Page 2 of Christmas Craving
“Hold on, I’ll get you another Americano then,” she said.
She took two steps towards the door before she stopped and turned back around.
“Oh wait. I can’t bring Arthur in there. Can you hold onto him for me? He’ll freak out if I tie him outside and leave him alone.”
She shoved his leash in my direction, but I took a quick step back.
“It’s fine. I don’t need more coffee,” I lied. I totally needed more coffee, but I felt the strongest urge to run away while I could. “Goodbye.”
I turned on my heel and set off at a quick pace up the street towards my building. I had the strangest sensation that the woman was watching me, but I resisted looking back to check it out. Whoever she was, she was clearly one hundred percent chaos. And much too young for me to boot.
I’d love to strap her to a spanking bench at Club Surrender and use my paddle on her until that frenetic energy around her faded into something more mellow and quiet. But based on the way she was dressed, the woman wasn’t likely to appear at the exclusive club anytime soon.
It was too bad, because there was something about her that made me both want to run away and get closer. It was like my body was drawn to her even while my mind screamed,Get away!
Resolving to forget about the woman and her giant dog, I jogged back to my condo and went right to the shower, eager to wash the memory of the last few minutes right off me. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
Lanie
It figured that the universe sent me the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen on a day I was dressed like a toddler and covered in dog hair.
I watched the woman stride away from me, her slim hips swaying gently from side to side. There was something about her. She looked like a villain in a movie with her white blonde hair, pale skin, and icy blue eyes. Dressed head to toe in designer workout gear – all black of course -- she was clearly out of my league. And not all impressed with me or my furry charge.
“You made a bad impression, Arthur,” I chided.
He gave me such a soulful look in response, I couldn’t help but scratch between his ears.
The Irish Wolfhound puppy was a handsome dog, if a little ill-behaved. My best friend Amy and her husband had just adopted him last week, figuring they’d spend the Christmas holiday getting Arthur acclimated and trained. Unfortunately, Amy’s grandma had a stroke yesterday, and she and John had flown back to Boston to take care of her.
So now I was staying in their fancy schmancy condo with their new dog, all alone for Christmas.
Normally I would have picked up a pet sitting gig for the holidays to make a few bucks and gone to my parents’ for dinner and presents with the family. But this year my family had gone on a cruise for the holidays. I couldn’t afford to join them – not on my meager social worker salary -- so I’d begged off. Amy had insisted that I come stay with her and John, so I hadn’t taken any pet sitting jobs, planning to hunker down with my bestie and her husband for the week.
I wasn’t sure what Amy felt worse about: leaving me alone for Christmas or saddling me with her untrained rescue dog.
Arthur and I made our way up the block, stopping multiple times to sniff or pee on something. Arthur, not me. By the time I corralled him into the elevator and up to Amy’s condo, I was exhausted.
I got the dog some water, then looked around the condo, amazed at how nice it was. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows they had a bird’s eye view of the city. Everything looked so pretty and peaceful from up here.
Amy and I were best friends and roommates since college. She’d only moved out after the wedding a couple of months ago. Her husband was a corporate attorney, and this place was a considerable step up from our crowded apartment across town. They lived in one of the most expensive condo buildings in downtown Seattle, with Amy and John living in one of two penthouse units on the top floor. I wasn’t sure who lived in the other one, but Amy mentioned that she’d never met the person.
My phone beeped, pulling me out of my reverie.
Amy:How’s my baby?
Lanie:I thought John was with you.
Amy:Haha.
Lanie:He’s a furry terror. I took him for a really long walk but then he wrapped us around a post somehow and head-butted some woman’s shins as she was walking out of Morning Jolt.I was shocked that he didn’t knock her over.
Amy:OMG. Was anyone hurt?
Lanie:She lost her coffee, but that was the worst of it.
Amy:That sounds like the set-up for a meet-cute in a romcom.
Lanie:Yeah. She was beautiful, whoever she was, but she was kind of grumpy. She looked at me like I was something gross she’d found on the bottom of her shoe.
