Lush Life (Tradley au)

Chapter 9- Tristan's POV

I'm just walking out of my house when I see Brad stood in his front garden attempting to clip a lead onto the collar of a beautiful golden dog. "Sit!" he keeps saying, and when the dog finally obeys, he pats her head. "Good girl." I laugh, and he looks up at me.

"Where are you off to?" he asks.

I shrug. "Nowhere really. I was bored at home by myself, so I was just going to go for a wander."

Brad smiles, closing the gate behind him. "I know how that feels. You can come with us if you like."

"Us?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

Brad rolls his eyes at me and indicates the dog, who is pulling at her lead. "Did you really I think that I just brought her out here for no reason?"

I laugh. "I was joking. But I'd like to go with you, I love dogs." We set off towards the forest, which I've been past but never in. As we walk, I ask Brad lots of questions about his dog. I learn that she's called Jess and that she's a golden retriever, but Brad doesn't remember how old she is.

"She's very well trained." I comment as Brad lets her off her lead.

Brad laughs. "Yeah, on a good day. Remember me trying to put her lead on earlier? That's what she's like some of the time. But generally she is pretty well trained." We sit down under a tree and Brad starts telling me more about Jess. "She's not one of those dogs that jumps on you all the time. To be honest, she's far too lazy."

"I don't like dogs that do that." I say. "My old neighbours had a dog that used to jump on anyone who went in their house, it was a total nightmare." 

Brad nods in agreement. "The worst Jess'll do is lick you to death. Or she might come and sit on your lap if you sit on the floor. She's much too big, but I don't think she realises." As soon as Brad says that, Jess comes bounding through the trees almost on cue, and sits in front of him. After a while however, she seems to decide that the ground isn't comfy enough and goes to sit on me, just like Brad said. Before I realise it, Brad's taken a picture of me.

"Hey!" I protest. "Delete that!"

Brad shakes his head. "No, sorry. It's going to be my new wallpaper." I sigh, but I don't mind really.

After a while, Brad says "We should probably go home now." He clips Jess' lead back on and offers me and hand up, as it feels a bit weird to not have a dog on me anymore. 

As we walk back towards Brad's house, I say "I love golden retrievers. They always look so smiley and happy. I loved cuddling her, if I had one I'd do that all the time."

Brad smiles. "I do cuddle her a lot. Sometimes I put her on my bed, she's like a giant cuddly teddy."

"My mum would kill me if I put a dog on my bed." I say jealously. "She would freak out about there being fur everywhere."

Brad laughs. "I started doing it when Josh broke up with me. Sometimes I'd just put one of  his shirts on Jess and hug her and cry into her fur."

He blushes slightly as he says that, and I smile. "That's so cute."

"It did annoy my mum a bit at first, me having Jess on my bed." Brad says as we cross the road. "But then I told her why and she didn't mind so much after that." At this point, we've reached Brad's house but I don't quite want to say goodbye yet. 

"Thank you for letting me come with you." I say.

"No problem." Brad replies. "You can come again if you like. It's more fun with someone else, I get lonely on my own." 

I smile. "I'd like to come again. Can I hug her?" Brad nods, and I bend down and wrap my arms around Jess, who licks my face in response.

Brad laughs at the face I pull, and holds his arms out. "If she gets a hug, I want one too." I hug him back, and we stand like that for a while as neither of us want to let go. Eventually, Jess barks and Brad has to let go. I smile sadly as he goes into the house, as I already miss him being in my arms.

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I liked this chapter, even though I know precisely nothing about dogs 😂 Can you hug them? Idk.

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