A few weeks later, I enter the fenced off dog park, Cooper pulling on the leash. I wonder if I’m doing the right thing meeting the woman who emailed me outside of the store. Not that it’s bad. I run my own company. There’s no HR rules about sleeping with someone who paid for my wares. But I’ve always handled my business with white-gloved hands, so as not to tarnish my reputation.

Add on the fact, most of my clients assume I’m gay and I don’t necessarily refute their assumptions. It’s none of their business either way, besides, it’s just easier to go along with it. I have no idea if it changes my bottom line, but I don’t want anything that’ll put me in the red, so I let the comments go.

A woman walks in with her dog in a carrying case and I recognize her from the photo she sent me. She’s looking around, but I’m fairly sure she won’t suspect that the six-foot-two, two-hundred-pound guy with a boxer is the same man who owns Canine Couture.

I wave my hand, standing from the bench I’m sitting on. Her eyes widen, but she heads my way with a smile. I wish I could hear what’s going on in that head of hers.

Her long blonde hair is pulled back into a high ponytail that’s swinging behind her as she walks across the grass. She’s wearing a pair of short spandex shorts and a t-shirt that’s balled up into a knot at the side.

My dick reacts immediately, twitching in my shorts.

“Alex?” I ask, holding out my hand.

“Leo?” she asks back, her voice holding a note of surprising.

“Yeah.” I motion for her to sit down on the bench.

She does and then lets her dog out of the carrying case. It jumps in circles, not really getting anywhere.

Cooper waddles over and watches in amazement because he’d never be able to jump that high. Not at fifty-five pounds and built like a brick shit house. He’s lucky if he can climb the flights of stairs up to my apartment.

“I’m sorry.” She covers her chest with her hands. “I’m really surprised.” Her cheeks are tinted pink. It’s cute.

“Yeah, most clients are.”

“I mean you design clothes for dogs?”

“Yeah.” I lean back on the bench and stretch out.

“I wasn’t exactly thinking you’d be so cute, or so straight?” she poses like a question.

She probably saw me checking her out and for once I’m glad I was so obvious.

“Thank you and,” I dip my head toward her, “Yes, I’m straight.”

She smiles and pulls out her phone, leaning close to me. Her perfume is sweet yet subtle. “Smile,” she whispers and clicks.

“Why are you taking a picture?” I ask, a little confused.

She shoots me her flirtatious eyes and a sweet look. “I think we’re going to be great friends. This will mark the day we met.”

I like the sound of that.

I sure hope it’s not some type of warning.

* * *

Six months later…

“I want you to move.” Alex crosses her arms over her ample chest while she takes in my apartment with a disgusted look on her face.

“Why?” I blow out a breath, reaching into the fridge for another beer because I can’t get into this fight with her again. Especially sober.

“Because she obviously wants you. I mean you’ve made her clothes before.”

“Ashley is a friend. That’s all.” I unscrew the top and down half the bottle.

“She doesn’t want to be friends. I mean, you made her lingerie. How could you?” Her small hands ball into fists at her sides. “Not to mention, this place is a pit. You can afford to move.”

I take a seat on the couch and stare blankly at her. I don’t have it in me to fight with her today. “I can.”

I’m not going to mention that I have an offer in on the condo in Vance’s building. They lowered the price and I can’t let the opportunity pass. But Alex doesn’t need to know that because I don’t want that to be the reason she stays with me. Truthfully, I’m not even sure I want her to stay with me.

“So, why stay here?” she asks, throwing her arms up in the air.

As if her three-bedroom place with four wanna be actresses is any better.

“The shop is my priority right now.” I rest my feet on the table and the remote slides up and down in my hand.

“It’s doing awesome. Ever since you got your name in Zoe Ward’s Instagram feed, you’ve been rocking it. There’s absolutely no reason you can’t move and get away from that…that slut downstairs!” she yells.

Here we go. Zoe’s been a customer for five years, but she recently posted a picture and tagged my store after I sent her a flyer about the grand opening. Since then business has been booming and I’ve been able to up what I’m charging for my outfits.

“Listen, Alex.” I sit up and my fingers thread through my hair before I lift my head up to look at her. “Ashley is a friend. I didn’t fit her for the lingerie. She gave me her measurements. It was something special she wanted for her boyfriend. An anniversary. You don’t pay my bills, you don’t have access to my bank account. So, stop telling me what I have and what I should do with it.”

She stomps her foot on the floor. Literally stomps.

“You’re unbelievable. Just say it. You want to fuck her!” Her hands fly up in the air. “You probably already have.”

In a way I feel bad for Alex because someone gave her this false belief that all men cheat, but I can’t stand the constant unfounded allegations I have to defend myself against.

“I haven’t.” I lean back into my couch, stretching my legs back out.

“You’re hopeless. Are you sure you’re not gay?” She stomps over and stops right in front of me, her hands on her hips. “Because you haven’t wanted to have sex lately either. That’s it, you’re gay.”

I’m half tempted to admit to something I’m not if it gets her out of my life. Finally, finding my breaking point, I stand up.

“This isn’t working.”

“See, you’re getting defensive. You are gay!” She follows me to the kitchen. Cooper’s laying on the floor and though his ears perk up at the tone of her raised voice, he doesn’t bother getting up. Guess he’s tired of her bullshit, too.

“I think we need to break-up.” My voice is monotone, no inflection of the fact that I care for this woman. My mom would slap me on the back of the head if she saw the way I’m acting now. Then again, she’d probably be the first to put Alex in her place over how she’s acting.

“Is that what you want?”

She has tears in her eyes and her bottom lip quivers, but I supress the urge to console her knowing it’ll only give her false hope that something between us could work out.

She starts grabbing her purse and all her shit from the breakfast bar with angry, jerking movements. “I can’t believe you. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

Without warning she grabs the pizza box off the island and tosses it Frisbee style at the opposite wall. The box slams into the wall and pops open, pizza scattering all over the kitchen floor.

Cooper springs up and immediately heads over to eat his fill.

“Asshole. Have a nice life.” She walks out the door and slams it so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t fall off the hinges.

I release the breath I’ve been holding and walk over to the window, watching her get into her car and race out of my life. I should be sad, but I’m more relieved than anything. I’d rather be single forever than deal with drama like that again.

* * *

“It’s like a brand-new chapter of our life. Where we wanted to be five years ago.” Vance drops a box on the family room floor of my new condo. “You have no idea how nice it is to have the beach right outside.”

I glance around the space, looking at all the boxes and furniture that need to find their spot in my new home. I can hardly believe I’m here. I take a step over to the large window that overlooks the beach.

“Alex and I broke up.” I didn’t tell him last month because we haven’t had a lot of time to see each other. Work keeps us both busy.

“Oh shit, man, I’m sorry.” Vance walks up to me, standing beside me.

A few families are down below mixed with a few couples. Everyone’s enjoying a sunny day at the beach.

“It’s for the best. She accused me of sleeping with Ashley and then went the opposite direction and insisted I was gay.” I roll my eyes.

He chuckles. “Two extremes?”

I nod.

“Yeah I didn’t even ask her how that could be. As much as I hate to admit it, I didn’t want to fight for her. I didn’t care what she thought of me.”

His hand rests on my shoulder. “You’ll find another one.”

I shake my head. “I think I’m done for a while. Too many bullshit relationships. Too many of them wanting to change me into someone I’m not.”

He rocks back on his heels. “Look at it this way, you’re a successful young guy. Live it up for a while.”

“Knock, knock, I come bearing gifts.” Jagger’s voice sounds behind us and we turn to find him walking through the door.

“We already finished asshole.” Vance approaches him, grabbing a beer from the case he’s holding.

“Then I planned perfectly.” He winks. “I got held up at the office.” He holds a beer up to me with a puppy dog frown. “I got girls coming in an hour.”

I hadn’t told Vance yet that Alex and I broke up, but I had told Jagger. Obviously, a stupid move on my part.

“You better not,” I say, knowing him well enough to clarify this.

“Come on, we’re three successful bachelors. Let’s live it up! Besides, you need to christen the new place.”

We each clink our beer bottles in cheers, but I fail to tell them, once I find the perfect woman for me, I’ll fight to keep her and until then I’m not really interested in sampling.