snickered and said, “Don’t worry; I’m sure there will be another one. I just can’t believe Michael got me to do the merengue in front of people. I never do that kind of thing. In fact, I hate even the idea of performing anything. I practically flunked English in tenth grade because I refused to do the oral report. At the wedding, when the music started I thought I was going to throw up. But after it was over I felt exhilarated in a way. Maybe because it was so scary. And I really did it.”
    “That sounds intense,” Kat said. “But wait...a librarian who almost flunked English? No way.” She stared thoughtfully at her wine as she swirled it around in the glass. “Hey, if you put a cowboy hat on this Michael guy, it sounds like he looks like a younger, hotter version of the Marlboro man.”
    “And he can dance!” Maria said. “That’s gonna get my attention every time. He can even dance with hairy white dogs. Impressive.”
    “Yes, well, I’ll probably never see him again,” Jan said. “I don’t even know where he lives. He was too busy trying to find his annoying dog or talking to his friends to have much of a conversation with me.”
    Maria glanced at Kat and then turned to Jan. “I’m noticing that you don’t get that animated about this Steve guy. Do you even like him? If you’re planning to marry Steve, you should at least like him. I’m a romantic you know, and personally, I prefer to hold out for true love. But even if you’re not like me and you’re gonna settle for this guy, you gotta at least start out with some ‘like’ happening, anyway.”
    “Of course I do,” Jan said, sitting up on the sofa again. “We have a comfortable relationship. Maybe it’s not rip-roaring hilarity all the time, but it’s easy being with him. There’s not a lot of stress like there is being around my mother and all her drama. It’s a relief, really.”
    Maria widened her eyes. “Sounds boring. I sure hope he isn’t that dull in bed.”
    The color rose on Jan’s cheeks, “I, ah, well...”
    Kat stood up quickly, and all of the dogs leapt up after her as she started collecting the glasses and various snack foods strewn around the living room. Jan helped her clean up, but kept replaying what Maria had said in her mind. Boring? Was it possible her relationship with Steve had become so routine and humdrum that she hadn’t noticed she didn’t even like him anymore? And after so much time, obviously they weren’t teenagers anymore groping at each other all the time. But it wasn’t that bad. Was it?

    After Jan left and Maria had retired to the downstairs bedroom, aka Kat’s office, Kat curled up on the couch with a novel and Lori, who was enjoying having her fuzzy ears scritched while Kat read. Now that it was quiet, Tessa the golden retriever, and Chelsey the small brown-and-white dog, had ventured up to the living room from their lair in the downstairs hallway. They were curled up on the floor with Linus, who was lying flat on his side snoring audibly. Tripod the three-legged cat was ensconced in Kat’s lap. All the fur and snoring around her had a soporific effect and Kat was startled awake when Tripod shot off her lap. All four dogs launched toward