The Sympathy Screw | 18+

Chapter 15 - Happiness Is a Warm Puppy

Author's Notes:

The theme song for this chapter is:

Stand by You    by    Rachel Platten

~-~

"I'll get it," I told Iris, who was still staying with me and in the kitchen about to head to bed early, when the doorbell rang. Iris had been up since four in the morning so that she could begin working remotely at five o'clock.

I opened the door to see Sam standing there, a pizza in one hand and a grocery-style open-topped fabric tote bag on the other shoulder.

And the tote bag was moving a little.

"Hi Violet," Sam told me, his smile only getting brighter as he looked at me, "You ready for our movie night? I have tomorrow off of work, so I can stay late."

"Hi," I greeted him, a smile forming on my own lips, "I'll actually be ready in a few minutes. Iris has been staying over and we'll need to wait until she's heading to bed to start. You remember Iris, right? And what's in the bag?"

Sam looked at me like I was ridiculous. "Of course, I remember Iris! And I'm glad you asked what's in the bag. The movie's in there, too, but this little guy wasn't going to stay in there for long. Could you grab the pizza so I can show you?"

Suddenly a tiny whimper sounded from the bag. I quickly grabbed the pizza from Sam and he opened the bag, pulling out a little ball of fluffy dark brown fur the size of a basketball with a red bow tied around its neck. The puppy, which Sam held out to me, gave a happy yip and promptly began frantically wagging his tail and licking every available part of Sam's hands and arms.

"I hope it's okay that I got him for you today. One of my old friends from Stamford had just told me that his wife's dog was having a litter before I moved. If you really don't want him, I can keep him for you, but I'm not really supposed to have a dog in my apartment. I just remember how much you loved my dog when we were younger and I thought you could use an extra little friend. He's really well-behaved and I brought some puppy stuff for you."

I set the pizza down on the table beside the door and pulled the puppy from his arms. That little spastic tail began wagging even faster as I picked him up.

"He's adorable! What kind of puppy is he?" I asked as the cute little furball licked at my wrists and fingers.

"My buddy said that the dad was a yorkie and my buddy's wife's dog is a teacup poodle, so that makes him something called a ... 'yorkapoop'?" The quizzical look on Sam's scrunched up face showed just how unsure he was about the name he was trying to say.

I laughed. "Do you mean yorkiepoo?" Sam nodded. "What's his name?"

"He didn't have a name yet. They just called him 'number three'. Did you want to pick out his name?"

I looked at his cute little furry face, bringing him closer than I probably should have, and he gave me a lick right on the tip of my nose, still wagging his short little tail at a jackrabbit pace. I giggled again at his little puppy kisses. "He gives so many kisses, I feel like I should name him Valentine. Or maybe Casanova."

"I like that," Sam said, "He could be Cass for short."

I looked in his little puppy face again and said, "Do you like that? Would you like to be called Casanova? Do you, Cass?"

The puppy just licked my nose happily again and I knew it was the right name for him.

Feeling just a little flirty, I added to Sam, "He still doesn't kiss as good as you, though."