Yours

October 30th

Dear Sophia,

I love you. I got there early today just like I promised. It was totally worth it. I loved how happy you looked today. It’s so nice being able to see you smile like that. I love trying to work out how I can keep you smiling like that.

I was a bit worried how you might be today after I wasn’t there for you yesterday. Really I should know by now you can look after yourself. I do know you can. I just worry about not being there for you. I just care. I hope that’s clear.

It wasn’t very busy today so I could see you through the doors on your way in. It meant I could see you for a while once you’d left too. I noticed you went back to the dog that was out there. I don’t know what kind of dog it was. I’m not very good at knowing about things like that. I noticed when it jumped up it didn’t come very far up your legs so it was either a puppy or a small kind of dog. I guess that’s why you were comfortable going back to it.

I’d actually already seen the dog before you went over to it. I think the owner must have gone into McDonalds or something. I was watching it when I saw it turn and start barking lots. It looked excited. Then a few seconds later you came up to it and started stroking it. I bet all animals love you straight away. I hope it didn’t make you jump too much when it started barking. You looked happy when you were stroking it so I guess not.

I never really know what to make of dogs. I’m not a natural like you. The neighbours here used to have one that scared the life out of me. I’d hear it in the garden barking loudly and sometimes when I went upstairs I could see it in their garden trying to chase birds around or something like that. It would try to get up the big tree they had. It looked ridiculous.

Sometimes I’d see them taking it for a walk and it looked like it was dragging the woman along the street. My mum used to laugh about it and say it looked like a really happy dog. To me it looked like it didn’t even know the woman was there half the time. It just dragged her around. I guess the dog died eventually. I stopped hearing it barking but the family hadn’t moved out. I think they’ve moved away now though.

When that dog started barking today and you didn’t try to avoid it I knew it meant you were a dog person. You crouched down to stroke it and from the side it looked just like a movie poster. A pretty woman bent down stroking a dog that’s trying to lick her face.

We could definitely have a dog. Seeing how happy you looked made me realise it’d be stupid of me to not allow us to have a dog just because I used to know a horrible one. If a dog likes you it obviously has good taste.

The more I think about it the better an idea it seems. You and me and a dog. Maybe I should try to get more used to dogs to prove I’m comfortable around them. I wouldn’t want you to be afraid to bring up getting a dog just because you know they make me a bit jumpy sometimes. I want to see you smiling like you were today and I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

I love you.

Yours,

Andrew