Trials and Tribulations [Chaelisa]

Chapter 49

“Lili, that’s because it is a puppy.” Chaeyoung returned, chuckling lightly to herself and placing a hand on Lisa’s upper arm, smiling at her affectionately.

“Yeah, but, who’s puppy is it?” Lisa asked, her eyes turning towards Chaeyoung and away from the small canine where they’d been fixed. “Is it like, a relatives’ of yours or something?” she queried seriously, apparently not understanding that it was in fact now hers. “I mean, it’s so cute,” Lisa voiced, turning her attention back to the tiny animal that was sat on its hind legs watching her, its leash hooked loosely beneath the leg of a patio chair in order to stop it from escaping. Lisa crouched down in front of the animal, patting it on the head tenderly, a small smile appearing on her lips as it started to lick the back of her hand. “I can’t believe that you’d borrow it for the day for me.” She finished and Chaeyoung quirked her head, finally realising Lisa’s misunderstanding.

“Ugh no,” Chaeyoung said, crouching down beside the younger girl and lifting up the dog’s name tag so that Lisa could see it, the word ‘Luca’ clearly printed on the small shiny gold disc where it hung from the collar around his neck. “I didn’t borrow him Lili,” Chaeyoung informed her, watching as Lisa mouthed the word on the tag, a look of comprehension crossing her features. “He’s yours.”

“Wh…wait, what?!” Lisa replied, turning to look at her girlfriend in complete shock. “You bought me a puppy? Are you crazy?” she asked, glancing back down at the petite dog again, her features softening almost instantly upon seeing it. She shook her head for a moment, trying not to let herself get distracted by the small creature. “You can’t buy me a puppy,” Lisa told her, trying to be practical about the situation, no matter how adorable Luca was, or how much she wanted to keep him. “They won’t let me keep him here and my parents can’t look after him…”

“Lili,” Chaeyoung said, laughing at her girlfriend’s response. “Trust me, it’s all taken care of I promise.”

“Rosie, it’s such a nice gesture, really it is and he’s so cute. I mean, look at him,” she prompted, turning her attention back to Luca, her smile widening as her eyes fell across the small brown bundle who was lowering himself onto the patio, resting his head on his paws tiredly. “I mean, he’s so cute, like, he’s adorable and I really, really love that you would do something like this for me but, I can’t keep him, not when I’m still in rehab. Plus, it’s too much,” Lisa shared with her. “Dogs aren’t cheap Rosie, how could you even afford him?”

“Ok,” Chaeyoung said, placing a hand on the side of Lisa’s neck to quiet her. “Perhaps I went about this the wrong way,” she recognised. “I probably should have explained a few things before I just went in to the big reveal.” She acknowledged and Lisa watched her expectantly as Chaeyoung lowered herself on to the patio and crossed her legs beneath her. Lisa mirrored Chaeyoung’s position, her hand gently stroking the small dog beside her subconsciously as she waited for her girlfriend’s explanation. “So,” she began, reaching for Lisa’s other hand with her own and holding it in her grasp, her thumb tracing small circles on the back of it as she spoke. “As you know, you kind of just unexpectedly reappeared back in my life again after six weeks apart and I hadn’t given any thought to what I’d get you for Valentine’s day because, well, if I’m being truthful, I didn’t even know whether I could still think of you as my girlfriend until a few days ago, yet alone whether we’d be exchanging gifts.” She enlightened Lisa.

“Then we kind of resolved everything between us and I wanted to get you something meaningful, something that I knew you wanted and would love as much as I love you,” she divulged. “I couldn’t think of anything,” she admitted. “My mind was drawing a complete blank and then the day of the deposition, I was sitting at lunch and I remembered how happy you’d been when we’d seen the dog outside Jimmy’s,” she continued. “I thought about the conversation we’d had, how you said that you’d always wanted one and that your parents had agreed that you could perhaps have one when you were older…”