Samantha Groves loves the park.
In fact, it's one of her favorite places to be, when she isn't working.
It's not so much a particular park really, but more so what being at one means to her.
It reminds her of simpler times, before her mother got sick...before she had to step up and become the caregiver.
On this particular day, she's enjoying her day off with a steaming cup of coffee and a walk around Bryant Park; her park of choice at the moment.
A walk that is interrupted by a rather curious dog.
"And who do you belong to, you handsome devil?" She asks as she cautiously kneels down to pet the Belgian Malinois, placing her coffee down as she uses both hands to feel for a collar.
The dog seems rather fond of the petting and the attention, if the constant tail wagging is any indication, "And quite a lovable one too, huh?" Samantha says with a smile as she continues petting him.
"Bear?" She asks aloud and receives a little nudge from the dog at that, causing a surprised "Oh!" to escape her, followed by a giggle, "Nice to meet you too Bear. I'm Root, but you can call me Samantha. I only let the good ones call me Samantha."
She bites her lip at herself for having a conversation with the dog, but she supposes there are worse things.
She hums lowly as she turns the dog tags over, checking for contact information, not really expecting to find anything, but is pleasantly surprised when she not only comes across the owner's information, an 'S. Shaw', but also the name and contact information for the company that has micro-chipped Bear.
"You have a very smart owner Bear." She says appreciatively as she eyes both tags and tries to decide on what to do next.
She takes out her phone and thumbs in the owner's number first.
"They must be worried about you, huh big guy?" She asks softly, walking towards a seat and is happily followed by the dog.
The person on the other end picks up on the second ring, "Look, if this is another prank, I will find you, and I will make sure you remember never to mess with a woman trying to find her dog."
Samantha's eyes widen but she quickly attempts to explain, "Hello Ms. Shaw. I'm Samantha Groves…I'm sorry for any prior phone calls you've had? But I assure you I'm not pranking you. Bear has very excitedly come up to me to demand that I phone you right away so he can come home to you."
She doesn't know why she worded things the way she did. She's pretty sure the woman is seriously considering calling someone to take her to see a psychiatrist at this point.
"You have Bear?" comes the hesitantly hopeful reply.
Smiling, and very much relieved she didn't scare the woman off, she looks down at the dog, who is very patiently looking back at her, "Yes, and he's being very good about it all, though I'm sure he wishes you were here with him, rather than some stranger."
"He must know something about you then, cuz he isn't usually so nice with just anyone."
The voice still seems a little disbelieving, but Samantha understands the hesitance to believe news like this sort of good fortune.
"Bear, would you like to tell Shaw that you're waiting for her to come get you?"
The dog barks and then tilts his head as if waiting for something else. Samantha pats his head after that and addresses the woman again, "We'll be waiting for you at Bryant Park…by the fountain. Is that alright?"
"The Josephine Shaw Lowell memorial fountain?" comes the amused voice and Samantha grins, absolutely loving the fact that this woman caught on.
"The one and only. Is that alright with you?"
She hangs up once she gets an 'alright' from the voice on the other end of the phone before standing up and calling for Bear to follow her as they make their way closer to the aforementioned fountain.
"You've given your mom a hard time big guy. I don't think she really appreciated your need for an adventure without her."
Bear ignores that and anything else she has to say about his running away but she manages to garner his attention once she's sitting down and pulling out a container from her bag.
"This was supposed to be for me, but I guess I don't mind too much that I'm going to share this with you."
She grins when she notices how he goes from being mildly interested to full on alert and at attention in under a second.
She holds out a sprig of broccoli and he sits up even straighter and just waits.
"She sure knows how to train 'em too…you're so well mannered, aren't you Bear?" Samantha asks as she nods her head and motions with the broccoli again, letting him know it's okay for him to take it.
And he does so with gusto, which makes Samantha wonder just how long he's been without food.
She decides that Bear should have her packed snack of broccoli and carrots, and she'll just be happy with her coffee for now.
"I wonder if Shaw would like a cup too…" she asks quietly, to herself really, but now that she's got a companion why not voice her thoughts out loud.
She sits there sipping her coffee her eyes don't leave Bear as she contemplates getting up to grab another cup for the woman, highly doubting that the canine would even notice her leaving for a minute, what with him being so immersed in eating.
"Huh. You weren't kidding about him being good."
Samantha's pretty sure she almost just gave herself whiplash, she turned towards the voice so fast, but she couldn't contain her curiosity at being able to place a face to the name as soon as possible.
She wasn't really picturing anybody before, when she heard Shaw's voice, but now that she sees her, Samantha is a little blown away.
The woman is dressed in a dark coat, and a beanie on her head, with equally dark pants on. She looks to be about 5'3" if Samantha were to guess. She's got beautiful features from what she can tell and she's so, "tiny."
Shaw raises an eyebrow and hides a smirk as she turns her gaze away from her dog and towards the woman.
Which is how Samantha realizes that she's said that out loud.
"I mean-hi! I'm Sam, we spoke on the phone…obviously, I mean I've got your dog." She points towards Bear and pauses and then continues with a chuckle, "I didn't expect you to be so tiny, that's all…"
Shaw keeps her eyebrow raised but she allows the smirk to fully form as she nods her head, "Hi. Sameen. This is Bear, but you've already met the big dork."
At the sound of his owner's voice saying his name, Bear's ears perk as he lifts his head and then bounds over towards them, and just stands at attention, happily wagging his tail.
Sameen rolls her eyes playfully at him before taking out some doggy treats and kneeling down so they're at the same level before offering them to him, "Here you go bud."
As he licks up the treats, Sameen runs her hands over his coat and mumbles, "Don't do that to me again Bear…I'm not fond of the feelings this put me through. Especially not the feeling of being unable to get to you or know how you're doing."
Samantha just sits back and watches as this woman and her dog reunite, and she can't help that she's smiling because it's absolute heartwarming and Bear is a cutie and so is his owner.
Standing back up, after clipping a leash onto Bear, Sameen turns towards the woman and manages a natural smile, rather than the smirk she had on earlier, "Thanks…for feeding him and…also for contacting me with real information."
Nodding her head in understanding Samantha smiles slightly as she says, "Of course…but out of curiosity, who had prank called you about him?"
Sameen rolls her eyes, shrugs her shoulders and then shakes her head exasperatedly as she says, "These douchebag schmucks that got a hold of my contact info from the fliers I put up a couple of days ago. They basically said there'd be no way a woman would own a goddamn Malinois and kept callin and sayin they found a Papillion and were wondering if he belonged to me and why I'd name such a tiny dog Bear."
Taking a seat beside the woman, Sameen continues with her eyes boring into Bear's side, "I would get a jolt of something like absolute giddiness whenever the phone rang, thinking it was real and someone actually found my dog. And it was just these college guys having a laugh. I uh-I'm sorry if I snapped earlier." Sameen finishes stiltedly, having not really thought about apologizing to the woman, but finding herself doing so anyways now that the moment has arrived.
Samantha smiles at her lightly, "Don't worry about it, I can't imagine what I would have been like if my dog went missing. Plus, all those unhelpful phone calls wouldn't have helped my mood either."
Sameen nods her head once, and then looks at her curiously, "So, what did you do to get Bear to like you?"
Samantha takes in the semi guarded eyes of the woman and finds herself wondering what's made her find the need to be constantly on edge. She tilts her head and smiles at her honestly, "I didn't do anything really. He's the one that approached me, I assure you."
Samantha watches as Sameen turns to look at Bear with a tiny furrow of her brow, seemingly trying to understand why he would do such a thing, before looking back at her, "You didn't entice him with the promise of food?"
Laughing lightly, she shakes her head, "Nope. I was just walking around, minding my own business when this rather handsome looking fella decided to approach. We called you, then I figured I'd give him a little something for being so good…I hope you don't mind? I just wasn't sure how long he's been missing and-"
Sameen cuts her off, not unkindly, "Nah, I don't mind. Thanks for thinking of that…" Samantha watches as the woman seems to contemplate her next move, before Sameen's eyes once again finds Samantha's, this time her eyes more open, as she continues with a barely there smile on her lips, "Let me take you to lunch, seeing as I'm pretty sure that's what you handed over to Bear?"
Samantha blinks, surprised by the offer, but not at all unwilling to take her up on it, "Oh, uh alright sure. Yea-yes, I'd love to have lunch with you."
She has zero control over her mouth or the blush that makes its way up her neck and across her cheeks, after she says that; She hopes Sameen doesn't notice, but the smug grin that is taking over the other woman's face tells her otherwise.
However, Sameen seems to want to give her a break and she doesn't tease, which Samantha is grateful for, "How are you with seafood?"
Samantha manages not to embarrass herself further, "I'm good with it."
"Great, okay. What do you say we drop off Bear and then we can go ahead and head out…do you have somewhere to be at like…soon?"
Sameen wants to physically face palm because what the hell was that, but she manages with just mentally face palming.
Samantha shakes her head demurely, "Nope, I'm all yours."
Her eyes widen and she would have clasped her hands in front of her mouth if she didn't think that that would draw even more attention to the words she just said.
As it is, Sameen has noticed, and unlike previously, there's a mischievous grin on her face as she turns to look up at her, "Is that so?"
A part of Samantha wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Another part of her though, the larger part if she's being honest, is very much enjoying the fact that Sameen didn't recoil from the accidental double entendre.
Emboldened suddenly, Samantha nods her head as she leans just a little bit closer and hums, "Mhmm, yes." Her eyes dropping for a second to look at the other woman's lips before looking back up to her eyes.
She finds excitement reflected back at her and a hint of amusement there.
Samantha bites her lip before straightening her back and reaching down to pet Bear's head as they continue on their journey.
"You're such a good boy." She says with a smile splitting her face as she pats Bear's head a couple more time, as she concentrates on not looking over towards her new friend.
Sameen has no qualms about it though and finds herself glancing over at Samantha, just taking her in. She finds that she's pleasantly surprised by the events that have unfolded to bring her to this moment.
She grins to herself as she lovingly tugs on Bear's leash lightly, causing him to turn to look at her with a tilt of his head, and she just gives him a look and he happily bounds ahead once again, without a care in the world now that he's back with his favorite tiny lady.