Chapter 3
Cristie left the house, walked right out the front gate, and crossed the highway before turning to the right and walking to Colter Animal Hospital.
She approached the door and its sensor swished it open for her.
She stepped inside and just stood there despite the multiple customers and animals making noise and filling the waiting room.
Sheryl looked up from the reception desk and realized Cristie was not herself today.
“Girl, what happened to you?” Sheryl asked, jumping up to rush round the circular counter and placing an arm around Cristie’s shoulders to guide her to the back where the employees’ break room was.
Cristie just shook her head and did her best to hold back tears.
As soon as they got into the break room, Sheryl sat Cristie down at the table and took her coffee away from her, setting it on the table.
She made a face when she pried the smashed sandwich from Cristie’s other hand, but kept at it until Cristie let it go.
“You don’t want to eat this, do you baby? ” Sheryl asked.
Cristie pulled her focus from the wall in front of her to Sheryl. “Eat what?” she asked.
“This,” Sheryl said, using both hands to hold the smashed sandwich with pieces of sausage and egg sticking out from tears in the foil.
“Oh, no. No, I will not be eating that. Remi made it and I don’t want it.” She paused and thought about it, her head canting just a little to the left. “I’m not even fully sure how I got it.”
“From the store it looks like,” Sheryl said.
Cristie didn’t answer.
“So, tell me, what has you in such a state?” Sheryl asked as she used a wet wipe to try to clean Cristie’s hand.
“Remi’s here. I’m not up for this.”
“Who’s Remi?”
“My mate.”
“Your mate?! Girl, that’s good news!”
“He didn’t want me. Now he does. I don’t know what to do.”
“He didn’t want you? What is wrong with him?!” Sheryl demanded angrily.
“He’s too loyal. Had a girlfriend when we found out we were mates. He felt guilty.”
Sheryl didn’t say anything, she just stood there with a confused look on her face.
Cristie looked up at her standing next to the chair. “Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I mean, loyalty is an admirable trait. You can’t have a successful relationship without it. But finding your mate will screw up a good loyal person and make them go for their mate, leaving the one they used to be loyal to.”
“But it didn’t. He stayed with her.”
Sheryl remained silent.
“Then she left him, and he still stayed away because the guilt of wanting me but being with her and staying with her, but being my mate when he was with her.”
“That is a conundrum, isn’t it,” Sheryl said.
“Are you asking or commenting?” Cristie asked, “because I really can’t tell right now. I’m a little out of my element here this morning.”
“I’m just commenting.”
“Good. Because I don’t know much of anything right now. All I know is my father went all Alpha on me and sent me to work and wished me a good day. So, I’m here.”
“Well, what did he say?” Sheryl asked.
“My father? What I said already.”
“I mean about your mate.”
“The guilt thing is what he explained to me. And he told me to behave like the fair and just Alpha I hope to be and be nice and maybe at the least Remi and I can find the friendship we shared as kids even if I can’t forgive him.
Then he reminded me that he and my mom had serious issues and look at them now. ”
“Oh. And then he sent you to work.”
“That’s about it. Other than telling me he granted Remi sanctuary and I better treat him with dignity and respect just like I would any guest.”
“Oh, that’s just all kinds of…”
“All kinds of wrong! Say it, I know it’s wrong!” Cristie said, looking for someone to agree with her.
“Hang on, now. I did not, nor have I ever insinuated that Alpha Riley is wrong about anything.”
Cristie sighed, knowing she’d been wrong to ask Sheryl to agree with her against her Alpha. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to agree to that. I don’t want you to go against your Alpha.”
“I know that,” Sheryl said. “But I’m worried about you. What did this Remi person say? I’m guessing you talked to him which is why you’re in the state you’re in.”
“He wants to have dinner and see if we can maybe talk a little bit.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Sheryl sat there for a few seconds thinking things over, then she got up and walked over to the sink and washed her hands.
“You know, Cristie, I know you’re supposed to want to greet all new arrivals and all, and this one is a childhood friend, too, so that makes it tough, but you’re late.
You’re very late getting into work today, and the appointments are backing up, and then you’re going to have to stay late to do the paperwork because me and Trey have plans tonight, so it just cannot happen tonight.
You’re going to have to stay here late tonight. ”
Cristie smiled at Sheryl. The first real smile she’d smiled since seeing Remi earlier that morning. “That’s right! I have so much work to catch up on here and I wouldn’t be properly performing my job if I didn’t give it priority.”
“That’s right. And you need to get out there right now and see some of these baby animals that just want to feel better. In fact, Mrs. Jensen’s cat is in room 3 waiting for the next available doctor to see him.”
“Mr. Jangles? I hate Mr. Jangles. He bites me.”
“It’s because you’re a bigger cat than he is. He’s afraid. Just put on some good, thick gloves and go in like you own the place.”
“Fine.”
“But take a minute to compose yourself. Then go in. If you’re already upset, he’ll sense that and consider it a sign of weakness and we may end up having to stitch you up before you can move on to the next patient.”
Cristie nodded as she reached for her coffee and took a sip.
Sheryl stopped at the door and looked back at Cristie before she went back to the front desk. “Cristie?”
“Yes,” Cristie asked, turning her head toward Sheryl.
“Maybe he didn’t immediately throw his girlfriend over for you because he’s stronger than most. Maybe he was wrestling with a moral dilemma that most don’t even experience because their loyalties don’t lie that deep.
I don’t know, just saying maybe. But it wouldn’t have been right if he’d just thrown her over and run blindly to you, would it?
I mean, that’s just instinct, not loyalty.
He’d invested time in something he thought would last and just dropping her flat wouldn’t be fair.
I mean, what if you’d been the girlfriend and she’d been the mate, and suddenly one day you looked up and he was gone with little-to-no explanation.
Seems to me, and I don’t know the boy, but seems to me that he couldn’t win for losing in that one. ”
Sheryl went back to the front desk, and Cristie sat there, Sheryl’s words swimming around her head.
She leaned over and banged her head on the table a few times before she stood up, sipped another mouthful of her coffee, then went to the supply room to get a pair of the long leather gloves they used when they treated Mr. Jangles.
~~~
“That went well,” Richie said.
Remi laughed.
“No, it did. She didn’t hit you. She didn’t throw her coffee at you. She just yelled a little.”
“And twitched. She twitched,” Remi said.
“Yeah, she did twitch. That left eye. It gets going when she’s about to blow. But she didn’t blow,” Richie said brightly.
“She was pissed, though.”
“Truthfully? I don’t think she’s forgiven you for renouncing her,” Richie said.
“I didn’t renounce her,” Remi said.
“Oh, I know. I heard the whole thing… pulled the hole in after yourself.”
“Head up my ass,” Remi said.
“Yeah. Same thing. Still, she hasn’t forgiven you. She’s mad as hell.”
“Or still hurting.”
“And still hurting,” Richie said.
“Angry and in pain,” Remi said.
“Aren’t you supposed to stay away from animals that are in pain and injured?”
“Yes. They’re supposed to be at their most dangerous.”
“So you decided to come spend some time with one.”
“I was hoping maybe she’d cooled off a little.”
“I don’t think she did.”
“Me either.”
“And there she goes,” Remi said, looking through the interior kitchen windows, then through the dining room and through the exterior windows.
Richie turned around to see what Remi was seeing and tsked a few times. “She does not look herself today at all.”
“She’s still holding that sandwich I gave her. I don’t think it’s edible anymore.”
“There are pieces falling off as she walks,” Richie said.
“Should I go give her another one?” Remi asked.
“No! No, do not even approach her right now. Just give her a wide berth today. Maybe try again later tonight or tomorrow.”
“I did ask if we could maybe have dinner later tonight.”
“Oh, yeah? What’d she say?”
“She said no.”
Richie was still watching her as she made her way across the highway. “She really doesn’t look like she’s handling it well. She’s shook.”
“Was not my intention. I was hoping that I could find a way other than just showing up, maybe even hoping her dad told her I was coming. But, apparently not.”
“Speaking of, brace yourself,” Richie said.
“Why? What’s… oh, I see him.” Remi looked up and waved at an approaching Riley through the windows that opened onto the kitchen.
Riley smiled and waved back.
Remi went back to chopping five pounds of onions, five pounds of green bell peppers, and three bunches of celery.
“Remi! I was getting worried when you didn’t show up last night,” Riley said as he entered the kitchen.
Remi put down the chef’s knife he was using and wiped his hands on his apron before he embraced Riley.
“I got in about three this morning but I didn’t want to wake anybody up.
I just slept in my car out in front of your house.
Richie found me there when he was coming to work and asked if I know how to cook. ”