"Vongole, stop running! I can't keep up with you," panted Klavier, the leash he'd been foolish enough to remove hanging uselessly from his hands. She'd behaved perfectly until he took it off. Now, in her excitement, she'd taken full advantage of her new freedom.

He received nothing but a bark from Vongole, who was sitting twenty feet away from him now, looking docile and pretty, unlike the wild blond streak she'd been moments ago. It was an act. If he wasn't smart about getting her to come back, she'd run away again.

"Please?" Klavier implored. "I brought you to the park...I took your leash off so you could run around...Please, won't you come back? Be a good girl…" Cautiously, he stepped forward again. This was all it took for Vongole to dart away once more. With a grunt of resignation, Klavier began to chase her again.

A spot of red in the corner of his vision distracted him; a jogger in a red hoodie had slowed down to watch. Klavier didn't blame him for gawking. He would have gawked too. The jogger looked handsome, Klavier thought as he ran.

Suddenly, he wasn't running anymore and the ground was rushing toward him, and then he was colliding with the grass below him, and there was a throbbing pain in his hip. He heard himself yell.

He pulled himself up onto his hands and knees and looked around. He was lying on the grass next to a park bench. The thudding sound of footsteps approached him from the side. He craned his neck to look up at the jogger.

"Holy shit, are you okay?!" the jogger asked, extending a hand.

Klavier cautiously shifted his weight and examined his hands. They were dirty, but not harmed, and the pain in his hip would leave a nasty bruise but wasn't excruciating. "I think so," he replied. The jogger was handsome, he noticed, short but wiry-looking, with dark brown hair and eyes and a friendly face. He immediately took advantage of his opportunity to take the proffered hand. Firm strength pulled him to his feet.

"Thank you," said Klavier, dusting himself off.

"You're welcome." There was a pause. "Your dog's back," he added.

Klavier looked down. Indeed she was. "I don't have a dog," he joked. The jogger looked confused for a second. "She's my brother's," he added quickly.

"She seems feisty. Pretty cute though," commented the jogger, reaching out tentatively. Vongole sniffed his hand, and he moved his hand forward to pet her side.

"Yeah," Klavier agreed bluntly. "My intimidatingly successful brother said he'd pay me if I walked her. I'm trying to save for a really nice new guitar so I said yes even though I've been really busy. And even though Vongole hates me."

"I know the feeling," the jogger sighed. "She's behaving now, though, right? I bet she doesn't hate you." He peered down at the dog, who was now allowing him to scratch gently behind her soft ears. "You're a good girl, huh?" he asked her.

Klavier took this opportunity to bend down and clip the leash back onto Vongole's collar before she could run away again. She gave him the saddest look he'd ever seen, but he knew her too well to let it get to him. "Yes, but she knows exactly what she's doing when she makes that face."

"I've got a cat and this shit makes me glad I don't have to walk her," laughed the jogger. "She does pee in weird places when she's mad at me, though." He wrinkled his nose, and Klavier thought it was cute.

Klavier smiled "She's not so bad, really. Easier than my brother to deal with. At least she doesn't make the sad face and guilt trip you at the same time." Perhaps this comment had been too personal for someone he'd met three minutes ago.

The jogger winced sympathetically. "Yeah, siblings are pretty weird. My sister's a good kid, though."

"Unfortunately, I'm the kid sibling in this situation," Klavier sighed. "And he makes sure to remind me constantly." He paused. "I'm telling you too much, aren't I? Don't pay attention to me."

"Don't worry about it," the jogger replied. "I don't mind." He glanced down at his watch. "Ugh, this is terribly timed given what you just said; I promise I'm not just running away from you. But I actually have to be somewhere in like half an hour and I need to shower and get dressed. I was about to leave when I saw you fall…" With visible reluctance, he pulled his hand away from the dog.

"No offense taken," Klavier responded, though he was a little sad to see the jogger go. "It was really nice to meet you."

"Bye! Nice to meet you too," jogger replied. He ran away faster than he'd been jogging before and Klavier felt bad for taking up his time. He also realized he'd learned nothing about him besides that he had a nice smile, liked animals, and could run pretty fast when he wanted to. If this had been a romantic comedy, Klavier thought, Klavier would have remembered to leave an inquisitive pause when saying "It was nice to meet you…" for a name to be offered, or yelled, "Wait! I didn't get your name!" as the jogger had run away. But this was not a romantic comedy, and Klavier had forgotten to do either of those things, confident though he was in that if he'd thought to ask, he wouldn't have been too afraid to do so.

"Come on, Vongole, we need to go home," Klavier said to her. She made the same heartbreakingly sad face as before, and Klavier was convinced for a moment that she understood the entirety of human speech and then some. With an owner like Kristoph, he wouldn't have been surprised. He ignored the weak tugging on his heartstrings and began to walk back to Kristoph's condo.

He delivered her to his brother and stayed for just as long as it took to steal some of the especially good imported butter cookies that Kristoph always kept in the kitchen cabinet. He was never quite sure whether or not Kristoph noticed him smuggling his cookies under his shirt, but he assumed that he did and just didn't care enough to stop him. He preferred, however, to believe that Kristoph didn't know and was simply mystified whenever he opened the cabinet.

He returned to his own apartment and changed into an outfit that didn't have any grass stains on it for class. He continued to regret not asking the jogger for his name.

During one of his criminal justice classes, he sat with Ema, who he liked, respected, and loved to poke fun at. He hoped that she felt the same way and that her hostility wasn't indicative of some deep-seated hatred, but he could never be sure. It was an enormous and deeply boring lecture, and Klavier and Ema could get away with whispering to each other.

"How's your dick brother?" she asked. Complaining about Kristoph seemed to be one of the few things Ema gleaned enjoyment from when chatting with Klavier. She'd never met the man, but she seemed to be more annoyed by him than Klavier was.

"Unfortunately, he's fine. He paid me like twenty bucks to take Vongole for a walk."

"Oh god, why did you say yes?" she hissed flatly (she was well-acquainted with Klavier's tales of Vongole's misdeeds).

"Money."

"I suppose that's fair. You're probably just going to use it for your weird fake Europop music project, right?"

"We're Europe-inspired rock, not Europop. But yes. Anyways, I deserved more than twenty dollars with the shit that dog put me through, but I guess it was worth it in the end. Maybe not, though."

"Elaborate."

"Okay, so I was at People Park, and I let Vongole off the leash–"

"No," breathed Ema.

"Unfortunately, yes. Anyways, I let her off the leash and I got really winded and I was still chasing her, and I saw this jogger, and I was so busy staring at him that I accidentally ran into a bench, flipped over it, and landed on the grass."

"Oh my god. Was the jogger seriously that hot?" Her whispers were growing incredulous.

"Yes. Anyways, the guy came over and helped me up and we talked for like, two minutes. It wasn't very long but he was really nice."

"Did you get his number?" Ema's mild interest in his love life was either out of actual friendly concern or just because it entertained her. He always prayed it was the first, though he didn't really mind the second option.

"Nope. Not even his name."

"Pathetic," she replied. He had no idea whether she was saying it jokingly.

"I know," Klavier agreed sadly. "I wish there was some way to find out." "Well, there's the Internet."

"What do you mean, do you think I should, like, scour Tinder or Facebook for him or something?"

"If you're that desperate, you could try that. There's also Craigslist."

"Isn't Craigslist where people go to find people to cheat on their spouses with? I went there once out of morbid curiosity and that's all I saw."

"There's a 'missed connections' section where you can like, post about someone you met but don't have a way of contacting. And if they see it they can reply to it."

"Oh. That actually sounds useful. But what if he doesn't go on Craigslist?"

"Then that doesn't work. But you can try it. You don't even know if he's into guys though. What makes you think he'd date you?"

"His smile."

"Jesus fucking Christ."

"Okay, I was mostly joking. But my gaydar is usually right."

"Then post an ad. I don't see what you could lose by doing that. Plus, seeing a self-styled 'Platinum Blond Sex God' post to Craigslist is hilarious."

"That was once, and I said it as a joke," he hissed in the dark. "But okay, if you think it's a good idea I'll do it."

"Okay. But you're not allowed to blame me if it all goes wrong."

"That sounded menacing."

"The internet is a scary place. Anyways, the lecture today is actually kind of interesting so I'm gonna start paying attention." She began to type into her laptop, and Klavier knew that if he said anything else she'd probably either ignore him or give him a death glare that had silenced many. He was struck with the urge to pull up Craigslist on his computer, but the thought of the people sitting behind him seeing him do it was too much.