The light crossed the barrier of the canopy above them, creating a green stained glass ceiling who's shadows danced on the forest floor like nature's kaleidoscope.
He breathed in. Sure, she didn't say I love you back, but he still felt some kind of promise on her kiss, the chance of True Love with her, and that was all that he needed right now, he was happy with just that chance.
Rad looked at her while she laid next to him, her eyes closed as she breathed in deeply, enjoying the warmth of the sun through the foliage and the kind breeze that brought to them the chirp of birds.
"How are you feeling, princess?"
"Very nice and free…Truly like a princess that has just stepped out of her prison tower… I love being with you Rad…I Need to thank Chilli for her meddling in my love life this time, I wouldn't have taken it kindly otherwise you know? "
He laughed. "Hahahaha! Poor Chilli…" he cooed. "She had no idea, Frisky! It was Bandit who did all the tricks here!"
She opened her eyes to look at him. "Really?!"
"Yes, he told me after a couple of drinks at his house, the last time I visited. Chilli would have had his blue hide if I had not intervened! Turns out he switched her phone to airplane mode so none of her messages would ever reach you!"
Frisky giggled, raising her hand to caress his cheek before matching her gaze with his. "Then, Ill make sure to thank him later…", she said sincerely, looking into his eyes. "I owe him dearly…"
He couldn't help but gulp out of anticipation under her stare.
She kissed him again, sweetly and slowly.
Rad didn't need anymore, his life felt complete. "Oh, I think WE owe him dearly, that's for sure", he said.
Frisky sighed while snuggling into his embrace.
She felt so at peace!
Then a thought struck her: Rad was her safe place, she needed to share her story with him, because she wanted so much for him to feel the same way about her, she wanted him to trust her completely.
So, after a moment of sweet shared silence, she cleared her throat lightly. "Fine, I'll tell you about Bosco." she conceded, looking at the leafy canopy above them.
Rad's ears perked up attentively,preparing himself for whatever she was ready to tell him.
—--
The first time we met…
…It was in a seminar, he was sitting beside me…
Frisky couldn't help but smile. The dog beside her was not only handsome as hell, but was taking notes in a very thorough and orderly way... she had been staring at him a bit too much without daring herself to speak to him, so she smirked playfully when she realized that his notes were the perfect excuse for approach him, after all, she honestly needed the information she didn't get to write down.
Her tail wagged in her seat as resolution took form in her chest, and she smiled brightly while slowly leaning towards him, like a cat about to pounce on a distracted mouse.
"Hey… sorry… Did you catch the thing she just said about Pickler principles, or anything about the importance of free movement in early childhood?" she asked, eyeing the stranger and the notebook in his lap.
He smiled. His heart jumped inside his chest as in his face grew a red blush. How could he have missed this beauty sitting beside him until now?
"Uhm - I-I, yes!" he stuttered, " Although it might be of no use to you…my handwriting is terrible, you see?…" he smiled endearingly.
"Oh my!! He is so cute, and his voice gives me goosebumps!", she thought. "Well, mine is pretty awful as well", she giggled nervously.
They spent a pair of seconds just smiling at each other goofily, until she broke the silence again.
"Mind if I take a picture of it?"
"Of course!" he eagerly agreed, while noticing the medical uniform she was wearing. "So…are you in health care services?" What a stupid question, of course she is! He rebuked himself.
She smiled, unaware of his inner monologue. "Ah, yes! Name's Frisky and I'm a physical therapist" she said, extending her hand to him.
He shook her hand gently. "Bosco Rhodesian, gymnastics teacher".
"Say something else, Bosco!" his inner self counseled.
"Ehm uhm… What brought you here?", he asked.
Frisky's tail wagged gently. "Oh! The health center I work for has been receiving very young patients lately, so I thought that maybe a Childhood approach to sports's seminar could be handy for me… Actually it's proving to be very good…"
"Is she flirting with me?" he smiled widely. "Yeah…this year I'm gonna be starting classes for the kindy's childrens of the school I'm working for… so I'll be working with little kiddos as well…"
He shot her, what he hoped, was a charming smile. "Care to compare notes over a cuppa after this lecture ends?", he proposed to her.
"Of course!" she agreed, with an eager smile.
"Oh her smile! I have never seen such a lovely smile before, not since… a lot of time ago…" he thought, while a smile of his own crept in his face and his tail wagged enthusiastically.
—--
She had curled up to Rad's side, feeling grateful for the rhythmic beat of his heart so close to her. It was so soothing to feel him in that way, so very close, so attentive to her words. "A prince, indeed" she thought.
"So, we exchanged contacts and soon enough, we started dating…" Frisky paused tentatively "...I don't mean to hurt you Rad, but I need to tell you that we were in love, or at least that it seemed to me"
He sighed.
"So, is that what 's holding you back?…Afraid of falling in cause you don't wanna be hurt again…" Rad reflected.
"I understand you…Believe me, I can take it babe…" He said into her hair.
"...besides, he's in the past," Rad added with a little gulp.
Frisky turned up her face to look at him. Despite his brave smile, he looked frail for a second. Oh…you can't fool me, Rad Heeler...
She caressed his face lovingly. "He's nothing more than the past, Rad. You're the present, and we are here and now." Frisky said, looking him in the eyes.
Yes, it was only them amidst nature. Just both of them in the vast empty world…it felt like some sort of enchantment to him!
He tightened his hold on her and breathed in deeply, burying his face in her locks, she could feel his smile in her cheek.
"You can continue if you want, love, don't worry." the heeler said.
Her heart jumped at that and she smiled brightly.
He suddenly realized what he had done.
"Oh…", he softly exclaimed, and suddenly looked like a boy who had reached for a wanted candy without permission. He smiled pleadingly.
"Can I call you love, Frisky?"
She breathed in, feeling as if some sort of ice was melting down inside her, in response to such a simple question.
"What is this? How wonderful!" she thought, astounded by the sheer brilliance Rad has awoken in her heart.
"Yes… you can call me love, Rad", she said.
—--
They have been together for months now.
Bosco sighed.
Frisky was sleeping with her lovely head on his chest.
He smiled with content… He never thought that something like this could happen to him, not after… her...
Frisky's love was gentle and bright, like a summer's ray of sun. He had felt as if something had cracked in his heart under its warmth, melting the polar ice that Astra's goodbye had left behind. She had broken all his defenses and freed him to feel anew.
He breathed in, he was grateful, for she loved him with a love so fierce and true that he felt bound to correspond to it in the same way… and oh, it was so easy to love Frisky!
Bosco looked at the sleeping woman embraced to his chest, he caressed a creamy lock away from her brow with loving hands. His smile was sweet yet his eyes were distressed.
…It seemed so easy to just fall for her, fall deeply in love with this cheeky yet angelic creature that knew so well how to love in the most happy and true way possible… but….he wasn't sure about his own heart yet…
…He loved her, yes…but was his love as great as hers?
Bosco grimaced into the night.
She has freed your heart, please, please fall for real, love her with the same determination that she loves you! he pleaded to himself.
He sighed.
"Gosh I love her, I do…and I'll love her as she loves me… I can do it, I will do it", he murmured under his breath.
Frisky continued sleeping peacefully, lulled by the rhythm of his heart.
—--
A bird was working diligently.
Frisky and Rad looked at it with curiosity.
The little creature picked up twigs, leaves, feathers and flew to the branches of the tree above them.
Rad smiled. "Good little fella, it's building a nest…"
She looked at Rad, while he watched the bird… He had these lovely little expression lines around his eyes, and a little bit of gray hairs, but gosh, he smiled like a child! … and she loved all that about him.
She breathed in while observing the hardworking little being.
"Bosco and I…" she said softly "...we never get to share a home together."
Rad went silent and returned to listening attentively, knowing she would tell him more, while he gently held her hand in his.
She sighed.
"Well, during most of our relationship he had a good reason to not live with me…he lived with his mother you see? He was the youngest of four siblings, yet he was the only one caring for her… she was physically dependent on someone else to go on with her daily life, and Bosco provided that to her, besides she was also mentally deteriorating at an alarming speed"
Frisky couldn't help but remember.
That afternoon, after work, they decided to share a quick tea at a coffee shop. Bosco sighed while he absentmindedly looked at his cup.
"What happened, love?" Frisky asked him, visible worry in her eyes as she caressed the hand into hers. The dog in front of her seemed more and more stressed by the day.
"My mum… She forgot my sister's name, again, she also forgot she had a baby recently…"
Well, your sister is not the one who cares for her, so…, her inner voice answered with vengeance, yet she repressed it. "Oh Bosco…that's awful…"
He chuckled darkly. "Yesterday she went to the bathroom and locked herself inside, then she couldn't open the door again…" Then, he sighed and shuddered "I'm slowly losing her…"
—--
"It was such a tiring process for him! Yet he never failed to tend to each and every one of her needs, as a loving son should do… Gosh, even after all the toll of our breakup, I must admit that I admired that about him".
Rad raised up a brow. "Well, that's only fair babe, he sounds selfless and kind towards his mother, both things worthy of being admired."
She smiled. "He then asked me if I could recommend a colleague of mine to him, someone he could get to check on his mother joints and so…"
Rad chuckled softly. "So you refused and instead offered to help the old lady yourself, did you?"
"Hey! How did you know that?!", she exclaimed, looking at him with surprise.
He shrugged. "Well… I dare to think I understand the ways of your heart, Frisky…"
The spaniel smiled. She couldn't help the warmth expanding in her chest at this honest confidence of him, nor the gentle wagging of her tail.
"Oh! …And how are the ways of my heart, Mr. know-it-all?"she teased, reclining herself on his chest.
Rad chuckled seductively. "Ohhh… always daring, kind and generous to a fault! …And I like that very much.."
—--
"Now Mrs. Rhodesian, curl your fingers around the ball…"
The four long, knotted fingers of the lady's right hand did their best, while the old woman focused herself on the ball as if it was some sort of college exam.
"Yeah like that, very well, now please, squeeze the ball." instructed Frisky to the old woman in front of her, but not even her concentration could help her to press the soft foam ball.
The old Ridgeback looked at the ball with undisguised chagrin.
"You are so sweet, girl…. You aren't in a relationship with my son, are you?" Boscos mother asked, looking over her glasses with a sour expression and bitter voice, it seemed that not only the ball was the target of her annoyance.
Frisky couldn't decide if the tone of the question was genuine or plainly menacing… or both at the same time. If the shivering down her spine was right, it was the last option.
"I- I am your therapist, Mrs. Felicia…", she answered, trying her best to not to lie.
"He is with a woman! I can tell! Ohhh that witch!" The elderly woman rambled.
Frisky could guess it was not only rage that affected the lady, but also fear, so she did what her conscience told her to do.
The spaniel took the aging hands of her patient in hers with care, and went down to her eyes level.
"Why are you scared, Mrs Felicia?"
The elderly looked her in the eyes, suddenly frail and lost. "Have you come to take him away from me?" she asked.
Frisky gulped. She couldn't reveal the truth to this lady, it would do no good to her… nor to herself for that matter. Despite the tension, she smiled at Mrs. Rhodesian gently.
It must be awful to fear that your greatest love could be taken away from you, she thought.
"Mrs. Felicia… your son loves you dearly, he would never leave you alone, no matter what", Frisky said.
You could even gain a daughter in time, if you just open yourself to it, her inner voice added just for herself.
Bosco's mother seemed to relax a bit, her stance changing lightly as she rested her back in her chair.
"...I still don't trust you, blue eyed witch!", the old woman muttered under her breath.
Frisky tried not to pay much heed to that, despite the dread it carved into her heart.