Spotty World I - My Stepdad's Daughter Was My Ex-Girlfriend

Everyone Has Got A Dose Of Healthy Disillusion

DOUG

"This is really weird..."

It was early Thursday night, and the Dalmatian firedog was going through one of the most bizarre moments of his life.

After what happened last Saturday, it took Doug and Delilah two days to process everything they discovered, almost a whole day just to get up the courage to call Oliver, and a day of waiting after agreeing to meet the cat at a restaurant.

The Dalmatian couple just didn't expect the restaurant in question to be a Japanese steakhouse that only worked with private dining rooms, or that this would somehow become a couples night out.

And while Doug was a little intrigued and excited by the concept of a steakhouse where every table has a grill so customers can cook the meat to their liking, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

Now the Dalmatians were seated on one side of a rectangular table with a round barbecue grill in the center, with several plates of small cuts of meat and some with side dishes, with on the other side of the table Oliver, who looked very embarrassed, and Natalie, the only one of the four who was not uncomfortable with the situation.

"I still can't believe it!" The cat exclaimed looking at her husband, totally surprised and a little excited. "I mean, I knew your boss was an eccentric recluse, but I never would have guessed that he would be Doug's father, or that he'd have a private investigator follow his son."

Oliver nodded, using the chopsticks to help himself to a piece of meat, sliced ​​to look like a thin little square. He then swallowed and assumed a forced smile on his face.

"Well, he's not all bad..."

At this, Doug huffed, looking at Oliver with rather intimidating squinted eyes.

"Oh, really?" Doug also helped himself to a piece of meat, only in this case a piece of pork rib, and the firedog made a point of showing that he could easily chew the bone. "What makes you think that?"

Oliver shivered, and Doug couldn't help but feel a little satisfaction at seeing the cat act like that.

On Sunday morning, after getting some rest from the day before, Doug and Delilah talked about what they knew about the cat, and that's how Doug understood why Oliver acted so strangely around him.

Apparently, when Oliver was a kitten in New York, he was constantly bullied by older dogs, and his first wife cheated on him with dogs, so Oliver had trouble interacting with male dogs. He did this even with Danny, who acted like some kind of always-brooding dark poet, taking almost a full year to be able to stand in the same space as Danny without acting as if he feared for his life.

Doug knew it was a low blow to try to intimidate someone suffering from trauma (something Delilah agreed with by the way she elbowed him while he was grinding the piece of bone with his teeth), but with everything that had happened, Doug couldn't help to release a little of his anger in the cat.

Delilah then looked at the cat with a sympathetic smile, something Doug recognized as not being entirely genuine.

"Sorry about Doug, he's usually very polite, but this whole thing about seeing his father made him very tense."

Doug felt embarrassed about this, and even more so considering he's usually friendly to everyone around him.

"Don't worry, we understand." Natalie said with an understanding smile, then held her husband's free hand and gave a sad smile. "Oliver also has this problem when it comes to a certain someone."