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She looks up at me from her place on the floor and shakes her head. “He issonaughty.”
“I know.”
“I have been running after him all day.”
“I thought maybe.” I hold out the brownies. “I brought sustenance. In case you need a chocolate break.”
“You are my savior. Are these…? Oh my goodness… they are.”
I feel weird as she steps in close to take the tray from me. In the back of my mind, I know I shouldn’t notice how nice she smells, or how her jeans fit as she walks away.
But I do.
“Come on,” she says, beckoning me back into the kitchen. “Hang out for a while. I have just the thing to go with these.”
Man, it’s nice to be invited in like this.
No hesitation.
No awkwardness.
Maybe we’re back…
Back to how it was when we first met. That’d be great, because I haven’t had a person invite me to “hang out” in a long time.
For so many years, it’s been me and my projects and my work and my bad mood.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot today. The funk I’ve been in. Somehow, Maddison’s reappearance in my life has made me take stock. Maybe it’s because of what she asked me yesterday evening, at the bar. She wanted to know if I’m happy.
Am I?
Lately, the answer’s no.
I can almost pinpoint when the crankiness set in. It was about the time work ramped up, and I started taking on more responsibilities at the clinic. At about that same time, I decidedI wanted to buy property. All that mortgage paperwork was a drag. And to add to that, my dad got ill with Parkinson’s.
The pressure to perform at work landed on my shoulders like a ton of bricks, and the other stuff only made it worse.
No wonder the nurses have been calling me Doctor Doom.
“Eating a brownie without a glass of milk is like going on vacation without a good book to read,” Maddison says, as she pulls the carton from the fridge, and then two tall glasses from her cupboard.
“Or being near a pool on a hot day, but not having swimwear on hand.”
“Exactly. Knew you’d get it.” She smiles as she pours out two full glasses.
It’s good to see that smile.
When we were friends in college, that smile could turn my whole day around. And even though I had a hectic day of work, I feel the same thing happening to me now. The guff I got from Merriweather about how I handled a diabetic patient with low blood sugar was eating at me all day, and now I feel his criticisms fading.
What a relief.
“I’ve been reading up on dog training all afternoon.” She settles into the chair across from me, tucks one knee up, and then saws into the tray of brownies with a butter knife. “Oh… they’re soft and gooey.”
“Just for you. Let me guess. You ordered like five books and you’re going to take notes and become a dog training expert.”
“Close. Ten books, and I’m going to leave the expert thing to people raised around these animals, not newbies like me. I’ve never spent this much time with a dog, ever.”
“Good reading so far?”
