Saturday, February 14, 2015, 3:25 p.m

"Tiger!" The tall blonde shouted while looking around franticly.

"Merde, where are you, you freaking dog." Delphine muttered to herself as she let the leash drop to the ground and sat down on one of the park benches.

She turned away for one short second, and of course her stupid dog had taken that one opportunity to take off and disappear. He had to be somewhere in this park, but frankly, it was huge, and Delphine wasn't looking forward to spending her free evening looking for her dog. She knew she had no choice, and she let out a desperate sigh.

She brought her hands up and tucked a few loose strands of her hair back behind her ears. Suddenly struck by an idea, she got up and placed one foot on the bench. Hoisting herself up, she was now standing up right again, this time on top of the park bench. Due to the added height, she had a better overview of the park, and she started to look around again.

Tiger was small and black, so he could be easily missed if he was hiding out in one of the bushes. And there were about a thousand bushes around her.

From her new spot, she watched the people around her. Some were reading, working out, taking walks with others, and some were doing what she had been doing before Tiger took off, walking their dog.

She smiled when she saw two dogs playing with each other. She had always loved dogs, and when she got Tiger from animal shelter last year, a dream had come true. She loved her little guy, but right now she could just as easily strangle him.

After looking around for a while longer, she still hadn't found him, and she sat back down. She decided it was better if she started walking around again, maybe he would see her and come back. She reached into her back pocket and got the bag of dog treats out, he always had a weak spot for those.

"Tiger!" She called out again, ignoring the curious looks from the people around her.

This was going to take forever.

This certainly hadn't been how she imagined her Valentine's day going, but it wasn't like she had plans anyway. Still, she had a nice movie waiting for her at home, accompanied by a nice cup of hot tea and some chocolate cookies.

Her damn dog better show himself quickly, she wanted to go home.


Cosima picked the ball back up that Strawberry had dropped at her feet. It was slimy and cold, but after being a dog owner for six years, she was used to it and barely even noticed it.

"Good girl." She told the light brown boxer in front of her.

She threw the ball away again and watched as Strawberry took off, sprinting over the grass field. The ball disappeared behind some bushes and she dove behind them.

Cosima waited patiently for her return, knowing it wouldn't take her too long to find the ball and run back to her.

Suddenly, she heard Strawberry bark and run out of the bushes, not carrying the ball with her. Cosima frowned, this wasn't like her at all.

Strawberry barked again, more urgent this time. Cosima walked over to her, slightly worried now.

"What is it girl?" She asked.

Strawberry took off again, back into the bushes and Cosima followed her. Behind the line of the green plants, there were a few trees, and her dog stopped and stood next to one of them.

It took Cosima a few seconds before she realized what she was seeing, the ball she had thrown away a couple of minutes ago, with a small black dog lying next to it, contently chewing on it.

"What the...?" She carefully walked closer to the unknown dog. She didn't want to scare it away, but she didn't want to get attacked either.

She soon noticed she didn't have to be scared for either of those things. The black dog lifted its head, and immediately Cosima recognized the breed. A pug, a small, friendly looking Pug. But she also knew better than to trust a strange dog right away. She slowly extended her hand to give the dog something to smell.

It stood up and pattered over to her, licking her hand. "Hello buddy." She cooed and scratched it behind its ears, "Are you lost?"

The pug tilted its head and looked at her with its big brown eyes. Cosima smiled, she and always thought pugs were cute, but this one was even cuter than the ones she had seen so far. Maybe it was because it looked so innocent, with its tiny pink tongue hanging out of its mouth. It was endearing.

She lifted its head, looking for a collar that would maybe tell her the dogs name or who it belonged to. The bright blue band around its neck held a small silver pendant with letters engraved on it. She took it between her fingers and read what it said.

Tiger

was written in a curvy font.

"Tiger huh." She smiled. "Pretty ferocious name for such a small dog."

Tiger barked and licked her hand again. Strawberry nudged his nose against Cosima's shoulder.

"Lets find your owner, shall we."

Since she didn't have a leash for Tiger, and she didn't want either of the dogs to walk away, she picked the small dog up and clicked her own leash back onto Strawberry's collar.

Tiger didn't seem to mind being held in her arms, and he nuzzled his wet nose against her neck. Cosima giggled.

She had no idea where to start looking for Tigers owner. The name tag hadn't said anything else besides the dogs name, so she had nothing to go on. She opted for just walking around the park, looking around for someone who was calling out for their dog.

She walked around aimlessly for a good ten minutes, still holding Tiger in her arms. So far, no one had approached her and she hadn't seen anyone franticly looking for their lost dog yet.

Slowly, she was giving up. There was no way of finding out if Tigers owner was even still at the park, or had even been at the park at all. For all she knew, Tiger could have escaped three streets away from here and had just randomly ended up at this park. And it bothered her that there was no way of knowing for sure.

She sighed and for a second she considered taking Tiger home and putting an ad in the paper or something. Until suddenly, here eyes landed on a woman standing a couple meters away from her.

The blonde woman was talking to someone else, making gestures like she was describing something. Cosima took a few steps closer so she could hear what the woman was saying.

"About this high, black with a blue collar."

The other person shook his head and turned away. Cosima noticed how the woman's shoulders deflated and how her head had turned itself downwards a little. Deciding that this was her best shot of finding Tigers owner, Cosima cleared her throat.

The woman turned around to face her in one swift move. Cosima's breath got stuck in her throat and she had to blink several times to be sure she wasn't dreaming. The woman was gorgeous.

The blonde, slightly curly hair hung on her shoulders, framing her face with the soft looking strands. Her eyes were a light brown, almost greenish and they sparkled when they came in contact with the light of the sun.

She left Cosima speechless, but it turned out that she didn't even have to say a word, because the woman immediately locked eyes with the dog in her arms.

"Tiger! Oh my god, there you are." She sounded so relieved.

The woman's voice was just as angelic as she herself looked. It was tinted with a French accent, which made it even better. It sounded like warm butter in Cosima's ears, and she felt herself unable to reply.

Tiger, apparently recognizing the woman, started squirming in Cosima's hold. This broke her out of her trance and she looked down at him.

"Is uh.. this your dog?"

"Yes, he ran away a while ago. Where did you find him?"

The blonde woman moved forwards and opened her arms, Cosima got the hint and carefully placed Tiger in the other woman's arms.

"Strawberry found him behind those bushes over there while we were playing fetch." She mentioned towards the place she was talking about.

"Strawberry?" The woman looked puzzled.

"Yeah, my dog."

"You named your dog Strawberry?" The woman raised her eyebrows.

"I let my sister Helena name her. So it was either that, or Jello. I like to think I made the better choice here." Cosima grinned. "And besides, who in their right mind names their pug Tiger?"

The woman huffed, "Wait till you get to know him. He may be small, but he's as strong as a tiger. Hence the name." She explained.

"Makes sense." Cosima replied.

"Yeah. Oh, and thank you. For finding my dog."

"No problem. Mind if I ask you your name?" Cosima wasn't sure if this was the right thing to ask, but hell, this woman looked amazing, and she sure as hell wanted a name to add to the face.

"Of course! I'm Delphine." She smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Delphine, I'm Cosima."

"Enchanté, Cosima."

Once again, Cosima found herself out of breath due to this woman. She never thought her own name could sound so... sexy. But when Delphine said it, it sure did.

Delphine put Tiger down in the ground, and Strawberry bowed her head down to sniff the other dog, both were wagging their tales excitedly.

"They seem to like each other." Delphine said.

Cosima hummed in response, still trying to find her voice.

"Maybe we can walk our dogs together sometime." Cosima said, suddenly looking quite nervous.

"I would like that very much." Delphine replied, smiling.

"Good, me too." Cosima grinned, catching her tongue between her teeth, it made Delphine feel weak in her knees.

They smiled at each other for a few more seconds, neither of them saying anything until Cosima broke the silence, "So, I should go. I have to be at work in.." She looked down at her watch, "43 minutes."

"Oh of course! I won't hold you up any longer. We should be getting home too, this little guy looks exhausted." Delphine replied and bend down to pet Strawberry on her head. She clicked Tigers leash back onto his collar and stood back up.

"Wait, ill give you my number so we can meet up sometime." Delphine said, pulling a piece of paper out of her pocket. "For the dogs of course."

"Yeah, of course." Cosima smirked. She accepted the piece of paper when Delphine handed it to her, paying attention to the way the other woman's hand lightly graced hers. It made Cosima shiver, but in a good way.

She looked up and her eyes met Delphine's, and for a while, they just stared at each other. The moment was broken when she felt Strawberry pull on her leash and she lost her balance. She stumbled backwards, trying her best to stay upright. With some wild movements of her hands, she managed not to lose her footing, but it took her a moment to regain her previous position.

Both laughed, and it erased the tension.

"I'll call you later, okay?" She said, suddenly remembering why she had to leave.

"Sure." Delphine smiled again, it was almost ridiculous how many times this woman had made her smile in short time that they had been talking.

Cosima turned around and waved, "Bye, Delphine."

"Au revoir, Cosima."

At the last possible moment, she turned around, looking at Delphine again,

"Happy Valentine's day." She smiled.

"Same to you, Cosima."

Delphine smiled back, and Cosima strengthened her hold on the piece of paper containing the woman's phone number.

She was definitely going to call Delphine. Maybe even tonight, it was Valentine's day after all, anything could happen. She waved one final time at the blonde before turning around and walking away.


Three months later

Sunday, May 24, 2015, 11:52 a.m

Delphine squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight that attacked her have closed eye lids. She groaned and turned around, hoping it would make the room less bright for some reason. She reached over to the other side of the bed, and found it empty.

Finally fully opening her eyes, she sat up and swept her hair out of her face. The door to the hall was closed, but she could hear someone moving around in the kitchen. She smiled.

Yawning, she stretched her arms above her head and got out of bed. Her bare feet came in contact with soft carpet beneath her and she looked around to find something to wear. She settled for her bathrobe and left the room.

Once in the hall, she was greeted by a wet nose pressing against her upper leg.

"Good morning SB." She pet the dogs head and turned the corner.

Her eyes landed on the back of Cosima's head. The woman had her back turned to her and she hadn't noticed Delphine yet.

Delphine leaned against the door post and watched how Cosima was moving around in front of the stove. She noticed she had her headphones in, and was softly swaying her hips in time with the music in her ears.

Strawberry had settled back into her bed in the corner, contently curling up around Tiger who was still half asleep.

Suddenly, Cosima turned around and let out a surprised yelp. She pulled the headphones out of her ears, "Jesus Delphine, you scared me."

"Sorry." She laughed and moved forwards, around the kitchen island and into Cosima's personal space.

"Good morning." Delphine whispered and pressed a kiss on Cosima's nose.

"Good morning to you too." Cosima smiled widely, "I made you pancakes."

"I see, good thing I'm hungry." She made no attempt to move away. Instead, she took a step closer and glanced down to the shorter woman's lips. Cosima hummed and tilted her head.

Taking this opportunity, Delphine leaned in and pressed her lips against Cosima's, slowly kissing the other woman. When she came back up for air, the brunette still had her eyes closed and a soft smile on her lips, Delphine never got tired of seeing that.

Only three months ago they met, and they had gotten along right away. Even Strawberry and Tiger liked each other. Sometimes Delphine still had trouble believing how lucky she was, she had found this incredible woman who loved her so much it made her tear up from happiness.

She was a scientist, so she didn't believe in Cupid or any other stupid Valentine's day superstitions, but she silently thanked whatever made Tiger escape so that they would run in to each other that day.

Whatever it was, it gave her a shot at a happy ending and she was so thankful for that.

"So, pancakes?" She suggested.

"Yes, that's an excellent idea." Cosima replied, still smiling.