Unlucky in Love

“I’m the worst mother ever,” I murmured, holding Emma tightly in my arms as we waited on news about Poppy. “We shouldn’t have gone and left her.”

“We didn’t know this was going to happen,” he pointed out.

The vet came out and smiled. “Mom and puppies are doing just fine,” she said.

“Puppies?” Dominic and I asked in different tones. Mine was one of hostility.

“That’s usually what happens when dogs get pregnant.” The vet said.

“How the hell did she get pregnant?” I hissed. I knew the doctor would have no answer but the obvious—and Dominic and Daveigh looked like they were keeping their mouths shut. “How did this happen?” I asked, focusing now on Dominic.

“I may have let her off the leash once or twice and she ran off—so it could’ve happened that way.” He said, not looking at me.

I sighed and looked down at Emma. I was so livid at that moment that my baby was the only thing keeping my head on straight. “How many are there?”

“Seven,” the vet said.

“Oh, God,” I muttered. “What are they?”

Everyone stared at me—especially the other people in the waiting room.

The vet looked uneasy. “They all seem to be Golden Retrievers, so I don’t think there’s any other mix in there.”

“When can we take Poppy home?” I asked, well aware that I didn’t even mention the puppies. I didn’t want more.

“Tonight, if you’d like. Just know that puppies have to stay with the mother until eight weeks.”

“And when can we get her fixed? I don’t want this happening again.” I was the only one talking, and I preferred it that way. I was too mad at the twin idiots right now.

Dominic sighed. “Why don’t we get your tubes tied?” he suggested.

I glared at him.

“I’m just saying—you don’t want puppies, and I don’t another Emma to happen again.” He told me, and he knew he hit a very raw nerve. “Do you know how you sounded, Em?” he asked. “You sounded like a total bitch, so just shut the hell up and deal with it.”

The doctor looked really uneasy now.

“It might be best if you let her be until the puppies are weaned, and then we can take care of the surgery.”

“Fine. I just want my dog.”

* * *

I sat on the floor next to Poppy’s bed, which now had a gate around it so the little white gold rats would stay in. Poppy had her head in my lap and whined while said rats were feeding from her.

“I know how that feels,” I reassured her, stroking the top of her head and ear. Her buttery golden eyes stared at me in a pleading way. “You’ll get your figure back, I promise.” I said, and she rested her head back onto my thigh.

“Ember, she’ll be fine. Just leave her alone.”

I glared at him. “Will you still say that if Emma gets knocked up when she’s, say, thirteen?”

Dominic knelt down next to me and pet Poppy behind her ear. She whined again. “That’s a hell of a lot different, Ember. Poppy’s a dog. They’re supposed to have puppies.”

“And girls are supposed to have babies.” I retorted. “I’m sorry if I’m acting like a total bitch as you so eloquently put it, but Poppy is like my baby, and I don’t want her to have puppies—not yet anyway.”

“There’s nothing you can do about it now.” he told me, picking up the runt of the litter. It was one of the five girls, and she was the smallest and the lightest in color.

She’d probably end up being the cutest, and probably the most like Poppy when she got bigger.

I stroked the puppy’s head with my finger and it whined and squirmed. Poppy’s head twitched up instinctively and barked at us, thinking we were hurting her.

Dominic set the puppy down next to her and the puppy squirmed her way through to Poppy.

* * *

Emma and I were watching the first season of MTV’s “Laguna Beach”, and I realized that Kristin Cavallari was even more of a bitch back then, and that I still totally love Lauren.

Heidi is a total dumb ass though.

Who the hell gets ten plastic surgeries in one day?

“Do you have school today?” I asked Dominic when he came downstairs.

He nodded and put his books and laptop into his bag. “I’ll be home around four. Do you want me to pick up something for dinner?”

“Sure, thanks.” Dominic bent and kissed me and then kissed Emma’s forehead.

“You know what you should do today?” I looked at him, waiting for him to continue. “Try to be nice to the puppies. You’re starting to act like Cruella DeVil.”

I glanced over at Poppy and the mongrels. Blondie was still being pushed out of the way by her bully siblings. I had only bonded with two puppies in the last week and a half that they’ve been here, and that’s Blondie and one of the boys I named Cooper.

“It’s hard when I only like two,” I said, sounding like an eight-year-old brat that didn’t get the right color pony for her birthday.

Emma pouted, wanting to be put down. I set her down, and she stumbled over to the puppy gate. She looked up at Dominic with her big blue eyes.

Even at eight months old she had Daddy wrapped around her little chubby finger.

Dominic went over and lifted her into the gate, where she practically fell onto the bed next to Poppy. I got up and went in, ready to beat them away if they crowded Emma.

God, I really was Cruella DeVil.

Their eyes had opened a couple of days ago, and Cooper made his way over to Emma and licked her finger. She giggled. I picked up Blondie and held her, and she started to nuzzle my hair and the back of my neck.

The other five were mean to Cooper and Blondie—probably because they knew that if I kept any of them, it would be either Cooper or Blondie or even both.

“So I’ll see you later?” Dominic asked, kneeling down.

“See you later.” We kissed again before he left, and then I was stuck with the mutts.