You & I

I share an apartment with 2 other people. It's a livable situation, and we get along the best that we can. But like any cohabiting situation some of the things they do annoys the crap out of me.

- Like how Bobby plays dubstep super loud when he's getting ready for work in the morning. To someone who has ears are highly tuned to classic rock, this is a continual cycle of bass pounding nonsense. I can't even tell when one 'song' ends and another begins. It all sounds the same!

Ok so maybe this wouldn't annoy me so much if I had a regular job with regular hours. But my situation means that if I'm working an event it can be well into the am region when I finally stumble in to bed.

Then there's the cleaning situation.

Bobby thinks it's ok to clean twice a month. Helen has more sense as she gets to it at least twice a week, but their idea of cleaning is not the same as mine. I think moving in with these two triggered a mild form of OCD in me when it comes to cleaning. Sometimes I find myself re-washing glasses that one of them has just put away as clean, because they still have visible finger marks on them.

My biggest pet peeve? When people don't take responsibility for things.
Cue the whining at my bedroom door which was impossible to ignore. I rolled off the bed with a groan. I opened the door to find Fudge sitting outside, caramel tail thudding against the carpet.

This adorable springer spaniel belongs to my irresponsible roommate Helen. She seems to conveniently forget that a dog needs to be walked everyday and not just when she's on a health kick.

Knowing what a sucker I am, Fudge always finds me. And I always cave.

It was later in the day than I usually walked Fudge. And this just so happened to be prime dog walking time. I took the long way to the park and walked around for sometime before I chanced letting Fudge off the leash. My reward is the amusing site I can look forward to when Fudge bounds around like the canine version of a crazed Russian hamster.

When my cellphone started vibrating in my pocket I knew it would be Cooper with some exaggerated emergency. One that he didn't really need my help with, but expected me to be there immediately.

Some day off this turned out to be.

Behind me there was some commotion and I groaned aloud. I had turned away for just a second...

"Fudge!" I sprinted over to the chaotic scene. A young woman stood horrified, while her boyfriend or whatever tried to pry Fudge off their golden retriever.
"Oh God I'm so sorry!" I literally picked Fudge up and moved him away, loosing him just enough so that I could snap the leash on. Fudge struggled against the the restraint, wanting to finish what he had started.

This is the reason I don't walk the little shit at peak times - he has these odd days where he will try to hump every female dog in sight - and the occasional human leg. Never mine, thank fully but that's probably just because I can distract him with food.

I gave the couple a weak smile. "I really am sorry."

Geez this was so embarrassing. They weren't even the type of people who could laugh about this kind of situation, and looked from Fudge to me in disgust.

I struggled pulling him in the opposite direction. Past a couple of runners, some guys throwing a ball and more people out walking their dogs. I didn't fail to notice the look of amusement on the face of a teenager, or the inquisitive little boy asking his mom a hundred questions about what had just happened. Ok, I'll take the embarrassing humping dog over explaining the birds and the bees to a kid.

"Hey Dino girl!"

"Dino girl?"
It was slightly surreal to see Chris Evans jogging up to me. Please don't let him have seen Fudge being a horn-dog-

"I never got your name," he flashed a broad smile, "and I wanted to thank you, that T-Rex thing totally helped with the nerves."

"I'm glad." I smiled back, and realized I was nodding my head for no apparent reason. I wasn't particularly familiar with situations like this, let alone when faced with what I definitely consider a good-looking celebrity, who by some miracle seemed to remember who I was.
"I'm Grace."

"Chris." He bent down, "And who's this?" He fussed over the spaniel running around my feet.

"Fudge." Maybe he hadn't seen-

"He's real friendly," he straightened up, that huge grin back on his face.

"Oh geez you did see!" My free hand flew up to shield my blushing face. "He doesn't do it all the time, and he is neutered -well kind of, the vet fecked up and somehow left him with half a ball-" I managed to stop myself from rambling on down that path. "He's not even technically my dog, he belongs to one of my roommates but she only remembers to walk him once in a blue moon."

He chuckled, "Man, do you ramble."

"It's a condition."
My cell vibrated in my pocket again. A stressed Cooper is not a pleasant Cooper. "I have to go."

I could swear I almost saw his face fall. Almost. "Well like I said, I just wanted to thank you."

"Don't mention it," I shrugged, wondering why he was still talking to me after he had given his apology and witnessed Fudge at his best. Oh maybe that was it, it was amusing to watch me squirm. "I have to go..."

"I'll see you around?"

"Sure." I called back as I walked towards the exit.

Yeah, sure. Like hell you will.