Sudden change (30)
Grace
“What's up?” A familiar voice asked me. I raised my eyebrows and crossed my hands across my chest.
“Are you stalking me?” I asked him. Ethan crossed the door and entered the pet shop, smiling. He shrugged.
“You'll never know.” He said and I shook my head at his remark. Seriously, this guy will never stop from his jokes and sarcasm.
“Seriously, what are you doing here?” I asked him.
“He's volunteering here for the same reason as you are. To help me clean this place and feed dogs.” She said and I nodded my head. Ethan came to my side and stood beside me.
“Enough of this talk. Now, start working. We have a long day to work, and we're just getting started. Oh, and change your clothes.” She said.
“Don't worry. You both will get treats from me. Now let's go.” She said, smiling as she gave us gloves and a mask. Then she handed over a cleaning cloth and cleaning spray. She led us to a room that was filled with barking noises, pooping smell and different types of dogs who were staring at us. There were every type of dog. Literally, the most famous breeds and it ranged from puppies to the oldest dogs. One of the dogs was chasing his own tail. One puppy was scratching its ear with his leg. But most of them were barking loudly.
“They're cute but loud.” I remarked, smiling a little.
“Pick one for yourself.” Ethan said. I frowned at him.
“Do you ever talk without being mean?” I asked.
“Come on now. I'm not being mean. I was just suggesting. Anyway, start cleaning.” He said.
And then… we got to work.
I started by cleaning crates of small puppies and then went on to do it for more adult dogs. In the middle of the cleaning, Ethan spoke.
“So. Do you usually come here to help?” He asked.
“No. I don't usually come here for help but I do help whenever I can.” I said.
“Hmm. Seems like you're a busy person.” He replied. I hesitated.
“I guess you can say that.” I said. I needed to change the topic. It was going in the wrong direction. We should not be talking about me.
“You're not cleaning it right.” I said. Indicating to the crate he was cleaning. I walked up to him. I took his cleaning cloth from him and I pointed to the inside of the crate's corner, I said, “You're missing all of these. You see. You need to clean this area better.” I explained. Cleaning it from inside of corners to the outside. I stood up. Handing back the dirty cloth to him.
“Next up is poop.” Mrs. Smith poked her head in our room and said from the other side of the door. She was cleaning in the other room.
“Great.” Ethan and I spoke up at the same time. We looked at each other and chuckled. Mrs. Smith joined in.
We immersed ourselves working on the poop cleaning part. It stank bad and only then I noticed there was poop and pee, everywhere.
After that, we bathed these dogs. It was hard. Some ran in circles to avoid bathing, some demanded treats and some got in the tub without a fuss because they loved the bath.
Finally, everything was clean and spotless and all three of us were dirty and full of dust. So we cleaned ourselves and changed into our clean clothes. Ethan and I bid our goodbyes but Mrs. Smith stopped us. She handed us two boxes each of rice cakes as a treat.
“Thank you for your help. Keep on coming back for more yummy treats.” She said smiling.
“You better treat us for yummy treats like this, Mrs Smith. Treat is the only reason we are coming here.” Ethan said with a wink. Mrs. Smith chuckled shyly.
“Of course.” She replied. We bid our goodbyes and came out of the shop. It was already four — thirty pm and the sun was about to set.
“Well. See you tomorrow.” I smiled at Ethan. He stared at me for a few seconds. Then he spoke, “Want to have an ice-cream? My treat?” He asked. I hesitated a little because I wasn't expecting this from him.
“Cool.” I said smiling. We walked to the nearest park. I sat on the bench where Ethan went to buy ice-cream from an ice-cream truck. He returned with two cones of vanilla ice-cream. Handing one to me, he sat on a bench beside me.
“Now, that's cool.” He said, bumping his cone to mine in cheers.
“You come here a lot?” I asked him. Biting into his cone, he nodded his head in yes.
“Since I was a kid. My parents always brought me here to play in this park. But I usually come here for ice-cream. I always loved this place. Especially this open place.” He explained.
“If I were you, I would have come here for the same.” I said. Ethan took a long bite from the cone. Some ice-cream was smudged on his nose and upper lip. I couldn't help but laugh after seeing this. He furrowed his brows in confusion. Swallowing down whatever he had in his mouth, he asked.
“What?” Sounding a bit agitated and self-conscious at the same time.
“You got ice-cream on your nose and upper lip.” I told him pointing at my nose and upper lip to tell him where he got ice-cream on his face. He helplessly tried to get rid of it from his face. His hands moved in weird motions that made it seem like he was batting a fly away.
He got ice-cream off his nose but his upper lip had left a small dot. I laughed at his actions. I reached over and removed it from my thumb. I looked smilingly at Ethan to find him staring at me. It was a stare that contained longing. I stopped in mid movement and stared right back at him.
Suddenly, my phone rang. Snapping me back into reality.
I snatched my hand away like it burned. I reached in my pocket and took my phone out. It was Jake.
“Hello.” I spoke.
“Be at your house. I'm coming over.” Jake said. He had a weird undertone in his voice.
“Okay…” I said.
“Bye.” Then he cut his call. I stared at my phone. Staring at my phone for two seconds then I stood up.
“I have to go.” I told Ethan and ate the rest of my ice-cream in a hurry. He looked at me.
“Was it Jake?” He asked, appearing angry for a second or Maybe, my mind was making things up.
“Yes.” I answered him.
“I'm sorry.” I told him. He shook his head.
“No worries.” He said. I bid my goodbye to him.
I hurried on my way to my house. A bit panicked, maybe something was wrong. He didn't sound normal. Jake sounded a bit weird. What happened? I reached my house. His car wasn't here, so he wasn't home. Good.
I entered my house and waited for him to arrive. After waiting for like fifteen minutes my door opened and Jake walked in.
He looked normal, but I was still a bit panicked.
“Jake! What happened?” I questioned him.
“Grace?” Jake said softly.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Be my submissive.” Jake said.