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John's mind swirled with ideas that passed by before he could latch on to them. What did Valerie give to him to stone his mind like this? Those gummy bears weren't just candy.
"John?" Ashley asked again against the silence.
Ashley. Ashley was on the phone he reminded himself. Through the dog mask Valerie had laced up and locked on his head he watched a beautiful hand holding the phone, floating in front of him.
"I don't think he wants to talk anymore," Valerie said.
"What the hell is going on th--" An unexpected silence filled the room as Valerie took Ashley off of speaker putting the phone up to her ear.
"Take it easy, Ash," Valerie said as she stood up and walked out the master bedroom door, closing it behind her. "Remember, you called me last Monday. I drove three hours just to..."
John listened to Valerie's voice trail off at the closing of the door. He couldn't follow her if he wanted to, looking at the round door knob then at his round mitts locked on. He laughed under the mask because he wasn't sure he wanted to even walk with his mind swirling like it was. Walk..? He laughed again. He was chained down on all fours!
Glad that the two female voices had stopped invading his mental space, John had time to try to orient his thoughts. Racing thoughts he tried to put the breaks on kept speeding along. He squished the material in his mouth again, and again the taste of Valerie was mixed with a sudden burst of saltiness.
Sitting in a daze, leaning up against a dresser, John watched Valerie re-enter the room and begin to load up a suitcase she had flung on the bed. She looked over, acknowledging him with a little giggle. Was she traveling somewhere? No. Wait. She was packing for Randy. Randy the big shot who made all of that money. John knew his lot in life wasn't meant to make a lot of money. But to serve. He was a dog. To serve--how was he going to get his job back? The chains he wore would not allow him to get a job. His thoughts rose and fell around various thoughts, at times confusing him.
He focused in on his Owner moving about her master bedroom. She would come over to him, lean over, slide a drawer out and elegantly move back to the end of the bed folding clothes as she lowered them into the suitcase. Every time Valerie approached him he felt safer, anxiety levels dropping. He didn't want to feel this way, but he did.
To John this went on for hours and hours. But in reality Valerie had the suitcase closed and ready to go along with two of Randy's suits within minutes. She took all of it out the open door into the living room.
"I've put all of Mr. Hagan's luggage in the living room," she said again holding the phone to the side of her head as she walked back into the master bedroom. "Could you see to it that it's packed in the Cad in the next half hour so I can run it down to his office?" She turned to close and lock the door behind her. "Thanks, Manuel."
Valerie ended the connection with the touch of a button then turned her attention to John, towering over her pet. "How are you hanging in their, Frisky?"
John blinked inside of the hot mask and grumbled inaudibly.
"Good thing you're such a good boy and don't do drugs," she laughed. "THC and CBD Gummy bears can throw you for a loop if you're not used to it." Valerie sat on the end of the bed and patted her knee. "C'me 'ere boy. Come here..."
John rocked his body weight until he was on his front paws allowing him to crawl the short distance to her bleach white tennis shoes. He plopped down again on his back side.
Valerie chuckled to herself again at John's reaction to the gummy bears. "Kind of a light weight. Aren't you?" she said petting his head. She then unzipped the mouth of the mask and put her palm up under it. "Spit it out, puppy. Give me the panties."