Ed bends over the dog, ruffling his fur all the way to the base of his tail. The dog swivels his head to look at Ed with those mismatched eyes, tongue lolling in doggy pleasure.

Alice woke up on the dawn of her wedding day and wondered if she’d been flattered into marrying a man she knew was kind, charming, and supremely confident of his decision-making abilities. A trait that, even then, in the full blush of romantic love, Alice knew would evolve into always thinking that he was right.

“Will you leash him for me?”

Buddy knows enough English to react to Alice’s words, and he jumps up and dashes to the back door, ready to perform one of his tricks.

Alice did wake up on her wedding morning excited, nervous, maybe even a little nauseous, but she didn’t wake up doubting her choice. That’s a recent spin; that’s three and a half decades of experience coloring in the outline of that young bride’s expectations.

And in the last decade, Ed has learned the hard way that he isn’t always right.

Ed takes the leash out of the dog’s mouth and clips it to the collar. The fire hydrant–shaped license tinkles against the metal clip, a reassuring doggy sound. Alice wants to get a name tag as well, with their number and address printed on it. It’s a good idea. No sense taking chances.

“Have fun.”

Alice leaves the house quickly, just a little ashamed of herself.

*   *   *

Buddy/Mack stretches out on the sun-warmed deck, a long sigh of released energy shuddering through him. Alice has been grooming him, and his skin feels tingly in a pleasant way. Drifts of loosened hair float on the light breeze, up and away, too late for songbirds to use as nesting material.

Alice has on those clothes again, the ones just like those that Justine wears to dance with him. Buddy/Mack gets up from his idle sunbathing and prances, demonstrating to Alice that he can go with her to the dance place. In his dog’s mind, it isn’t unreasonable that Alice will take him to a place he knows and that Justine will be there waiting for him. He doesn’t know why she’s being so stubborn.

“Oh no, Buddy. You can’t go to yoga. I’m sure that Ed will take you somewhere.” Buddy/Mack understands only that she isn’t taking him with her, not the tongue language. He doesn’t understand the problem. Alice has on dance clothes. He always goes to dance when he sees those tight black pants and white shoes, the car keys, the water bottle almost like the one Justine shares with him. He can overlook one time when she might not take him, but not again. He stands on the alert, his blue eye and his brown eye fixed on Alice’s face, waiting.