Zachary paused to yawn as he fumbled to get his key in the door. Even though he'd been dealing with it his whole life, jet lag would never cease to totally suck. He entered his apartment as quietly as possible. It was only eight PM, but depending on how eventful Nora's day had been, she might already be asleep.
He hadn't had a whole lot of time between lunches and business meetings to talk with Nora, but her cryptic texts had led him to believe her dog sitting venture was going well. Zach was glad to not have to leave Finley and Sakura at the kennel again.
Silently, he slipped his dress shoes off and set his bags by the door. The apartment was dark, so he figured Nora was either asleep, or not home. It was strange, though, that Finley and Sakura hadn't met him at the door. He loosened and removed his tie as he made for the living room, and stopped dead on the edge of the carpet.
Finley was not allowed on the couch. Of all the furniture he was spoiled with, the white couch was the only place that he didn't want the black dog.
After a moment of squinting in the little light coming from the windows, Zach realized Sakura was on the couch, too. She was curled up between one of Finley's massive hind legs and the couch, perfectly camouflaged.
He chuckled under his breath. Finley's ears perked up at the sound, and after a moment, he lifted his massive head to give his owner a happy blue-eyed stare. Zach started to sit on what was left of the couch, but jumped up again when he sat on something. He tried to examine the couch, but the sun had set and taken its last rays of light with it, so the effort to see was fruitless.
He flipped on the lamp on the table, and almost didn't understand what he saw. Two human feet were sticking out from under Finley.
"Nora?" He whispered urgently.
Finley's body moved, and Sakura hurried to get herself out of the way of being smushed.
Nora drew her feet up under the giant dog, who shifted with her to remain comfortable. As she turned over, Zach noticed wisps of her blonde hair poking out from under Finley's chest.
"Finley! Here boy, get off the couch."
The Dane eventually did as he was told with no little amount of coaxing, trotting off after Sakura to find something else to sit on. Now unearthed, Nora stretched and stuck her tongue out, picking dog hairs off it.
Zach sat on the carpet beside the couch and pushed blonde curls out of Nora's face. "What were you doing under Finley?"
"Napping," she mumbled. Her voice was scratchy and half asleep still. "When did you get home?"
"Just a few minutes ago. How long were you under there?"
She fished around in the couch cushions for a moment and withdrew her phone to check the time. "Hm. Four hours."
Zach couldn't help himself, he laughed. "Why?" He drew out each syllable of the word. "Why would you do that to yourself?"
Nora turned on her side to face him with a worried look in her eyes. "I have a confession to make. I am not a dog person. No, wait! Before you laugh again, Finley has been moping around ever since you left, because he doesn't like me!"
Zach put his fingertips over his mouth, holding back his laughter.
"He doesn't! But you said he liked to cuddle, so I was cuddling. I was waiting for him to get up, and I fell asleep."
He cupped her cheek in his hand and smiled sympathetically. "Babe, he would have never gotten up."
She laughed and scooted closer to the edge of the couch to put her arm around his neck.
He kissed her shoulder as she did, and she let out a happy hum. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," she replied into the collar of his shirt. "Here." She moved to the very outer edge of the cushions and patted the couch behind her.
Zach ignored Finley's black hairs on the couch, shed his jacket, turned off the light, and laid down beside Nora. She turned into him and buried her face in his shirt, quickly falling sound asleep again. He knew staying up for a couple hours would help him adjust to this time zone again, but laying in the dark with Nora... It was impossible to stay awake.
