But of course, Nicholas can take Mickey to another vet. There isn’t any shortage of them in the city. He can blabber and smile at them instead of coming here and annoying me.
Better yet, I’ll refer him to someone else myself. I know one who’d be perfect for Nicholas. She might be a bit old for his taste and married with grandkids. She insists on showing their pictures to everyone she meets, apparently, because she showed them to me. My grunts did nothing to deter her. She’s stinkingly nice. And Mickey needs someone experienced to take care of him.
“What did you do?” Ashley glares up at me again.
“Why would you automatically assumeIdid something?” I snap this time.
“Because it’syou? You were mean, weren’t you? He’s soft, he won’t be able to take it,” she insists.
“He’s not soft,” I say automatically. Someone soft wouldn’t have laughed off my jabs.
She tilts her head. “What did he do then?”
“No one did anything. It was a casual date, and there won’t be a second. It’s not that unusual,” I stress.
“Oh my god, you’re upset about this,” she smiles.
“No, I’m not.”
Her eyes go wide, like I’m a petri dish under her microscope and she’s just made a thrilling discovery. “Oh, thisis freaky. You’re not even faking it. I know what your fake emotions look like. And your real ones, too. Mostly because the real ones are always targeted toward animals. Did Nick break you?”
I groan. “Don’t you have work? I’m still waiting on the first file,” I throw over my shoulder, marching to my office.
“Coming right up. Will you also need sugar in your coffee today, you know, because you’re getting soft?” I take it all back, the girl ismean.
I don’t grace that with a response. I’m tired because of a lack of sleep, frustrated by my insubordinate employee, and preemptively annoyed by future client interactions. What I’m definitely not is upset. Why would I be upset? It wasonedate. I agreed only because I wanted to be sure he’s not onto me. I had no interest in the guy. I never have. In fact, I thought he’s straight, and that hadn’t bothered meone bit.
Sure, it was a blow to my ego, but that passed right away after I realized it would have been a disaster to pursue this. Even if it had been a one-time thing, we couldn’t completely avoid each other. Not without me avoiding Oliver, too. That wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but I kinda liked the guy, and I also need to make sure he was alright around all the werewolves he hung out with on the regular.
And if we agreed to some sort of prolonged arrangement, I’d be exposing myself to extra scrutiny at best and lifetime imprisonment at worst. Even if he doesn’t find anything, which he wouldn’t, I’ll have to watch my every step, lie constantly, and be on my toes at all times.
Besides, Nicholas didn’t seem like someone who’d be good at a casual thing. I don’t really have any evidence to prove it because I’ve only met one of his girlfriends that one time, and then she was never mentioned again. But the fact that he introduced her as ‘girlfriend’ suggests he likes being in relationships. And people who want relationships always suck at keeping things casual.
The point is, no, I’mnotupset.Thank you very much.
Ashley knocks the door lightly and walks in with her tab. “I’ve sent you all the patient files for today. Mrs. Morrison will be in with her parrot in twenty minutes.”
I nod, checking the files on my tab.
She doesn’t leave, so I finally look up. “What?”
“I know it’s a touchy subject, but I wanted to say sorry. It was rude of me to discount your feelings,” she mocks.
I grab the nearest object with every intention of throwing it at her, but she darts out the door, giggling loudly.Ugh, kids.
Reminding myself I don’t murder innocent humans, I get back to my work.
***
The day turned out to be unexpectedly productive, even with Ashley marking herself as one of the most annoying elements. Never thought I’d miss the surly teenage goth version of her.
I stayed back after she left to drive to the club directly with no pitstops to my place. There was a high chance I would have written the whole thing as a lost cause and passed out if I were around a comfortable enough horizontal surface right now.
Today was going to be a ‘subtle observation from a distance’ step. These were the easiest, but I still have to make sure I reveal nothing the guy shouldn’t know. Since he is a drug dealer, he probably stays vigilant at all times.
But he’s a werewolf too. That has historically meant two things. The heightened senses give them a lot of advantage against plain old humans like me. And that makes them cocky. So cocky, in fact, most of them take humans for granted. So, unless I do something stupid around him, this visit will be quick, calm, and easy.
Sam and I decided dressing up as a buyer would be the best way to get close to him without raising suspicion. I’ll play it up on the addict part, so he’s more relaxed and unassuming.
