He barked out a laugh. ‘Aye, you did. One of the very first days I met you, I tried to hit on you.Thatwas your parting line.’
Well, fuck. I gave him an apologetic shrug. ‘Shit, sorry.’
He waved my apology away. ‘Don’t be. It’s when I realised we were soulmates.’ I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Alistair’s amorous activities almost rivalled mine in their frequency and lack of emotional entanglement. When we first met, his flirtatious manner hadn’t allowed him to be in a room with me for five minutes before he asked me out. The reason I liked him, and we worked so well together, was he had accepted my refusal easily and didn’t push it. After that, we developed a solid working relationship. I considered so few people my friend, but at a push, I think Alistair qualified.
He took a slurp of coffee, eyeing me over the rim. ‘So why are you putting yourself through bad pickup lines and badly lit dick pics?’
Throwing my phone back on the counter, I hiked one knee over the other and cupped the hot mug to my chest. ‘I’m trying to win a bet.’
His eyes lit up with understanding. ‘Say no more.’ He held a hand to his heart. ‘I volunteer as tribute. I’ll happily date you, Rosie.’
I shot him a bored look. ‘Thank you for the offer, but sex isn’t on the table. That’s the whole point.’
His face screwed up in mock outrage. ‘Is there even a point to dating if sex isn’t involved?’
‘You really only think with your dick, don’t you?’ I laughed.
He tapped the side of his head. ‘I use this brain like a machine at work, so when I leave these walls, I like to switch off. The ladies don’t seem to mind.’ I made a fake gagging sound at his shit-eating grin.
‘Thank you, but I don’t think you are the person to help me win this thing. My skin is on the line,literally.’ Seeing his confusion, I explained the forfeit. Although I wouldn’t consider us close, Alistair knew about my aversion to needles. He’d seen me give myself several pep talks in the early days of working here.
A deep belly laugh echoed out of him. ‘Oh fuck, that’s great.’ His feet landed on the floor, coffee placed on the counter, and he held his hands up in a praying motion. ‘When you get it done, can I be there? Please?Please?’
I swatted his hands away. ‘Your lack of confidence in me is insulting.’
He shook his head with a wry grin. ‘Honey, I love you, but you’re not winning this unless you cheat.’
An entire slew of unsavoury words were about to tumble past my lips at his audacity when Jean, our receptionist, popped her head around the treatment room door.
‘Rosie, got a Mrs Feely and Brian here to see you,' she saidin a low voice, casting a nervous glance over her shoulder to the waiting room.
This only increased Alistair’s laughter. I glowered at him before turning my attention to Jean. Brian was a green parakeet known at the clinic for being bad-tempered with a penchant for biting and scratching everything he could get his claws and beak into—usuallyme. His owner—an older woman—thought rainbows shone out of his arse.
‘How angry does he look?’ I asked Jean with a grimace.
A loud squawk reverberated from the waiting room, followed by a tender voice, ‘Don’t be daft, it’s only Miss Rosie.’
Jean’s pale grey eyes told me everything I needed to know. ‘Let’s just say he’s not best pleased.’
Numerous scratchesand countless hours later, I headed home. My feet ached from being on them all day. Usually, long days at the clinic didn’t bother me. I was used to it, and my body was fit enough that I had no trouble standing for eight hours and heading home only to get dressed, turn around and go out all night. As I trundled up the stairs of my building and dug around my giant bag for my keys, I couldn’t ignore the fatigue ravaging my body.
For the past week, my routine was: wake up early, go to work, come home, take Roxy for a walk, drop her off at mum’s, go out clubbing or to a bar, bring a questionably handsome man back to mine and after a couple of orgasms kick him out and get my dog from mum’s so we could snuggle.
I wasn’t labouring under any misapprehension that this was a healthy lifestyle. However, the alternative was to sit inmy flat, alone, watching TV and eating takeout, only to give up on life at nine o’clock and go to bed.
Life was different last year. Last year, I had Fallon.
I still do,I reminded myself. Our friendship had always been a close one—the kind that calls at three in the morning because you can’t sleep, shows up unannounced at your door when you need a hug and goes out for breakfast and dinner every week. And if she even got wind of me feeling slightly lonely, she would march over here right now and not leave my side until I felt better. Iknewthat.
But I wasn’t the only person in her world anymore. I wasn’t her only love. And a selfish, childish part of me hated it was no longer us against the world.
I slotted my key into the lock, waited two seconds, and heard my favourite sound.
Nails scrambled on the hardwood floor, followed by a soft thud. When I opened the door, a wet nose pressed against my exposed ankle before two paws landed directly on my chest.
‘Hi baby, you miss me?’ My fingers buried themselves in Roxy’s fur. Her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth, and I rained kisses on the top of her head. When her feet were back on the ground, she went straight to sniffing me like she was trying to identify the scent of every animal I’d come in contact with today. The smell of other animals turned her from a loving, needy pup to an investigator.
‘I know, I smell. It’s such a betrayal. How dare I?’
