FicWad

To overdosedboy because his enthusiasm over my reviews is as cute as Dax.






L i k e a d o g w i t h a b o n e




The next morning Joe was up at a fairly early hour. At least for Trohman standards. At half past 9 he was strolling through the park with Dax. Caroline had showed him how he could make the beagle stay by his heel. The trick was holding a doggie treat at about hip height which made the dog stay as close as possible to his owner. Or rather, to the snack.

Every now and then Joe would give Dax the treat, praise him verbally and pet his head. At first he felt a bit awkward about repeating "heel" and "heel, Dax" over and over again but the people around him didn't find this particularly odd (most of them were used to the freaky old homeless lady who was having conversations about Wittgenstein's language philosophy and seedless grapes with the pigeons by the artifical pond) so the man eventually loosened up and actually started to enjoy being a dog trainer. We will let him refer to himself as that for now if it makes him feel good about himself.

After they had walked around for a while Joe decided to try out the tricks that Carl had practiced with his dog yesterday. Dax was rather reluctant to lower his butt to the ground, let alone lie down. There was a squirrel busy with picking up a nut a few feet away from them. The beagle started barking excitedly and wagging his tail in delight at the potential playmate/ breakfast.

While his owner was tugging at the leash from the one side, he pulled from the other and tried to press his feet as hard onto the ground as possible so as not to lose his stance and be pulled further towards the man who obviously didn't have the slightest clue about interesting acquaintances one could make in the park. (Unlike Joe, Dax had already forgotten about Brenda.)

Finally Joe saw that, despite his commanding and then pleading, the puppy wouldn't voluntarily return to his heel in a situation like this. So he made a few steps towards him, shortening the leash as he went so that Dax couldn't advance towards the rodent, which, by the way, wasn't very impressed by the barking since it had met the freaky old homeless lady who was having conversations about Wittgenstein's language philosophy and seedless grapes with the pigeons by the artifical pond. Then he grabbed Dax by his collar and softly turned him towards himself.

"Dax. Boy, you gotta listen to me. You're making me look like a fool, ignoring what I'm telling you. So when I tell you 'heel' you need to by at my heel, capice?"

"Actually, that looked kinda cute there," a voice said behind the man.

Still crouching, he turned around to find Brenda in shorts, a tank top and running shoes. Her face was slightly heated. But that was the result of her jog through the park, Joe, and not because she had checked out your ass as you knelt down to grab your disobedient dog.

Dax barked at the sight of Wesley who eyed the puppy suspiciously. The greyish lab was well-mannered and quite patient but there was something about puppies that made him feel uneasy sometimes. Maybe it was the fact that the ventured to play with his tail.

"Dax! Stop grabbing... the other dog's tail!" Joe exclaimed, ashamed about the bad behavior of his own dog, especially in comparison to the lab who just sat there, permitting the younger one to fool around, but didn't look too delighted about it.

"Wesley's the name," Brenda reminded the man, watching the scene amusedly.

"Right," Joe said. "Stop harrassing Wesley, Dax!" Then he tugged at the leash and Dax yelped before he returned to Joe's side.

"Whoops," the man thought. "That came out rougher than I wanted." He bent down to stroke the beagle to apologize. Dax had already forgiven him and slobbered all over his hand.

Brenda giggled, "Obviously not one to hold a grudge, your Dax."

"Yeah," Joe smiled widely. "He's awesome... We still gotta work on the me master, he dog thing though."

"Well, I'm sure you'll manage. If you need help-"

"Actually I got help from..." Joe stopped in mid-sentence, mentally slapping his forehead for ruining his chances of getting to know this gorgeous woman better through his honest ignorance of dog training.

Brenda looked a little taken aback, "Good for you then."

The man called himself various names inside of his head and tried to make the best of the situation, "So... I still owe you that coffee for bringing back Dax, the Runaway."

Her lips curled into a smile again, "You do?"

"Please, don't make me beg for it," Joe thought. He nodded, his curly fro bobbing up and down a little. Clearly Brenda found that funny for she smirked.

"How about later today? I have to head home, shower and get ready for work," the female suggested.

"That would be just about perfect. Let's say... 8 PM? And let's make that a drink instead of coffee, ok?"

"Sure," she agreed. "Meet you at exactly this spot at 8 then."

"You betcha," Joe replied.

"Let's head home, Wes," Brenda glanced at her dog. "Have a good day, Joe. See ya later!" And with that she jogged away, personified grace on two legs.

"Two very attractive and nicely tanned legs," Joe clarified in his thoughts.

Since the only legs Dax cared about were his own ones and his legs wanted to go home, the dog let out a bark and caught his owner's attention.



-



Around ten o'clock in the morning Carl turned the key that Joe had given her the previous day and opened the door to the Trohman residence. She saw Dax jumping up and down in joy of seeing her behind the glass door. His friendly bark made her heart skip a beat. She also spied the yellow sheet that the dog's owner had attached to the handle with sticky tape.

She yanked it off, put her laptop case on the floor and opened the door to greet the energetic beagle. His tongue headed straight for her face, his paws on her thighs as she was crouching.

"I had no idea men could kiss that well," she giggled while she ran her hands through his short hair. After a good five minutes of back scratching and tummy rubbing (Carl scratching and rubbing Dax, just to make sure), she got up and grabbed her laptop.

"Come on, little charmer," she walked into the living room, followed by the puppy. "Let's see what you recall from yesterday."

Before she worked with the dog, however, she had a look at Joe's note:
Carl,
Please make yourself at home and help yourself to anything you desire in the kitchen.
I walked Dax this morning because you said he should be taken out two times a day. You would help me a great deal if you went outside with him again later.
I'm not sure when I will be back home but in case you're gone when I get back: Thank you again for doing this.
Joe

P.S.: I put your money on the kitchen counter. I hope that's enough for the rest of the week.


"What a dork," Caroline said grinning and looked at Dax who was currently chewing on his colorful little ball at her feet.

"Let's get to work, buddy," she addressed him cheerfully.

A good two hours later she set her laptop aside and got up form the couch which she had declared her working space in the alien environment. Her own apartment was by no means comparable to Joe's house. She loved her home though. Most of the furniture and appliances where either white or black which made her two dogs blend magnificently with everything.

"You're a freak, you know that?" her lover had told her when first setting foot into her apartment.

"It took this freak several years to acquire all the stuff you see in here," Carl had shot back. She loved it.

The woman glanced at the beagle who was sleeping peacefully in his basket. He learned really fast and was wonderful to work with. Then she decided to have a look around this place. She didn't dare to go upstairs but shuffled through the living room with its huge flat screen TV ("Looks mighty fancy but the resolution is crap.") that faced the massive couch she had previousls sat on, its numerous expensive looking carpets ("Very smart when you have a little puppy.") and mostly green, blue and purple modern art on the walls.

She found the dining room, equipped with an impressive dark brown table and bulky chairs. Something that must be a game room, another huge TV and multiple game consoles. Hundreds of games.

"And I'm the one that's called a freak," she sighed and shook her head.

There were more rooms waiting for her to explore but her attention was drawn to a big sliding glass door that led from the game room into the garden. She stepped outside and gasped at the dimensions of the green surface expaning before her eyes.

"Dax is one lucky dude," she thought.

One moment later she felt something small and quick graze her right leg and saw the beagle running into the garden at top speed. She laughed and sped after him. After they had finished a short game of tag, Carl picked up the various toys that lay all over the lawn and was being her tomboy self with the lively puppy.

Half an hour later both of them lay panting in the grass, looking happy. While Dax preferred to stay outside and enjoy the sun, Caroline headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water.

On the kitchen counter she found three 100 dollar bills and narrowed her eyes at them.

"He's paying me a hundred bucks a day to crash at his luxury place and have fun with his dog? I'm really not the freak here," she told herself. Then she felt her pockets for her money, grabbed two of the bills and put a 50 next to the remaining 100.

When she turned around to the sink she found another of Joe's surprises. Right next to the sink stood a can of dog food labeled 'Carl' and a small cardboard box labeled 'Dax'. In the box was a blueberry muffin.

"Very funny, Joe," she smirked. That guy was definitely a dork.

He had gotten the muffin on his way back home from the park. Unfortunately, he didn't know that Carl hated blueberries. So she might, in fact, have preferred the dog food.




-




When Joe finally got home he was in such a hurry that he almost tripped over Dax who had been awaiting his daddy patiently ever since Carl had left an hour ago.

"Hey, Dax!" the man yelled and ran upstairs to shower and change. The beagle rushed after him but was faced with an insurmountable obstacle in the form of the closed bathroom door. This was clearly cheating on the human's part.

Joe had been held a prisoner at the studio much longer than he had expected. Well, frankly that had been his own fault. Due to his concentration problems (thinking of Brenda in her sports outfit) he hadn't been his guitar god self and everything had taken a while longer than planned.

Out of the shower, Joe almost tripped over Dax once again, who barked as a reply to his owner's reckless and unacceptable behavior.

"Sorry, little dude," the man muttered softly and petted his head before hitting his bedroom to get dressed.

Less than 20 minutes and a "Bye, Dax!" (who had in the meantime retreated to his basket and ignored his unfaithful owner) later, Joe finally arrived at the place where he and Brenda had met earlier today. Not long after that she joined him.

The slender female almost took his breath away in her backless black dress. Only it wasn't soaked to the skin. Nor was it backless or actually black. More of a red skirt and a blouse to match.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi. You look stunning," Joe replied. Of course, she did. I've called her into being to play pool with your hormones, Joseph.

She smiled and suggested a bar near-by.

Half an hour later the two of them were having a heated debate over either Wittgenstein's language philosophy or seedless grapes, I can't keep track of everything that's going on, sorry, when Brenda's cell phone went off.

Joe watched her grab it out of her purse and didn't like the delighted look on her face when she check for the caller ID on the display. Neither did he like the extremely cheerful tone in her voice when she answered, "Why, hello there! I've been thinking of you all day!"

Was there competition to rule out? Maybe he should mention that he played guitar in an extremely successful band? And that he could touch the tip of his nose with his tongue?

Suddenly his ears told his brain to calm down for it was a female voice on the other end of Brenda's phone. Chill man, s'all good.

"Sorry about that," his date (I am generous today) apologized. "I've just really been waiting for this call."

"Nah, that's alright," Joe employed his dorky charms and winked. "Girlfriends gotta keep in touch."

"Exactly," Brenda smiled. "So, Joe... What do you do for a living?"

The time had come to impress this chick with his band. He had more luck with that this time for Brenda had at least really heard of Fall Out Boy before, it was just not her scene.

"So what is your scene?"

"Electronic stuff mostly. Dance music," she replied quickly. "I love to dance my ass off to the pumping beats in a club all night long."

Joe tried to hide his disgust when he asked, "Techno?"

"I prefer to call it 'electro' really," she stuck her tongue out.

In the course of the evening the man learned that Brenda worked as a fitness instructor so it was really part of her job to stay in shape. And to have bad taste in music.

When they said good night at about 11 PM Joe didn't receive a kiss but at least he scored her phone number.

"See you in the park soon," Brenda said before she got into her car that guitar man had escorted her to.

"Yes, see you soon. Good night."

Stop staring after the car, Joe, and get your butt to Dax.