Colette smiled to herself as she unlocked the bookstore where she worked. It was a relatively small store, so it was just her working. No one else would be coming into work on an average day then. However, there was an except for today. The owner was trying to get more business, and with more advertisements, more people were coming in. This meant that her bossy and to hire another worker and they would be coming in later today. She was excited to get to work with someone other than Yeti, her pet hognose snake.

Heading into the back room, Colette set her purse and backpack down on the couch. Next to it was a big cabinet where a tank sat on top of it. Inside was Yeti, who was already awake and moving around. Colette kept her here because with not being home all day, Yeti didn't get any socializing time. This way, Yeti could hang out with Colette during work hours, plus her boss didn't find it a problem to having such a little snake live in the backroom and hang out in Colette's flannel pocket, or even around her neck when no one was in the store.

Taking Yeti out of her tank, she opened the pocket and tucked her inside. Once she was settled, Colette got to work organizing the new books and where they would be going. Then once the new worker came in she could take them around the store and show them how everything is put away and organized.

let me know if it's too big for future responses or if I could go a little bigger.))

The new job was a blessing, to say the least. Keinan had struggled to find a job for months now, ever since he'd lost his last one. He had begun to wonder how he would pay the rent for his apartment the next month, nearly running out of what money he had in his emergency fund. And job opportunities weren't exactly plentiful for a service dog handler with debilitating headaches and memory problems.

The little bookstore, then, whose owner had hired him on the spot after one interview, was definitely a blessing. He was told that on his first day, a coworker would show him around and explain his specific duties. That day was today, as he walked down the sidewalk towards the little, welcoming storefront with a blue merle tricolor border collie walking obediently by his side. Echo was well-trained to tend to her handler's specific needs. Keinan had trained her himself. She knew what to do if he had a bad headache, she knew what to do if he fell, sometimes she even helped him with basic things he'd forgotten. On top of that, the emotional help she provided was absolutely invaluable to Keinan.

He couldn't imagine trying to function at a job without her.

As he opened the front door, a little bell rang to announce his entry, a warm smile spreading across his face as the familiar scent of books reached him. He stepped inside, grey eyes scanning over the shelves of books to find the other person who was supposed to be here.

"Hello?" he said softly, slightly uncertain, until he spotted the girl with auburn hair. His smile broadened as he walked over to her, offering his hand for a handshake. "Hi, I'm Keinan. I'm the new guy."

Colette was so focused on her work she didn't hear the bell. Once she was locked in on something, it was hard to get her out of it. At a table behind all the shelves, piles of books surrounded her. Looking up as an unfamiliar voice reached her, she saw a guy standing in front of her. With the small introduction, her lips pulled themselves into a wide smile and her hand took his for the handshake he offered. This was her new coworker? She'd been worried it'd be a crabby teenager who would show up late even.

"Nice to meet you Keinan, I'm Colette. How about I show you around while I explain how things get put away?" She waited to move until he agreed with the idea. Gesturing for him to follow her, Colette started to show him around the more organized shelves. Each side had its own genre and was organized by the author's names. That was pretty normal and done at other bookstores. But here, there was one shelf that wasn't organized like that.

"And this is our sale shelves," Colette said, stopping in front of a bookshelf. "I have these organized by the thickness, then the height of the books." As she explained how that worked, Yeti decided to escape the hole of warmth and started to slither up and out of the pocket. Yeti went up to Colette's neck and rapped herself along the back of her neck. Smelling something new, Yeti looked up at the new big, figure, flicking her tongue innocently. Colette was so used to Yeti moving around she didn't even notice, just continued on with her explanation.

"Any questions," Colette asked once she was done. Her head turned and tiled up to look at Keinan, her currently green eyes meeting his grey eyes.

His grin broadened slightly as he spotted her smile, listening as she offered her name. "Nice to meet you as well, Colette," he said warmly, repeating the name partially for his own benefit so he would be less likely to forget it. Though, it would hardly be his fault if he did. He couldn't help such things.

Gesturing with his hand, he gave the cue for Echo to walk with him, the fluffy dog rising to her paws. The white lettering on the dog's dull blue vest read "Service Dog", with red stitching underneath that added "Do not pet." Keinan personally didn't mind much when people wanted to pet her, as long as they did not distract her long. But she was a working dog, and she had specific tasks that she couldn't accomplish if she was distracted.

"That sounds great," he said, trailing after Colette as she began her tour of the bookstore. He was mostly quiet during the tour, scanning over each of the shelves to make sure he would remember which genre went where. He stopped near the sales shelf when she explained how she organized the books there, and nodded when she finished.

"Sounds pretty straightforward," he said with another smile. "No questions for now, though I'm sure I'll annoy you with them later."

As he looked down at her, his eyes landed on the snake that was draped over her neck. It would be a lie to say that he didn't jump, startled, and Echo nudged his thigh worriedly, ears back. Without looking down, he scratched the dog's ears to reassure her, while watching the snake for a moment. It was clearly a pet, and not worth the shock he'd just had, and he let out a little nervous laugh, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck sheepishly. "Your... snake is cute," he said with another laugh.

Colette was definitely startled when Keinan jumped. Before she could ask what was wrong, her eyes fell on the dog beside him. How had she not noticed the beautiful collie? Hearing his little laugh took her out of her studying of his dog. Her head tilted a bit as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. "What- Oh!"

Her eyes went to the pocket and notice there was no Yeti-sized bulge in it. Reaching towards her neck, her hands found the little snake and scooped her up. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have taken her out until I confirmed you had no fear of snakes. Yeti usually stays in my pocket while I'm walking around." Colette playfully glared at her snake before tucking her back into her pocket.

"I like to keep her here so I can let her hang out of her tank during the day. If you do have a problem though I can keep her in her tank and just take her out during my breaks." She couldn't tell if his jump had been from the shock or a potential fear. Hopefully, it wasn't fear, but she would work around it if he did have one. "Speaking of cutie's, you seem to have one beside you."

It was hard not to notice, but she did notice the vest the dog was wearing. Obviously, she wouldn't just up and ask the question of why he had the dog, but there was one question she always seemed to keep herself from asking but today seemed to have her break that self-control.

"And um, I can tell she's a working dog and is doing her job right now. I know working dogs aren't supposed to be petted while they're working and have the vest on but she's just so cute and it would only be this once. I'd get it out of my system and that would be the end of it. I know she's your's and you set the rules but I though it wouldn't hurt to ask. Again, she's your's and if you say no I'll understand."

Colette was currently hating her mouth and skin tone. Being so light and fair-skinned, even the littlest blush covered and darkened her face easily. Why did she have to ramble? It was his first day and her mouth was already attacking him.

"Oh, no, it's alright," he reassured her, his grin returning as he sheepishly shrugged, meeting her gaze again. "I'm fine with snakes, I just wasn't expecting to see one there... She seems to be very comfortable with you, I've never seen a snake quite so friendly before... Yeti is her name? It's cute..." Ah, now he was rambling. Embarrassed, he fell silent again, choosing to look at a nearby bookshelf to force himself to stop talking for a second.

"Really, I'm fine with snakes," he repeated with a laugh. "No need to put her away for my sake. She seems quite happy where she is."

Colette pointed out his dog, then, and Keinan glanced down at Echo, who still stood obediently beside his leg, looking up at him attentively as she always did. He smiled as he looked over to Colette again, sighing when he realized she was asking, in her own excited rambling, indirect way, if she could pet the dog.

He was used to the questions by now, having taken Echo with him everywhere for the past several months. Colette was certainly polite about it, though, which was far more than he could say for most of the people he'd encountered. Some didn't even ask, and distracted Echo directly by petting her when she was actively performing a task. Those were the worst kind of people.

Keinan gave a slight nod and a grin. "Just this one time," he said, patting Echo's head to let her know it was okay.

The dog immediately sniffed towards Colette's hand, tail wagging slowly and ears pricked.

Keinan had to smile at the girl's blush, finding it adorable how flustered and embarrassed she seemed. He took the opportunity, too, to answer her unspoken question about why he had the dog.

"I've had her for a while now," he said with a shrug. "I was in a bad wreck, maybe a year ago, brain injury. She helps me when it flares up and causes problems." He spoke casually, without going into detail, and kept his tone lighthearted. He didn't want to make her feel pity for him, he was almost used to it by now. This job was another step in the right direction for him, and he was getting his life back little by little.

Doing her best to control the pure excitement she felt, Colette was happy when no squeal came out of her mouth as she bent down to the dog's level. Letting her sniff her hand first, she went slow to pet the beautiful dog. Her favorite thing was the ears, they were just so soft.

"She must be very smart then. I've always admired this breed for being so smart and being able to learn so many things." Running her thumb gently between her eyes and on her muzzle, Colette gave her one last smile before standing up. "Thank you for letting me pet her."

"I grew up in Texas and our collies and other farm dogs were not pets. I couldn't even pet the puppies. I guess that explains why I'm so obsessed with them." Colette chuckled softly to herself at a blip of memory when she was 13 and pouting in the barn because she couldn't get anywhere near the newest litter.

She could tell he didn't want to stay on that topic of him so she kept it on Echo, while still acknowledging what he said. "As for Yeti, I named her that because of her coloring. It's called a Super Yeti and it just seemed perfect to give such a little snake a big name. I've had her for a good two years now. I handled her a lot as she grew up so she would be this friendly and calm."

Colette couldn't stop grinning now. Her new coworker was very nice so far, his dog was adorable, and he wasn't afraid of snakes. This just might work out smoothly. "If Yeti comes back out later you can hold her if you'd like. Until then, how about we work on putting away a new box of books?"