A Tiny Favour

Chapter 9

His apartment looks like a place I'd be taken to if I had ever gotten kidnapped so I sit on a single cousin of the sectional. The concept is open through the small living space, one wall kitchen and dining table, it's a beautiful place for a student to be living in alone.

His bathroom door is in the entrance and the bedroom is lifted above the kitchen. All the furniture is modern industrial with dark woods, black and navy. Everything is neatly kept but the one thing I haven't seen is his dog. I see bowls and a leash but no animal.

The sound of the running water is the only noise and it echoes through the apartment. There is a knock at the door. "Can you get that," Adam yells from the bathroom, his usually clear voice muffled.

I get up and answer the door slowly, opening it to reveal a middle aged man holding a puppy, "is Adam here?" he asks, taking a quick look around behind me.

"He's in the shower," I put out my arms when the dog held out to me. It's a small dog with short hair and brown specks all across its coat. I expected him to own a large dog, like a german shepherd or great dane.

The shower stops and the door unlatches. Adam steps in front of me with nothing but a white towel around his waist. It's nearly impossible to not let my eyeline drop below his glistening pecs. The muscles throughout his core have a light glaze of water through the fine definition. The man at the door is unfazed.

"Thanks Levi," he takes Sadie from my arms and puts her on the ground so she can run around my legs and smell me.

"I'm Levi, Adam's neighbour four doors down," he shakes my hand and I nod about to introduce myself but Adam does it for me.

"This is Isabelle, my girlfriend," he says with such ease unlike me. When I told Edwin my voice was shaking and I couldn't make eye contact. "Thanks for taking care of Sadie," he thanks him again and closes the door. "Never go up to him in the hall, he's a creep with pretty girls," Adam's voice is warning.

"You think I'm pretty," I cock my head to the side as my lips curve into a smile.

"Of course Tesoro," he moves holding the towel now taking strides up the stairs. For the first time I noticed a small tattoo of a heart organ on his pectoral muscle. My eyes stay glued to it for a brief moment and he looks at me, "what?" he asks, looking down at me from the black metal stairs.

"It's nothing," I wave it off. I can ask him when he is fully clothed. Sadie still tries to claw at my socks so I take her back into my arms. "High baby," I say in the voice I use when talking to animals or children.

I move to the sofa and lay down in the corner, the puppy moving closer to me and curling in a ball by my face. I pet her back until she rolls giving me access to her stomach, "someone likes belly rubs don't they," give her a kiss on the nose.

"She likes you," Adam comments coming down the stairs in jeans and a white tennis sweater.

"Everyone likes me," I snarked, cuddling Side closer in. I love this dog with all my heart. I had an australian shepherd when I was ten but my parents hated hair all over the house so they gave it to my Uncle Scotty. He took care of him and let me walk Juno, the dog, whenever I wanted. "And be quiet, I'm having puppy time," I shushed him.

"I thought you were here to keep me busy,'' I heard him move into the kitchen and clank the dishes.

"That was when I thought you had a scary great dane that wouldn't let me pet it," I sit up and looked over the back of the couch to where he had started heating up a frying pan and cracking eggs into a glass bowl. "But look at this," I take the sleeping dog between my hands and hold her up like he'd never seen his own pet before.