"Yes." Jamie nodded, unsure what else he could say to the woman looking at him questioningly.

"Okay." Juno said with a bit of a smirk. "I can see why you wanted to keep this particular run for work a secret until we got here."

"Yes." Jamie repeated, sounding a tad like a parrot repeating itself. "It'll be a bit of a tight squeeze, I should think."

"Do you, now?" Juno said, her voice sarcastic and wry, but with a smile that removed some of the sting of her words. "Bit of a tight squeeze?"

"It'll work. We just have to be creative." Jamie shot back, eyeing her as she watched him with a smirk on her pretty face.

"Well, you go right ahead." Juno replied, absently waving her hand towards the Mini. "Create away."

Standing beside Jamie was an enormous Great Dane that answered to the name of Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell was a fully grown gray male whose paws appeared to Juno to be roughly the size of dinner plates. Tinkerbell was panting and dancing all around Jamie, clearly eager to hop in the car and go for a bit of a ride.

By Juno's estimate, Tinkerbell was roughly equivalent to the size of Thor the Thunder Car.

This presented a bit of a transportation crisis for the usually level headed Jamie.

Jamie was looking from Tinkerbell to Juno and back again, and then glancing at the entire interior of the Mini. "Huh." He said, his forehead wrinkling as he looked as though he were trying to solve a complicated physics problem.

Tinkerbell let out a loud woof, drawing some attention to himself. Apparently, Tinkerbell was feeling feisty after having spent an afternoon at a professional groomer's, having his coat clipped down a bit and having his toenails painted a fetching shade of pink.

"Um." Juno ventured. "His owner does know he's a boy, right?"

"Oh yes." Jamie answered. "It's hard to miss that fact. Maybe Tinkerbell is having an identity crisis?" Jamie suggested with a broad grin.

"Or likes to cross dress on certain days?" Juno joked, making Jamie snort with laughter.

"We could ask him." Jamie snickered.

"Don't want to hurt his feelings." Juno answered gravely, trying to choke back a case of the giggles. "So, do you suppose Tinkerbell would be more comfortable in the front seat or the back seat?"

Jamie looked at the massive dog and then at the woman staring at him and made a quick decision. "The back. Absolutely – he strikes me as a backseat driver."

"Right. Good answer." Juno said, popping open the passenger door. "Go for it, then. Load him up."

"Ah. Yes." Jamie said in his toughest voice, trying to determine how you maneuver a two hundred pound animal into a tiny crate of a car. With some wheedling and a few fairly unsuccessful tugs on his leash, Jamie managed to convince Tinkerbell to hop into the car and then over into the backseat.

"Nicely done." Juno nodded. "Very skilled entry."

"Well, I'm a professional." Jamie said, puffing out his chest and making Juno giggle again. "Shall we go?"

"God, yes." Juno replied, looking into one of the backseat windows. "I don't like the way he's eyeing me."

Moments later, the duo hopped into the car and fired the engine. "Do you think Tinkerbell would like a window rolled down?" Juno asked, trying to sound very serious and failing miserably.

Jamie nodded vigorously. "Oh yes, at least. If he sticks his head out, we'll free up a few cubic feet of room in here."

Juno quickly rolled the window down and tried to control her attack of the giggles. "This, um, this wasn't in the brochure when the girls decided to take this relaxing cruise to Scotland."

"Well, they don't like to give away everything before you get here." Jamie answered smartly, steering the car carefully through the neighborhood, so as not to fling Tinkerbell around in the backseat.

"Um…" Juno muttered. "Uh…"

"What's the matter?" Jamie asked, glancing over at her and seeing Tinkerbell's mammoth head completely blocking his view of Juno.

"Tinkerbell likes me." Juno answered with a bark of laughter. "Tinkerbell is licking me."

"Most women find that a turn on." Jamie answered, trying and failing to be as serious as possible.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I like this, but not usually on a first date." Juno retorted. "He could at least buy me dinner first."

"I wouldn't say 'dinner' around Tinkerbell if I were you." Jamie warned, making Juno squeal with laughter.

"I swear to you, this is something that would only happen in some Jim Carrey or Mike Myers movie." She wheezed, trying to push Tinkerbell's enormous snout away from her left ear. "And I don’t necessarily say that in a good way."

"We're almost there." Jamie promised. "Unless you'd like me to circle the block so that you two can really bond and get to know each other."

"No, no." Juno said quickly. "We're good here. Quick as you can, please."

Jamie snorted and negotiated around a curve carefully. Tinkerbell gave a loud woof that echoed off the ceiling of the tiny, cramped car, making both Jamie and Juno jump in their seats.

"Uh oh." Juno said warningly.

"No, no. I'm sure that's a good sound." Jamie shot back as he pulled up in front of a small, neatly kept bungalow.

"An animal the size of a pony barking is not good at any time, especially in a space the size of a filing cabinet." Juno replied. "And I'm a dog person."

"Tinkerbell's not a pony." Jamie said, considering carefully. "He's at least a small horse."

"I don't care if he's a Clydesdale." Juno said, pushing Tinkerbell's nose away from her neckline. "Let's get him out of Thor and away from my erogenous zones."

Jamie's ears perked up and he gave her a teasing glance. "How come he gets to have all the fun? I've been carting you around for days, and I haven't seen hide or hair of erogenous zones. Why does he get a guided tour?" Jamie tried and tried to sound hurt and serious, but ended up snorting with laughter at Juno's fight with Tinkerbell's enormous head.

"If you don't get him out of here, I'll be kicking certain erogenous zones of yours." Juno shot back warningly.

"Alright, alright." Jamie said, killing the engine and opening his car door. "Come here, boy."

After much coaxing and empty promises of lots of dog bones, Tinkerbell finally leapt from the car and was lead up the winding sidewalk to the front door by Jamie. A woman no taller than one of Santa's elves answered the door and threw her arms around a panting Tinkerbell.

Juno couldn't hear the conversation between Jamie and the woman as she tried to wipe dog slobber from behind her ear, but she was definitely rethinking her previous musings on Jamie's life.

Maybe she didn't entirely envy him after all, she thought with a giggle as she watched Jamie wrestle Tinkerbell inside the stooped front door.

Not entirely.

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before . after