“Right.” I raise my hands to my hips and look down at her. She cowers as if she knows she’s been bad, and I reach down to pat her head. “It’s okay, little pup. Let’s take you out again.”
After I’ve taken her around the block, I remove her leash in the lobby, opening the door to our apartment. At that moment, Michael comes down the stairs. He has a gym bag slung over one shoulder and is focused on his phone, his face creased in concentration.
I hover in the doorway, watching him. He’s in a hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and sneakers. It’s the first time I’ve seen him out of his suit, and he looks nothing like the man I thought he was when I first met him. Knowing what I know now, I’m not even sure how I came to all those conclusions about him. Well, okay, he said some things about women that weren’t great, but Agnes did say he’d been having a hard time recently.
Either way, I owe him an apology for insulting his book.
“Um, hi,” I say tentatively.
He glances up from his phone and stops in front of me. “Oh. Hello.”
God, now I don’t know what to say. I can’t just launch straight into “I’m sorry I said your book was crap even though I hadn’t read it.”
I clear my throat. “I, er, was wondering if you have a moment?”
His eyes flit to the front door then back to me. “I’m on my way to the gym.”
“Right. Okay.” I try to ignore the strange sense of disappointment that rolls through me.
He wanders across the foyer, grasping the door handle and pulling it half open before turning back to me. “Is it urgent?”
I shake my head.
Stevie appears at my feet and Michael looks down at her, his face softening. He reaches a hand out to her but before either of us can do anything, she dashes out through the open front door, down onto the street.
“No!” I cry.
Michael’s eyes widen and his gym bag slips to the floor. “Shit!”
All my thoughts of apologizing to him are replaced by the much more urgent realization that if anything happens to Stevie, Cat willkillme.
I push past Michael and race down the front steps, but I can’t see her. My heart is juddering as I scan the street.
Shit, shit, shit.
Michael appears beside me, worry lining his face. “I’m so sorry, Alex.”
I turn to him, fuming. “She’s not even my dog!”
“I know.”
I dig my nails into my palms as panic rises in my chest. “Fuck! What am I going to do?”
“Okay,” he says confidently, taking charge. “You go that way, I’ll go this way. Walk around the block to look for her and we can meet back here in five minutes.”
I nod, inhaling a shaky breath. We peel off in opposite directions.
“Stevie! Stevie girl, where are you?” God, if anything happens to her I’ll never forgive myself. I know Cat loves her more than anything.
I quickly round the block and end up back on the front doorstep. Michael strides towards me, empty-handed.
“Any luck?”
I shake my head, resisting the urge to say something scathing.
“Okay,” he says again. “This time go down a block that way.”
We head out again and walk a block around and back, but still nothing. We meet up on the front steps of our building and I begin to pace back and forward, my gut clenched tight like a fist.
