James was dreaming about saving some tribal community from death and destruction at the hands of a giant butterfly (hey, they can be vicious) when he felt something wet sliding across his face. Repeatedly. Once he caught a whiff of what he could only describe as ass, he knew what it meant. Slowly opening one eye, he was greeted with the panting face of Ollie, his Australian Retriever. His gaze went down to the clock opposite him on the nightstand and saw that, as always, it was 6:30am. Ollie's favorite time for walks.
"Alright, alright. I'm up." At those words, Ollie gave a happy bark and jumped off of the bed to fetch his leash from beside the living room fireplace. Groaning, James flipped over onto his back, gave his eyes a good rub, and kicked the covers off of his body. A minute later, Ollie was back to gently nudge his owner, just in case he had decided to fall back asleep. Swinging his legs over the side of his bed, he gave his furry friend a gentle scratch behind the ear, and smiled down at him. "We're going to have company this time around. Not only will you have another dog to hump," he said, lifting each side of Ollie's face up so it looked like a squinted smile, "You'll have a girl, too." Ollie tried to lick James' face again, but he pulled back in time to avoid it. "Give me a minute, okay?" The young dog sat down, resigned, the leash still in his mouth, as James rose from the bed and walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth, etc. He actually had to sort of give a crap over his appearance this time around, when he normally would have just tossed on a sweatshirt and chewed on a piece of gum.
A few minutes later, he came out of the bathroom and threw on a simple
white t-shirt with jeans, along with his Pumas. Exiting the bedroom, he hit his hand against his leg which Ollie quickly responded to, following happily behind with the leash. Walking down the stairs to the lower level of his apartment, went to the kitchen where he put a handful of treats into two different bags. Grabbing them, he attached the leash to his dog and exited his apartment, making his way to the elevator.
Arriving at the Scholars Gate entrance to Central Park, he sat down on the bench with Ollie sniffing things close by, waiting for Farah and Brian to arrive.