“I really just want Toto,” she said. “Can you call the person you gave her to and explain the situation?”
“What situation?”
“That she was mine.”
My eyes went wide and I held back a grunt. “I’m sorry, but she wasn’t yours. She has a family now. A little girl adopted her.” I nearly finished with: Guess you’ll fill out paperwork next time. I stopped myself, biting down on my tongue and taking a deep breath. I did not say everything that came into my mind.
Regardless, the woman huffed out, “Is your manager here?”
This time I let out a heavy sigh. Why were people so annoying sometimes? “Yes, if you’ll wait in the lobby, I’ll get her for you.”
The woman headed off, not giving a single glance to any of the dogs she passed.
“I’m sorry I tried to give you to her, Bean. We can do much better than that.”
He gave me a whimper and lay down on his cot.
I found Erin in the vaccination room with some bunnies. My mood was immediately lifted. “Oh wow, look at these little cuties. When did they come in?”
“Yesterday.”
“They are adorable.” I scratched the soft fur between the ears of a brown bunny.
“I swear I don’t know how you don’t take home every animal in this place.”
“My dad won’t let me.” Mainly because animals cost money and we already struggled with that. But he also claimed allergies that he’d yet to prove. “Oh! That lady out front who asked for me? She wants to talk to you now because I gave her dog to someone else.”
“You did?”
“No, she couldn’t make up her mind and left. That was two weeks ago.”
Erin curled her lip. “I don’t want to deal with that.”
“I know. But that’s why they pay you the big bucks.”
She scoffed because we both knew that wasn’t true. She tucked the bunny she was holding into a plastic carrier and left the room. I followed her so I could eavesdrop in case I needed to provide my side of the story.
Before she reached the front lobby Erin turned and said, “We got three new intakes today. I put them in kennel C. Will you help Chad assess them?”
“Chad’s here?” I asked. How had I missed him?
“Just arrived,” she said.
I smiled. It had been a week since we’d worked together. “Yes, I can help him.”
Chad was in the kennel as I approached, squatting in front of one of the new dogs, a corgi mix with white eyebrows and oversized ears. He was clipping her into a leash. His dark hair was long, halfway down his collar, and his shoulders were wide under his Petsacular T-shirt. But I didn’t like him because he was hot. In fact, that was a rule on my list: You can’t like someone just because they’re hot, Wren. No, really, stop it. I liked him because he was smart and patient and hardworking.
I threaded my fingers through the chain link of the gate. “Hey, I’m supposed to help assess the new dogs.” I cleared my throat. My voice had sounded huskier than I meant it to.
Chad pivoted in his squat and looked up at me, a half smile coming onto his handsome face. Seriously, his jaw could cut glass. “Hey, yeah, there are three, so I could use the help. Will you grab two more leads?” He pointed to the wall next to me.
I took two leashes off the hook and passed them to him. He expertly restrained the remaining dogs, despite their squirminess.
“Did they come in together?” I asked. New dogs usually had their own kennels unless they were dropped off together.
“I guess their owner passed away suddenly.”
“And they probably didn’t even get to go to the funeral.”
“They didn’t.” He opened the gate, handed the corgi off to me, and led the way outside.
“No, it was…a joke.” Wren, nobody gets your dark humor. The dog, nipping at my heels as we walked, was medium-sized and butterscotch with short little legs that pedaled along at a slow pace.
I stopped, looked down at the creature, and said, “It’s not polite to herd me.” She looked up and tilted her head. “Are you going to behave? Do you know any commands? Sit.” She tilted her head again. “No?”
“You coming? Or do you need a moment with the dog?” Chad asked over his shoulder when he got to the door leading out back.
“You think I need alone time with the dog? I’m not flirting with her,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Is that how girls flirt with you? Tell you to sit and behave?” He obviously hadn’t been picking up on my way of flirting.
“Um…no.” He pushed through the door.
I proceeded after him. “I was kidding.”
“I know, it was funny,” he said, but I wasn’t sure he meant it. Not on my love list: Your potential suitor must think you are hilarious. I wondered for a moment if I should add it, but Chad’s handsome face shook that bit of vanity right out of me.
I let the door swing shut behind us.
The back of the shelter was amazing. There was a big grassy area with benches and ramps and tunnels where people could come and play with the animals. There was a walking path and a fountain. There was even a mini house, a one-room structure made to look like a living room, where the animals could practice their indoor manners. And in the far back corner of the space was a penned-in area where we took new dogs, ones we were assessing, to make sure they passed behavior tests before we introduced them to other dogs or potential adopters.
Chad unhooked the latch on the gate to the pen.
“Do they have names?” I asked, the big-eared old lady nipping at my heels again.
Chad cringed. “Probably. I forgot to look.”
“Did you notice if they came from an English-speaking home?”
“What do you mean?” Chad asked, tugging on the leashes of the dogs, who had taken to sniffing every square inch of grass they could right outside the gate.
“They’re older. If they’ve been spoken to in a different language their whole lives, that might help us now. You know?”
“That’s true.”
“Do you know the Spanish word for sit?” I asked.
“I don’t.”
Do you know the Spanish words for Do you want to grab coffee after work? That’s what I should’ve said but it felt too forced. Plus, I had no idea, none whatsoever, how Chad would react to that. And knowing how something was going to play out was important to me. I needed a subtler plan. Something I could explain away if he seemed uninterested. I pulled out my phone and went to Google Translate. “I learned how to say sit in Spanish a couple of months ago for the golden retriever, Bella, who was in here, but I forgot it.”