Page 55 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“I, uhh… apologize,” Julian says as he passes the judges, and I don’t know why that makes Yorick, Ezio, and me laugh harder.
Gustov’s tongue is lolling out of his mouth while Julian carries the sixty or so pound dog over to Casimir and plops him into his arms.
“There you go. The best dog in the world. The greatest dog to ever exist. The one that will outshine all other dogs and the only one to get a disqualification.”
Casimir clears his throat. “He… must have gotten confused.”
“Ah, confused. Yes. That was definitely it. You’re right. He forgot his name, he forgot how to come back, he honestly just forgot everything.”
“I mean… he was still cute,” Casimir decides on.
I choke back a laugh. “He was definitely funny. I don’t know if anyonewasn’tlaughing besides Casimir.”
Ezio grins. “I think he was stunned by how phenomenal his dog was at not listening.”
“I mean… I do think he won the award for least attentive dog,” I say.
“Who invited any of you?” Casimir asks. “I bet it was that expensive treat that woman conned me into buying for him. It probably had drugs in it to make him crazy… like catnip but for dogs.”
“Oh yes. I’m sure her all-organic dog biscuit is the reason I made a fool of myself out there,” Julian says dryly.
“Oh look,” Casimir tells him. “It’s time for your agility class.”
“I have made enough of a fool of myself. I am not running an agility course.”
“The prize is professional photos of your dog, and I want photos of you to adorn my walls,” Casimir coaxes.
“That’s both romantic and conniving,” Julian says. “You just going to hang them next to the Gustov portraits?”
“I will. I will also send them to your father.”
Julian smirks, evidently liking this idea. It seems like these two really enjoy bonding over harassing his father. “If I do this… I get to have a kitten.”
“You can have as many kittens as you’d like.”
“I get a steak dinner at that place I love,” Julian says.
“Why’s he over here acting like Casimir wouldn’t give him all of this no matter what?” Ezio asks.
“I think he secretly wants to do it but is pretending he doesn’t,” I explain.
“Nuh-uh, you don’t know me,” Julian says while clearly trying his hardest not to grin. “Okay. Fine. I kind of want to do it. I want to beat all those lesser dogs and get my portrait. I’m going to go change.”
And off he goes without realizing that it’d look awfully strange for a dog to come out of the bathroom alone. Casimir hands over Gustov before rushing after Julian. Not too long after, they both come out of the bathroom.
“I, uhh… forgot to take a bag in,” Casimir says as he tries to pass off Julian’s clothes to Yorick.
“Is that his underwear sticking out of your pocket?” I question.
“Don’t mind it. It’s like a lucky item. Now where’s this pattern? You need to learn it. Do they post it or something?” Casimir asks.
“I think you walk it before they start, but we might have missed it with Gustov’s class and fucking around,” I say. “But maybe there’s a paper pattern as well for beginners to look at?” At least this is what I’ve noticed from watching a couple of classes while waiting. Casimir returns with a paper which he holds in front of Julian, like it’s not at all strange to be showing your dog the pattern on a paper. And even less strange for the dog to be scrutinizing every inch of it.
“If I’m supposed to be running with him, can I look at it?” Ezio asks.
“Here,” Casimir says just as they call Julian to go next.
“What the hell? I got no time to look at it! We were late so we didn’t get to walk it! What am I supposed to do? Just flail my arms around and run?”
