Life's Too Short (The Friend Zone #3)(9)

Then he was gone too.

I turned back to Vanessa. She blinked at me with wide eyes for a second—then slammed the door in my face.

I was still standing there looking at her apartment number when she opened the door. “Thank you,” she said quickly.

And then she slammed it again.

Okay…

I waited a few moments to make sure whoever the hell those people were didn’t come back.

They didn’t.

*



It was almost 5:00 and I was sitting at the bar in the kitchen going over case work when someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find Becky.

With a dog.

“I called you like seven million times,” she said. “I thought you were dead. You always answer your phone.”

“Can we not talk about me being dead?” I asked, standing in the doorway. “What the hell is this?”

“It’s your dog?” She picked up its paw and waved it at me. “The one I told you I was getting you?”

I shook my head. “That’s not my dog.”

It was a—I don’t know what it was. A Chihuahua maybe? But it was ancient. It had short brown fur with a random bald spot on its chest, cloudy, bulging, watery eyes, and a tongue that hung an inch out of the side of its mouth. It looked like a caricature of itself.

“Uh, yeah. It is your dog,” she said, smacking her gum.

I crossed my arms. “No, my dog is a dog I can take running. My dog is a dog too big for me to carry.”

She scoffed. “You’re a hermit now, remember? I bring you a Weimaraner or something, you don’t take him out, and he destroys your apartment. Then you go deeper down your rabbit hole and I have to visit you in the psych ward and smuggle a cell phone to you in my underwear so you can keep working because heaven forbid you take a mental health day.” She blew a bubble. “This dog is a lifestyle match.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“You’re meticulous with time management and routine, he’s got three medications a day. You want to stay home, so does he. You have a fancy apartment, he’s not destructive. He doesn’t shed, his poop is the size of a Tootsie Roll. He uses pee pads so you don’t even have to walk him if you don’t feel like leaving the house. He’s perfect. If you don’t love him, bring him to work tomorrow and I’ll take him back or something.”

I let out a long sigh and looked at the little thing. “Does he even have teeth?”

“Nope. Which is good because he bites.”

I snorted.

She picked up her bag from the floor. “Let me in so I can show you his stuff.” She squeezed past me, and I closed the door behind her. “Hold him.” She held out the shivering dog. When I didn’t take him, she gave me crazy eyes and pushed him gently into my chest.

He growled.

She plunged her hands into the bag she had with her. “Okay, so he’s got arthritis and allergies and a skin infection, so he gets one of these every morning and this last one at night too.” She shook three bottles. “Put them in cream cheese. He’ll just swallow it. He can’t have dry food because of the no-teeth thing, so he’s got wet food here. He needs a medicated bath once a week for his dry skin. Here are his diapers—”

“Diapers?” I said. “It’s incontinent?”

She paused with her hands in the bag to scowl up at me. “He’s fourteen. That’s like a million years old in people years. Also, he has worms.”

“What?”

She rolled her eyes. “They already treated him for it. He’s just gonna poop them out or something, so don’t freak out if you see a tapeworm in there. Only freak out if it’s moving. Then you need to take him back to the vet.”

“Jesus Christ, Becky.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re asking me to be a damn dog nurse.”

“Yup.” She stood and handed me the bag.

I let out a resigned puff of air. “What’s his name?” I mumbled, looking reluctantly at him.

“Harry Puppins.”

“Oh God.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“Even though my horoscope today says my life is about to change drastically?”

She shrugged. “Well, the way I see it, it can only change for the better.”

She popped her gum one more time and left.





CHAPTER 4





THIS STARTLING VIDEO

WILL HAVE YOU COVERING

YOUR EYES!




VANESSA

I was dabbing Carmex on the split in my lip when I heard talking in the hallway. I leaned on my fingertips to peer through the peephole. Adrian, with some girl who was holding a Chihuahua.

I could barely see him from that angle, but I had a full view of her.

She was pretty, which I guess wasn’t surprising. The man was a ten. He could probably date supermodels if he wanted to.

Adrian got closer to her to look at the dog, and he shifted into my line of sight. He was still in his suit from earlier, only he’d lost the jacket and tie. The top two buttons of his light-blue work shirt were undone and his sleeves were rolled up to the elbow.

God, he was sexy. You could make a calendar of the many looks of Adrian Copeland and raise enough money to fund the cure for cancer. Adrian, jogging shirtless. Adrian in a suit. Adrian, with my cranky niece on his chest.