Page 16 of Heart Me Up
Iput on my happy and cheerful act when I stopped by Mrs. Isaacs’ place to drop off Jasper’s collar the next morning. She made me stay to see how it looked on him, and I had to admit the blue of the rhinestones really stood out against Jasper’s steel gray fur. The contrast of the sparkling collar with his stocky frame and muscled shoulders was endearing. I couldn’t resist taking a photo to share with Stan, the leatherworker we’d contracted the order to, so he could see Jasper modeling his work.
Once I got to the pet resort, I mostly hid in the office the rest of the morning. Around 10am I found the nerve to call Jonathan and tell him about using the dog collar to frighten off Foster’s blind date. Although I’d worked through my overreaction about what he might think, I was still a little apprehensive about calling him. I was extremely relieved when he thought the story was hilarious, and I mentally scolded myself for doubting his reaction. I did go ahead and offer him a free night at the pet resort for his group though.
“You don’t have to do that, Craig,” he told me.
“I want to. It’s been ages since I’ve seen you anyway.”
“Hmm. True. Greg came to the last two parties I’ve thrown, but you’re still in your homebody phase.”
Crap. I’d been a terrible friend. “I’m so sorry, Jonathan. I’ll try to be more social.” I needed to make it up to him somehow.
“Oh, no, Craig. Don’t apologize. You went through something traumatic and it’s not for me to say how you should process that. I was just thinking I should’ve been a better friend and invited you for coffee or something else low-key you’d have been more comfortable with.”
Oh.
I blinked against my stinging eyes and swallowed around the lump in my throat. I couldn’t believe Jonathan understood why I’d been avoiding his parties. I’d thought Greg was the only one of my friends to recognize what I’d been going through. The validation was almost overwhelming. “Um, yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Thanks. That’d be more my speed these days.”
“Good. I’ll see you next Sunday evening at the pet resort with the group, and why don’t we get together the week after?”
“I’d love that, Jonathan. Thanks.” I managed to hang up the phone before the tears came.
Which was the exact moment Greg came into the office.
“What the fuck? What happened?”
“I’m okay,” I insisted as I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. Greg frowned and hurried to drop his laptop bag on his desk and hand me some paper towels from the roll we kept in the office to clean up pet accidents. I mopped my eyes and blew my nose, grimacing at the rough texture. “Sorry. No one died or anything.”
Greg abruptly sat down in the guest chair next to my desk, scowling. “But you’re crying about something. Tell me what’s wrong.” His hands were clenched into fists. I smiled at him; ever since we’d been roommates our freshman year in college he’d always been ready to battle my demons for me.
I sniffled and patted his arm. “Stand down, Wolverine. I was talking to Jonathan, and he said some nice things that sort of hit me in the feels, you know?”
“Oh.” Greg exhaled and fell back into the chair. “Anything you want to talk about?”
I shook my head. “Not right now. But I’m reserving the daycare room for Jonathan’s group a week from Sunday. I’ll make sure the team is aware.” We had a system for keeping the, shall we say, uninitiated employees occupied elsewhere in the building when we were hosting a puppy play night.
Greg nodded. “Great. How was the Chamber of Commerce happy hour?”
“Um.” I looked away and rubbed my face.
“Um? Something interesting actually happened at one of those things? Did Maxine get drunk? Tell me it was epic!” He moved to the edge of his seat and grinned encouragingly at me.
“Um, it was epic, or at least part of it was. But nothing to do with Maxine.” I paused.
Greg threw up his hands. “Well? Are you going to tell me or not?”
I threaded my fingers together and twisted my hands. “Um, remember how Lisa wanted me to go on a date?”
Greg snorted. “She wasn’t the only one, but go on.”
I made a face at him before I continued. “Well, remember the hot cop?”
Greg’s eyebrows went up. “Yes?”
Greg laughed through my tale of rescuing Foster from his jerk of a blind date. I left out the part about the kiss though; that was between me and Foster.
Finally I told Greg about planning to ask Foster out but how he’d left before I could.
“Sounds like he got called to a crime scene or something,” Greg said. He narrowed his eyes. “Or is your brain trying to put a different spin on it?”
