Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
DAVID
It had been years since I’d had the desire to try and cook something special for someone. My last attempt was a birthday dinner for Jax when he turned ten. And even though we ended up ordering pizza, he claims to have appreciated the effort.
Why I insisted on doing it myself instead of just ordering in, putting it in dishes, and hiding the take-out containers so I could pass it off as my own, I’d never know. Sometimes I was too honest for my own good.
Josh told me that he had something he wanted to discuss with me.
Though he said it wasn’t anything bad, it still made me nervous.
There were plenty of not-bad subjects he could want to talk about.
Like… did he want to top me exclusively?
Could I work with that? Probably, to be honest. Maybe he wanted me to look after Nitro more often for him instead of taking him to doggy day care or over to Lukas’s when he worked.
Maybe it was about his job. Was he scheduling a new shoot with someone?
It would be the first one since we’d started seeing each other.
I stared around at the mess that was my kitchen and heaved a sigh.
I didn’t know how I felt about that. I was mostly okay with it.
Mostly. Because I was starting to understand that I wanted some rules about that, about his job, and that didn’t feel particularly fair of me.
He’d been doing this long before I came along, and who was I to dictate rules to him now?
Just… I didn’t like the idea of him using the same toys he’d used on me on other people. And I definitely did not want him working with my son. A job or not, that was just fucking weird. They’d worked together before we met, and that was fine. But it was a hard limit now.
The state of the kitchen matched my state of mind. Everything was chaotic. And then I heard a faint rustling sound. Turning around, I saw Wally’s hind end sticking out of the pantry. I must have left the door open in my scatterbrained attempt at cooking.
“What are you doing, huh, buddy?” I crooned sweetly as I approached. When I caught sight of what he’d been eating, the bottom dropped out of my stomach.
“Oh, buddy, what did you do?” I might not have had a pet before, and maybe I wasn’t the most knowledgeable person on the planet, but I knew that dogs were allergic to chocolate. Deathly allergic.
Scooping Wally up into my arms, I hurried through the kitchen, snapping the burners off on my way through.
One crisis at a time was enough, thanks.
The last thing I wanted was my house to burn down.
Wally seemed fine on the way to the vet’s office, but I didn’t know how long that would stay true.
Worry sat in my stomach like a boulder. If anything happened to him, I wasn’t sure what I’d do.
The drive should have taken twenty minutes, but I made it in fifteen.
I bundled a still okay-looking Wally up in my arms and rushed him inside.
Blue happened to be working, and his eyes went wide when he saw me.
My fear and anxiety must have been written on my face because he wasted no time bellowing for Rex before rushing over to me.
“What’s wrong?” Blue asked, gently trying to get me to loosen my grip on Wally.
“Chocolate. I was cooking, and I left the pantry open, and he ate chocolate.”
Rex came out at that moment. I’d met him before, and I had to admire the way he was able to keep a clear head and a calm demeanor even as lunatic pet parents—me—lost their shit in his waiting room.
“Wally here apparently helped himself to some chocolate,” Blue said to Rex and he dropped his hands, giving up on getting me to let go of Wally.
“How about we have a look at him then?” Rex said, still as cool as a cucumber.
It was like nothing fazed the man. A dog was dying, and he was acting like it was any other Friday. I followed him and Blue into an exam room, and Blue looked at me with sympathy.
“David, you have to hand him over so we can examine him. You can stay here the whole time,” he assured me, and only then was I able to let go of Wally. Blue carried him to the exam table and set him down. Wally stood on all fours and shook himself from nose to the tip of his tail.
“How long ago did he ingest the chocolate?” Rex asked, listening to Wally’s heart and breathing with his stethoscope.
“Like… fifteen minutes. Twenty maybe.” My heart hammered so hard I worried that Rex would be able to hear my frantic heart over Wally’s.
“And how much did he ingest?” Rex furrowed his brow and kept listening to Wally’s breathing.
“He ate four mini muffins.”
Blue stopped mid-step, thermometer in hand. “Mini muffins?”
“Chocolate chip mini muffins,” I specified, feeling like the world’s shittiest dog owner.
Rex looked at me and smiled. “While your concern is valid, I don’t think there was enough chocolate chips in those mini muffins to harm him.
Mini muffins usually have milk chocolate chips in them.
And while the reaction from dog to dog will vary, typically the ratio is about one ounce of chocolate per pound of dog before it reaches toxic levels.
Dark chocolate is, of course, toxic in much smaller amounts. ”
“So he’s okay?”
“Most likely, yes,” Rex said. “But we’ll induce vomiting and give him charcoal to absorb the toxins. Just to be on the safe side.”
“You probably want to wait outside,” Blue told me, putting a hand on my arm to comfort me. “There’s coffee in the waiting room, and I made it fresh not too long ago so it should be nice still.”
“Are you sure?” I looked at Wally, who was happy to absorb all the affection Rex was showering him with. It felt wrong to leave him, like if he had to suffer, then the least I could do was witness it.
“It’ll be easier on both of you. Trust me. I promise we’ll take the best care of him.”
I nodded my head, and went to Wally and gave him a pet and a kiss, and then slipped out of the room. The waiting room felt too stuffy for me, like the walls were closing in on me, so I stepped outside and gulped down lungfuls of fresh air.
I pulled my phone out and texted Josh.
Had a bit of an emergency. Can we meet at yours when it’s done?
I wasn’t sure I was ready to return to the scene of the crime.
My kitchen looked like a tornado went through it, and the pantry door was still hanging open.
More than anything, I didn’t want to go back there.
Not until I knew what was going to happen with Wally.
They said he’d be okay and I had to trust that.
But that didn’t make it any easier to stand out here and wait.
Josh didn’t reply right away. It took him twenty minutes to read my message. But when he finally did, a reply came through in seconds.
OMG is everything okay? Of course we can. Do you need anything?
Everything is fine apparently. I’ll explain when we’re together.
Let me know when you’re on your way and I’ll order dinner for us. Are you sure you don’t need anything?
I’m sure.
I just need you.
I’ll be here
I didn’t want the first time I told him I loved him to be through a text message, or I’d have said it. Just knowing that I had someone to quietly freak out with later about what a shit day this was helped calm me down a little and hold it together.
Blue came and found me outside sometime later. It might have been minutes and it might have been hours. I wasn’t sure. I’d kind of spaced out, like my brain shut down to prevent a meltdown.
“You can come see him now. He’s a little less happy with life at the moment, but that’s just because we made him puke. No one likes to puke. I’m sure he could use a cuddle from you now.” Blue gently took hold of my arm and led me back inside.
“You’re good at this,” I told him when we approached the room where Wally was waiting for me.
“Well, thank you.” Blue smiled at me and he opened the door.
Wally was a little droopier than normal, but he seemed to perk right up when I walked in.
“What’s the prognosis, Doc?” I asked, not waiting for permission to scoop my dog up into my arms. In the short time I’d had Wally, he’d quickly become one of the most important things in my life.
I had the strange thought that no one believed it was weird when you fell in love with an animal.
People almost expected you to immediately bond with your pets.
But when it came to people, there was a different kind of standard.
You weren’t supposed to take one look at a person and just know.
You weren’t supposed to go on a couple of dates and then want to declare your undying love for them.
But you could walk into an animal shelter, take one look at a dog, and declare that it was the one.
Josh wasn’t a dog, but I wanted to have that same freedom with him. To tell everyone that he was it for me. That I’d found the person I wanted to spend time with. That I found someone who made me feel alive. That I’d fallen hopelessly in love with him.
After receiving a good prognosis from Rex and a list of things to watch out for just in case, I finally got to leave the vet’s office.
My wallet was a little lighter, my heart a little shakier.
I wasn’t the only one feeling out of sorts, though.
Wally hadn’t liked the experience any more than I had, and if I hadn’t planned on seeing Josh afterward, Wally’s droopy face would have had me going there anyway so he could get some best friend time in with Nitro.
By the time I made it up to Josh’s apartment, I felt like I’d aged another decade.
Josh whipped the door open and after I set Wally down, I practically fell into his arms. He was shorter than me, and not as thick, but he was strong enough to hold me up.
He squeezed me tight, and I buried my face in the curve of his neck.
Every breath I took smelled of him. Of something fresh and clean and slightly like citrus.
“What’s wrong?” Josh rubbed my back and didn’t buckle under my weight.
“Nothing now,” I mumbled into his skin. “I—Wally got into some muffins and they were chocolate chip so I had to rush him to the vet.”
“Oh, no!” Josh held me tighter. “Is he okay? He looked okay.”
“They say he’ll be fine. They weren’t too concerned because of the amount he likely ingested and his size, but they made him vomit and gave him charcoal to absorb any lingering toxins.
They say he’ll be fine. But… Ugh.” I let out a breath that made me feel like my whole body was deflating. “It scared the shit out of me.”
“Tell me what you need.” Josh held me close and kissed my cheek. He continued to rub my back in soothing strokes, up and down.
I let out a dry, shaky laugh. “I’m not sure what way is up. Or what I need.” I paused for a moment, tempted to tell him how I felt, but there was no good segue I could think of to lead me into that sort of confession, so I stuck with the simple truth. “I just need you.”
“You have me.” Josh kissed my cheek. “How about—” He paused at the sound of someone knocking on his door.
The dogs, of course, went nuts, and a second later the door swung open.
We both turned in time to see a woman who was clearly older than Josh and clearly related to him, waltz into his apartment like she owned the place.
“Hey I hope you don’t mind—” She stopped short and stared at the two of us, still tangled up together.
“Violet, this is my boyfriend, David. David, this is my sister, Violet.”
Violet blinked at me, then at Josh, and she pasted on a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Her features were pinched tight, making her look severe. Shrewd, even.
“It’s good to meet you.” Violet held her hand out for me to shake. “I’ve heard nothing about you.”
Her gaze shifted to Josh and she arched an eyebrow at him. “You kept this a secret, little brother.”
“It wasn’t a secret, it just wasn’t your business. There’s a difference, Vi.”
Violet smiled again, and it looked like she was trying to make her expression more personable, but I could see a glimmer of something in her eyes.
“I just came by real fast to see if you still had that crate you borrowed to bring Nitro home in? A friend of mine needs to borrow it.”
“Yeah, I think it’s in the laundry room. I’ll be right back.”
I wanted to follow Josh and help him look. Being left alone with Violet gave me bad vibes. Her eyes were soft and kind whenever she looked at Josh, but they hardened when she looked at me.
“So, you’re his boyfriend?” she asked, giving me the onceover.
“David Fisher. It’s good to meet you. Josh speaks highly of you.” I tried not to let it sting that Josh hadn’t mentioned me to his sister, but maybe there was a reason he hadn’t.
Before she could get another word out, Josh returned with the pet carrier in hand.
“Here it is. Thanks for stopping by.”
“Oh, I don’t have to leave yet.” Violet set the crate down by her feet. “I’d love a coffee. We can catch up, and I can get to know David better.”
Josh practically glowed when his sister said that. It was like he was blind to the malice behind her eyes, or maybe I was imagining it. After the day I’d had, anything was possible.
“Did you want a coffee too, David?” Josh asked.
“Sure,” I said. “That sounds nice.”
It sounded fucking awful, but I put on a brave face for Josh. His sister was important to him and even though it felt like we were already off to a bad start, I wanted to make a good first impression.