Cappuccinos and murders

“There you go buddy, all well” I bandage up the golden retriever and gently pet him. A man roughly in his 20s had come and dropped off Clifford, this beautiful golden retriever about an hour ago, but Daniel, the vet, also one of my friends, who was supposed to look at the dog was busy with an emergency gave me the job to do so. The dog hadn’t been injured too badly, so I was able to treat his wounds. I just came here occasionally, but had grown very attached to this clinic, and thus took care of every animal with a lot of love. I gently picked up Clifford, who was quite big, looked around 5 years old, and took him outside the room to wait for his owner. He wagged his tale at me, as if saying “woof human, come play with me” I sighed and said no, but when he hit me with the adorable puppy eyes, I just couldn’t say no. I took a ball from the small cabinet Infront of Daniel’s office and chuckled a little.

“Come on buddy, lets play.” I signaled towards the ball and went into the field outside the building. Clifford happily wagged its tail, and slightly limped along with me. We played fetch for quite some time, Clifford limping around slowly, until I saw his owner go into the building wearing a blue button up with blue jeans and sneakers. I entered the building with Clifford at my heel and looked closely at the owner. His hair was messy, but his eyes held an indescribable emotion as he picked up Clifford.

“So, is he all done?”

He asked, the nonchalance rather obvious in his voice. I looked at him suspiciously, but before I could answer, Daniel came back in.

“Aah, you must be the owner.” I noticed Daniel had had a change of clothes, for he was now wearing a white button up shirt with black trousers, a Rolex watch and black shoes.

“Got caught up trying to take out a cat who fell in a ditch, got all muddy.” He silently whispered in my ear after seeing how I was eyeing his clothing. Perks of having Daniel as your friend; he knows what you’re thinking before you can ever voice it out.

“Right, here is the document sir, Brian, am I right?” The man gently nodded

“Please sign it.” The owner, whose name I knew now was Brian, signed the document and took off, Clifford reluctantly following.

“Those wounds on the dog, I doubt they were from car accident, he looked as if someone had purposely beat him up.” I looked at Daniel, waiting for his response. He looked at the document in his hand, with a frown on his face, his grey eyes scanning the report of the dog.

He looked up at me with a sad smile on his face and whispered

“I just wish I could help every stray or any animal that needed my help to be honest, it hurts me so bad to see them like this”

 I sighed sadly, how did people have the heart to abuse animals? I had a big soft spot for animals, and seeing them hurt just made me want to cry. As if reading my thoughts, Daniel pulled me into a hug, and let me stay there, not saying a word, just giving me a hug, something that I desperately needed until a call interrupted him. He cut the call, but when the phone rung for the 5^th time I realized it must be something urgent.

“Go on, take it, I’ll be fine, don’t worry” He still looked as if he didn’t want me to be left alone, asking a silent “will you be okay?” with his eyes. I rolled my eyes at what a softie he was and ushered him to take the call. He went inside his office to what I’m assuming was to attend the call, while I went into the volunteer office, which was almost mine by now. Since there were no animals in need of my help, I turned on the news and saw the most horrific thing ever.

“- I agree, yes absolutely. This animal cruelty has gone way too far, animals are being brutally murdered across the city, there have been 11 cases throughout the week. These animals looked severely injured, and their injuries suggest that they had been beaten to death.” MY thoughts instantly went towards Clifford, as the news anchor continued.

“We’re trying to find the person responsible, so stay tuned-“

I zoned out as the anchor continued. Why would anyone, how could anyone-

My thoughts were interrupted when Daniel came into my office, looking sort of distressed.

“I saw the news, and I figured you would be shaken up, so I thought about it, and figured some coffee may cheer you up”

I looked at him, and only one thought filled my mind “I love you”

I think I had been denying it for quite some time now, but he was just……..perfect. It wasn’t however because of his crystal grey eyes that resembled the marbles I got for my 14^th birthday, not because of how his hair fell onto his eyes, not because of his dimple smile that could bring anyone to their knees, not because of tanned skin that went perfectly with his white coat, none of that, it was because of how real he was. He didn’t try to pretend he wasn’t soft, or that he didn’t love animals. He didn’t boast about his job or his salary, also classifying as the most down to earth person I’ve met. He loved very few in the world, but he loved hard. It was his personality that made me fall in love with him, but I mean, his damn good looks were a contributing factor. Even now, as he looked evidently shaken up after hearing the news, the first thing he did was to check if I were alright.

“Yeah, that uhm- yeah that sounds nice, I’ll just get my coat” I went into the room and grabbed my coat, and hurriedly put on some perfume. I went outside to see him waiting. He looked at me and held my hand as we started walking towards a café that opened near by. No words were spoken, but the silence was comfortable and comforting to be honest. We reached the café “Cynosure”, took off our coats and entered. We sat in the furthermost corner table, as the waiter came to take our order.

“One Americano and a Cappuccino with skim milk and one spoon sugar”

He remembered

He looked at me innocently and asked if my order was right, and I replied by meekly nodding my head, while I yelled “date!” “date!” in my mind like a teenager. We both spoke a bit until our coffee came and I came to know that he decided to become a vet when he was merely 13 after his dog died tragically. We spent the night talking and laughing, and he walked me home after that.

“Well, I hope you’re feeling better” he said shyly. I chuckled and told him I was. He looked hesitant at first, but came closer and kissed me good night. I blushed furiously and muttered incoherently as I quickly entered my house. I saw him walk away from my window and jumped onto the sofa like a love struck teenager, but it was only when I decided I wanted to play romantic songs and act like I was still in my 20s getting chased by guys, I realized I had forgotten my earphones at the office. I cursed myself out and decided to hurry and get them back fast since it was already quite dark. I put my phone into the pocket as I went to the building. I reached there in about 15 minutes, but what I saw next made me with a lot of difficulty hold back my sob.

It was a man with a knife in his hand brutally beating up a dog, enough to the point to kill it. I silently hid behind a bush as I called the police, too paralyzed to face him. I faintly saw him go behind the building as I rushed to the dog, but it was too late, he was already dead. I let out an strangled sob, that turned into violent weeping when I saw the name on its collar

“Clifford”

My weeping attracted the guy, and I thought I was done for when I saw him come running back with a knife, but he stopped midway when the police came from behind me and flashed a flashlight on his face, etching his evil smirk onto my brain forever. That night, I hadn’t only caught the animal-murderer, but had also realized I had faced the biggest deception in history.

*3 YEARS LATER*

It had been 3 years since Daniel had been declared a sociopath, three years since I caught the animal murderer, aka Daniel, three years since Daniel went to jail. Never in a million years would I have thought Daniel could do something like that, but then again, he was good at deceiving people. Since then I’ve had trust issues, but I mean can you blame me? I didn’t want to go through any of that ever again, not that every person I meet is a sociopath though, but you probably understood what I’m saying. Since then a lot has changed, I got a Labrador and named him Clifford, I got a proper job at an animal shelter, and switched from cappuccino to lattes. A lot was going in my life, but I didn’t get to ponder over that as Clifford started tugging at my pants, trying to say

“Stop thinking so much hooman and just take me for my damn walk” I chuckled lightly as I opened the gate and stepped out into the sunshine, but a voice stopped me from moving further and sent shivers down my spine

“Miss me?”

“Daniel” I breathed out

THE END