“I told Deacon. It’s forty-five hundred dollars.”
“Seriously?”
She nods, seemingly unbothered by the whole situation, in direct contrast to the concerned—my dog is gonna die in childbirth—Instagram post.
“He never said anything.”
“You really need to get him neutered, you know?”
“He’s agiant breed dog. They’re not supposed to be neutered until they’re full grown.”
“Isn’t he two?”
I might explode. Literally. I don’t need to be called out by this lunatic who posts pictures of her dog’s scary nipples online.
“Millie, I have more than eight hundred notifications.”
“I know! And I met my goal already.” She gives me a chastising look. “Maybe you could do one for Apollo’s neuter.”
“Apollo’snot the dad,” I insist.
She sighs. “Do you wanna come in? You seem upset. I have ginger tea.”
“No.” I’ll have a seizure if I go inside her apartment. There’s way too much going on in there. She’s an artist in every sense of the word. Every medium, every color. And the music tonight is country. No fucking way. I need to get the hell out of here.
“Don’t be mad, Evan. I’m solving the problem.”
“You basically accused me of being a deadbeat dad on the internet.”
“Technically, I accused Apollo.”
“He’s not the one who got tagged.”
She sighs and gets her phone out of the kangaroo pouch on the front of her pajamas. “Fine, I’ll remove the tag.”
“I can do it myself,” I nearly yell at her.
She startles and stares up at me with wide, shocked eyes.
“Sorry,” I say quickly. She’s nuts for sure, but she’s a nice person. She can’t help it if she’s quirky or whatever. “This is just a lot.”
“I know. I was totally spiraling about it earlier until I had the Go Fund Me idea. I only tagged you because you have pictures of Apollo on your account. Just so people would know I wasn’t lying.”
“No one’s saying you’re lying, Millie, but you can’t prove it was him, either.”
“You sound super problematic right now.”
“Oh my God.” I step away from her door. “I can’t with this.”
“You wanna go to the vet with me on Monday? Manon’s getting a sonogram.”
“No,” I say, retreating to my apartment.
“Let me know if you change your mind. You know, the quicker you wrap your mind around this, the better. It’s gotta suck having to sneak up and down the stairs to avoid me. We shouldn’t have to live like that. I love being friends with you and Deacon.”
“Deacon’s not gonna like that post,” I say.
Her face falls. “Really? I mean I know it was a total beg, but…it’s all true.”
