“What?” I asked, and she continued to stare. “Go play,” I said, pointing at a small sand pit in the middle of the park.

She turned and walked over to it, sniffing it for a moment. She circled it and then looked up at me, less interested than I’d hoped she would be. After a few moments, she walked back to my bench and sat down beside me, watching the other dog play.

“Yeah, this probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve had in a while, huh?” I asked her. I’m not sure why I did it, but I reached out and touched the top of her head, reveling in the softness of her fur. She didn’t move at first, but after a moment, she inched back a little. We sat like that for a while, and finally, I dropped my hand and stood up.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” I said.

I bent down and put her leash back on. The pink-haired girl’s boyfriend had said that she tended to be in the park around 4:00 p.m. I looked at my phone; it was already 4:30.

It was time to go home.

As I stood, I felt something at the back of my legs, and I turned to see a small black poodle at my feet. It was the same dog from the other day, and I let out a small gasp. Looking up, I saw a tall woman striding toward me with a smile on her face.

Emma.

“Hi there,” she said. “Chris, right? Looks like you came back after all.”

She looked even more put-together than she had the first two times I’d seen her. She was wearing another jumper, this one bright pink. She was wearing a pair of tan flats, and she’d pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, which helped tone down the outfit. It didn’t look like she was wearing makeup, but she had to be—nobody’s skin is that flawless. I blinked a few times, shocked that this ridiculous outing had actually paid off.

“Yeah, I decided to see if Shelby likes it as much as I do,” I said with a smile, and she nodded. My heart was pounding in my chest, and not for the first time that day, I wondered if I looked as suspicious as I felt.

“Did you walk here?” she asked. “You said you live around the corner, right? In those apartments on Elm?”

“Mm-hmm,” I said. I couldn’t admit to her that I’d searched for parking for twenty minutes and paid to come to a dog park that was nowhere near my house. As the lie came out of my lips, I tried to push down the guilt. I changed the subject quickly. “You weren’t kidding when you said you come here every day.”