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“Okay if I sit?” he asked.

When she looked up, her eyes met his milk chocolate eyes, and he offered a warm, genuine smile.

“Sure,” Maye said, as welcoming as she could.

“So,” he said as he settled into a spot on the bench, “which one is yours?”

“Well, none, actually.”

“So you just like to sit at the dog park for the atmosphere and the ambiance?”

“No, no…” Maye laughed. “I mean, I am volunteering at the shelter, so the four I have with me today aren’t technically mine.”

“Ah, I see. That’s awesome. What a nice thing to do.”

His dimples appeared when he smiled. This is going pretty well, she thought.

“I have the patchy brown one over there,” he continued. “Bobo’s his name. And he’s not technically mine either. He’s my mother-in-law’s. I just take him out for some exercise a few times a week.”

Ugh, of course he’s married. Maye nearly slumped over at that gut punch. She hadn’t even thought to check for a ring. Her cheeks felt warm. “What a nice thing to do,” she mustered.

“Hey, is that brown guy near the fence one of yours?” he asked.

She looked around and found the chocolate lab. “Yup, that’s Cody.”

“It looks like he’s heaving or getting sick or something,” he said.

“Oh no!” Maye raced towards Cody and, sure enough, there was his pup cup and presumably his breakfast on the ground. “Poor guy,” she said, scratching his ears.

Maye called the shelter to let them know what had happened and they said they could meet her at the park to pick up the dogs. They assured her that this happened occasionally and she shouldn’t worry about it. She got off the phone just as the nice, married man made his way over.

“Here, boy,” the man said as he approached with a small travel water bowl. “I got him a drink in case he wanted a quick rinse.”

“Good thinking,” Maye said. “I called the shelter and they said they would come pick up the dogs so he doesn’t have to walk all the way back. You know, they did say this guy has been on a diet. Maybe the pup cup was a bit too much for him.”

“Uh oh,” the man said. “You said the two magic words.”

His dog Bobo stared at her.

The man lowered his voice to a whisper. “You said pup cup. Bobo could hear those words anywhere. It’s only a matter of time—”

Bobo barked.

“Yup, there it is,” he said. “Well, I think our time here is done. Time to head to Tay’s for a sweet treat.”

“It was nice talking with you…” Maye could recall all the dog’s names but not his.

“Josh,” he said. “It was nice talking with you, too…”

“Maye,” she said.

Josh and Bobo left just as the animal shelter van pulled up. Maye helped load the dogs into their crates in the van and was politely thanked for her service and told that her duties for the day had been fulfilled. She found a bench with a little less dog park ambience to reflect on her box office bust of an afternoon.

It had been an exhausting week, and Maye had gotten pretty good at bargaining with herself. By Saturday evening, she had even talked herself into cooking dinner at home instead of eating out again. A much more financially savvy and health-conscious option. Though, there was a slight negotiation and, as in any negotiation, concessions were made. And so breakfast for dinner was a compromise she was willing to accept.

Maye had planned to enjoy her super-sized stack of chocolate chip pancakes covered in local maple syrup and topped with whipped cream in front of the TV while watching a Marvel movie marathon, but that plan was quickly curtailed when she came across a movie of the week that she could not turn away from: Bargaining at the Bake Sale and with Myself (Part 3 of the If I Had Only… series).

“This week,” the TV announcer said, “Christoffer Robert R. Walker stars as a single dad who volunteers to run the bake sale, but when his flirting tactic of negotiating bake sale item prices results in the bake sale losing money, can he find a way to make it up to the school and the kids? Find out now!”