"PUPPY LOVE" //
During the semester, you promised yourself that when you got home for the summer you would spend more time with your family and your little dog Laika that you've missed so much. You named her Laika because you were 6 years old and thought you would be an astronaut with her and come out more successful than the first dog in space. The little pool of air between your ankles would be filled again with the fuzzy-likeness of your loyal comrade and the absence of loneliness would become a blessing once more.
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6:30AM and you woke up to go for a run by the river with little Laika, red leash in hand at a constant rate until you saw her little legs slowing down while sticking out her tiny pink slip of a tongue. Deciding to take a break, you sat down under a tree by a shallow part of the river, taking off your sneakers to dip your toes in the water for a little while Laika laid down with her head on your thigh. Not long after you closed your eyes, really not long at all-- we're talking milliseconds here, Laika's ears perked up and she brought her head off your thigh to trot a couple steps away to look at another small and marshmallow-like dog a couple yards away with his owner at a bench.
The owner smiled at the delight his dog showed looking at your little Laika; his canine teeth more prominent than that of his pets. His blonde hair fell right above his ears and framed his face in a way that made him look as though there was a constant fresh summer breeze about him, an ephemeral refreshing moment of relief. Like the wings of butterflies, his eyes left his overly-excited companion to meet yours from beneath his baseball cap, and in that same moment Laika yanked away from your grasp. She was off to run to his dog, jumping all over each other and sniffing butts, with you barefoot and following suit immediately to try to get Laika away so as to not seem weird.
"I'm really sorry about this," you said while trying to separate their leashes, confused as they were both red like the strings of fate had tied the little suckers together.
"It's not a problem!" he said as he stood up to greet you. "It looks like they like each other."
Finally getting them apart, you bowed slightly to apologize once more, only to watch the two little fuzzballs running around in circles-- connecting you with him before you could take any steps. Taken aback as you've never been so close to a stranger's thighs like that before, balance was lost and you dragged more than just him to the ground with you. Probably your dignity in embarrassment.
Thud.
Yeah, exactly that.
Upon landing, you opened your eyes one by one, waiting for a giant scratch or something to appear on your legs.. But there was nothing on your legs. You were actually on legs. His legs. He'd switched places with you before the full swing of the fall to prevent you from getting hurt, you could see the dirt scratches from his elbows to his palms and felt instantaneous remorse. Grabbing his hands as if it were a reflex of yours, blowing off the dirt in an attempt to clean them off, you heard a soft laugh fill the bubble around you.
"Do you want to be on top of me doing something like this? Shouldn't we go on a date first?"
You responded with a full flush in the cheeks and a quick stop, drop, and roll onto the grass beside him, all the while shooting your dog a dirty look as she mischievously stood with his watching the entire situation. You looked down to the side to bite your lip and tell yourself you were an idiot inside of your head until you felt his fingers untangling the leashes around your intertwined ankles. "Unless you want our dogs to go on dates and not us," he finished.
Bashful, you just sat there, looking at him eye-leveled with his pearly white and toothy smile, squatting with his hand out to offer you Laika's leash.
"I usually come to the park for a run at this time because no one is around.. I've never seen you around. I'm Mark and this is Coco. Would you want to finish your run with us?"
The barking between the two dogs were a big help in that very moment. Their noise made it impossible for Mark to hear your heart drop into your stomach, beating faster than a jackhammer, exploding into a million questions for this newfound curiosity. Maybe there was the plausibility of more than just Laika to keep you company now. Maybe.
