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Shoving my phone in his face, he took a quick glance. Another second later, my mom texted again and I quickly read it.
"'Oops, sorry. Don't know how I sent that. I meant to send a heart,'" I read to Josh. "Thanks for the heart attack, Mom. My second one today."
"Second one?" a curious Josh asked. "What else happened?"
As we grew closer and closer to the beach, I told Josh the whole story about my day, and it felt great to get it all out. Talking and exercising were actually just the things I needed to clear my head after such a crazy morning.
By the time I was done venting, we were at the beach, automatically veering away from the crowded Santa Monica Pier without even discussing it with each other.
"Thanks for listening to all my drama," I said.
"No problem, man. I miss all the work drama, you know, being at home and writing all the time."
"I guess so. But work drama sucks. Thank goodness I don't have much of it."
Dodging a couple of skateboarders who weren't sticking to their part of the sidewalk, Josh asked, "Oh, yeah? It seems like a pretty good job then."
"Yeah. It's pretty decent. Dr. Haute pays really, really well. That's why I only have to work part-time. And he's a great guy. I mean, you'd think he'd just stick with his celebrity clientele and rake in the bucks because he's so good at what he does. But really, Anaya and I think he takes as much money as he can from the uber-rich so he can work on his passion project—free reconstructive surgery for veterans."
"Oh, wow. Honestly, that's really amazing."
"It really is. It's no wonder Anaya is madly in love with the guy."
"She is?" Josh asked, his eyes widening.
"Oh, my God, yes. She's been crushing hard on him for four long years."
Josh whistled, making Magic pause to look back at us. "Sorry, bud. Keep going."
With a wag of his tail, Magic turned around and continued to lead the way down the sidewalk.
"So does Dr. Hot like your friend too?"
"That's a good question," I answered. "He's so honorable, he'd never make any sort of move on an employee of his. But between you and me, I have this feeling that he actually does like her."
"Seriously? What makes you think that?"
I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. "Just a gut feeling I guess. And it seems like he looks at her a little more than he looks at other people at work, you know?"
"Hmmm," Josh mused, glancing at the ocean for a few seconds. "Does Anaya know you think that?"
"No way." I shook my head for emphasis. "I'd hate to get her hopes up. But the interesting thing is, if she gets this new job, Dr. Hot is free to make a move, right?" Looking away from the sidewalk, I wiggled my brows at Josh.
He laughed. "Totally right."
Magic encountered another leashed dog, and we paused to let them do the butt-sniffing circle dance. Soon enough, Magic had enough of their lovely greeting and we moved on.
"So anyway," I continued, "there's this annual work function, a fancy fundraiser event, coming up, and I'm hoping Anaya will be off at her new job and show up at this thing and bada bing, bada boom, next thing you know..."
"They go riding off into the sunset together?" Josh said, grinning.
"Exactly." I returned his smile. "And ladies and gentlemen, I now present you with Dr. and Mrs. Hot."
"Free plastic surgery for life!"
I cracked up. "Yes!"
For a moment, we slowed down as a crapload of bicyclists navigated past us.
