First Impressions

Krista: LDYH chapter 7ish

By mid-afternoon I'd finally started working on my oil painting. I'd managed to procrastinate it for six hours.

Three minutes later, the sound of tires on gravel interrupted me.

Timothy knocked on the door. I sighed. "Door's open!" I called, setting down my paints. I'd finish someday... hopefully.

If I'd known he was bringing a girl, I might have tried to clean up a little more. "Tim!" I said, fighting the urge to make things awkward for him. I didn't want another Monica-style incident. "Hi! Who's your friend?"

Timothy smiled, obviously relieved by my response. I was pretty proud of myself. "Hey, Krista, this is Elisabeth. Elisabeth, this is my aunt Krista."

The girl-Elisabeth- looked a little like Snow White. Her hair was dark and her skin was super pale. "Hi," she said softly. I grinned and hugged her.

"Uh, excuse the mess," I apologized when Timothy nodded towards the array of art supplies on my floor. Yeah, I should have cleaned up.

It looked like Elisabeth was going to say something but Mocha came running out from behind me.

She had paint on her ear.

"She's friendly, huh?" I laughed, scrubbing hard at the oil paint on my hands. I

was going to have to start wearing gloves.

"Yes," Elisabeth agreed, rubbing Mocha's belly just the way she liked it. Almost

immediately I connected the dots. Mocha must have been Elisabeth's dog. I'd

known Timothy was connected to Mocha somehow- I'd seen him in the bushes when I found her- and now I knew how. I grinned. Maybe being a spy ran in the family.

"What's her name?" Elisabeth asked.

"You know, Timothy actually came up with the name- Mocha. I just found her a few weeks ago. She had wandered off from the shelter, so as soon as I found her I naturally went to the shelter and adopted her. Her old owners hadn't wanted her anymore, the poor girl," I explained. I gave up on the paint and tossed

the paper towel towards the can. I missed but decided to pretend I didn't. "Stinking oil paint."

"Mocha. I like it! Does she like living here?" Elisabeth asked. I nodded. Definitely her dog.

"She loves it," I assured her. "She just runs on out into the ocean whenever she

feels like it- I got her a collar that has a little tracking device in it, so I

can always tell where she is within, um..." She paused. "How far

of an area is this accurate?" I asked Timothy. Between the two of us, we

had both tech and art covered.

"It works until she's two miles away," Timothy informed me. I hadn't known they even made things like that.

"Anyway, I can tell she loves being able to run, and I love having her here!" I said, deciding to ignore the collar for a minute. "Do you have any pets?" I

asked Elisabeth.

"I used to have a dog, but then we... um... had to give her to some friends."

Elisabeth was a bad liar.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "But you can come visit Mocha and I any time you like," I offered.

"Timothy," I continued, "I'm going to grab the extension cord so we can get Wi-Fi, okay? Just wait here a minute. Elisabeth, will you come with me? I can show you the shed." I didn't care about the shed at all, but I did want to ask