Page 22 of Missiletoe
When I arrived, I realized the place was unlocked, and my assistant Melanie was sitting behind the desk in the lobby.
“Why are you here?” I asked as I dumped my purchases on the counter.
“Nice to see you too, Paris.”
Okay, maybe I could have been more polite, but if I’d known Melanie was going to be there, I wouldn’t have bothered to come back. I could have just DoorDashed a new bed over and stayed with my new bunny.
“You too,” I said, and I meant it. Melanie being there changed all of my plans for the evening. “But seriously, what are you doing here?”
“Well, I knew Sylvia was due this evening,andyou never leave this place, so I knew that even after you got her settled, you’d probably stay the entire night.”
My face heated. Until meeting Vix, that had been my exact plan for the night. I’d been wrestling with myself the entire time I was at the pet store over whether or not it would make me a terrible person if I left Sylvia alone and went back to Vix once I had Sylvia settled.
I gave Melanie the answer I’d finally landed on. “I didn’t want her to be scared.”
“And she won’t be. I’m here now, so you can take the night off, hun.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t argue with me, I swear if it weren’t for me, you’d–” Melanie stopped herself and gaped openly at me. “Did you just say okay? Do I need to check you for a fever?”
“It’s not a huge deal.”
“You’re right. It’s not a huge deal. It’s a great big honking massive deal, Mister I Only Live for Animals. I thought I was going to have to call Mike and have him drag you out of here.” Melanie had begun to unload my bags during her diatribe, and she gave me a soft smile when she saw the toys and treats I’d bought along with the beds. “You fucking softie. You don’t have to buy supplies with your own money, you know.”
“I’m not using it for much,” I grumbled.
“Why did you get more beds? I thought we had enough?”
“Reasons.” Soft, sweet reasons I wasn’t ready to share.
I cut the conversation short by carrying the beds to the back. After setting one up in the cage I’d prepared for Sylvia, I put the other one on the floor where Vix had slept.
If the one I’d bought for Vix was nicer and more expensive than the one I’d gotten for Sylvia, no one needed to know about it but me.
Melanie followed me to the back because she’s a social creature. If she has the choice between being alone or talking to someone, she will always choose the latter.
So I had an audience as I piled soft blankets on top of Vix’s new bed. Once I was done, I lifted the whole thing and piled several more blankets under the bed just to make sure Vix wouldn’t get cold. I made a mental note to buy a little pallet to put under the whole thing to keep him away from drafts. The floor got cold in the winter.
“Are we getting a new dog?” Melanie crouched down by Vix’s bed and stroked the soft fabric I’d chosen. “A fancy dog, too. You don’t usually spring for the expensive beds.”
Well, there went only me knowing about how much I’d spent on my bunny’s bed.
I usually get the less expensive pet beds because I don’t reuse them. Once an animal is rehomed, I always send their bed with them to their new home, because I want them to have a safe place for them to retreat to during the adjustment period. Animals love things that smell like them.
That means I can’t afford to buy them the really nice beds. Usually, I buy beds in bulk so I can afford to get them something halfway decent in case they end up getting attached and won’t transfer to a new bed at a later point. I don’t want to have it fall apart on them and have them be stuck with a tattered rag for the rest of their lives.
I mean, I’m not a monster.
“Something like that,” I said in response to Melanie’s query about getting a new dog. I wasn’t ready to share my bunny with people. He already had enough people in his life that I was going to need to share him with.
“Is it coming today? What kind of animal? I’ll need to know so I can get supplies ready for it.”
“I’ll take care of the bunny,” I blurted hastily. “And he’s not coming in today.”
Not anymore, anyway. Even if I did manage to pry Vix away from Baz and Vale, I sure as hell wasn’t bringing him here while Melanie was around. She’d ask him no end of questions, and I wanted him all to myself. Those answers were mine, and until I knew all of them, I couldn’t bear the idea of someone else learning them.
“You got another bunny?” Melanie clapped her hands together and jumped up and down. “I mean, we already have bunnies, but I won’t complain about getting more. Maybe I’ll bond with this one and take him home! I love rabbits. Wait, why did you get him such a huge bed? And he should really be in a cage and not a bed on the floor.
