Ryan
I couldn’t stop thinking about the time we had together that day. He had kissed me! It was a short but sweet kiss. And I swear I felt the heat emanating from him when we were standing close like that. He was still so virile and charismatic, just like I had remembered.
The day couldn’t have gone more right.
I was so proud of Tucker when he threw away his hat. That was a huge step.
I had seen him talking to the waitress at the restaurant while I was waiting to get our order. I was so afraid he’d get upset, but he had laughed with her and seemed very laid back. He probably hadn’t realized what amazing progress he had made in such a short time. Tucker was no longer hiding from the world. He was starting to live again.
When we talked about my cooking, I wanted to invite him over right then and there, but I didn’t want to scare him away by moving too quickly. Tucker did seem open to the idea when I vaguely put it out there with a ‘sometime’ date. I quickly found myself regretting that I didn’t outright invite him over.
Tucker had never been to my house. It was smaller than his home, and far more intimate. In his house, one would be very obvious in their advances, whereas in my house, one couldn’t help but be close and intimate.
Hmm. I sat at my desk, pondering our next meeting. We didn’t discuss the where and when, so it would be a great excuse to call him to set things up.
I wanted to have a training session here at my house. I had converted my garage into a room dedicated to training dogs. I had fake turf, a platform, a small obstacle course, and a lead system for training a dog to do various things. All my supplies were there too. It was a great room and I had accomplished a lot inside it.
I also had a back room I had added on to the house for when I needed to keep new dogs separated as they got used to me. Luckily I didn’t have to leave a lot of dogs in there.
In addition to that, I had a closed-circuit monitoring system in my house so I could watch the dogs either via my phone or a monitor in the house while I was away.
If I had a dog who liked to forage in garbage cans, that system came in handy to catch them in the act and use a shaker bottle to startle them. It was a great method for ending a bad habit, and it worked for many other behavior issues as well.
My house was set up for dogs first, and me second. I liked it that way. It made my job a lot easier. I had special door latches with leather pulls, so the dogs could learn to open doors. I also had pulls on the fridge, cupboards, and so on for training to help with the disabled. Everything was dog-proof, or as close to dog-proof as one could get.
One day I hoped to eventually hire a small staff to come by during the week and help me with the training and the care of the dogs. As of right now I was limited to training only a few canines at a time.
The only help I had at the moment was Sarah, a sweet middle-aged maid. She came by weekly on Fridays to clean and had her own key so she could enter whether I was here or not. She was worth the expense even though I really couldn’t afford this luxury, and I budgeted for it so I could spend more time with the animals.
So I sat at my desk, alternating between tapping a pencil on the wooden surface and chewing the end of it while I thought. I had Bessie and Duke on the floor beside me. I looked down at them for answers.
I’d like to get Tucker and Morgan out here. We could train, then maybe have dinner after. If I could get Tucker here on the weekend. I knew his weekday schedule centered around his afternoon therapy, and taking Tuesdays and Thursdays to recover. That meant he would likely also need Saturdays to recover, which left Sundays, and he spent Sundays with his folks for their weekly brunch.
I pondered my idea some more.
What to do, what to do?
Would it be wrong to ask him over for Sunday after brunch? We could hang out and have dinner. I stopped chewing my poor pencil and decided to call him. I was going to ask the man over for the end of the week while inquiring where he wanted the next session at on Friday morning.
I picked up my phone and clicked his name.
I heard his sultry voice answer, “Good morning, Ryan.”
“Good morning. How’d it go yesterday with your therapist?”
“I’m aching but making progress, so I’ll deal.”
“Oh good. So, uh, I’m calling because we didn’t get a chance to arrange something for tomorrow. I was thinking we should train at your house. Sound good to you?”
“Yes, that would be fine. Same time?”
“Yes, excellent.” I paused. “Also, I was thinking maybe you and Morgan would like to come by my house Sunday after brunch? What do you think? I’d love to show you around my place so you can see more of what I do. And I’d love to cook for you.”
I heard a chuckle. “That sounds great. Especially you cooking.”
I almost didn’t believe that he had accepted my invitation so quickly. Once I found my voice, I said, “Great! Okay, so after brunch at your folks I can pick you up and bring you here.”
“How about you join us for brunch too? Pick me up in the morning, if you don’t have any plans. I’m sure my family will be delighted.”
I wasn’t about to decline an invitation to spend more time with Tucker. “Sounds great. Okay, I’ll see you Friday for our next training session.”
After we hung up, I looked down at my dogs. Bessie sat up, startling poor Duke awake. “C’mon,” I said. “Let’s go outside.”
Bessie started dancing in circles of excitement while Duke slowly found his footing and stood up.
With that, we left for the backyard, my mind racing with thoughts of Tucker with every step.