I'm still trying to process his words when he steps out and comes around to open up the door for me, it's a little stunning, although Virgil opens doors for me too.
"Thank you." I murmur when he takes my hand and helps me down from the high vehicle.
He places an arm around me and I struggle not to flinch, it's not easy with how surprising it is but I manage to get away with tensing up a little before relaxing.
The pet shop is one word, cute. The designers definitely had children in mind while they built it, done in pastel purples and blues, it looked like it hopped straight out of a cartoon that had 'Kiddies' in its title.
It's almost funny that Dale would want to come to a place like this, make it a routine too as a matter of fact.
"They mostly cater to kids who want to buy pets but they have grown up dogs too." He says, opening the door to guide us inside. There's a resounding ding as the door slips open and close.
The shop is empty, I'm not surprised though, it's still early enough in the morning and not to mention that it's a Saturday.
"Hey Dale." A lanky guy that looks really young greets from over the counter.
"Who is it?" A female voice comes through from a back room that I can't see.
"It's Dale!" The guy calls back.
"Hi Luke." Dale greets him as we walk over to the counter.
"He brought someone!" Luke yells again and there are sounds like the owner of the voice is bustling out of the backroom.
"Really Luke?" Dale raises a brow at the dark headed guy.
He just shrugged. "Couldn't help it, hi." He turns to me and gives me a friendly smile. "Welcome to Suzy's Pet shop…"
Crashing sounds cut off the rest of his sentence and a pained groan comes from the backroom.
"Suzy?" Luke calls, after a short while of silence. "Are you dead??" He calls again.
A lady comes out of the door behind him and glowers, her bleached blonde hair in a disarray. "You left the boxes on the ground again, after I expressly told you not to!" She sasses him.
"It's not my fault that you can't see a thing without your glasses." He says, unimpressed with her explosion.
"You…" She starts to growl.
"Hi Lucy." Dale cuts off her words, a smile in his voice.
"Dale, darling!" She exclaims coming around the counter to pull him into a hug. "I should sell off Luke and hire you instead." She continues in a cheery voice.
"Then you'll have no one to help you find your glasses and you'll be blind as a bat." Luke mumbles, arranging the already orderly counter.
Suzy just ignores him, immersed in squishing Dale's cheeks, he's way taller than her so she has to tip toe to comfortably do this. "I had no idea you were coming in today, and you brought someone too." She shoves him away at this and concentrates on me.
Dale struggles to catch his balance and Luke snickers. "Hayden, meet Suzy, the crackhead owner of this shop…"
"That you volunteer at." Suzy interrupts.
I blink.
"What?" Dale frowns. "I-I don't…"
"Hi Hay, can I call you Hay?" Suzy interrupts him, bustling around me. She's petite, wearing a pastel shirt and loose shorts with an apron over it.
I open my mouth to tell her that I don't mind, Shana and Virgil call me that sometimes but she's already talking.
"Did you come here to buy a pet?" She rambles. "If so, I have the perfect choices that you couldn't possibly say no to."
'If I could get a word in, I might' I think to myself.
"Suzy, no." Dale luckily intervenes. "If you'd let me finish talking you'd know that we're not here to buy or adopt a pet."
"I already have a baby cat." I tell her, scratching my head nervously with the one free hand I have to myself, she's intensely squishing and rubbing the other one like it's a tiny animal.
"We're here on…"
"Ooh! He has tiny hands, it's a he right?" She peers at me, narrowing her eyes.
" Blind as a bat. " Luke coughs from behind the counter where he has taken a rag and is constantly wiping the clean surface.
"Shut up and make yourself useful by finding my glasses." Suzy pouts, throwing a look back at him.
"Hayden is a boy, yes and please let go of his hand." Dale says.
Suzy had stopped listening to him though because she imprisons my second hand and places them on her face. "They're so cute!" She squeals. "Is he your cousin, is he twelve? No twelve is too old for these hands, eight perhaps?"
I shrink in horror at this, wanting to disappear and Dale, the evil soul just bursts out laughing.
"Found your glasses Su!" Luke comes in from the backroom, coming out to give her her glasses which she quickly puts on and peeks at me.
"It's a girl." She pronounces, in a voice heavy with disappointment. "You lied to me Dale."
Dale just laughs harder.
"How old are you darling?" She leans closer, brown eyes big behind her thick glasses.
"Seventeen and I'm not…"
"Seventeen??" She repeats with wide eyes. "Come here Luke!" She orders her worker who was already sneaking behind the counter again. "Stop wiping that bloody counter, you're not getting married to it."
Luke just grumbles and blushes slightly at her words, coming out again.
"Tell me that these hands aren't tiny." She dares, taking one of my hands and placing it in Luke's hand. "Even for a girl, I can effortlessly cover one of them with my fist." She continues gushing, eyeing Luke closely, in case he decides to say otherwise.
I look at Dale in terror and beg him with my eyes to save me from the monsters.
"Okay, enough petting my date!" He announces, shoving them out of the way to pull me away. "That's why you don't have any customers, you treat them like puppies." He tells them, fondness seeping through his otherwise stern voice.
Suzy audibly pouts and Luke sneaks behind the counter again to resume wiping it, he looks relieved at being able to escape.
"It's not my fault she's so adorable and did you say date?" She inquires, already moving closer again.
Dale effortlessly evades her moves, carrying me along. "Hayden is a boy and we came here for the puppies that I want to show off to him." Dale says quickly before she interrupts him.
Suzy blinks owlishly at this. "A boy?" She repeats blankly, leaning forward to peer at me again.
Idly, I wonder if her glasses are foggy. "Stop lying to me, you brat." She blinks at me. "I might use glasses but I'm not utterly blind, right Luke?" She calls sharply to him for validation.
Poor Luke flinches so hard that the wiping rag in his hand flies out of his hold and slides under a shelf. "Of course." He mumbles darkly, going around the counter to retrieve the rag.
"See even Luke agrees with me."
"He's a boy Suzy, even I also made that mistake, now shut up and go do something productive and stop harassing my date." He tosses at her.
She just pouts at this again but starts to make her way behind the counter to get to the backroom. "Is it now horrible of me to want to know about your well-being? Honestly, making it sound like I'm a bother when we all know that I'm not." She mutters to herself, going in the open back door.
"She's already let them out of their cages." Luke informs without further delay. "Here's the key Dale, you know what to do."
"Thanks man." Dale replies, already snatching my hand and pulling me along.
The main part of the shop was filled with pet food, toys, accessories and what not.
The part Dale took me too opened up into a hallway that had four doors, two on each side.
"She doesn't have many animals but that's fine for a small town like Pine Creek where most citizens find their pets in the woods." Dale starts to say, stopping in front of the second door on the right. "Her major source of income is pet supplies but doesn't hurt to have a couple animals around, in case of necessity, she ends up adopting most by herself though."
He slowly opens the door. "Presently she just has seven puppies plus the one I brought in, making eight and she piles them into her truck every weekend to stay at her house."
He fully opens the door now and before I can get a good look at the interior of the room, seven huge dogs are running at us.
I don't think twice about jumping on Dale and screaming my head off, my legs high on his waist as a precaution, in case the huge monsters running at us decides to rip off my legs to use as a chew toy.
Why did I ever agree on a pet shop for a date in the first place?