Written By Brad Harness
Mark Bixby tugged on the leash, once again frustrated that his wee doggie Jocko was making him late for work.
“Come on…come on, Jocko…daddy’s got to get to the office. Otherwise daddy will have Hell to pay!”
They moved along the street now, Jocko sniffing his way along on his short legs and Bixby looking up just in time to slow his pace, with a similar-aged woman colliding into him on the sidewalk.
“Oh, I am sorry…” he told her.
She stood there wiping coffee off her blouse, staring down at the Starbucks grande cup draining its last revitalizing liquid into the storm sewer by the curb that morning.
She looked up at the fellow and smiled. “I’m Francine,” she said, extending her hand.
He shook it, and replied, “Mark.”
Mark began to apologize for bumping into her.
Mark couldn’t know it but everything that had happened had been precisely to her plan. Francine had come out as soon as she saw Mark out there walking, and she snatched up the remains of her coffee - which she had bought earlier - to give the image of a busy woman heading to the office in the morning.
“I should’ve paid more attention to things around me…ya see, it’s Jocko here…” he explained, nodding towards the dog.
“He’s always making me late for work whenever I take him for his morning walk.”
She squatted down and petted his head. “Gosh! He’s such a cutie…”
Truth be told, she hated dogs.
Standing, she added, “I’m heading this way…”, motioning in his direction. Surprise, surprise.
He smiled and said, “Well then, shall we walk together for a bit?”
“Let’s!” she said and she dropped her empty cup into a neighbour’s blue bin. And then off they went, unaware that Mark’s wife Julia was standing at her bay window, sipping her morning tea, watching her husband walk off with this neighbour woman, whom she recalled seeing a few times in the past.
“I think she’s single…” she said aloud, as her daughter Isabel, 9, and then son, Mason, 6, entered the living room.
“Mummy, what’s daddy doing walking with that strange woman?”
Julia sighed.
“Oh, he’s just being polite. You know your daddy, he is the politest man I know. Polite to a fault.”
Next Week: Part 3
