A Plush Wish

'Wow.' said Petro. 'You look ready for business.'

Mouse had no time to react because she was pulled back for the next outfit again.

Cheryl came back and grinned a little. 'Now get ready to be stunned.'

His jaw nearly dropped to the ground when Mouse came out wearing a tight, long, strapless red dress with a high split and revealing cleavage. Mouse fiddled with her fingers and her ears twitched.

Petro caught whispers around him and noticed several people watching Mouse with approval. He couldn't help but feel pride well up inside him and he smiled at her. 'Cheryl's right, you look stunning. I'd like to dance in the full moon with you like that.'

The women giggled and led a happy Mouse back. Cheryl still grinned. 'Even with her unconvential looks, you'll be envied for such a cute girlfriend.'

Petro coughed and cleared his throat. 'It's not like that. We're not boy- and girlfriend.'

Cheryl smiled at him. 'Ah. She was so worried about what you'd think of how she looked, it seemed obvious you two were that close.'

Petro blushed. 'I, well, we are close in a way, but it hasn't been, this active, until recently.'

'Ah. I think I get it. It's okay to be shy, but don't wait too long to take it further.'

Even if he had an answer to that, Petro couldn't say it because Mouse came back in her next casual outfit of shorts and shirt.

After a couple more outfits Mouse had enough clothes to last her a year. Petro worried about the pricetag but the women gave him a good discount.

Mouse glanced at the bags on the counter. 'Is it really okay to spend all that on me? I would have been fine with a simple shirt and shorts.'

Petro gave her head a pat. 'It's worth it. You look great in these things.'

She smiled and collected the bags while Cheryl leaned closer to him and grinned. 'You haven't seen everything yet. We included a nice set of lingerie for the intimate moment.'

Petro turned red and quickly took some of the bags from Mouse. She cocked her head. 'Are you okay? You seem a little hot.'

He gave her a smile. 'It's nothing! Just a little tired from the long days at work. Time to go home now, getting hungry.'

Mouse said her thanks to Cheryl and the other women while they giggled and wished her good luck. Petro sighed as they left the store but he enjoyed seeing Mouse happy with her new clothes.

At home he made room in his closet so she could hang her clothes while he made dinner. They spent the rest of the evening watching a movie and then went to bed feeling rather sleepy.

It was after Mouse snuggled up with him and fell asleep that he realised they were together out of habit, because he'd not dare to do it consciously now that she was a lot warmer, bigger, and softer in certain areas. And once more it took a while before he could ignore the sexy images of the day running through his mind enough to fall asleep.

***

Petro had barely walked into the door at work when his boss called him into his office. He didn't like dealing with the lean man just over thirty years old who claimed to know a lot about computers. Mr Mgiddy made decisions which made Petro wish he could act like a bastard operator from hell and make the man disappear in a roll of carpet and the boot of a car heading for Central Africa.

'Morning.' Petro said as he strolled into the office.

Mr Mgiddy pretended to read one of his printed emails to make it look like he was dealing with important things, like he did so many times before, then laid it on his desk and leaned forward. 'I've got a special task for you today.'

Petro held back a groan. Special task was a code phrase for tedious long hours of doing something that killed more brain cells than alcohol. 'Yes?'

'I need you to set up the home network for the director's daughter. She just moved into her own place and I need you to set up her connection, computer, and other stuff.' Mr Mgiddy said and handed Petro a slip of paper with the address. Petro's eyes went wide for a moment when he saw the address was from his new neighbour. 'Don't cause any complaints. Take whatever you might need with you.'

Petro slid the paper into his pocket and was glad his boss turned his attention to his two screens, one of which displayed the email program, and the other an old spreadsheet to hide the browser with various social websites behind. 'Okay.' he said and left the office.

He grinned a little at the thought of doing a quick job and then spending the rest of the day with Mouse.

Petro took a service car home with him full of cabling, tools, and various standard devices for a complete home network. He rang the bell at his neighbour's door in a good mood.

A moment later a young woman with long black hair wearing a large shirt and loose pants opened the door. A little irritation flashed in her dark eyes as she looked at him. 'Are you from my dad's company?' she asked and put a fist on her hips.

Petro thought his laptop bag and the roll of network cable in his hand would make it obvious. 'Yes.' he said but before he could say more she turned away and walked further inside. He watched the short hallway before him. 'Guess I'm invited in then.'

He spotted the slippers for guests at the door and followed her into a rich decorated living room after putting them on. The thick carpet gave him a bouncing sensation.

The woman pointed at her laptop on a wide, low glass table between two cream leather couches that deceived Petro into thinking he could drown in them. He sat down carefully and took out his laptop, booted it up and scanned for wireless networks. He saw nothing he didn't already knew around the place in the list.

He looked up at her while she waited for him with her arms crossed. The long shirt with stars and moon and the pants she wore made him think of her as a little girl just out of bed and demanding breakfast from her mother. And then it hit him that might actually be the case, only her breakfast was virtual and now he was the mother.

He cleared his throat. 'Has your connection from the provider been set up yet? I see nothing new here.'

She rolled her eyes. 'How am I supposed to know? That's why you are here.'

Petro groaned inside. This job wouldn't be as easy as he hoped it would be. He should have known, it never turned out the way he hoped, only the way he expected. 'Wasn't there an engineer around yesterday who installed a device in the meter closet?'

She shrugged. 'I wasn't here until yesterday evening.'

'Let's see then.' he said, went to the closet and sighed when he found no modem. 'Of course.' He turned to the woman. 'And there was no box with a picture of an electronic device and wireless signal? Nothing that said high speed?'

She tapped her chin in thought. 'Ah, there was something I thought the movers forgot to clean up, so I threw it with the rest of the trash they're picking up today in here.'

She opened the door to a room full of packing material, old boxes, bags. The groan inside Petro grew louder.

***

Mouse cleaned up shortly after Petro had left for work and looked at the shopping list they had made over breakfast. She didn't have to, but if she felt confident to go to the stores she could, Petro having left money and the spare keys to the apartment.

She took a few deep breaths. "I just have to do it. No use worrying about things I can't predict." she thought.

She put on one of her new shirts and pants that came down halfway her legs, grabbed a shopping bag, took the list, money, and keys from the kitchen counter and stepped outside with a slightly elevated heart rate.

The street wasn't as busy and it made her feel less tense. She tried to ignore the stares of people as she went towards the shopping street but then she saw a couple of nine or ten year old boys appearing in front of her.

One of them pointed at her. 'A dog lady!' he said, looked at his friend, grabbed his arm and ran off into another street.

Mouse sighed. She knew it would happen. She wished Petro was with her but she took a deep breath. He was working hard and she had to find the thing to make him happy, so she had to learn to do things on her own. With a little more courage she continued towards the supermarket.

The moment she stepped into the supermarket she gazed in wonder at the many rows of long aisles stacked with all sorts of products. She saw people taking carts or baskets and picked up a basket before strolling into the aisle in front of her. There were more products of any kind than she could have imagined before. She browsed every rack, even if there was nothing there that was on the shopping list.

After a while though she noticed people whispering and glancing her way. Not just customers but also the stock boys and girls and even the manager. She became conscious of herself again and tucked in her tail, thinking it might be better just to get the items she needed and go home.

She gathered everything but the pork on the list, but when she headed for the meat section she saw two girls quickly putting the displayed cuts into baskets. 'Quick, we can't leave these here accordimg to the manager.' said one.

Mouse's ears and tail drooped. "They must think I'd eat it all. Or drool all over it because I'm just a big dog." she thought and sighed.

She went to the checkout where the girl at the register avoided looking at her and no one else went into the line behind her. She paid and hurried outside to rest a little in a secluded corner between two buildings.

After a few minutes Mouse checked the shopping list again. Petro had said that she could go to the butcher if she couldn't get the pork at the supermarket. She looked up at the cloudy sky. "Just one more item." she thought and moved on.

She just rounded the corner to the butcher when she was startled by a group of rowdy men and women in costume. One man dressed as a pirate slurred a drinking song, another man looked like a caveman and swung a large foam club around, one woman wore a tight black feline costume, another woman resembled a bird, and there were a few more Mouse couldn't make out as they were swaying and singing away from her in a drunk state.

She let out a deep sigh of relief, thankful she wouldn't have to pass by them and stepped into the butcher shop.

'Get out!' the butcher shouted, his pudgy face red with anger. 'I don't want you freaks in here!'

Mouse nearly dropped her bag while her heart jumped. She bolted out the door and ran back down the street and nearly reached the end when the two boys from before came around the corner with more friends.

'Ah! There's the dog lady!' said one of them.

The kids ran towards her and panic gripped her heart. She couldn't stand any more attention and ran into an alley near her. She heard the kids coming after her and ducked down a short dead end alley to the side where she hid behind a garbage container.

The kids continued down the main alley towards the next street and she leaned back against the brick wall with trembling legs.

'Oh no!' she groaned when she checked her bag and realised she had lost the shopping list and the rest of the money.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her knees gave way and she slid down onto the ground, crying hard for failing to do this task for Petro.

***

'Found it!' Petro said when he pulled out the modem box from the stack of junk. 'Now we can get started.'

He hooked up the device in the meter closet, checked the blinking leds for proper functioning, then went back to the living room when the status leds turned green. On his laptop he saw the new wireless network, connected, changed the name to something easy to recognise, and reconnected to check connectivity to several popular websites.

'All right, it's working.' he said and picked up the laptop from Janice, whose name he learned from the provider's letter that came with the modem. He looked at her desktop for a moment, then up at her. 'You seriously use this?'

She shrugged. 'It got slow. That's why I got the fastest internet line now, to speed it up.'

He sighed. 'A fast connection doesn't help when your laptop is bogged down with junk and probably a virus or two.' He watched the row of animated icons of various cartoon animals in the task bar, some of which he knew was pure marketing junk, and his stomach turned. A popup appeared for discounts on antacids. 'This has to be wiped and reinstalled from scratch. There's no salvaging this.' The popup faded away and a little wooden sign appeared of a barbecue.

Janice stepped closer. 'But my data! You can't just erase it all!'

He held up his hand. 'I'm not going to erase your data. I'll back it up first.' He looked around. 'Do you even make backups yourself? And do you know all your passwords?'

She stared blankly at him. A cartoon owl in suit alerted about a new email recommending sticky notes.

His inner groan became even bigger. 'Okay, this will take a while.'

He went down to the service car, brought up a storage unit and software, then went into his own apartment to collect a portable drive with tools to rescue computers with.

He called out to Mouse and smiled softly when he saw the shopping list and money was gone. 'Sweet.' he said and left a note saying work would take longer than expected and she could find him next door at the neighbour if she needed anything.

***

Mouse wiped her wet cheeks. She shivered in the shade of the alley and her clothes were dirty and smelly. She wished Petro would find her and take her safely home but that would never happen. Standing up slowly, tired from crying, she went back up the alley and peeked up and down the street. It was quiet enough for her to hurry towards the next alley and all the way back to the apartment building where she rushed up the stairs and into the safety of her home.

Tears welled up in her eyes again while she put the shopping bag on the kitchen counter and note from Petro. She undressed, washed her face, curled up on the couch, and fell asleep while wishing for Petro's embrace.

***

After Petro recovered what he could from Janice's laptop, wiped it, reinstalled the operating system and brought everything up to date, she acted much friendlier seeing how fast and well it worked.

She tried all her favorite websites and Petro grinned silently at the aura of a happy little girl that she displayed.

'This is great!' she said opening links just to see how quick the pages now appeared. 'It's like it has never been this fast before.'

'It probably wasn't with all the preinstalled crap.' Petro muttered, and pointed at her screen. 'I've installed a couple of tools that'll maintain your laptop and block and warn of any suspicious software. You can ignore the advice, but you'll just risk going back to what you had before.'

She nodded. 'Okay.'

'I also set up a storage unit in the meter closet and synchronisation of your laptop to there, with a backup. If anything is wrong with the unit you'll get a warning and you'll have to call the helpdesk to have it checked.'

'Okay.' she said again and thought Petro wasn't like all the guys she spoke to before, trying to either get rid of her quickly with some half assed job, or sucking up because she was the daughter of the company owner. She also thought he wasn't bad looking.

'I'm done.' he said and packed up his things. 'Don't install every little thing because it says it'll improve whatever it claims to or because it looks shiny, and you'll be all right.'

'I won't.' she said.

Petro gave her a nod. 'Goodbye.' he said and left to go back to his own apartment.

Janice stretched, a little stiff from sitting all day and watching Petro do his work while reading her magazines in between. She stood up and went into the kitchen feeling thirsty. She glanced at the full sized mirror on one side, picked a carton of orange juice from the refrigerator, then nearly dropped it as she turned fast to the mirror again.

'Aaahhh!' she said as she realised she had been in her pajamas all day while a guy walked around the house.

'Mouse? I'm back.' Petro said when he walked in the door.

Mouse woke up and as soon as he stepped into the living room she jumped up and whined softly while she hugged him tight.

Petro stroked her back. 'What's wrong?'

Mouse told him what had happened and wiped a few tears away. 'I'm so sorry I lost the money.'

Petro caressed her cheek. 'That's okay. I understand with the sudden scare you had. Why didn't you come to me?'

'I didn't know where you were.'

He gestured at the kitchen. 'But I left a note.'

She sniffled. 'Note?'

Petro went to the kitchen and didn't see it until he picked up the shopping bag. 'No wonder.' He unloaded the bag. 'I'm sure there was a reason for what happened. Some unfortunate mistake. I'll find out why while I pick up the last ingredients for dinner.'

Mouse's heart rate went up again. 'Wait! I'll come too.'

'Sure?'

She nodded quickly. 'I can't stay indoors forever, and if I was mistaken I'd need to know.'

Petro took her hands in his. 'Okay then. Go dress quickly.'

She picked the pink dress and a few minutes later they were walking down the street. Petro noted her glancing around and took her hand in his. She looked at his warm smile and relaxed a little.

Just as they came to the supermarket they saw a girl hanging up a poster at the door. It stated customers could return meat they bought today and trade it for a new piece.

Petro turned to the girl. 'What's this?'

The girl, whom Mouse recognised as the girl at the checkout, put up a second poster. 'The pork we received in the morning might have had a contamination. Nothing serious but the supplier decided to take back everything and we had to take everything out of the meat section to make sure nothing else was contaminated.'

'Ah, I see now.'

The girl turned to him, saw Mouse, and glanced away.

Petro saw Mouse's ears drooping and turned to the girl. 'Something wrong?'

The girl sighed. 'Sorry. It's just that our dog died a few weeks ago. She was a wolfhound, sort of like..'

Mouse fiddled with her dress. 'I'm sorry..'

The girl looked up to her. 'No, I didn't mean to.. It's just that it reminds me.. And I still feel sad.'

Mouse instinctively gave her a hug. The girl froze for a second, then hugged Mouse back.

The girl pulled back after a minute and smiled a little. 'Thanks.'

Mouse smiled back at her. 'Sorry, I just couldn't help it.'

The girl chuckled and shook her head. 'She did the same. Whenever I felt bad she would come and drop her whole bulk on my lap to comfort me.' She took a deep breath. 'I'm Kim, by the way.'

'Mouse.' she said and shook Kim's hand.

'You're new around here.'

Mouse glanced at Petro. He gave her a wink. 'She's my cousin and has lived in seclusion in the country up to now, for obvious reasons. For the time being she lives at my place.' he said.

'Ah.' Kim said. 'I hope you'll enjoy your time here.'

Mouse nodded. 'I need to get used to a lot of things, but Petro takes good care of me.'

They said their goodbyes as Kim had to get back to work and Mouse and Petro went on their way.

Petro saw a soft smile on Mouse's face. 'I guess that made you feel better.'

Mouse hummed in conformation.

No sooner than they had turned into the next street a kid's voice called out. 'Ah! Dog lady!'

A few kids sat on a bench and turned their attention to Mouse, who moved up against Petro and tightened her grip on his hand.

He frowned. 'Hey, it's not nice to tease people!'

A girl hopped off the bench and moved closer, looking up at Mouse with big eyes. 'But we're not teasing.'

'Didn't you ran after her this morning?'

The girl nodded. 'We just wanted a better look at the cute dog lady.'

Another girl came up. 'You're pretty in your dress.'

Mouse smiled gently. 'You really think so?'