Page 25 of September
“I just don’t want to put you out.”
“Where do you live? Albuquerque?” Gwen joked.
“No, I’m only about twenty minutes from here.”
“Okay. I think I can manage that. And the stop is over here.” Gwen pointed to the corner of the street. “It should be here in a few minutes.”
“How did you get into dog walking and stuff? I don’t think I asked that earlier.”
“After college,” Gwen replied. “It was just something to do to make some money at first, but I really enjoyed it. I couldn’t have pets growing up. My older brother is allergic to dogs, and my younger brother is allergic to cats. My sister is somehow allergic to the whole petting zoo. I’m the only one who made it out unscathed.”
Juliet laughed and said, “The whole petting zoo? Really?”
“Yes. Goats, donkeys, horses, and whatever else they have at petting zoos.”
“But now, you have Larry, and he’s great,” Juliet said.
“He’s my main man,” Gwen replied.
“How many siblings do you have?”
“Oh, just the three. My older brother and sister are twins. Then, I have a younger brother. Grant is four years younger than me. You?”
“I’m an only child,” Juliet shared.
“That sounds amazing,” Gwen replied. “No one to be bitchy to you when all you want to do is borrow their Backstreet Boys CDs.”
Juliet laughed as the streetcar arrived.
CHAPTER 8
Sunday had passed by quickly, and Sundays were typically Gwen’s only day off. Some Saturdays, she didn’t have a single dog to walk, but usually, she would pick up a few one-off clients just to have something to do because she hadn’t had much going on in her life up until recently. Sure, she had a few friends, but they were all in relationships now and generally too busy to spend much time with her. She’d also lost a few after her previous relationship had ended because they’d been in that awkward position of trying to figure out which friend to take in the breakup. Gwen had lost, of course, because she had no real ambition, which was the main reason her ex had dumped her in the first place, and with most of their friends all trying to run, not just walk up that corporate ladder, they hadn’t had much to talk about with Gwen or Gwen with them.
So, when Elisa had told her of the impending divorce and that she was, in fact, a lesbian who had only stayed in her crumbling marriage so long because of the kids, Gwen had suggested a fresh start in a new location, and Elisa had found the house close to Gwen’s own apartment. Gwen had helped set it up when she could, and it was nice, having a friend again. It was even better because Elisa was a friend she had known since she was twelve years old. Elisa knew of all of her family issues already and had some of her own. She knew that Gwen loved herjob and that this was her plan for at least the next few years, and she never judged her for it. She had even gone on a few walks with her and had held some leashes to help Gwen out.
Having her friend, who was basically her sister, in town had helped with the loneliness, and having the kids around, if they could even be called that when they were technically adults, for the past few months had been great, too. She had loved spending more time with them. They’d grown so much, and since Gwen wasn’t all that much older than them, they’d formed a real bond over the years. Now, they were at school, moving on with their lives, but Gwen was encouraged that they wouldn’t be moving on without her, given that Adele came to her with a problem, and Gwen was able to help her solve it.
Her Saturdays were usually filled with dog walks and cat visits, if she had a cat to visit, and she hung out with Larry, who didn’t seem to care if she was around or not as long as he had his food and time to sleep and stare at walls. Sundays, though, were the days most of her clients, or even all of them sometimes, were home with their humans unless they were on vacation. Gwen had a policy that she didn’t work Sundays unless specifically asked to, and she made a little more money for it, which meant that she wasn’t booked on most Sundays. Unfortunately for her, though, that also meant she was usually alone at home and looking for things to do.
She didn’t want to keep bothering Elisa, who was in a new relationship now. Elisa hadn’tseemedbothered so far, but Gwen knew that the woman wanted to find a full-time job, too, and that would mean more time away from Myra. Gwen wanted Elisa to finally be happy for the first time in her life, and the more time Elisa spent with her girlfriend, the happier she seemed to be. That meant less time for her to hang out with Gwen, which was fine, but Gwen really needed to start puttingherself out there, making some friends, and maybe even finding a Myra of her own.
This time, instead of spending most of her day walking dogs around the city, Gwen spent it walkingherselfaround the city. She enjoyed being able to look around and take in the sights without having to pick up poop or worry about one of the dogs not being as leash-trained as their human had told her they were, which was common. She also grabbed coffee at a local place instead of a chain and sat on a bench outside, listening to music in her headphones for a while before going home to make herself an early dinner since she couldn’t come up with anything else to do.
That had been her exciting Sunday off, but at least she had managed to stop herself from texting Juliet. And she had wanted to. She had even typed out several messages, asking how Juliet’s day was going and making up questions she really didn’t have about Carly to prep for Monday. She’d thought of asking Juliet about their streetcar ride, which had been fun but way too short for Gwen because Juliethaddecided to get that shared-ride car after all after their streetcar ride, which meant that Gwen hadn’t gotten those last twenty minutes on a drive to talk to her and get to know her a little better. She hadn’t texted her, though, because Juliet was a new client, and just because they had accidentally hung out together once, didn’t mean that Juliet wanted her to text her or even get to know her.
Now, it was Monday morning, and Gwen had hopped off the bus that arrived close to Juliet’s house and was walking the rest of the way there to get the keys and any last-minute instructions from Juliet before the woman left for a few days. Then, she would walk Carly and hang out with her for a few minutes before heading out to take care of her other clients.
Gwen shook out her nervousness because she was just there to talk about Carly, not to see Juliet. She had to keep remindingherself that today was a professional visit. She was there for a job and not because Juliet was pretty and Gwen wanted to ask her out on a date. She wasnotgoing to be like one of those guys who got a polite smile from a woman and decided that meant that she had to like them.
“Get it together,” she whispered to herself before knocking on the door.
When it opened and Juliet stood there, Gwen was a little disappointed to find that she wasn’t dressed in that thin gray T-shirt. Juliet was wearing a polo shirt with the logo of Southern Roastery above her right breast and a pair of black slacks thatdidlook amazing on her.
“Hi,” Juliet greeted with a smile.
“Hey,” she replied, looking back up and, yet again, telling herself that she was there for work and not to wait for Juliet to turn around so that she could check out her ass.
“Come on in. Carly is–” Juliet had turned, probably to tell Gwen that Carly was in her bed, chewing on something, but Carly was already rushing toward Gwen instead. “Here. She’s here because she loves you more than me.”
