Discovering Me *Discontinued*

Chapter 8

 "So this is the cafe I was telling you about," Ray said, pulling into the parking lot and parking. Truffle, who was sitting in Ava's lap, started barking once the car was in park.

"Are they pet-friendly?" Ava asked, hugging Truffle to her chest in hopes to stop him from barking.

"Ava, darling, every store in this town is pet-friendly. Even our Walmart is," Ray laughed, getting out of the car, Ava and Truffle getting out as well.

"That's really cool," Ava exclaimed as Ray opened the door to the cafe. The second he opened the door, the smell of coffee hit her like a truck, instantly causing her mouth to water. Soon after the coffee, she smelled various baked goods, which made her stomach growl even though she had breakfast not even an hour ago.

Ava continued to follow Ray inside, loving the homey look of the cafe with brown and white couches, chairs, and decorations. The lights were dim which helped with the study like atmosphere the place had.

"I love it already," Ava whispered, looking around the room in awe, but jumping suddenly when Truffle barked and rushed towards a family sitting close to the door.

"Truffle," Ava scolded, rushing after him. The family turned at looked at him, making various cooing sounds as they reached down to pet him.

"Don't worry honey, we love dogs around here," the woman sitting at the table said, her green eyes filled with warmth and kindness. Ava, startled by her reaction, smiled back at her. Their four-year-old son leaped off of his chair and rushed towards Truffle, who very quickly whimpered and backed away from the child.

"Hey, it's okay Truffle," Ava said softly, bending down to pet Truffle, who slowly approached the boy once he knew he was going to be okay.

"Sorry about that, his last owners were incredibly abusive to him, so he gets really nervous when people rush up to him. You can pet him now," Ava smiled at the young child, pleased to see that the boy was unaffected by the puppy's strange actions.

"Oh my god," the woman said, her eyes becoming harsh and angry, "What was done about them?"

"Well, my step-mother runs a shelter down in Mississippi, and when they tried to come and take him back they were arrested. They're no longer allowed to own any pets of any kind and from what I heard, they'll be serving some jail time due to the aggressive nature in which they tried to take him back. My mom and I stopped them though," Ava explained, pleased to see that their son was treating Truffle with care, petting his head and ears softly.

"Stupid ass southerners," the man who was sitting next to the woman grunted, rolling his eyes before quickly widening them as he realized what he just said, "Not you of course, or your family. Just, there are a lot of things I've heard about the people down there."

"Hey, no worries here," Ava laughed, standing so she was no longer looking up at the couple.

"Hey Mr. and Mrs. Everett, how are you all doing today," Ray said from behind Ava, which caused her to jump in surprise, yelping.

"Hello there Ray. We're doing quite well. We were just getting acquainted with your girlfriend here. You two are dating right?" Mrs. Everett said with a mischievous grin on her face, causing Ava to blush madly, grateful that Ray was behind her and couldn't see her face.

"We're not dating," Ray laughed before continuing, "I was just showing her around town because she moved her a few days ago. We met at orientation yesterday," he explained. Mr. Everett glanced at Ava, noticing her red face and chuckled under his breath. He winked at her as if to say he wasn't going to mention anything about it, so Ava gave him a nod of thanks for his silence.