The Day The Dog Ate Our Future

“You idiot! What on earth were you thinking?”

It hadn’t been the reaction he was expecting when his girlfriend arrived, but on reflection it really should’ve been. “You think I did this deliberately?” His girlfriend Becky opened her mouth, before snapping it shut again. In a way it would’ve been better if she’d just come out and accused him of it, rather than try to pretend that she had any respect left for him. “Oh thanks. Thanks a bunch Becky.”

“Well come on. You’ve never liked Jasper, I know you want him gone.”

“There’s a difference between just wanting some acknowledgement and trying to kill your damn dog!”

“Oh stop being such a whiny little-”

The door to the operation room slammed open. “Do you mind? I am trying to perform surgery on your dog. Take this domestic outside!” If looks could kill the vet would’ve sent both of them off to the morgue, but as it was all he could do was glare evils at the back of their heads while Becky and Darren stormed off.

Out in the reception Darren was quick to get himself heard. “Of course I didn’t try to poison your dog. Why would I go to all the bother of baking a cake, and decorating and-” He cut himself off short, already deeply regretting the whole stupid day. Maybe the damn dog had done him a favour by eating all of the chocolate cake, surprise and all.

“Then how did Jasper manage to eat a cake? You must’ve left it somewhere that he could reach, and why would you do that if you weren’t trying to get him to eat it?”

“I left it on the kitchen table-”

“Well Jasper doesn’t go on the kitchen table.”

“Yes he does. I’ve told you he does. I’ve told you every damn week since I moved in with you and that blasted mongrel-”

“Don’t you dare talk about Jasper like that!”

“He jumps up on the table. This is proof of that! Why on earth would I leave a cake on the floor?”

“So you can poison my dog and get rid of him.”

“Heavens above! Becky- I love you, and I know that Jasper means the world to you. But he doesn’t like me, and you always take his side over mine.”

“He needs my protection Darren, he can’t talk! How’s he supposed to defend himself?”

“Well if you stopped spoiling him, he wouldn’t need ‘defending’.” The air quotes seemed to Becky even more, but that wasn’t going to stop Darren. For almost six months he’d been second to a dog, and he was fed-up with it. “I pay half the rent Becky, its my flat as much as yours. So why do I have to sleep on the sofa, so Jasper can get the bed?”

“I’ve told you, he needs comfort-”

“He’s not even that big! Surely we can just get a bigger bed, and then all three of us can share it.”

The hesitation was there again, and now all the jokes from the lads in the pub came back to haunt Darren. ‘She’d rather share her bed with a dog’, and ‘she loves the dog more than you’. They were teasing at the time, but now he’d confronted her with it there was no denying there was some truth to it.

“I can go and stay with my mum for a bit,” Becky finally said. “Just while Jasper gets used to living with you.”

“How is that going to help?”

“It’ll-” But she had no answer, because it wasn’t Jasper that needed time to adjust to living with him. “Maybe we’re just going too fast. It’s confusing for him.”

“Becky, we’ve been going out for three years. He’s never had a problem with me before, not until we moved in together.” Now she was refusing to met his gaze, and Darren had the slow motion realisation that this was the end of it. Their relationship was crashing down around them, all because of that dog and the stupid chocolate cake.

“It’s moving house,” Becky suddenly said. “He’s been unsettled by that. If I live with mum for a bit he’ll calm down again.”

As much as she tried to hide it Darren could tell this was her clutching at straws. Something about their relationship, or rather the new direction it had taken, was upsetting her. Instead of admitting this and talking it through with him though, she had hidden behind her dog, blaming poor Jasper, making it his fault rather than owning up.

Something clicked in the back of Darren’s brain, and with a cold rush of understanding he realised that he didn’t want to be with a woman like that. If it was just the issues- whatever they were- he’d have fought and stayed with her, had the break (as this was clearly supposed to be) and tried to work through their problems. But this was something deeper, and no matter how committed he was to this relationship, it wouldn’t make up for the uncertainties on her side.

Jasper had definitely saved him on this one.

“I’ve enjoyed these past six months together,” Darren said, although his voice didn’t betray any emotion. “I liked living with you, having you around all the time, sharing those little everyday things together. Even though you kept putting the dog before me, even though you assumed that I was always lying whenever I said anything bad about your dog.” She thought this was a forgiveness speech, bless her, and her eyes were bright as anything. “I honestly thought that we’d get through this rough patch, and that it would make us stronger.

“But we can’t.” And just like that the light in her eyes was gone, replaced with tears. “Not if you think so little of me that you think I would poison your dog. Not if you don’t have the courage to tell me when there’s a problem, and just pin it on your dog instead. If you don’t want to live with me, you should just say it. I thought we were both adults here.”

“Darren-”

“No. This has gone on for too long, and I don’t like the person you’ve shown yourself to be. We’re done.” He felt there should be a little more ceremony here, but he didn’t think she’d shake his hand at this stage. “I’m going to go and clear my stuff out the flat, while you’re here with Jasper. I’ll be in touch about cancelling the lease.”

He’d only gotten three steps away before she started swearing at him. “Well you’re paying for the surgery!” she screamed, utterly hysterical, accompanied by tuts and disapproving nods from the receptionists.

“That’s fine,” he said, barely able to look at her over his shoulder. “If they can recover what Jasper ate, that should cover the cost of the surgery.” The door closed behind him before Becky could process his words properly.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Becky huffed. The full impact of what had just happened hadn’t settled in yet, but she was already crying.

“Is… is this a bad time?” The vet had come out after them, carrying a small medical tray in his hand.

“No, it’s fine. I’m fine,” she said as she hurriedly wiped her eyes. “How’s Jasper?”

“He’ll be alright. We’ve pumped his stomach, now we’re just going to move him to the recovery ward while he comes to.” At this point he looked around and, failing to find Darren, caught the eye of the receptionists instead. Thankfully Becky was too distracted digging out a tissue, and trying to not break down, to notice the look that passed between them. “I thought you might want this back. It must’ve been hidden in the cake, like one of those reveal things.”

He handed over the little tray, and it took Becky a few seconds to make out what was in it, from the stark overhead lights and the puffiness of her eyes.

There, glittering and so full of promise and hope, was a stunning diamond engagement ring.