IT WAS BY PUREcoincidence that I talked Chaz into coming with me to take Diva for her booster shots. I didn’t have an ulterior motive for the invite at all.Wink. Wink.I didn’t think it was coincidence though that Chaz dressed up a little more than he normally would for a visit to the veterinarian either, but I didn’t remark on it. I was becoming one of those annoying friends that everyone groans when they see them coming. You know the type—the one that has fallen madly in love and wants everyone else to feel the same things too. So, yeah, I totally twisted Chaz’s arm to come along with me and used his guilt against him to get my way. It wasn’t like Diva needed an extra hand because she was a shameful slut when it came to Dr. Dimples. It was embarrassing the way she purred the second he walked into the room.
“Is that a new cologne?” I asked him, although I knew the answer.Okay, maybe I couldn’t just let it go by without a mention.I glanced over and saw a pink flush creeping across his cheeks. I saw him fiddling with the buttons on his shirtsleeves. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw Chaz wear something other than a T-shirt or long-sleeved T-shirt.
“It was a birthday gift from my mom,” Chaz said softly. His birthday was eight months prior, and I’d never smelled it on him before or heard him mention it.
“Well, it smells nice,” I told him. “New shirt?”Why stop when I was on a roll?
“It was a birthday gift from my grandmother,” he replied, squirming in his seat. He was such a bad liar, but I chose not to call him on it.
“Well, Grandma Gertie has great taste.” She totally did not have good taste and another reason I knew he was holding out on me. Again. I remember very well the hideous things she bought him in the past. I nearly lost my cool when I recalled the knitted sweater she made him during hisTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesphase. It was the most disgusting color green I’d ever seen and had sea turtles all over it; as if that was anywhere close. His mother made him wear it to school where it had an unfortunate accident with ketchup and mustard at lunch and couldn’t be saved. That sweater was so ugly that no one asked how Chaz got his hands on those two condiments on sausage and pancake day.
“That combination of blues and grays makes your pretty blue eyes pop. I’ll have to ask Grannie where she got it so I can see if they have any that would look good on me.”
“Macy’s,” Chaz said quickly as if he didn’t want me to call her. “She left the tag on it.”
“So, who bought you the brown leather half boots?” I asked. “Don’t tell me, let me guess. Hmm… Your aunt Sandra.”
“Hanging around that detective has rubbed off on you. Can’t get nothing past you,” Chaz said sarcastically.
I wanted to come back at him with a snarky reply about Gabe rubbing off on me every chance he got, but I didn’t. It was obvious to me that Chaz was going through something that he didn’t want to discuss. He gave the excuse about the video games, and I thought there might be a little bit of truth there, but I suspected that something else was going on.
“You look and smell very nice,” I told him. It was good to see some color on his cheeks; even if it was because he was slightly embarrassed over dressing up to see Dr. Dimples.
“Thank you.”
Diva softly growled her displeasure from inside her cat carrier on Chaz’s lap. “I’m not sure Diva agrees, but you know how fickle she can be. Don’t take her opinion to heart,” I told him. “She just wants me to speed up so she can get to rubbing her head against her favorite vet’s dimpled chin.” I saw Chaz squirm in his seat and I knew he was thinking about rubbing a certain head of his against the good doctor’s square chin.
Alyssa smiled brightly at us from behind her desk when we entered the waiting room. “Well don’t you just look adorable this morning, Chaz.”
“Uh… thank you,” he muttered. “I’ll take Diva and have a seat while you fill out the paperwork,” Chaz told me.
“Better yet,” said Dr. Delicious as he stepped out of his office, “why don’t you and Diva come with me. I’ll get started with her checkup while Josh fills out the paperwork.”
“Uh…”
“Come on, now. I don’t bite.” Kyle’s sultry, seductive voice made me blink several times and lose focus on what I had begun to write on the paperwork Alyssa handed me. What the hell was going on here? Was Dr. Dreamboat stepping up his game?
“Uh…” Jesus, Chaz was starting to sound like a broken record. I did what any good friend would do. I subtly kicked him in the back of his leg to break him from his trance. “Okay.”
I smiled as I watched Chaz follow Kyle back to an exam room. I thought they would make the most adorable couple. Alyssa cleared her throat, pulling my attention back to her.
“That’s a new form, and perhaps I should go over it with you,” she said to me. I looked at the form and noted that it was a new format, but it asked the same questions that were on the old one. She gave me a conspiring wink when I returned my eyes to hers. “It could take a while.”
Alyssa went over every line on the form as I completed it, which added an extra ten minutes to the process. I had expected to see Kyle halfway through his exam of Diva by the time I got back to the room, but instead, I saw Diva twining herself around Kyle’s legs trying to get his attention while he held Chaz’s bleeding finger in his hand.
“Well, at least we know the little vixen is well-vaccinated,” Kyle said as he examined Chaz.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Your little slutty cat bit me when I didn’t hand her to Dr. Dimples quick enough,” Chaz said petulantly. Kyle stood up a little straighter and blinked at Chaz several times before a wide smile spread across his face that showed why he earned the nickname. Unfortunately for Chaz, Kyle didn’t know we called him that until just then. Poor Chaz turned an unnatural shade of white when he realized what he’d said.
“Dr. Dimples, huh?” Kyle asked. “I like it. Maybe I should change my avatar name to that.”
“Chaz playsWorld of Warcrafttoo,” I told him. “He’s really good at it.” I had no fucking clue if he was good or not, but that didn’t stop me. “Plays a lot at night and makes a lot of friends around the world.” I was starting to ramble, and Chaz was looking at me with bulging eyes that pleaded for me to shut the fuck up, but I didn’t know how once I was on a roll. “I think he’s met a guy online and just doesn’t want me to know about it. He worries I’ll make fun of him or something.”
“Josh,” Chaz growled.
“I would never!” I clutched my heart dramatically and blinked my eyes innocently. “We never know when we’ll find the other half of our soul. Sometimes they’re standing right in front of you all along.”
