Alis Gets A Dog

Alis—One year and nine months post-war

“Come on, shh, shh… That’s a good boy! Okay, come in, right in here…”

I hushed and cooed at the sleek, brown, furry little body meandering through my living room. I was desperately trying to get him to quietly (so Sam doesn’t hear) go into my bedroom (so he’s not the first thing Liam sees when he gets home). Everything was going perfectly until he knocked over a lamp. I tried to grab it, missed, and every muscle in my body tensed as it crashed to the floor.

“Alis?” Sam called from the kitchen. I heard the fridge door shut followed by quick footsteps heading towards me. Sam hadn’t been paranoid, necessarily, since we got home, but he was always the first to investigate a strange noise or questionable passerby. Well, unless Liam was home.

“It’s me. I just got here,” I called back to him in the hopes that he’d keep his happy ass in the kitchen long enough for me to complete my task.

He didn’t.

His footsteps grew louder, and I knew he was headed straight for the living room. In a panic, I picked up my new puppy and quickly but gently put him in my bedroom. I stepped into the hall, snapped the door shut behind me, and leaned back against it. As soon as I finished turning around, Sam poked his head around the wall separating the kitchen from the living room. I had a death grip on the doorknob and my back pressed firmly against the door.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah, just fine,” I said. I really was a terrible liar.

He raised an eyebrow at me and nodded to my bedroom door. “You got a secret boyfriend in there or something?”

“No! Of course not, Sam!”

“Right… I know that, of course. Liam would have my head and the guy’s. You’d probably just get a firm spanking.” He threw in a wink for good measure. He stepped around the wall and leaned against it. He crossed his arms over his chest, and I noticed he was using Liam’s favorite spatula. He’d picked it up at some luxury appliance store we stopped in on a whim on our way back from Arlington. I think he was hoping it would take my mind off Bob. It had worked for a while.

Blush flared hot across my cheeks. It never used to affect me when he made implications like that, but he replicated my sex noises a little too well once… I asked him if he heard us, and he said, “Hey, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Although I’m buying my own whipped cream from now on.”

That incident happened the week before, and I still hadn’t recovered.

“I wouldn’t do that to Liam,” I said finally.

“I know, I know, Wonderland. Jeez, untwist your panties. I’m sure it’s just a slutty outfit or something that you don’t want me to—”

The rest of his sentence was cut off by a tiny, adorable, ill-timed bark.

I pressed my lips into a firm line and my eyes widened of their own accord. I prayed he didn’t hear it. I prayed hard and long, but…

“Alis… Have you been to the pound today?”

“Of course… You know I volunteer there almost every Thursday.” It was a pretty standard addition to my routine, and I’d added it almost immediately after my new therapist suggested it.

“Uh huh. Did you maybe not leave alone today?”

Another little bark pierced the following silence.

“What gives you that impression?” I asked as innocently as I could.

Sam pointed the spatula at me. “Liam told you not to get a dog, right? Didn’t y’all just talk about that?”

“We didn’t just talk about it,” I said firmly. “We talked about it, like, three months ago. Around the same time he told you to keep your hands off his fancy ass spatula.”

“Hey,” he said, holding up his hands. “I can wash the spatula, and he’ll never know. I think he’ll notice a furry little mongrel tripping him up every time he goes to grab a snack.”

“He is not a mongrel!” I cried.

“So you did get a dog?” A wide grin spread slowly across his face as the silence stretched on.

I bit my cheek when I realized I fell into the trap Sam had so obviously laid at my feet. Not that he’d needed it; the little fella was still yapping away from the other side of my door.

“He’s obviously going to know about it, Sam. I just wanted to have some time to ease him into it. You know, make sure he had a good day at work and everything before I tell him—”

I snapped my mouth shut at the sound of the front door opening.

“Tell me what?” Liam said as he stepped through the front door.

“Sweetheart!” I filled my voice with honey as I ran to him and locked my arms around his neck. “You’re home early! How was your day?”

“Where’s the dog, Al?” he asked without a second thought. I could feel Sam smirking behind me.

“What dog?”

Another yip cut through the air.

“I tell you what,” Liam said before kissing me. “You go get the dog out of the bedroom. Bring him to me in the backyard in about fifteen minutes. I’d like to be done shoving my spatula up Sam’s ass before he comes outside.”

Sam’s face flushed with red when he realized he was still holding the spatula. He tucked it behind his back and tiptoed back into the kitchen as he said, “Aw, come on, man. She did something wrong, too. Focus on that! Don’t you want to spank her or something?”

“You might want to refrain from talking about my fiancé’s ass, Sunshine.”

“Hey, hey, woah, why are using callsigns?” Sam backed away more quickly, and I followed because… hell, I didn’t want to miss anything.

“Why are you talking about her ass? Why are you using my spatula?” Liam said, still stalking toward Sam. Sam stopped when he hit the corner of the counter. Liam didn’t. “There’s a lot of questions that need answering today, huh?”

“Alis has a secret boyfriend, too!” Sam cried out in desperation when Liam kept closing in.

Liam raised an eyebrow at him, but he had no other reaction. He knew better. When Sam was in grabbing distance, Liam reached for him. Sam ducked, but Liam was faster. I couldn’t help the laughter that erupted from me as Liam put Sam in a headlock and scruffed his hair until Sam called for mercy. Liam let him go, but I noticed he’d regained possession of his spatula.

“Go get the mutt, Al,” he said to me, pointing in the general direction of our bedroom with said spatula.

I scowled a bit for the “mutt” comment, but I followed his command. In no more than ten minutes, Liam and Sam were both sitting in the floor playing with my dog. I’d barely even gotten to pet him, and he’d already been hijacked.

I didn’t really mind. I hopped up onto the counter to watch my hopes unfold. I’d fallen in love with him at the shelter, but more than that, the boys needed something to bring them some joy. I also made sure to take plenty of pictures of the three of them playing in case I needed blackmail material when the puppy inevitably had to go out in the middle of the night. After half an hour, Liam finally got up and stood between my legs. Sam continued playing and did his best to ignore us.

“Does he have a name?” Liam asked as he placed his hands on my hips.

“Bob,” I said.

His eyes immediately welled, and I watched him struggle to force the tears back. Sam had gone still as well.

“Did you…” His voice cracked and then trailed off.

I fought back the tears in my own eyes as I shook my head. “That was the name his old owners gave him. When he dropped off last week… I knew it had to be him. I had to wait on them to give him his shots and run all his tests, but I knew he was coming home with me.”

Sam loudly cleared his throat and announced, “I’m gonna call you Bingo.”

“You cannot call him that!” I screeched.

“Why not?”

“Seriously, Sam? ‘And Bingo was his name-o.’ Ring any bells?”

“Nope. His name is Bingo.”

“Oh my God,” I groaned. I flopped my head onto Liam’s chest. He chuckled and stroked my hair.

“You’re going to let him have this one, aren’t you?” Liam whispered. I nodded into his shirt. “Good. And thank you.”

He kissed the top of my head as Sam continued playing with Bob in the floor.