Criminal Activity

Chapter Ten

 I wake up around 11:00 am, but I am slightly confused. I have a job interview today, or at least had.

"Dang it!" I yell and slap the bed. Tom was out of bed which probably meant that he was out shopping for food because we haven't gotten to that point yet. We've been eating take out for a week and I'm kind of sick of it.

I hop out of bed and put on my slippers and a robe. I'm to the point where I'm comfortable with going to bed half naked with Tom and he does the same.

I walk downstairs and open the fridge for the leftover pizza from last night. Weird. The fridge is full. I walk over to the pantry to see that that is full as well, but Tom is no where to be seen. I call his phone, but it goes straight to voicemail. So I call Charles instead to see what is going on.

"Hello, Roni," he answers

"Hey, Chucky. Do you know where Tom is?"

"He is in the middle of an interrogating the people who attacked you last night. I guess these guys thought you know where your mom and dad are. They were going to kidnap you and use you as leverage in their top secret plan to capture your parents and get all the money they stole. You're mom and dad supposedly stole four hundred thousand dollars and murdered in the process. The guy who shot you also released the information that your mom and dad killed seven of their guys in the process."

"Shouldn't I be there? I mean, the interrogation is about MY mother and father. The least I should do is sit there and listen so I can learn a little bit more about my parents," I say a little bit snappy, but I have a right to be snappy. I deserve to be there because this is helping me get a little bit closer to who my parents really are.

"Being in a room with people who tried to kidnap you? Ridiculous! I gotta get going, but just for your information, you got the job at the Doggie Daycare. I pulled some strings." With that he hung up. Really, though? I can't even go to an interview. They basically do everything for me and that is not how I wanna go about my life. I'm going to do something on my own. That something is buy myself a companion.

At the pet store they have so many cute animals, but I want either a dog or a cat. I can't have a cat though because Tom is allergic so I go over to take a peek at the dogs. There is a little American Stafford-Shire terrier rolling around on his back with a bone in his mouth. I walk up to the window and he comes running towards me. He stands on his hind legs and puts his paws on the window to help him keep balance. I automatically fell in love. I decide to go find an employee so I can buy this dog.

"Hey, can I get this puppy over here?" I ask a tall blonde girl. Her hair is in a high ponytail and she seemed to have been on her phone scrolling through Instagram. She looked me and rolled her eyes.

"Couldn't you have asked one of the people managing that station," she said with a snarky voice. I read her name tag.

"Well, Madison, by the looks of it, YOU'RE supposed to be managing that station," I said and smiled at her. She rolls her eyes again and walks towards the dog. She grabs a collar and leash.

"Since you are buying a dog, the leash and collar are $5 instead of $10. The dog food is over in the left corner of the store. You get one small bag for free or a large bag for half off. You also get a ball for free," she said in a monotone voice.

"Thanks!" I say and head over to grab the stuff I needed. Once I am ready to check out, I get a text from Tom asking where I was. I left him on read until I got home.

When I pulled in, Tom was standing right outside of the apartment building. I got out and grabbed a few big boxes that contained dog food, dog toys, and a small fence so the dog could learn not to go into the kitchen. I handed all that stuff to Tom then grabbed the collar and the leash and hooked it up to the dog. I take the name tag out of my pocket and put it on the dogs collar. I decided to call him Hope because he reminded me that there is still hope for me to have a normal life in the future. I looked at Tom's shocked face.

"Meet the new addition to our family. His name is Hope," I say with a smile. I walk the puppy inside and set my keys on the kitchen counter and grab out some ingredients to make spaghetti.

"Why did you buy a dog without me? I wanted to pick one out with you," he whined.

"Because I am done with everyone doing everything for me. I can do things on my own. I am a big girl, boo." I say this with the sassiest attitude I could muster up.

"I'm sorry, babe. We don't mean to make you feel like this," he says and comes up to me to wrap his arms around my waist. Him and I have only been dating for three months, but it feel like it has been forever. I lean in to kiss him.

"It's okay. Hey, I love you," I say for the first time.

"I love you too," he says back and I smile wide. The dog comes over to us and jumps up and down trying to get our attention. We laugh and head to the couch so the dog can come sit with us.i can't wait to start training it so I stand up to grab the ball and roll it on the flood so the pup can play fetch.