Page 127 of Avenging Azalea

“Hey, Doreen said you’re out of sorts today,” I said.

“You could say that,” Matt answered, his voice cool as he turned back to the screen.

I needed to make this right. Matt’s head snapped in my direction when I stepped into the office and closed the door.

“What are you doing,” he asked, his voice almost panicky.

“I wanted us to have a private conversation. I know why you’re upset, and I just wanted to say again how sorry I am.”

The anger and hurt in his eyes seemed so out of place after he wished me well yesterday.

“I don’t think saying sorry for sending your guard dog after me is going to cut it, Fawn. I asked you out because I thought we had a connection. You’re smart and beautiful, and I thought I’d finally found someone with the same passion for the animals, and this life of heartbreak, and midnight emergency phone calls. But you said you couldn’t, and I respected that. There was no need to escalate things.”

“What are you talking about?”

My brows drew together as I stepped closer to Matt’s desk. Confusion was clouding my thoughts as I tried to piece together what he meant. What guard dog? Titus and I had dinner, and then after two hours of mind-blowing pleasure, we passed out. I was the one who woke Titus up this morning by sneaking under the covers. So…what the hell was going on?

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what happened. You had to have said something for…well…for him to show up at my condo in the middle of a night like a lunatic.”

“Who the hell is him? I have no idea what you mean.”

Matt pushed away from his desk and stood. He pointed at the door.

“Get out.”

“But—”

“No, Fawn. I’ll train you as promised because you’re an incredible student and have so much promise, but we are no longer friends. And, honestly, I don’t feel comfortable being alone in this office with you. Please leave. Doreen will give you your schedule to scrub in and participate in surgeries, and you’ll be free to ask whatever questions you want, but other than that, we won’t communicate.”

“Matt, I⁠—”

“Fawn, I’m telling you to leave because I’m uncomfortable. Please respect that and just go.”

Shocked, I stood there blinking stupidly for a few more seconds before turning to the door and grabbing the handle. I looked over my shoulder into Matt’s eyes and could see he was serious. Whatever happened last night had hurt him.

“Whatever you think I’ve done, I didn’t, but I’m sorry anyway,” I said, and walked out of the office.

His words stung, not only because I loved my job and the people here had become a second home, but because I thought we were real friends. He wouldn’t even tell me what had happened, so I could try to fix it.

Walking back to the kennels, I looked around at the mostly empty cages. It just felt cold in here now, like a harsh slap in the face from a sharp northernly wind in winter.

This had to have something to do with Titus, or maybe Dimitri, but I had no idea for sure who or what they’d done. Regardless, they had no right to interfere with my work. Unsure what else to do, I got to work feeding and looking after the animals that were counting on me. They had nothing to do with the drama that had just unfolded in the office.

The morning had flown by, and before I knew it, my shift was over. Steph was outside waiting for me. Grabbing my bag, I headed for the lobby but stopped at Doreen’s desk.

“Hey, Dr. Taylor didn’t say any more about what was wrong, did he?”

“Sorry, dear, he didn’t. But he did ask me to pass this revised schedule on to you.”

Doreen held out the paper, and my heart fell as I stared at my name on the sheet. He’d made sure to schedule the shifts so that we were never here alone. In fact, I no longer had any opening shifts when we might bump into each other, and the nights I closed, it showed that he’d be gone an hour or more beforehand. This was crazy. I needed to get to the bottom of this.

“Thanks, Doreen,” I said, pushing open the door. It was uncharacteristically cool today, and I was happy that I’d brought my sweater.

“Hey girl, why so glum,” Steph asked as soon as I got into her car.

“I had the weirdest shift,” I said.

“You’re going to have to give me more information than that.”