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“I’m always going to believe in you. Doubly so when it’s something you worked hard for.”
“I’m glad one of us has limitless faith in me.”
“That’s kind of the job of a partner. I mean, if I thought it was entirely unrealistic I would probably tell you that, but I know what your strengths are, and I’ll always support you going for what you want. Luca sends his congratulations too, but he wasn’t able to get off work with such short notice.”
“No worries. I’ll text him later.”
I hugged Sidney tighter, unable to get close enough. I wanted to climb inside his clothes and burrow right into the center of him. Honestly, humans should have developed some sort of evolution to just temporarily become one entity with partners so you could get in there as deep as you needed to. I did at least wedge myself under his arm, which made serving the cake a bit more difficult for him, but it was either that or drag him to the bedroom, and I didn’t think any of our guests would appreciate option number two.
“It’s so cool you got the promotion,” Nicky said as she accepted plates of cake from Sidney to distribute.
“I busted my ass at that company, did every extra training bit I could all through uni, did my internship there too. Basically anything to get myself noticed. I would’ve kept doing it even without the promotion, but I’m super excited for the extra income, a new office, and getting to run my own team. I don’t think the other guy up for promotion had any experience managing teams.”
“And you do?” Nicky asked.
“A fair bit actually. I was on student council in high school, ran clubs in university, was a team leader for the campus food bank, and ran a couple of the events at the office. Not a lot of people want to do all of that stuff.”
Nicky laughed. “I feel like we’re practically twins. I did a lot of that stuff too.” She smushed me in a hug between her and Sidney. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks, Nicky.”
It was such a sweet party with our nearest and dearest. There was a steady stream of appetizers and treats and puppy love time now that our jelly bean babies were resembling actual dogs with personalities.
Once everyone had gone home for the night, we snuggled up on the couch, a puppy bed full of all the babies on Sidney’s chest, and me wedged between him and the couch while we watched some movie from the ’80s he insisted was a classic and I had never seen.
“Thank you for today.”
“You’re more than welcome. I have to talk to you about something you’re not gonna like.”
“Ominous.”
“Prince is going to be eight weeks old this weekend.”
“We should throw him a tiny birthday party with a little hat! What part of that would I not like?”
“Eight weeks is the adoption age.”
Clarity crashed over me. “No.”
“Unfortunately, yes. He doesn’t have anyone lined up yet, but he’ll have to go up for adoption through the rescue.”
I clutched Prince to my chest. “But he’s my baby.”
“So are Banjo, Boo, and Biscuit. You can see how quickly things would grind to a halt if foster parents kept every animal they fell in love with.”
Prince cleaned up the tears from my cheeks I hadn’t realized were already falling. “I hate it.”
“I know it’s not easy. And it never gets easy, but the more animals we get into forever homes, the more we can help. At first you can kind of find people you know to adopt so that you can still see the animals once in a while, but eventually you run out of people and they’re going to start going to strangers.”
“I haven’t run out of people yet,” I sniffled. “I can take him around the office to find a forever parent. I never told them when he was in that he was up for adoption.”
I looked into Prince’s sweet round eyes, so full of love and trust. I knew Sidney was right. If I kept all of the babies we would have to stop fostering, but I hated thinking about letting him go.
“You can absolutely see if you can find him a pet parent at work. Ask anyone you’d like, and as long as they pass inspection with the rescue, it should be fine.”
I clutched Prince’s face in my hands. “Don’t you worry, sweet baby. I’m gonna find you the best parent there is. They won’t be as good as me, but I’ll settle for being your favorite auntie.”
Sidney held me while I cried over Prince. I hadn’t even known him for a month and he had wiggled straight into my heart. “I know it’s hard. If it’s too much, we can stop fostering.”
