“You’re not helping,” Alyssa muttered.
A passing janitor, pushing a cart that squeaked with the rhythm of someone who’d been doing this job for decades, chuckled. “That one’s got a mind of his own, doesn’t he?”
“You have no idea. I’m starting to think he’s conducting some kind of social experiment.”
“Dogs usually are,” the janitor said sagely. “They’re smarter than most of the people in this building. Present company excluded, of course.”
After five minutes of coaxing, bribing with treats that Bug examined with the scepticism of a food critic, and finally just picking him up like a furry, judgmental sack of potatoes, Alyssa managed to get Bug into the executive elevator.
As the doors closed, she caught sight of her reflection in the polished steel. Her hair was a mess, her shirt was wrinkled, and she had what appeared to be a paw print on her jeans. Perfect. This was exactly how she wanted to look when apologising to the Ice Queen.
Bug, cradled in her arms, licked her chin with what might have been affection or might have been an attempt to taste-test her anxiety.
“Thanks, buddy. At least one of us has confidence.”
The elevator climbed higher. Alyssa’s stomach churned in sympathy with the ascending numbers.
Eighteenth floor.
Alyssa took a deep breath. “Okay, Bug. This is it. We’re going to march up there, I’m going to apologize like a professional adult who definitely didn’t call her a condescending arsehole, and then we’re going to get out of there before I say something else stupid.”
Bug sneezed, which Alyssa chose to interpret as agreement rather than commentary on her life choices.
“Yeah, I don’t believe me either.”
The doors opened on the nineteenth floor. A woman in a pencil skirt that looked like it required an engineering degree to walk in stepped in, took one look at Bug, and immediately started cooing in a voice that suggested she’d been suppressing this urge all day.
“Oh my goodness, is this one of the Four Paws dogs? I’ve been dying to meet them! Everyone on my floor has one except me. I think HR hates me.”
“This is Bug,” Alyssa said, grateful for the distraction and the delay.
“He’s adorable! Can I pet him? I promise I washed my hands after the tuna sandwich incident.”
“Sure.”
The woman scratched Bug behind the ears with the enthusiasm of someone who’d been denied this simple pleasure for far too long. Bug immediately melted into her hands, tail wagging, his earlier resistance completely forgotten. Traitor.
“I tried to sign up as a volunteer, but all the spots were taken,” the woman said wistfully.
“That’s unfortunate,” Alyssa observed. It would be too easy to offer Bug, considering he was a “buddy” down, but Alyssa had selected Cyril for a reason. Bug wouldn’t be compatible with just anyone.
“I live with unfortunate all the time. Last month, someone took my yogurt. It had my name on it. In permanent marker.”
They chatted for the rest of the elevator ride, and by the time they reached the twentieth floor, Alyssa had given the Hillary, the elevator woman, her contact information and promised to set up a meet-and-greet. Alyssa had several dogs in mind that she thought might be compatible for a permanenthome with Hillary. She’d just have to wait until January to apply. Bug had also managed to charm his way into receiving approximately seventeen ear scratches and what looked like half a digestive biscuit from the Hillary’s pocket.
As Hillary stepped off on her floor, she turned back. “Good luck with whatever you’re doing up here. And thanks for bringing the dogs. It’s made this place feel a lot less…just thanks.”
The doors closed, and Alyssa was alone again with Bug and her impending sense of doom.
“Alright,” she said, setting him down. “No more distractions. We’re doing this.”
Bug looked up at her, then promptly sat down and started licking his paw with the concentration of a surgeon performing a delicate operation.
Alyssa sighed. “Of course you are.”
She glanced down the corridor toward Evelyn’s office. The frosted glass door loomed at the end like the entrance to a particularly unforgiving headmaster’s office.
Lil’s words echoed in her head: “Think of the centre. Think of what we’re trying to achieve.”
