70 The Pug Guru

I was desperate for a girlfriend and tried everything. It cost me a lot. I went from offering to buy women drinks during the night to buying them coffee during the day. The only thing I got out of it was a job at the café as they all thought I was working there. It was the easiest job offer I ever got. However I still had no girlfriend. I was ready to give up and stick to the grind. My luck changed when I served a bearded man who had a pug with him. He was typing crazy fast on his laptop and was surrounded by books...

He was a regular. In my mind I nicknamed him the wandering librarian. One day things were quiet so we got talking. He let me pet his pug, who was very friendly and lively. We eventually got to the subject of women. I don't know why, but I felt I was able to tell him about my lack of success in love.

"I know." he said, "I saw how you got your job".

Ack! Of course he did. He was a regular after all. "I... I just don't know what to do" I said to him.

He stopped typing and closed his laptop for the first time. He gave me a talk. A long talk. He said stuff I couldn't believe, stuff I never realised about women before. Then he opened up his laptop again and continued typing. I sat there flabbergasted. I was doing things all wrong. I had many questions. However, it got busy again and I had to get up and get back to work.

I served many women that afternoon but something strange happened. They were friendlier than any girls I had spoken to in a long long time. At the time I didn't grasp what was going on. Suddenly, I heard the pug barking. I looked over and his owner wasn't there. He left one of his books on the table. I walked over to it and picked it up. The pug barked and ran away. "Hey! Come back! Where did he go?". I looked around but there was no trace of either man or pug. I looked at the cover of the book. It was a romantic scene with the silhouette of a couple sitting on a bench under a tree...

"Whatcha thinking about?"
"Oh... just an old friend..." I replied.

I was sitting on a bench with the girl of my dreams. She had long blonde hair and big doey brown eyes. She was fluttering them at me and clung to my arm as I stared off into the distance. I was thinking of the wandering librarian and his pug. That book he left at the café that day changed my life completely. However, he disappeared completely. I wished I could see him again so I could thank him. My eyes drifted to an airplane over the horizon. It seemed to change direction in the air.