"I'll bet she is. Anyone would. She's a real character, that one, isn't she?"
"She is. She took a shine to you too. I told you she christened you—you’re the Silver Dragon."
Frank chuckled. "You did." He reached up to touch his thinning gray hair. "Made my day, that did. Dragons seem like proud creatures to me, and it made my Bev laugh when I told her that there's a pretty young girl out there who told me I'm silver, while she insists on saying that I'm balding."
Reaves laughed. "Bev loves you no matter how much hair you have left. Give her my best, will you?"
"Course I will. Don't let me hold you up. Do you have an early start in the morning?"
"Not as early as I was expecting, no. I won't leave here till around nine."
"Well, I'll be here, but forgive me if I don't get the chance to have a word with you. That new couple in 2B have a delivery coming in." He made a face, and Reaves had to laugh.
"Hopefully you won't see as much of them once they're finally settled in."
Frank just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we can hope. Goodnight, Reaves."
"Goodnight, Frank. If I don't see you tomorrow, have yourself a good weekend."
"Thanks, kid. And you."
When he reached his apartment, Reaves headed straight for the fridge to grab himself a cold beer. It was an indulgence he didn't usually allow himself on a weeknight, but since he wouldn't be flying tomorrow, he didn't see why not. He flopped down on the sofa and took his phone out to call Ollie.
It rang a few times before his friend picked up.
"Hey, Reaves, what's up?"
"Nothing, everything's good, but I'm calling to ask you a favor."
"Anything you want—what do you need?"
"Alara finally booked herself a doctor's appointment."
"That's good news. When is it?"
"That's what I'm calling about. It's tomorrow morning at ten."
"Then of course you should go. Don't worry about the flight, I'll call Elliott and see if he can cover. He and Trick aren't flying this week."
"That's okay, I was gonna call him myself. I just wanted to make sure with you first that you don't mind."
"You should've known the answer."
"Yeah, I kinda did, but I still wanted to talk to you."
"Is she alright? Has something happened that's made her finally give in and make the appointment?"
"No, nothing like that. The waiting period's over on the insurance, so she finally called."
"That's awesome."
"Isn’t it? But listen, I can call Elliott."
"There's no need for you to do it. I'll have to talk to him anyway, brief him on the flight and everything. You just relax." Ollie laughed. "If you can. This has been a long time coming."
"Don't I know it. I'm just glad we can finally get started on figuring out what's wrong with her. And doing something about it."
"Let me know as soon as you know anything, will you? We'll probably still be in the air by the time you get out—shoot me a text and I'll call you when we land, okay?"
