His eyelids drooped.He leaned back in his chair and rubbed them.Maybe he should have asked Rogers for coffee.
A loud knock sounded on his office door.David jumped and quickly closed the browser.“One second.”
“Doc?It’s Gary.”
“Yeah,” David said drily, logging out of the user profile and logging into his normal one.“One second.”
He opened a medical file for one of the K9 dogs in training, then got to his feet.He checked himself in the mirror, decided his look of exhausted irritation wouldn’t do, and switched it to a smile.
He opened the door and smiled at Gary, his intern.Gary was an impossibly attractive young man of twenty-five who had just graduated veterinary nursing school and was finishing his education by working for the FBI’s veterinary office.He was a good kid, smart, enthusiastic, great with patients and handlers, a little fuzzy on the finer aspects of social interaction but goodhearted.
He was also a pain in David’s ass lately, though in his defense, everyone was a pain in David’s ass lately.“Yes, Gary?What is it?”
“Oh, um…” Gary reddened, which made his boyish good looks even more boyish and good-looking.“I was just wondering if you’d looked at my vacation request.Our vacation request.Mine and Jackie’s.”
Jackie was one of the veterinary nurses.She and Gary had been dating for a few months and were firmly in the sickeningly adorable honeymoon phase.David had prodded Gary to ask Jackie out after Jackie’s weeks of obvious hints didn’t get through.He liked them together and liked the reminder of his own honeymoon phase with Faith, back when everything was butterflies and giddiness and a firm belief that everything would always work out perfectly for them forever.
David sighed.“Right.You both want next week off to go skydiving.”
“Yeah.Well, notjustskydiving.We’re also going to go hiking and river rafting and maybe camping.We’re not sure yet.We’re just gonna see what happens.”
“All of that in a week, huh?”
Gary shrugged.“Yeah, we’ll see.So…”
“You can have the time off, Gary.”
He pumped his fist, then asked, “Um, both of us?”
“Yes, both of you.”
He pumped his fist again.“I’ll tell her.You’re the best, Doctor F.”
David grimaced.“I’m gonna say no to the Doctor F thing.”
“Right.Sounds good.Thank you, though, for real.”His face grew intense and serious.“I think I’m in love with her, Doc.Like really in love.”
David kept the polite smile plastered on his face.Hereallydidn’t want to chat right now, but he had been distracted lately, and he didn’t want people to start whispering about that, especially with two strange federal agents hanging around in the waiting room all day.
Probably time to wrap up here and head home, he realized with some irritation.It was a lot harder to conduct a clandestine investigation than he anticipated it would be.
He realized that Gary was looking at him expectantly and said, “You’re young.Both of you.Not too young to know if you’re in love, but I suggest that you guys take it slow.Enjoy each stage of your relationship.Take it one step at a time.If you guys still feel like this when you’ve been dating for a year, then maybe think about moving in together.Sign a one-year lease and have an exit plan if it doesn’t work out.If it does work out, then you can start having serious conversations about the future.But don’t be in a rush.”
Gary nodded.“Yeah.You’re right.”He smiled.“I guess you’d know, huh?You landed a baddie too.”
David stared blankly at him.“Landed a what?’
“Oh.”Gary reddened.“Landed a baddie.It’s slang.Like, you got a hot girlfriend too.Not that I’m saying your girlfriend’s hot!Or your wife.Not that I’m saying she’snothot.”
David clapped Gary on the shoulder.“Enjoy your vacation, Gary.I’m going to wrap up a couple things in the office then head home.”
“Yeah,” Gary said, roughly the shade of a ripe cherry.“Sounds good.Thanks again, doc.”
“You bet.”
He closed the door, sighed heavily, then returned to his desk.“Landed a baddie.They come up with something new every year.”
He chuckled and thought about telling Faith about that phrase.She’d get a kick out of that.
