and she’d hold her tongue out and let the pets lick it by Bogdan Dragos

every time I glanced
at her face
I was reminded
of the
character trope of
the
cute and exaggeratedly
naive
girl who's not
aware of her beauty
and is predisposed
to having others take
advantage of
her

Of course
that was only in my
head
but she really did
have an immense
heart

She had two big
dogs
and a bunch of cats,
I never knew
exactly how many

But I knew and
saw with my own
eyes that
she kissed them all on
the snout

the dogs
and the cats too

and she'd hold her
tongue
out and let the
pets lick it

and that was perfectly
okay in her
household

"You're jealous!" she told
me when I
cringed and backed away
as she tried to kiss me.
"Are you one
of those crazy possessive
types who
equates kissing a pet
with cheating?"

"What? No, no, I just..."

"I can't stand
guys like that. What if we
had a kid together?
Would you
feel jealous if you saw me
kissing the kid?"

"What the hell? No. But
animals... I love them, but... Not
like that."

"Not like what?"

"Oh, forget about
it."

"Yeah, good idea. You guys
are all crazy. You'd
rather get in
a relationship with
a woman who has
multiple kids
by multiple men, but
cringe at one who
loves her pets
as her children? What's
wrong with you?"

"Shit, look, it's not
the pets. It's just the... kissing
part."

"So you are
jealous. Then what will
you do when you
find out that I also sleep
with them in the
same bed?"

"Ah, forget it."

Later when I casually
told my mother
about her
she said, "What makes you
think you can
be so picky with
girls?
Like that you'll just
end up
alone, don't you think?"

"I don't know..."