Alex walked over to the pen she was at and looked down at the dog. "It looks like a rat." He exclaimed.

"Alex!" Isabel cuddled the puppy close. "You hurt her feelings."

"If we're going to get a dog, I want something like this." He walked over to a pen that held a Great Dane. "Now this is a dog."

"That dog will get huge." Isabel defended. "This puppy won't weigh more than ten pounds. That beast will weigh at least 50!"

"Yeah, well at least I won't step on him." Alex laughed. "Come on, you know you want this one." He petted the Great Dane on the head.

"Have you made a decision?" The women behind the desk asked. "I know there are so many to choose from. It's great that you decided to choose an animal from the shelter instead of purchasing from a breeder. There are so many lovely animals dropped off here."

Alex smiled. "We'll take this one."

Isabel and Alex sat on a park bench watching their new pride and joy playing in the grass. Alex laughed as the puppy made a half attempt to catch a butterfly.

"Now aren't you happy we went with my choice?" Alex asked, nudging Isabel in the side.

"Your choice!" Isabel exclaimed. "She was my choice!" She looked down to see the little black, tan and white puppy at her feet. "Grady bug!" she said, scooping up the puppy. She nuzzled her nose into the crook of Isabel' s neck.

Alex smiled. They'd definitely made a good choice. "Grady, here girl." Alex said. The puppy already new her name and scrambled across the park bench to Alex. She placed a slobbery puppy kiss on his cheek.

"Awe.she loves you, Alex." Isabel smiled.

The puppy jumped down and sniffed the ground. Alex crawled down on the ground and began to play with it again.

Isabel smiled. How could she not love a guy like that? If he was that great with a puppy she wondered how he would be with kids. She laughed as Grady jumped on Alex's head and then back onto the ground. She jumped at the sound of her cell phone.

"Hello?" She said into the phone. She continued to watch Alex play with Grady.

"Maria? Where are you at?" She asked.

"Is that Taye with you? Tell him I said hi. Not really, we just got us a puppy. Grady. She's really pretty. I think Alex's in love." She smiled down at Alex. "No. What's wrong? Is it serious? Ok, I'll see you in a little while. Take care. Bye."

"What did she want?" Alex said, scooping Grady up and sitting down beside Isabel.

"I don't know." She began. "She wouldn't tell me. All she said was that she needed me to meet her at her house in a couple hours. She was on her way to the store. She sounded scared, Alex."

He put his arms around her shoulder. "Maybe she just wanted to talk to someone. She and Michael may have broken up.again!" "No," Isabel continued. "I'd have known if that was it. Something about the way her voice was trembling told me it was something bigger. Something that scared her."

"I'm sure everything is fine." Alex placed a kiss on Isabel's forehead. "Now what are we going to do with this dog. Where is she going to stay?"

Isabel smiled. "Why don't you take her on the weekends and I'll keep her during the week. At least until we can get a place together."

"You don't think that will confuse her?" Alex asked. A smile spread across his face.