Page 171 of In Death, Love Survives

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“Not going to kill you in front of all these strangers,” Wolfe says.

Toby starts waving his hands around frantically.

“No, no, of course not.”

He takes the beer and immediately takes a gulp.

“See, nothing to be worried about,” Wolfe says.

“Hi, Toby,” I say.

Toby pulls the drink away and gives me a tight smile.

“Hi, Dr. Fletcher.”

He winces.

“I’m still Dr. Fletcher. It’s okay,” I answer.

I haven’t felt like that Nova in a while. It’s a reminder that I need to get back to my roots and remember why I became a doctor after all of this is over.

“How’s it been?” Caleb asks.

“Fine. Just got a job over at the auto shop off Mercher Street,” Toby answers.

“Great spot.”

“Yeah, it’s going okay.”

Toby takes a large gulp of his drink.

“How about you all?” Toby asks reluctantly.

“Good. We have a large shipment arriving tomorrow. Going to solve so many of our problems,” Caleb answers vaguely.

This piques Toby’s interest.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Going to be our largest one of the year. Maybe in a couple of days, you can come by, and we’ll talk about really resolving our differences,” Wolfe says.

“Oh wow. That would be…” Toby starts.

He takes a deep breath.

“Yeah, that’d be cool.”

“Alright. Two days’ time. Come by in the morning, and Caleb here will hook you up.”

“Thanks, man.”

Toby looks back at the group he came in with.

“I’m going to head back. I’ll see you then.”

“See ya,” Wolfe says.

Toby disappears back to his group with an extra skip in his step.

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