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“Are you going to judge me or are you going to help?”
Dammit, I loved that dog. Even if I was mad at Leo, I wasn’t going to do anything to keep Bagel from him.
“Let me get my jacket,” I said.
* * *
I don’t know where I expected things to go when I first met the sexy doctor, but staking out his ex-girlfriend’s house to steal her dog was not on my Bingo card.
“So what are we doing once she leaves?” I asked.
“It’s not an elaborate heist,” Leo said. “We wait for her to leave. Once she does, I go in, grab Bagel, and head out. Simple.”
The way he answered made it seem like a stupid question, but how elaborate did it need to be? This wasn’tMission: Impossible; it was rescuing a dog.
We waited in my car outside the house and down the block. I thought maybe he should lower his seat or put on a hat and sunglasses, though maybe that would only make us look more conspicuous.
“And then I change the tags to my name as soon as possible.”
Despite the simplicity, I had a million questions. “Are you sure she’s going to leave?” I asked. “Are we going to be here all night?”
“Nah,” he said. “She’s got gym class. Give her an hour and she’ll head out.”
“You sure? I’m not like you. If I need to pee, I can’t just whip it out and go behind a bush or something.”
He ignored me, as he was still fixated on the house. True to his word, though, she pulled out of the garage within the next twenty minutes.
“Okay,” he told me. “Wait here.”
I have to say, even for what this was, his approach struck me as overly simple. Rather than go in through the back, he went straight to the front door. He entered his code, but it didn’t work. After three tries, it became clear that it wasn’t him messing up — his ex must have changed the code. Leo went around the back of the house and I could no longer keep an eye on him, so I stood watch instead. This, by the way, was extremely boring. It was just like it had been a few moments earlier when we were waiting for Hannah to leave, but now I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I pulled out my phone to play my word game to kill time, but as I did so, I saw the garage door open and started the car, expecting Leo to be coming out.
Leo wasn’t coming out. Hannah was coming back in.
Shit, I thought.
She had approached from the other side of the street, and I didn’t see her at first, but now it was too late. Leo was trapped inside — if he’d even gotten inside yet. I had to let him know.
I pulled out my phone to call him but realized that would just make his ringtone go off and alert Hannah that he was there. My only other option was to act fast and try to buy him some time.
There had to be something I could do. Looking around the car, I found a clipboard in the back with some notes from work.
Great, I thought and pulled it out. I turned off the car and ran over to the house, ringing the doorbell and waiting, hoping that she’d come to the door.
I rang it again, and when I saw her through the window, I waved and smiled at her.
She was very pretty — though she was in gym clothes, she certainly made an effort on her appearance before going out. Her hair was on point with a striking purple highlight, and her face was immaculately made up. If I had to guess, I’d say she put more effort into going to the gym than I did in going to work every day.
Though she also had a nasty case of RBF — resting bitch face — but I probably could have predicted that from what Leo had told me about her.
Hannah opened the door. “Can I help you?” she asked, though it wasn’t a question so much as it was a thinly veiled way of her saying, “Go away and quit wasting my time.”
I looked behind her into the house to see if I could spot Leo, though I couldn’t. Bagel, however, was lying on the ground, either asleep or bored. The second she saw me, she shot up and began wagging her tail, racing over in my direction.
Go away, Bagel, I thought. There’s no way for Leo to get you if you’re right here.
“Hi,” I said, putting on my best smile and ignoring her subtext. “I’m here on behalf of… err… the California Wildlife Protection Committee. We’re a non-profit focused on conserving native California species who are in danger of becoming extinct due to… umm… increased urbanization and resource mismanagement.”
She was not impressed, which is to say that I think she was buying it.
