The vet has a brown stain on his white coat and a sneer on his face.
My dog is cute, makes me invisible to others, and unleashes chemical warfare on his enemies. He is the best boy.
Vet Fuckboy grumbles, “Checkup is all good, nothing to report, he’ll need refills on his meds.” He pauses and his eyes drift over Jenny. “I was going to give you a call sometime.”
The fuck he was.
“Didn’t I tell you not to speak?” I warn in a low tone. “She’s with someone,” I add without thinking.
“Yeah, I can see that.” He swallows and sneers as he takes in a deep breath, another whiff of evil lingering in the room. “You can check out.”
“If you think I’m paying for an examination where you dislocated my dog’s hip, you’re fucking nuts.”
He nods. “I’ll talk to the front desk.” And he heads into the back room, leaving me alone with Jenny and Kingston.
I squint my eyes. I’ve got a bad feeling, well lots of them, but I think I’m being scammed. “Does he really need these meds? Or am I getting ripped off.”
“Do you want fleas?”
“No.”
“Then get the meds.”
She looks three shades of green as Kingston jumps on her legs. “Boy, you smell awful.” She covers her nose and nudges him off her.
The tiny room isn’t helping the situation either. I hand her my credit card. “You go pay for the meds; I’ll take him outside.”
Once Kingston and I are out on the street, where it smells more like the city than shit, he puts his front paws on my legs and his smile returns. His big brown eyes are bright and waiting for some attention. His tail is back in a curl, and it’s even moving side to side. Is he wagging it? It’s a tiny movement, not one of those massive golden retriever tail wags. This dog keeps getting better and better.
Jenny steps out onto the street and sniffs again. “You need a bath.” I sniff under my arms; I’ve been sweaty all day, but yikes. She shakes her head and punches my arm, “Not you, the dog.”
“I don’t think he’s going to like that.”
“He’s not,” she says, and rubs his ears. “But after you do something you don’t want to, you get a reward.” She pats my shoulder. “You too.”
For a second, my mind flashes to her mouth wrapped around my cock, and I feel dizzy. Shit. Everything about this could be a massive mistake.
Or the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
Chapter Nine
Jenny
What the hell happened back there? What the hell has been happening all day? He’s not supposed to be nice. He’s big and scary, and he has secrets. But he also loves his newly found dog? How the hell are my ovaries supposed to fight against this? It’s impossible.
“Come on, Stinky Butt, we got to get you all cleaned up. There’s a place one of my sponsors owns right up the street.”
We walk for a few blocks in silence. “Do you have any hobbies?” Joey blurts out after we pass a sporting goods store.
Hmm. Is this a trap? It feels like a trap. I’ve been with men for weeks before they asked any personal questions. “Uh, I tend to bounce around between a bunch of stuff. I see something online, and I try the craft because the video makes it look so easy. I do a shit ton of research on the topic and buy the most expensive supplies, and when I finally sit down to do it, I get mad it’s not perfect, and I give up in a week. I’ve got the skin husk of a crocheted dinosaur I tried to do, but I realized it was too complicated. And I have a turtle body without a head. I’m in the ‘why do I try new things’ phase of the cycle.”
“Uh-huh.” Kingston stops to pee on a lamppost and Joey says, “I get that. The internet makes everything look so easy. Damn cake decorating videos.”
“I know, right. That was my hyperfixation six months ago. I have so many star-tipped metal thingies and piping bags filling up space in my kitchen drawers. Right now, I’ve got a 3D printer I tinker with.” It’s surprisingly easy to talk to him. And he doesn’t seem to freak out when I word vomit. The impending sense of doom and dread that, if I do say something stupid, he’s going to insult me is also remarkably absent, so I’m honest with him. “I read a lot.”
“Oh, I read too. Mostly nonfiction, classic sci-fi—” he starts, but I cut him off.
I know exactly the kind of books he likes. He has ‘closet nerd trying to be cool’ written all over him.
