My Haydens
My Haydens
“Welcome back home!” I greeted Hayden happily.
I waved a hand at him while my other arm was busy holding Little Hayden. Hayden looked at me with a
brief look of surprise before his eyes narrowed suspiciously at me and then at the puppy in my arm. I
had decided to surprise Hayden a little for a change by waiting for him right at the steps to the main
door of the mansion.
“Why are you standing out here?” he asked.
“Waiting for you to come back, obviously,” I replied.
“Hmm…” he murmured.
Maybe it’s just my own imagination or the light playing tricks, but I thought Hayden looked a little happy
just now. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.
“Little Hayden say, ‘welcome back’ too, Hayden,” I talked to the puppy in a sweet cooing voice.
“Why are you talking to the dog? He probably doesn’t understand a thing,” Hayden muttered darkly.
“I think he does understand somethings…” I countered stubbornly.
“Let’s go inside. You don’t need to wait for me outside,” Hayden said a little sternly as he walked past
me into the mansion.
I smiled a little to myself before following him back inside. In my mind, I had already decided to wait for
him outside again tomorrow because I was more than half convinced that he seemed a little happy
about it.
“Isn’t that, right?” I whispered softly into Little Hayden’s large and pointy ear.
Hayden immediately seated himself at the dining table while the maids worked to serve the food. Little
Hayden seemed excited about the food and began sniffing and twitching his nose rapidly. Hayden, on
the other hand, seemed tired and detached. That only made me wonder what went wrong for him
today.
“I guess work was busy?” I asked softly as I sat down in the chair opposite him.
Little Hayden’s eyes widened at the food on the table as he sat on my lap like a cute little plush toy.
“Work is boring as always,” Hayden muttered.
In other words, he doesn’t want to talk about it. Sometimes I wished that Luka would drop by, then
perhaps I’d have a solid chance of learning about what was going on outside. It was evident that asking
Hayden about it wouldn’t get me any answers and I’d probably get scolded. Thanks to Luka’s advice
and my own learning curve, I’m getting a little better at managing Hayden so that we could some how
coexist. For instance, I now knew that changing the topic of the conversation is the most appropriate
course of action.
I placed Little Hayden on the chair next to mine and he gave me a confused little look as I walked
away. After grabbing my sketchbook, I returned to the dining table.
“The weather was so perfect today, so I took Little Hayden outside and worked on some sketches in
the garden. Two birds with one stone. I sketched many flowers and I also tried sketching Little Hayden.
See?” I said cheerfully as I opened my sketched book and placed it on the table in front of Hayden.
Hayden looked down at my sketchbook and he seemed to show some interest. It was quite surprising
how Hayden seemed keenly interested in my art and my career. I wasn’t sure if he was being super
supportive, but he did pay attention to it.
“The sketches of…Little Hayden…looks funny,” Hayden said, clearly having difficulties calling the
puppy’s name.
Let’s see if he will get used to it eventually.
“It’s a new challenge for me. I’ve had very limited experience sketching and painting furry things.
Human hair is different from fur so I’m really getting good practice by using Little Hayden as my model,”
I explained excitedly.
Hayden just nodded at my words as he reached out a hand and began turning the pages of my
sketchbook to see the other sketches. He seemed thoughtful as he looked at my drawings and I
couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. Little Hayden looked at us with his round brown eyes. I
smiled and patted the soft fur on his head lightly.
Suddenly, Hayden’s phone started ringing. He quickly picked it up as if he was expecting a call before
standing up from his seat and exiting the room. I stared after him curiously. It wasn’t exactly usual for
Hayden to walk out to take a call but the again it wasn’t usual for Hayden to get a call at this hour
either. Work must be busy. I hoped that everything was alright.
Since the phone call was taking a while, I placed Little Hayden down so that he could walk about and
also start on his own meal. Having some spare time on my hand, I decided to rummage through the
large brown box filled with things that Hayden had bought for Little Hayden. I bet there are many toys in
here that Hayden can use to play with the puppy. Maybe this ball and this rope? Is this supposed to be
used for tug of war?
I was still going through the box looking for dog toys when the door to the room opened and closed
firmly. Looking up, I saw Hayden entered the room casually.
“Hayden! Come here for a second,” I called out to him and beckoned him over with a wave of my hand.
**woof woof**
I looked down to see Little Hayden sitting right by my side with his little tail wagging joyfully. His brown
eyes stared up at me as he panted from excitement.
“I told you that the name would be a problem. You’ll call me and he’ll turn up too,” Hayden complained
as he came to my side.
He stared down at the dog before crouching down next to me. He was right but I liked the name, so I
didn’t want to change it. I knew that everyone found it weird but Hayden gave me this dog, so I wanted
to name the dog after him…a little.
“I don’t know…I guess I don’t really want to change it. He knows his name already too…” I murmured a
little sadly.
Hayden just sighed at me before he dropped the topic. Little Hayden looked up at Hayden curiously
before snuggling next to his lap.
--To be continued…