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“Are you all right? Summer, are you hurt?”
“No, no, I’m at home. Ace just ate an entire box of chocolate.” Her voice goes into hyperdrive again. “I don’t know what to do!”
I turn on my heel and nearly crash into a middle-aged couple, heading in the direction of her apartment. “You need to get him to a vet.”
“Yes, I’ve found one, but I don’t… Can I take a dog in a taxi? He’s fine now but at any moment.. Oh God.”
“I can be at your place soon. I have a car. Until then, you call the veterinarian and warn them that we’re coming in, okay?”
“Yes, I can do that. I’ll do that. When will you be here?”
“In ten, maybe twelve minutes. I’ll text when I’m downstairs with the car and you’ll come down with Ace. Okay?”
“Okay,” she whispers.
When I arrive, Summer is already downstairs. She has a bag slung over her shoulder and Ace in a tight leash at her side. The golden looks no worse for wear, sitting on his haunches and keeping an eye out on the street, like he’s determined to keep her safe. I approve.
“My driver is on the way,” I tell her.
She nods, the panic in her eyes leashed. Determined. “I’ve spent the last ten minutes on the internet. As long as he gets there in time, he should be fine.”
“Good.”
Her blonde hair is pulled back in a ponytail, dark smudges under her eyes from the panicked tears I’d heard on the phone. But now she’s all business.
I don’t ask about the hows or the whys. There will be time for that later.
My driver doesn’t comment on the dog in the backseat, or the destination. He just floors it. I hold the door open for Summer when we arrive at the emergency clinic, and thanks to having called ahead, they’re waiting for us. I have a seat in the waiting room while Summer follows a bespectacled veterinarian into a treatment room. Ace trots by her side, his tail tucked between his legs like he knows what’s coming.
I feel for the guy.
I lean my head against the wall and let my eyes wander over the framed images of pets along the wall. The fluorescent lighting is a godsend compared to the dimly lit restaurant, even if the only thing here for me to study are pictures of hamsters and cats.
It’s a long while before the door opens and Summer comes back out. She looks like an angel with her blonde hair beneath the fluorescent light, her eyes shimmering with relief. “He’ll be fine,” she says.
“He will?”
“Yes. They’ll keep him overnight for observation and I will pick him up tomorrow afternoon. They’ve given him medication, and active charcoal that’s meant to counteract the chocolate, and…” she buries her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I was so careless!”
I step closer and throw caution to the wind, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. It takes me several long moments to find the words. “Well,” I say. “You did the right thing by getting him here so quickly.”
Summer nods into her hands and leans into me, like she’s grateful for the support. Like I’m actually comforting her. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t called right then.”
“You would have figured it out.”
She takes a deep breath and lifts her head, shimmering eyes meeting mine. “Oh God, you were on your date. Did I interrupt you?”
“I called you,” I remind her, “and no, it was no problem. Let me take you home.”
She nods and puts her hand on my arm, fingers curving, and lets me guide her to the door. “Thank you, Anthony. Truly.”
11
Anthony
For the second time in a week, I find myself in Summer Davis’s living room near midnight. It’s a dangerous habit.
She’s kicked off her shoes and taken her hair down and is now lying on the couch across from me, turning a ruined box of chocolates over in her hands.
