“Beautiful, but I’m coming home. I need you to do me a favor. Can you call in a pull for Gidget?”
“Gidget? The Chi Preston was fostering?” I can practically hear the confusion on her face.
“Yup. She was dumped in the night drop. I’ll figure it out. I mean, Preston’s with me now, so it’s not his fault, but clearly, our dogs aren’t safe at his store without him there. Can you and Avril get her and then go to the store to check on them? Like right now?”
“Yup. I’ll call her.” I can already hear Eden securing her own dogs and grabbing her car keys. Like I said, dependable. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I was having a great time, but now I’m stressed. I’ll make sure I’m on the next flight home. Oh, and I found a pit bull here.”
“Of course you did. First things first though. Text me your flight info. I’ll text you back when we get Gidget and the rest of the dogs. Once they’re safe, we can figure out how to get that pit bull back here, too.”
“Thanks, babe. Love you,” I say because I do. I love Eden and Avril. I trust them, and they’re the only people who love me back. I should have never trusted Preston, but I don’t have time to wallow in my regret. The dogs back home need me.
I hang up the phone and go into the bedroom to pack. I don’t have enough money for a last-minute ticket home, but hopefully, the change fee won’t be too expensive.
Preston appears in the doorway. “Hey, can we talk?”
I exhale.
Breathe, Yessi, breathe. Preston did not dump Gidget in the night drop. He was with you the entire time. Fucking you, as a matter of fact. You owe it to him to hear him out.
“Fine, talk. Have you gotten a hold of Hugh? What’s his pathetic ass excuse? Are all our other dogs dumped in night drops?”
“I can’t get a hold of Hugh, but when I do, I’ll figure out what happened. If he did anything shady, I’ll personally fuck him up. I called the kennel tech at the store. She said all the other dogs, including your rescue dogs, are fine. She said that Hugh took Gidget home with him last night and he didn’t come into work today, so she assumed that Gidget was with him. Maybe she got loose, and someone else dumped her?”
I shake my head in disbelief. “Are you that gullible? It’s obvious Hugh dumped her. It’s too much of a coincidence that she’s the only dog he took home and then she just happened to end up in the night drop. Good news is we can solve this riddle. I know Deb from the shelter. All she has to do is look at the video footage on the camera, and we can see who dumped her. If it’s Hugh, I’ll beat his ass myself.”
I grab the shirt I wore yesterday and toss it into my suitcase. I crumple up the fabric as my heart constricts in my chest.
I picture sweet Gidget, only a few days after being dumped by the only family she’s ever known, being thrown away like yesterday’s trash. Shivering in that cold, dank cage, her eyes blinking back tears, with all the rest of the dumped pets. Only cowards drop their pets in the night drop. What does it say about Preston that this motherfucker is his best friend?
Thank god Preston had chipped her, or she would’ve most certainly died. I kick myself for not chipping her myself. For going on this trip. For trusting Preston.
And I can’t help it. I begin to sob.
Preston kneels by my side and holds me in his arms. “Hey, babe. Look at me.”
I look away because I have the maturity of a five-year-old. I’m emotionally stunted. Five. Five was the age my mom abandoned me. Five was the last time in my life that I had a home. That I had a family.
And I was never adopted. Because everyone wants a cute baby. Nobody wants to adopt the quiet girl who does nothing all day but sketch in her notepad and play with stray pets.
Kind of like how no one wants to adopt the old dog with a grey mug who just wants to sleep all day.
Ugh, I’m a mess.
“Yessi, look at me.” Preston’s voice is gentle, but with a strength that catches my attention immediately.
I look up at him, my cheeks damp from my tears.
“I’m taking complete responsibility for this. I don’t know what happened, but I’m going to get to the bottom of this. If Hugh dumped Gidget in the night drop, then I’m through with him. I mean it. Gidget is a great dog. I care about her life, and she doesn’t deserve that shit. In fact, I’ll adopt her when we get home. Whatever you need me to do, I’m on it. Please don’t shut me out. How can I help?”
I surrender. I need his help. For once, I can’t do this on my own. “Can we just get out of here? Can we fly back tonight?”
“Yup. I’ll call now. Yessi, I’m so sorry. What about Cuffs?”
Fuck, I need to take care of Cuffs. “I’ll call the vet now. I doubt he’s ready to fly and even if he were, he would need shots and a health certificate. Do you have any friends who can take him until we can arrange for transport?”
Preston thinks for a second, and then his face turns stern. “I don’t have any local friends who can take Cuffs, but I can ask my parents. My father hates me but loves dogs. Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out. Worst case scenario, Cuffs can stay at the vet or at boarding until we can bring him home.”
I exhale. As mad as I am at this situation, I’m not going to write Preston off yet. I recognize that he is trying. “Thanks. It means a lot to me.”
“Not as much as you mean to me. I’m going to fix this, Yessi. Just give me a chance to fix things. That’s all I’m asking.”
I nod. I hear Preston call the airline as I continue packing my things.
After years of taking care of everyone else, it’s nice to have someone take care of me.
Chapter Eighteen
Preston
The plane touches down in LA with a few bumps as it lands on the runway, shaking me out of a fitful sleep. Glancing over to Yessi, I see she’s staring out the window. She looks like she hasn’t slept the entire time. I quickly turn on my phone to see if there’s any word from Hugh, but there’s nothing.
Dude is fucking ghosting me.
What the hell?
Did he purposely dump Gidget? I don’t want to believe it.
But if he didn’t, I feel like he’d be returning my calls.
I look over and see Yessi frantically typing on her phone. She glances at me and offers a wan smile.
“Good news. Avril picked up Gidget. And the shelter won’t charge you any fees because you didn’t dump her. I’m still pissed as hell, but at least she’s safe.”
Thank god.
“But, there’s more. Look at this.”
She shows her phone to me, and my stomach wrenches the picture comes into focus. There, clear as a Honolulu sunrise, is a photo of Hugh placing Gidget in a cage at the night drop. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there’s no denying the evidence. I’m not going to lie and make excuses for him anymore.
Yessi is looking at me expectantly, waiting to see what I have to say.
“Yeah, that’s him. I knew he was kind of a dick, but I can’t believe he would just dump her like that in the middle of the night.”
Yessi’s dark eyes flash with anger, and she starts to speak before I can add anything else.
“Well, he did. I’ll work with you at Doggy Style, even though you have breeder puppies there, because you agreed to make your store an adoption center. But you need to fire Hugh. There’s no logical explanation for what he did. Dude’s a piece of shit. What is he going to say? That he accidentally locked her in a cage at the night drop?”
She has a point. Hugh ruined my trip to Hawai’i, endangered Gidget, and put a strain on my relationship with Yessi. How could I be so wrong about this guy? Did I just blindly trust him because I grew up with him? And what’s his motivation for even doing that? Sabotaging me? That seems especially stupid since he gave up his job to work for me.
One thing is crystal clear—I’m going to find out. The sooner, the better.
I grab our bags, and we leave the airplane and head to baggage claim. I wanted to hire a limo, but Eden
insisted on picking us up. I agreed, because while I know Yessi’s doing her best not to be mad at me, I don’t want to antagonize her any further.
But the last people I want to hang out with right now are Yessi’s rescue mafia. I already know I royally fucked up by leaving Gidget at the store with Hugh. I don’t need the additional stress of being interrogated for the entire ride home.
Eden pulls up in an old Volkswagen van with the Pugs N Roses logo emblazoned on the side. I choke on the smoggy LA air and miss Hawai’i immediately.
Avril jumps out of the car.
“Hey girl!”
She embraces Yessi tightly. I’m happy Yessi has such close friends, especially after she told me about growing up in foster care. I still have so many questions to ask her, but I’m not sure if she wants to talk about it. I need to get this situation fixed. For now, I’m lucky that she gives me the time of day.
“Evans,” Avril says curtly.
“Avril.” I don’t know her last name, not that I want to mess with her either. Of the three of them, Avril seems like the one most likely to try and beat my ass. I know she’s really suspicious of me and my intentions toward Yessi, but I hope I can win her over.
I climb into the van and smile when I see Gidget. She greets me with a lick. “Hey, girl.” She wiggles her little butt, and I rub her belly. A lump grows in my throat. Why did Hugh drop her at the shelter? She could’ve been killed. I would’ve never forgiven myself.
Seeing Gidget’s sweet face racks me with guilt.
I get it.
I get why Yessi, Eden, and Avril devote their lives to saving dogs.
Eden glances at me in the rearview and catches my gaze before she starts to navigate through the LA traffic. “Hey, Preston. Did you have a nice trip?” Eden seems sincere and less judgy than Avril, or Yessi for that matter.
“Hawai’i is always great. Too bad it was cut short. But at least we saved a dog.” I bring up finding Cuffs to deflect from the Gidget situation. Maybe that’ll help me win back some brownie points with Yessi’s friends.
“Oh, the ‘pibble?’ Yeah, they’re always hard to adopt, poor things. They’ve gotten such a bad rap, but that’s mostly because of irresponsible owners.” Eden signals and we merge onto the freeway.
“So, you’re going to adopt him, too, right?” Avril starts in with the guilt trip.
“We’ll see.”
Avril’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t say anything else. Man, I’m going to end up going from zero dogs to two. And Yessi has five. If we ever move in together, we’ll have seven dogs. Is that even legal?
Gidget curls up in my lap, and I take Yessi’s hand. “Can we go straight to my store? I need to find Hugh.”
Eden looks at me in the rearview. “Well, we went by this morning. Our dogs are all fine. But Hugh wasn’t there.”
Where did he go?
“Could you please just take me there? I’ll check around his place. His apartment is above the shop.”
“Sure,” she says with a shrug.
After a few hours in horrendous LA traffic, we finally arrive at the store. We all pile out of the van and go inside. First, we check on the dogs, who I’m relieved to see are all in great condition.
I see Wanda, the kennel attendant. “Hey, Wanda. Thanks for holding down the fort for me. Have you seen Hugh?”
She shakes her head. “No. Not since last night. He took off with Gidget and a duffel bag. Said he was staying at your place. I didn’t ask him any questions. He hasn’t been back since.”
My place? I told him he couldn’t stay at my home if he wouldn’t watch Gidget. What a jerk.
But he does have a spare key to my condo.
As do I to his place.
I dash upstairs and enter his apartment. I see a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the kitchen table, dirty laundry on the floor, and an overflowing garbage can in the kitchen. It’s a pigsty, but nothing out of the ordinary. Dude is a slob—it always looks like that. Ever since we were kids, he’s been kind of slovenly, so I always used to suggest we hang at my place.
But there’s no sign of Hugh.
I text him again.
Dude. Where the fuck are you? We need to talk.
I stare at my phone but get no reply.
With a sigh, I head back downstairs. Yessi greets me, holding a fluffy poodle.
“Where is he? Let me at him,” she says, with a scary look on her face as she puts the dog back in a crate. If Hugh were here, I’d almost feel sorry for him. Almost.
“No clue, but I’m screwed. How am I supposed to open this store without a manager?” I run my hand down my face, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by everything.
She takes my hands. “No, you aren’t. You got us.”
Chapter Nineteen
Yessi
A week and a half later, we arrive at the crack of dawn at Doggy Style.
It’s opening day.
A mixture of hopefulness and despair stirs inside me. I pray that we’ll adopt out a ton of dogs today. Obviously finding them homes will be the greatest reward, but I also want to prove to Preston that customers will adopt these rescue dogs, and he doesn’t need to sell puppies. I know he’s agreed to only feature rescue dogs for the future, but I want to show him he can have a successful business without using breeder dogs. Of course, we still have the purebred puppies in the store until they’re all adopted. And I’ve come to peace with that, because Preston agreed to follow standard adoption protocol on all the dogs, regardless of pedigree. All of the dogs have been fixed, and every owner will be required to submit to a home check, along with completing an adoption application and contract.
As for my personal growth, I vowed the other day to try to be less judgmental. I can’t hate on people who don’t know any better, so it’s on me to educate them. I’m working on being more calm, friendly, and sweet. Preston is the perfect example. He didn’t know about the horrors of homeless pets, and then he learned. Now he’s changed his mind and will end up saving thousands of pets.
Preston paces around the store, his hand clutching his phone.
I walk over to him and give him a kiss. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I just need this to do well. I was so confident, but I can’t believe Hugh bailed. I just have a bad feeling, you know? Like he’s going to do something to fuck up the opening.”
Hugh has completely vanished. No one has seen him since he left the store that day with Gidget. He also hasn’t been on any social media. Preston’s called him a bunch of times, reached out to Hugh’s parents, even considered filing a police report, but I told him to hold off.
Clearly, Hugh has some anger and resentment toward Preston. I believe Hugh left of his own accord to prove to Preston that the store would fail with the decision to feature rescue dogs. I could be wrong, and I don’t know the dude at all, but if something bad happened to him, he wouldn’t have abandoned Gidget in the night drop.
“Well, he better not, but we’ll be okay no matter what. Avril and Eden are here to help, and all our rescue group friends are helping to promote it. People will be so glad you’re going to be saving so many lives. Not to mention this store is beautiful. Its owner isn’t too bad either.”
He pulls me to him, and we kiss. We’ve been fucking like rabbits since we arrived back in California. I’ve never had sexual chemistry with anyone like I have with Preston. Everything about him is perfection.
Even so, our emotional intimacy hasn’t caught up to our physical intimacy. I still don’t know any more details about his damaged relationship with his dad, and I still haven’t fully told him about my past. But I’m not worried about that. We started fast, so it’s fine to take our time opening up to each other.
Avril stands in front of us. We break our kiss and stare at her. She rolls her eyes but shoots us a friendly grin so we know she’s not really annoyed.
“Come on, lovebirds. Time to open.”
We all go outside, where a huge crowd has gathered. Looks like our hard work promoting
the hell out of the grand opening has worked. Even some local television networks and radio stations are present.
The mayor of Huntington Beach is waiting for Preston, and he hands Preston huge scissors to cut through the ribbon.
Preston whispers in my ear, “I’d rather have your handcuffs.”
I playfully smack him. “Where are those things anyway?”
“You’ll see them when the time is right.”
I roll my eyes.
Preston greets the crowd. “Thank you for coming out today. Initially, I started this store just to make a profit off of dogs. I know it sounds horrible, and it was. But then I met this gorgeous woman, Yesenia Cordova, and she educated me about shelter dogs. I honestly never knew much about homeless pets. She’s changed my life for the better, and I’m just glad she opened my eyes up to their plights. I’m so thankful for taking this journey with her, and even more happy that she’s now my girlfriend. So, everyone, welcome to Doggy Style!”
Oh my god.
Tears well in my eyes. I didn’t expect him to say anything like that. Here I am, crying on camera like a blubbering fool. No one has ever done anything like that for me. Or even publicly acknowledged me as part of their life.
I wrap my arms around Preston and kiss him again. Cameras flash in our faces. I’m super proud of him. Time to adopt some dogs.
Chapter Twenty
Preston
“That will be eight hundred dollars,” I say to the family who’s about to adopt a purebred British bulldog.
Yessi scowls at them. She tried in vain to convince them to adopt a dachshund mix, but they wouldn’t budge.
I get it though. For years, all I wanted was a bulldog, the mascot of my beloved Marine Corps. I wanted to name him Grady, after my buddy who was awarded the Medal of Honor. Half of Grady’s face was blown off, but he was lucky enough to live. He found himself a beautiful wife, Isa, and is now speaking on college campuses. I fucking love that guy. If it weren’t for him, I’d be dead.
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