The Chaser

Chapter 11

Taylor's POV
Monday Morning
*11:54 am* is the time that comes up in my phone when I wake up and turn it on. I really didn't have a long sleep. We left the airport around 11:38am and now we are about to arrive at a car dealership. My mouth feels disgusting and I'm so hungry. I open my bag and take out a bag with my chewing gum stash, opening a packet and throwing a piece in my mouth. This tastes amazing and I'm beginning to miss the person who introduced me to this phenomenon. Great, I'm starting to miss Harry. I have around $100 worth of Extra Strawberry gum which I bought when we made our last shopping trip to our local Woollies. I didn't know if America would have my favourite flavoured chewing gum so I'm quite happy with my purchase, despite how much money I had spent.

We arrive at the Airport Marina Ford car dealership and we step out of the cab, picking up all of our luggage from the boot and we begin dragging them towards the reception. A tall, lanky man in a navy blue suit that fits him perfectly, opens the door and greets my father and I. "Hello, how are you today?" His voice sounds as smooth as melted dark chocolate. "We are great today. How are you?" My father answers. "I'm good. Are you from Australia?" He questions us, pausing before talking again. "The accent gives it away." He says with a pearly white grin. "Yes, we are from New South Wales in Australia." My father answers, reciprocating a smile back at the charming sales assistant. "What car were you looking to see today, sir." The sales assistant asks. "I was looking at your website and was wondering about the F-150 Lariat." My father answers him. The sales assistant smiles at us again and this time our eyes make contact and seem to lock. His eyes are very nice and they remind me of Harry. I quickly look to the ground and try to dismiss the distracting thoughts that are making my cheeks flame.

I become distracted throughout the process of buying a new car. All of the words spoken during the conversation between my father and the sales assistant, goes through one ear and out the other. My father keeps looking at me weirdly due to the dazed expression, that I know would be shown on my face. He doesn't question me until we are outside and about to get into our new car. We pack all of our luggage into the ute of the car. It's beautiful, it really is. The car looks so sleek because of the black paint? I wish I could drive already. I could have gotten my drivers licence in Australia but there was no point because my father drove me everywhere anyway. I also need a job. I wish that I could work in a pet store. I wonder how Jet is.

"Holy sh*t!" I yell and the sound resonates throughout the car. My father turns to face me with a weird expression. "What's wrong this time, Tay?" He asks in a gentle tone. "Where's Jet?" My father's face pales and he suddenly grabs his phone but then puts it back down. "Why aren't you going to call anyone?" I ask with a confused expression across my face. "I need to get a new phone plan because they terminated my Australian number." He answers, his face crinkled up with worry for the puppy that he denies loving and caring for, even though I know deep down, Jet is his favourite animal that he's ever owned. "I was able to text Freddy though and I'm pretty sure it delivered." I state very seriously. "I'll quickly run back into that dealership and ask if I could use their phone. You wait here." My father orders.

I watch as he runs into the dealership and a few minutes later, I see him opening the door and running with the attractive sales assistant behind him. They both get into the car after I move from the front passenger seat into the left back seat. The assistant sits in the front seat with my father in the seat next to him and he turns the key and begins to drive. "Dad, why aren't you driving?" I ask quietly. He turns to face me and then answers, "I realised that I can't drive here because I need to get a new license." That makes a lot of sense. "Oh." I reply. As we drive back towards the airport, I wonder about how Jet would be feeling at the moment. Would he be frightened on his own at the airport? Would he think that we abandoned him? Do dogs even think about this stuff? There are so many questions that keep on popping up in my head that I don't even realise that I'm still sitting in the back of the car and that my father has gone into the entrance to the arrivals terminal.

The sales assistant is looking at me with a worried expression so I smile at him. "Are you okay, miss?" He asks me with a smile. "I'm just a bit worried about my puppy, he might be really frightened without me." I answer, my smile drooping and my eyebrows scrunching closer together in worry. "How long has my dad been gone? I didn't realise that he left the car." I admit. The sales assistant chuckles at my remark and takes his time to answer. "He's been gone for like 15 minutes." He says and I begin to giggle at my lack of observation. "What's so funny?" He asks, looking at me as if he is cautiously assessing my behaviour. "I'm usually good at observing things but lately I've been getting really distracted by my thoughts that I don't notice things that I usually would." I say and make direct contact with the man's eyes, accidentally. He smiles really genuinely at me and I reciprocate it. "What's your name?" He asks me. "My name is Taylor." I answer. "Interesting." He mumbles. "What's interesting?" I say with a frown. "Well, to be honest, you don't look like a Taylor. You look more like a Jessica." He replied cautiously. "I actually get that quite often. It's kind of strange. What's your name?" I said not bothering to realise that he had a name tag on the right side of his chest. "My name is Bryce." He answered. "Interesting." I said with a grin that was reciprocated by Bryce.

Suddenly there was a knock on the car door. I looked out of the window and saw my father holding an overexcited Jet. Jet began squealing and wriggling in my dad's arms at the sight of me. I hopped out and squealed along with Jet as I grabbed him and hugged him tightly to my chest, tears of happiness spilling down my cheeks. "Come on honey, let's go back to the car dealership and then we can go home." My father said with a massive smile that spread across his face. I smiled back at him as Jet licked my cheek and we began to laugh as we got back into the car, where Bryce had a happy smile. "Why are you smiling?" I asked with curiosity lighting up my voice. "It's not everyday that I get to witness people getting reunited with their puppies that they accidentally forgot at the airport." He banters with his toothy grin. I smiled back at him again as my father began to drive, Jet happily lying on my legs. I'm in such a great mood right now and I hope that it never goes away.

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the delay when uploading this chapter, life has just been really hectic and there are so many assessments that we need to complete and a lot of studying that we need to do. Thank you for reading, voting for and supporting our book, we really appreciate it. We hope that you enjoy this chapter.
Love,
Lis and El xx