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Every day for the past week Simon’s watched the same beautiful girl show up to the park to play with a dog. It’s just a small park near his apartment, one he comes to when the inside feels too stifling and he can’t seem to do anything with his music and lyrics, and he’s positive he’s never seen her here before. He’d know.
He tries to be discreet about it and tries not to spend too much time distracted by the occasional glance or two or twenty her way. He figures if he’s going to get stuck thinking about her while she’s there he might as well use it to his advantage, and starts to write a song loosely inspired by the mysterious dark-haired girl with the dog. For the first time in weeks the chords seem to practically bleed out of him, the lyrics hummed under his breath may be a bit generic, but they’re good. Like, better-than-usual good.
Every day he tells himself that he’ll go up and introduce himself if she’s there again, and every day he sees her and stays silent, save for the humming and murmuring of lyrics he jots down in his notebook, and the sound he makes as he plays. Every day she leaves, and he sinks back against the bench in silent defeat.
That is, until the day the ball that the girl throws to the dog bounces and takes a turn towards him, rolling to a stop at his feet and bringing the dog, followed by the girl, with it. The dog, upon reaching Simon, grabs the ball in his mouth and turns his head up expectantly toward him, as if asking Simon to throw it.
“Sorry!” the girl says, running up behind him. He has no idea how she runs so easily in the grass in those heeled boots. “He thinks everyone wants to be his best friend,” she laughs.
“Everyone probably does. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be friends with such a cutie?” Simon points out, smiling. And, figuring this was the universe’s way of doing what he couldn’t bring himself to all those days, adds, “I’m Simon, by the way.”
“Isabelle,” the girl says, grinning back. “And this is Riley,” she adds, glancing back down at the eager golden retriever. “You can throw it for him if you want.”
Simon, who is allergic to dogs, decides this is absolutely worth it as he takes the ball out of Riley’s mouth to throw.
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Isabelle has been very intentionally bringing Riley to play near the cute guy playing the guitar, and she absolutely threw the ball toward Simon on purpose because she wanted an excuse to go over to him. She makes sure to bring Riley out for his walk at the same time every day, hoping that Simon a) noticed her routine and b) would want to talk to her again enough to show up at the same time again. He does, and they meet to talk at the same spot and at the same time every day for the next week.
That first day they make some casual small talk - she brings up her interest in forensic pathology and he doesn’t immediately run, which is a good sign. Simon has obvious interests in music, though he’s humoring some accounting studies for his mother’s sake, which she finds impossibly endearing.
After that, they take turns sharing facts and telling stories, as well as taking turns playing with Riley. In fact, a lot of the time Simon seems to shift his focus so intently on the dog, going on about how much he loves them when Isabelle asks, that she’s starting to get a little worried about how much of his kindness is prompted by his obvious love of dogs. She ignores it for as long as she can until a week after they first met, when she can’t put it off any longer.
“I have a confession to make,” Isabelle says.
Simon frowns, looking immediately prepared for a serious letdown at those words. “You have a boyfriend, don’t you? I knew it, you’re like, way too gorgeous and smart to be single. I mean, I’d be totally cool with just being friends if you-”
“What? No,” Isabelle says, cutting off Simon’s rambling. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Oh. Then, uh, pretend I never said any of that,” Simon says, a bright flush coloring his cheeks. “What is your actual confession?”
“I don’t have a dog,” Isabelle says, glancing down at Riley who lays peacefully worn out by their feet while they sit on the bench. “I was dog sitting for a friend for the past two weeks, and today is the last day.”
Isabelle waits for Simon to look disappointed, but instead he looks… relieved? Is he glad she won’t be around the park again after today? Maybe she read this all wrong…
“Oh thank god,” Simon says. “I mean, Riley’s great. But I’m allergic to dogs. I had to start going home as soon as you left and taking medicine to be able to breathe at night after petting him so much.”
Isabelle’s eyes widen in surprise, and then she laughs in total disbelief. “Why on earth would you keep playing with him, then?”
Simon shrugs. “It kept bringing you back over, and there was absolutely no way I was going to work up the nerve to talk to you on my own without an excuse.”
“Well, you really sold me on the dog love because I was positive once Riley was out of the picture you wouldn’t want me to keep hanging around your songwriting sessions,” Isabelle admits. She figures, based on what Simon said earlier about her being gorgeous and smart, that she doesn’t have to worry about him not being interested in her anymore.
Simon winces slightly, but he’s smiling. “I might have oversold it a bit. I was also mentally preparing on getting prescription allergy meds so I could ask you out on a proper date.”
“...already planning on inviting yourself back to my place?” Isabelle asks, doing her best to keep a serious, accusatory expression while she raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest.
Simon pales. “What!? I… no! No way, that wasn’t-”
But Isabelle can’t keep herself from laughing at Simon’s sputtered flailing before he can dig himself in any deeper. “Relax, Simon. I’m only messing with you. And I’d love to go on a proper date with you, entirely dog-free.”
“Really?” Simon says reflexively. “I mean, yeah, definitely. That sounds great. I promise I’m normally a lot more smooth than this.”
Isabelle raises an eyebrow again.
“Okay, I’m not,” Simon admits just as quickly, and Isabelle laughs again.
“Good, because I like you just the way you are,” she reassures him.
She’s had enough relationships with smooth-talking liars to last a lifetime. There’s something very refreshing about Simon - from his passions to the way he says whatever’s on his mind to the way he seems actually interested in hearing her talk about her forensic studies (and not just humoring her to get in her pants) - that has Isabelle completely won over already. Curious enough to want to learn more and see where this might go, Isabelle has a really, really good feeling about this one.