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She felt her phone buzzing with a text. “You know what? I don’t care,” she said, lying through her teeth as she slipped her phone out of her back pocket and saw who it was from. “It’s Rafe,” she announced.
Charles gasped. “What does it say?”
“I’m not opening it,” she said, placing her phone face down on her desk.
“Woo! Hell hath no fury,” Charles said, cheering her on. Then he scrunched his nose. “But seriously, you should read that.”
Abbe stood. “You have a dog to groom, and I have kennels to clean,” she announced. Not like Rafe could hear her choosing work over him, but it did make her feel more powerful, and she knew that she could definitely do with feeling a little more powerful right now.
She was scared, plain and simple. She had never reacted to a guy the way she had to Rafe, and she hardly knew him. What shedidknow about him was that he was one of those Masters of the Universe type guys, who probably went through women faster than she went through flea and tick spray. She had certainly gotten under him in a hurry, and while she hadn’t been entirely kidding when she’d told Charles it had been life-changing sex for her, it was probably just another weekend hook-up to him because he didn’t call. While she had been silently agonizing over every second that passed, he apparently thought almost two days wassoon.
And what if all his text said was something lame like,Crazy busy! Can I catch up with you next week?
What if that was it? What if he was just going to brush her aside?
She couldn’t put him out of her mind as easily as he obviously put her out of his, and Abbe couldn’t even begin to learn to rely on someone only to have them breeze out of her life at the first hint of struggle. Not again.
“You’re phone’s buzzing!” Charles shouted.
“I don’t care and don’t you dare answer for me!” she shouted back.
She thought she heard him sayfine, but you’re crazyin a sing-song way, but he kept his voice down so she could pretend to have not heard him.
The last few hours at work came with a few pleasant surprises. The dog Charles had groomed gratis for the shelter ended up getting adopted by the woman who had scheduled the appointment, and a family dropped in unexpectedly and adopted two older cats—a set of brothers named Frick and Frack who were absolute cuddle bugs, but so dumb Abbe wondered how they found their way around the litter box. Older cats, even sweet ones, were harder to place as everyone usually wanted kittens, but Frick and Frack were just what this family was looking for. The little girl was so happy she cried.
As Abbe was helping the family load the cat carriers into the back seat of their car, she saw a familiar black Range Rover drive up to the front of the shelter and come to an abrupt halt. Her hands started shaking as one of the doors flew open and Rafe stepped out, glaring at her, and holding his phone in his hand.
“Yes, you’re welcome!” she said to the little girl for the tenth time. “And happy birthday!”
Abbe shut the back door of the family’s car and waved at them while they drove off, smiling and pretending that she wasn’t screaming inside. She took a deep breath and then turned to face Rafe, who was standing behind her with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes blazing at her.
He looked amazing in a simple cashmere sweater, a pair of jeans, and dressy sneakers. His hair was subtly styled with a touch of some product that landed firmly in the realm of good grooming and didn’t even stick a toe over the line and into prissy boy territory. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, and his sleeves were slightly pushed up, revealing a thick watch with a complicated face wrapped around his left wrist.
He waggled his phone at her again in annoyance. “I texted youfourtimes.”
Abbe spun away on her heel, suddenly so angry she couldn’t speak.
“Abbe!” he called after her.
She could hear him coming up behind her so she spun back around to face him. “Whendid you text me?” she asked.
“Like two hours ago!” he yelled.
“Two hours,” she said, her voice trembling, though she did manage to keep it down, which was a miracle. “You think it’s perfectly fine to make me wait almost two days for you to get in touch with me, but then as soon as you text, I’m supposed to drop everything and text back?”
His eyes unfocused for a second, his mouth slightly open in surprise as he considered her question. She could tell from his expression that this really was news to him.
“Wait—youdon’tunderstand how unfair that is, do you?” she asked, and not at all sarcastically.
The tension drained out of his posture. “I know this makes me sound like a dick, but it honestly never occurred to me before,” he said. “Usually when I text, ah, someone—” he stopped, obviously trying to avoid mentioning past relationships in front of her.
“She jumps at it, and answers right away,” Abbe finished for him, intentionally adding gender to her response.
“Yeah,” he said, grimacing a little. “Or she doesn’t, and I know she’s not interested.” He gave her a wry smile. “Ihavebeen dumped before—or ghosted, I guess is a more accurate description.”
“And do you then show up at her work and yell at her in public?” she asked, laying bare his unacceptable behavior.
“No,” he said, dropping his eyes as he realized how out of line he was. “I’d just forget about her.” He looked back up at Abbe with a pained smile. “But that’s not an option with you.”
