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Anyway, I upset her with my big mouth when I told her I’d wanted her for myself. Now I felt like a shit.
“Hey, Maizy, c’mon. It’s all good, everything will work out. Look—at the very least, we’ll always be good friends,” I said, ruffling her hair. “I mean, work would be unbearable without you.”
She looked at me with a small but grateful smile. The Chianti was making me warm and relaxed, so I pulled her to me. Her lips parted just in time to greet my exploring tongue. God, she was delicious.
We were interrupted by the doorbell.
Of course.
When she pulled away from me to go answer it, I looked around the apartment. I’d never been there before. It was a typical small New York apartment, but it was nice in a girl-ish sort of way—overstuffed furniture and lots of scented candles and throw pillows.
Maizy came bounding into the kitchen, all smiles, holding the hand of a tall dude, who must have been Von, who had two dogs on leashes. He walked right up to me, hand extended.
“I’m Von, great to meet you. I understand you two work together. You must have a lot of fun.”
“Hey, man. Nice to meet you. And I wish the place we worked was fun,” I said, shaking my head.
He laughed.
“But we do our best to stick together and not let the bullshit get us down.”
I got down on my knees to greet the dogs. They were big, happy mutts, and when Von clicked his tongue, they both sat back on their haunches.
“You trained them well. Look at that,” I said, returning to standing to watch the dogs fight their urge to jump all over me.
Von reached to pat them on their heads. “They’re good boys. All the dogs are for the most part, but these guys are the best behaved. That’s why I brought them tonight.” They looked up at him, t
hen at me, and then back at him.
“Chianti?” Maizy asked, handing a glass to Von.
“Oh, yeah, I need this. I had a hell of a day,” he said.
“Hey, you’re a vet, right?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, I am. Got my own practice across town. And today was a crazy one.”
“He also is a sucker for taking in stray animals,” Maizy said with a smile.
I raised my glass in toast to him. “Can’t blame a guy for that.”
He raised his glass back. “Better be careful. I can be very persuasive about getting people to adopt animals who need homes.”
“So what happened at work?” Maizy asked.
Von settled onto the stool next to me.
“Someone discovered one of those nasty puppy mills and rescued the dogs. There were about ten of them, and half came to my practice and half went to my buddy’s practice. Poor babies were a mess.” He shook his head.
“God, I can’t believe people do that to dogs. Fuckers,” I said.
“It’s unbelievable. We got them cleaned up with a flea bath, dressed the sores they had, gave them their shots, and fed them probably the first good meal they’d had since they were taken away from their mothers.”
“Wow. That’s incredible. I assume you probably don’t get paid for work like that, do you?” I asked, feeling like a shit for spending my days doing legal work for rich assholes.
“Nope. You’re right. It’s pro bono. But I have a pretty busy practice so I can absorb it. It’s just tiring when you squeeze in cases like this in addition to the day’s appointments.” He looked over at Maizy, who was putting what looked like homemade pizza in the oven. “It’s time to perk up now, though. Work is behind me, and I am very happy to be here. And that food looks killer.”
“Cheers to that,” I said. We all clinked our glasses together.
