The Designer and the Model

Chapter 44 - Bitter Goodbyes

"You won't kill him right?"

"We don't 'kill' animals miss, but our facility has a capacity and limited funding. We are just not equiped to hold every animal, it will be fully determined by the dogs temperament and social ability. We will do our best for him, that I can promise."

Not feeling reassured at all I knelt down to the Rottweiler stroking his head lightly partially out of fear but smiled as he looked at me, "try not to judge him too badly, I feel like he just needs to learn how to be a pet again. He did protect me and my partner from a snake when we met him."

"Like I said miss, we will do our best."

I was so glad Lucinda didn't come with me to give away the dog, the facility and everything even got me upset thinking how similar to the vets Lucinda took Maxim. It would have crushed her and with the day she's having it would have been just absolutely terrible. I insisted on doing this shit deed because Lu seemed to have her hands full discussing details with her family in Russia about her mum, from the pieces I gathered from the FaceTime I hard parts of some were just as aggressive if not more than Lucinda can be with an enemy.

Hearing her as I got back she changed from Russian to English I picked up that they were fighting in the conference FaceTime over funeral and burial details. Some were very pointed at Lucinda for being named heir to the inheritance and appointed to finalise details. They were angry and vishious not understanding how she was chosen and horribly pointed out how she was the disappointment of the family (for being openly gay). Lucinda wouldn't inniisally let them get away with being assholes pointing out that she had no say in her mothers choices but they all had a duty to respect it even if she may have been appointed out of spite so she would have to deal with all of their shit.

I only caught a little of one of the men's voices and I caught that he was the mothers lawyer. I guessed that he was there to mediate.

Silently and out of frame I refilled Lucinda's wine glass and left her the bottle knowing that she would need it. I didn't want to intrude and wanted to be respectful so I slid over a note,

"I'm going out for a run, I love you baby x."

Flicking her eyes to me she took my my hand keeping her eyes to the scene, saying something as calmly as she could to her family before tilting the laptop camera down and kissing me quickly, pressing me to the counter as she slowed down touching she delicately before leaving a last kiss on my head holding me as she paused listening to the talking in Russian. Shaking her head her eyes narrowed on the back of the laptop, "I'm never going to make you a fucking, Volkov." She whispered getting herself together and fixing her lipstick before hesitating looking at me as I kissed her hand reminding her that I love her and I'll be back for her later.

She doesn't mean she doesn't want to marry me anyone? Right? I asked myself in different variations continuously on my run. And what was with the timing of wanting Ree to come over? Who's going to fly over 20 hours to visit a friend? She'd end up travelling with us the rest of our holidays when it was meant to be just me and Lucinda.

That dog that came into our lives came to mind when I ran past some dog walkers, as much as I hated being afraid of him I really hoped someone could fix him and make a good dog out of him.

"Afternoon," I smiled at another runner thinking they were going to pass me but slowed to a stop under the begola with me.

"Hey there," this tall, athletic, tan girl with long brown hair said sweating and stretching with me giving me a view of her cleavage as she bent over touching her toes with me.

"What are you listening to?" I lifted my head.

"Just top the Australia's top 50 list, I didn't have time to properly set up I only have half an hour while my husbands home for lunch to come out." She rolled her neck and flashed me a smile, "see you around?"