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That day had been particularly stifling for Bradley in his small apartment in San Diego.
Even though it was spring, the heat was already intense and sometimes he had trouble concentrating on the music he was composing. Luckily, working from home with complete calm allowed him to take breaks whenever he wanted, waiting for his musical inspiration to return to him from the war.
The bachelor life that Bradley led was certainly not brilliant or carefree... to tell the truth, it was rather flat and boring.
There was only Theo, his wonderful dog, who animated his entire existence with his affection and his presence.
Having a pet was a necessity for him: no one was able to give him unconditional love in that way and to schedule his daily life in such a way as to have to take care of another living being with scrupulousness and conscience without letting himself go.
Being a musician for commercials—Bradley could play the piano, drums, and guitar, and he had a beautiful baritone voice—was the realization of his greatest dream, but sometimes everything became so dull and colorless that his heart would splinter in his chest for no reason.
Especially when he was given projects for romantic commercials, with particularly sweet and grandiose music, that became a real headache for Bradley... writing love songs was not easy for a grown man who thought he was profoundly ignorant on the subject, all alone in the world since the age of eighteen.
His only role models in love had been his parents, but his father Nick had died when he was only three and a half, and his mother Carole, who had never wanted a relationship with another man again, had died of cancer toward the end of his senior year of high school.
Sure, Bradley was conventionally considered a handsome man, even though his mustache (he was really proud of it and took great care of it, thank you very much) had always been a divider between the men and women he had dated throughout his life.
Yet he had never met anyone who was truly worth building something with.
That day, as mentioned before, had been complicated for Bradley: music seemed to fight against him, as if it did not want to obey him in the most absolute way. In addition, the heat was making him nervous and Theo had started barking in the direction of the door, indicating his desire to go to the park located a few steps from their home.
At that point, Bradley declared his defeat, throwing in the towel.
He ran his hand over his face, took a deep breath before closing the keyboard of his upright piano, leaning against the wall of his living room, and slipped on the Hawaiian shirt he had placed on a nearby chair before putting on a pair of black sunglasses and attaching the collar to Theo's leash, who had become increasingly intolerant in the meantime.
“I get it, buddy. We’re going to the park, don’t worry,” Bradley whispered in an attempt to calm him down. “It’s five-thirty, it’s nice and there's light outside. We’ll take a long walk... it’ll be good for both of us.”
And so he simply grabbed his house keys – no cell phone, the use of technology bothered him when he was outside – and went down the stairs with Theo, who was finally padding around more calmly than before.
The smile that that dog always managed to get from Bradley was pure magic every time.
His presence in his life was truly special and Bradley couldn’t imagine himself without him at all.
The park near Bradley’s house was truly cute.
There were plenty of benches to sit on, wooden tables to grab a bite to eat or a cold drink bought at the bar there – the Hard Deck, run by a friend of Bradley’s named Penny -, a huge fountain in the center of the park itself, and a small, pretty pond toward its western edge.
Theo loved that place and Bradley loved being in nature, drawing inspiration from it to find the peace of mind needed to compose his music.
Even though San Diego was a crowded and chaotic metropolis, that quiet and fairly silent patch of land recharged Bradley’s energy effortlessly every time.
That specific afternoon, Theo was livelier than usual.
He barked a lot, ran around in a fit of uncontrollable happiness and Bradley was having trouble keeping him on a leash, so he let him go and followed him on his weird walk.
Theo trotted along contentedly on his agile legs for quite a while before tiring and going to rest not far from a wooden bench that looked out directly onto the park's pond.
Bradley immediately noticed that a handsome blond man, about the same age as him, was sitting on that bench.
He was intent on reading a book with great concentration, his complexion was golden due to his tan, and he was wearing a sage green long-sleeved polo shirt. At his side, there was a small dog, with white and beige fur, who seemed very happy to bite a plastic toy next to his owner, while every now and then his fingers stroked its fur.
Bradley wasn’t an expert on dog breeds, not by a long shot, but did that look like an Old Terrier? He wasn’t sure of it.
In the meantime, he decided to relax next to Theo, who had laid down on the grass to rest a bit, and he gave him a lot of cuddles while he enjoyed the afternoon sun that was gently starting to set.
The whole park seemed to be bathed in an orange and golden light and finally the heat of the day was giving way to a cooler temperature.
Maybe he should have put on something heavier than a white tank top and a vintage Hawaiian shirt from the 80s that belonged to his father, but it was too late to complain about it by then.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Theo came out of his state of semi-stupor due to his owner’s attentions and stole with incredible ease the sunglasses that Bradley had resting on his nose, a little unsteady as usual.
“Theo, come back here!” Bradley called, but he was already running away with his pair of gold-rimmed Ray Bans.
The dog made a few frantic laps around the pond before finally stopping and placing his precious prey right on the bench where the handsome blond man was sitting.
Bradley approached Theo calling him in a low but firm voice, and his brown gaze met for a couple of seconds the charming stranger who was there.
He had a pair of iridescent green eyes that looked like two spheres of precious jade, and Bradley felt his mouth go dry at that vision.
Unfortunately, the proximity of Theo - a very large Golden Retriever - alarmed the small dog next to the blond man, who began to bark in fear.
This pushed his owner to pick him up and move away from Bradley, to his great and intimate regret.
Bradley didn't even have time to finish formulating his own personal grieve in the safety of the walls of his mind because Theo, taken by God knows what instinct, began to chase that Old Terrier.
The handsome blond man stopped a step away from the small lake in the park and, with his dog in his arms, calmly faced Theo.
"What do you want from Brisket?" he asked, and Bradley's ears detected a clear, strong Texas accent coming from his lips.
Then Brisket himself suddenly freed himself from the yoke of his master's arms, and went down to face Theo, barking at him in turn.
This time not with fear, but with determination.
The situation would have been very funny if it had not involved Theo, a dog who had always been very playful and good-natured. God knows what was happening to him!
Bradley approached Theo to clip the leash to his collar, apologize in chagrin to the handsome, green-eyed Texan for his dog’s inexplicable behavior, and get away from the pond as quickly as possible, but none of that was possible.
He didn’t even get a chance to say Hello to the other man or introduce himself properly because, out of nowhere, Brisket came around them both to face Theo, wrapping his leash around their ankles, and shoving them into each other’s personal space.
Bradley’s nose dove for the handsome stranger’s, and the smell of the most delicious scent wafted over him—his cologne smelled really good, like sandalwood and sunshine.
Damn, his eyes are even more beautiful up close, Bradley thought absently as he tried to free his lower limbs from the coils of that leash, transformed into a snake that had now knotted itself tightly around the two of them, and to call Theo back to calm down with determination.
The movements of their bodies, whose chests adhered completely, almost pushed their mouths one on the other, and Bradley felt the embarrassment rise to his cheeks, coloring them in patches of deep red.
It wasn't every day that you found yourself wrapped up in an attractive Texan because of their quarrelsome dogs.
Usually Bradley lived placidly in his small apartment immersed in musical notes and scores, certainly not wrapped in the muscular arms of an attractive blond man.
"Brisket!" the stranger kept exclaiming incessantly, hoping that his dog would listen to him, but in vain.
The fuss reached its peak when Brisket, still barking at Theo, made another turn around Bradley and his master's ankles, finally making them lose the balance that they had miraculously managed to keep standing and inadvertently pushing them into the water of the pond in front of them.
The water was strangely warm, Bradley noticed as he re-emerged from that small body of water all soaked - but finally free from that leash! -, while his companion in misfortune looked sadly at his chest.
"Oh no, my new polo! And I lost my book!" the blond man almost shouted, before furiously exiting the pond and trying to recover Brisket, who in the meantime had calmed down and stopped barking, just like Theo.
At that point, Bradley approached the three of them, and without thinking twice, he took off his soaked Hawaiian shirt and placed it on the shoulders of the Texan, who by now must have hated him with the strength of a thousand suns after everything that had happened between them.
“Here, wait... take my shirt,” he said, without thinking that it was such a dumb action in every single way.
But it had a funny effect on the blond man, who looked him straight in the face - God only knew what Bradley looked like after that unscheduled bath - and burst out laughing.
The sound immediately stuck in Bradley's brain like a beautiful melody, worthy of the best composers.
Bradley also laughed at the absurdity of their situation, as he finally felt Theo's presence, sardonically calm, curled up at his feet.
"I'm Jake, by the way," the blond stranger stated. "Can I know the name of the dog's owner who caused such a ruckus for me and Brisket this afternoon?"
Bradley was speechless for a few seconds - God, Jake was so beautiful and when he spoke he seemed to exude deep confidence - before he rebooted his brain and remembered his name.
"Bradley," he said, pointing to himself with a dripping hand. "I live nearby. May I suggest you come up to my place, so I can give you a towel and a clean shirt?”
Jake shook his blond head.
“Lead the way. Add a beer to make up for all this mess... don’t you think, Bradley?”
Then it was Bradley’s turn to laugh. “You’re right, Jake.”
When Bradley and Jake got married in the backyard of Jake’s family home in Austin two years later, Theo and Brisket walked the rings down the aisle looking extremely satisfied.
They had definitely been the best matchmakers in the entire universe.