new romantics

11. babysitting

Whenever Tammy is out for work, Lani takes care of Pringles. As Lani heads toward the kitchen to fill up Pringles' bowl, she spots the pug chewing up one of her shoes.

"No! Pringles!" Lani raised her voice and scolded the dog. Pringles is usually low-maintenance and sleeps for most of the day. But other times, he goes on a chewing/eating craze where he attempts to bite and eat everything he sees. Lani's day was barely beginning, but she was already off on a bad start. She cleans the slobber off of her work shoes and goes to her room to put it away out of Pringles' reach.

"We have so many chew toys, why does he still chew on other things?" Lani angrily muttered to herself. She went to Tammy's room to get one of the dog's toy to distract him. Lani tosses the toy to Pringles before fixing herself breakfast. Once she adds granola in her yogurt, she grabs her bowl and sits down on the couch. While Lani chooses a show to watch on Netflix, Pringles is a few feet away from her playing with his toy. About five minutes later, the pug stops chewing his toy and moves closer to Lani. As she is about to shove a spoonful of yogurt in her mouth, she spits it out and winces. She looks down to see Pringles, who went from biting her ankle to chewing on her pajama pants. Lani pauses the show on the TV and stands up. With her hands on her hips, she looks down at the funny looking pug and scolds him.

"Bad boy! Go eat your food!" Lani points to the untouched food bowl. The pug just stared at her.

"Go to your room right now!" Lani commanded, but Pringles still did not obey.

"Oh my god," Lani crouched down and put her head in her hands in frustration. She went to get his toy and threw it across the room, but the dog just stood there. All of a sudden, the sound of the doorbell went off.

"Stay," Lani told Pringles before making her way to the door. She answered the door and signed whatever the delivery man gave her. As she was about to close the door, Pringles slipped through the small crack and escaped.

"NO!" Lani chased after the pug. She followed the dog in the hallway. Just then, the elevator opened up, and a man in white stepped out. Pringles went up to the man and jumped on his legs.

"I am so sorry!" Lani said once she finally caught up. She realized right away that it was Miles, who appeared to be coming back from work.

"Are you guys going for a walk?" Miles asked.

"No. Pringles was acting up and somehow went out the door," Lani answered, out of breath. Miles was kneeling on the ground petting Pringles when he noticed the mark on Lani's right ankle.

"Do you need help with that?" Lani was confused until Miles gestured to her ankle. She looked down and saw that it was bleeding a tiny bit.

"No, I'm fine. It's just a little scratch."

"Let me help. I don't want it to get affected."

"It's okay. I can put a bandaid on myself. Plus, Pringles has his shots, so I'm not worried about it getting worse." Miles still persisted, and the two ended up back at Lani's apartment. Once Miles puts Pringles down, he heads toward the bathroom to look for an emergency kit. Lani followed him and awkwardly sat down on the toilet seat. He takes a bandaid and an alcohol wipe before putting the emergency kit back inside the cabinet. Once Miles applies the alcohol on Lani's ankle, she winces at the burn and jerks away from Miles.

"I need you to stay still for me, please."

"Sorry." Miles blows on the wounded spot before applying the bandaid on her ankle. Lani's face immediately turned to a bright shade of red.

"Thank you," Lani said, avoiding eye contact with the vet. Miles finally stands up from his kneeling position and smiles. His expression turns serious as he moves closer to Lani and presses his hand on her forehead.

"Are you getting a fever? You look a little hot right now." Lani swats his hand away and gets even more flustered.

"I'm fine. It's just the blush I'm wearing," Lani lied and stuttered in the process. Like before, Miles protested on taking care of her.

"I can make soup if you're feeling ill."

"I'm okay. Really. You helped me out so many times. I feel bad."

"How about you let me make you something, and I can come up with something later on for you to return the favor?" Miles proposed.

"Fine," Lani answered in defeat. Miles went back to his apartment to get the ingredients he needed. At the same time, Tammy came back from work.

"You didn't tell me you were seeing Miles? All my hard work of setting you two up has paid off," Tammy said before plopping on the couch next to her pet pug. At this point, Lani was looking like a tomato. All this time, she thought that Tammy and Miles were a thing. Even though she was hanging out with Aaron these days, Lani didn't know whether she was into Aaron or Miles. But after finding out that Tammy wanted her to be with Miles, Lani can't help but feel even more attracted to the vet. As she waits for her neighbor to come back, Lani sits beside Tammy with the biggest smile on her face.