Door To Door

Customer Type #7: The Ones Who Don't Need Convincing

"Hello, ma'am, I'm Hudson Ellis - I'm a representative of the charity Man's Best Friend. You may have heard of us?"

"Uh, sure. You help dogs, right?"

"Yep," Hudson nods, smiling widely. "Disabled dogs."

The woman's eyes soften immediately. "Oh, that's so lovely. Do you want a donation?"

"Actually," Hudson fishes a leaflet out of his bag, opening it and showing it to her. "You can do a few different things. We have an adoption programme," he points to the relevant section of text, "a sponsoring scheme," he moves his finger to the other side of the leaflet. "and like you said, madam, just regular donation," he turns it over and shows her the back.

"Oh, wow," she laughs. "That's a lotta options."

Hudson grins. "It sure is. You're spoilt for choice."

"Hm," she studies the leaflet, which is still in Hudson's outstretched hand. "I think I'll stick with donation for now," she decides. "But if I could keep the leaflet, and think about some of the others as well..."

"Oh, sure, of course," Hudson nods eagerly. "Actually, I think I have an introductory pack with me..." He pauses to dig around in his bag, retrieving said pack and holding it out to her. "It just tells you about the sponsoring and adoption in a little more detail," he explains as she takes it from him.

"Great," she smiles, reaching over to drop a ten dollar bill into Hudson's bucket.

"Thank you," Hudson says, smiling.

"No problem," she smiles back as she moves to close the door.

"Have a good day!" Hudson says, taking a few steps back.

"You too!"

☒

"Hey, Jesse," Hudson greets a little breathlessly as he stumbles into the diner.

"Uh, hey, Hudson," Jesse gives him a confused look from behind the corner. "Isn't it, um, a little early for lunch?"

"Didn't have breakfast," Hudson chokes out, chest heaving. "Shouldn't be on break. Got too hungry. Need hash browns. Stat."

Jesse grins as he goes to switch on the grill. "Coming right up."

☒

"Damn, those were good," Hudson mumbles to himself as he finishes off Jesse's hashbrowns. He casts a furtive glance around the street. On finding that there's no one in particular to observe him, with all the pedestrians engrossed in their own business as they make their own way down the road, he licks his fingers, attempting to glean the last remnants of flavour from them.

"Finger lickin' good, huh?"

Hudson almost trips off the sidewalk and into the road in surprise. "Piper," he manages, before clearing his throat and crumpling the now  hash-brown-less brown paper bag into one fist. "Um, hi," he says, feeling the tips of his ears begin to warm up. "What are you..."

"Coffee break," she says, holding up a paper cup emblazoned with the green Starbucks logo. 

"Oh," Hudson says, a thought occurring to him. "Don't you have, like, assistants? To do that for you?" he asks as they make their way down the street.

Piper's eyes narrow. "And what makes you say that?" 

Hudson shifts uncomfortably, realising his mistake. "Beth kinda told me what you do," he admits after a few moments. 

"I see," she replies. "And what led to that conversation?"

He tries to shrug nonchalantly. "I may have asked about you."