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“Only she wasn’t taking pictures of the animals,” Rachel interrupted. “She was taking pictures of the office, and the bathroom, and the break area.”
The woman put on an innocent face.
Abbe got what was going on. She looked at the woman carefully. She didn’t look like she was from the state department of animal welfare. Abbe tried to place her face, but couldn’t, and knew she’d never met her before. Yet this woman had called Abbe by name, and therefore recognized her. It was also obvious that this woman did not like her.
“What’s your name?” Abbe asked.
“Jessica,” she said immediately.
“Do you have a last name?” Abbe asked, sensing she was lying.
The woman huffed again with her jaw dropped this time, like anyone would have thenerveto ask for her last name. “Is this some kind of interrogation?” she asked.
“That’s a long last name,” Abbe said. Rachel burst out laughing.
The woman—and Abbe knew for a fact by this point that her name was not Jessica—looked between the two of them. “Okay, maybe I should leave,” she said.
“I thought you were here to adopt. Were you looking for a cat or a dog? Or something else, maybe, like a potential health code violation?” Abbe asked.
The woman gave up on theI’m just a sweet, innocent girl who has no idea what she’s done wrongact and her expression changed into the unapologetic mask of someone who was both very smart and very good at using those smarts to get what she wanted.
“It was interesting to meet you, Abbe,” the woman said.
“Are we going to see each other again?” Abbe asked.
The woman raised an eyebrow, as if to sayI hope not, but we’ll seeand left.
“Wow,” Rachel exclaimed. “That was some next-level bullshit.”
“Yuh,” Abbe agreed, disturbed by the whole encounter. She’d played it calm while “Jessica” was watching her, but she had been shaken by the strange encounter. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”
“Any idea what it was about?” Rachel asked.
Abbe thought about it. “Maybe I’m paranoid, but I’ve been feeling like someone has been out to get me lately.”
“The ticky-tacky infractions?” Rachel asked, getting it. “I’ve been thinking about that. The state doesn’t show up for a surprise inspection unless something pretty terrible is happening. They’re too overworked to be hassling someone like you.”
“Right,” Abbe agreed. “So, who could snap their fingers and make that happen?”
Rachel had no idea. Suddenly tired, Abbe sat down in the nearest chair. “You don’t have to stay, Rach. I can take it from here.”
“Oh please,” Rachel said dismissively. “I’m already here, I may as well get some work done.”
Abbe checked her phone and saw a bunch of texts and missed calls from a number she didn’t recognize. She assumed they were from Rafe, probably one of his office numbers, and decided she wasn’t ready to read them yet. Instead, she focused on her work. She scheduled appointments, enrolled Jinx in the ugly dog competition the next weekend, and basically got on with the administration aspect of the shelter.
As she did so, she noticed how much easier it was having Rachel there to care for the animals while she caught up on administrative work. Charles came by when he could, and Maria and Steven were fantastic help after school, but Abbe usually did it all by herself. She was starting to realize that it was a lot. She’d been so focused on making her shelter a success that she hadn’t even allowed herself a chance to consider the possibility that although she could do it alone, maybe that wasn’t the best way to go about it. Now that her shelter was failing, it was almost as if she had permission to admit it had been a bit too much for her to take on alone and if she had the opportunity to do it differently, she’d interview someone for a full-time position. Maybe two people.
Not that she was ready to throw in the towel yet. Abbe was on a mission to get every single pet under her roof into a home of their own by the end of the month. Using an app, she started a social media promotion that dressed the cats and dogs up in virtual Halloween costumes, asking people who followed her to mix and match. The more her followers looked at pictures of the animals, the more they might be able to imagine that pet in their home, and maybe bring them home in time to dress them up for Halloween in real life, and not just online.
While Abbe was putting the appropriate hashtags and links onto her post, Rachel knocked on her office door.
“There’s another rich girl here to see you,” she said unceremoniously.
Abbe looked up from her computer to see Bianca standing with Rachel.
“Hi,” Bianca said, waving a hand at her. “Can we talk?”
Abbe looked around her office, realized it was past seven, and finally organized herself enough to answer.
