Page 76 of Yolo

“The mall takes like ten minutes to make those. I’ll call. You drive there. We’ll pick it up, then blame everything on traffic. Or, you could blame our lateness on me. I’m blind and have a perfectly good excuse,” I pointed out.

He laughed, then swung the vehicle around and headed toward what I assumed was the mall while I made the call to the cookie place.

I was right. It’d take them ten minutes max to get it done.

Fifteen minutes later, Germaine parked and got out, and I helped myself out while Germaine got Rooster.

“Such a good boy, aren’t you?” Germaine asked my sweet dog.

And man, he really was sweet.

He’d turned out to be one of the best things that had ever happened to me.

I adored him, and he captured the hearts of every single person he came into contact with at the police station. He was actually a calming addition to my job when I had to deal with distraught people as well.

Speaking of…

“Did you hear about the call I took today where the kid was missing?” I asked.

This morning around nine, a five-year-old had gone missing from his school bus. With it being a substitute driver, the man didn’t know that the kid wasn’t supposed to get off where he had.

“Yeah,” Germaine said as he handed me Rooster’s leash. “He’s okay, by the way. They were able to find him with your help.”

My hand pressed to my heart. “I was hoping to hear that.”

“The language barrier is really tough,” he admitted as he caught my elbow and helped guide me. I appreciated it, because I could hear a ton of people around. “It’s freakin’ heartbreaking when you are just trying to help, and they don’t understand you, and you don’t understand them. You really came in clutch today.”

I beamed. “That makes me happy.”

“It should,” he said. “You accomplished a lot, and it’s only your second day.”

Flushing with the praise he’d given me, I walked happily at his side, and Rooster walked happily at mine.

They both helped guide me through the throng of people.

“Why is it so busy right now?” I asked.

“The holidays are around the corner, I would assume,” he grumbled. “It’s two weeks from Thanksgiving.”

“And it feels like it’s still August,” I grumbled too. “I thought for sure I’d get to put on a pair of Uggs by now.”

He chuckled as he caught my shoulder on the opposite side and steered me out of the way of something.

“Fuckin’ inconsiderate assholes,” he grumped.

“I’m sure they can’t tell that I’m blind,” I pointed out.

“You have a dog with a bright neon yellow vest that says ‘seeing-eye dog’ on it. You also are wearing glasses indoors. I’m sorry to tell you this, but they can tell that you’re blind.” He chuckled.

“I guess when you put it that way…” I giggled.

We arrived at the cookie place right as the woman was boxing up our order—at least that was what she said.

“Sorry it took a bit longer than we promised,” she said to Germaine who was paying now. “I had a huge group come in and clean me out entirely. Had you not called, they would’ve taken this one, too.”

“Oh, good.” I clapped. “Is there anything left at all? I’m a bit hungry and it smells delicious here.”

“Looks like they have a small piece of cookie cake shaped like some sort of mammal. There’s also mint chocolate chip cookies, one gingerbread, and a bag of what looks like discards,” Germaine answered.

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