“Ahh!” she cried out, careful not to jump back too dramatically and send the cat flying. She held fast to him and quickly cut the last nail, knowing that she was going to need a bandage and some disinfectant on that scratch now. She sighed a little as she gave him some soothing caresses. She hadn’t hurt him, he’d hurt her, yet he was the one who needed to be appeased.
Becca made sure to clean the blood off of her arm before she returned to the exam room with Sneakers. She didn’t want his owner to worry about the cut; she’d been scratched quite a few times in her career. She smiled at Sneakers’ owner, not even mentioning it. “He’s all set,” she told him, letting the cat crawl back into the carrier and ‘escape’ the mean lady with the jabby sticks. “His nails are clipped and he’s up-to-date on all of his vaccines now. He’ll probably be a little lethargic tonight and somewhat sensitive on his back hips, but he should be completely back to normal tomorrow.”
“Thank you so much,” the cat’s owner said, smiling back at her as he lifted up the pet carrier and left the exam room to go pay for the visit at the reception desk. Meanwhile, Becca wrote a few notes down on the cat’s file before dropping it back off at the desk as well.
Then she picked up another chart and the process more or less started all over again.
Becca left the animal hospital several hours later and returned home to her small, but cozy apartment. She flopped down on her sofa with a book and kicked off her shoes, ready to enjoy a relaxing evening. That idea was short-lived, however. Her phone jingled, alerting her to a notification of some kind. Normally, she had her phone on silent but when she was home she liked to feel at least somewhat connected to the rest of the world. Even when she was trying to read a book.
She looked at the screen of her phone. She had a text from Erin, one of her closest friends.
“Heyyy,” Erin had texted with her usual enthusiasm. “What’s up? When are you off next?”
Becca smirked slightly. She wondered if she was always the one that her friends had to track down and force into social situations. She didn’t want to be unfriendly, but she did have a pretty busy work life. She was so bored of Meridian, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t enjoy spending time with her friends. “Friday afternoon?” she offered. “I get off at three instead of seven.”
“Well, hey, that’s only two days away!” Erin texted her back. “Wanna go get dinner somewhere? It’d be early dinner, I guess. Not quite Dunch. More like Linner. Jaz and Teri will be there too. After all, Friday night is Girlz Night!”
Becca laughed, shaking her head as she read those words on her phone. Erin could be so silly sometimes. It was like she was still in college. Spending time with her friends would do Becca some good, though. She’d been letting herself get into a bit of a lonely rut lately. Early summer did that to her.
“Looking forward to it,” she texted Erin back. “Thanks for reaching out to me. :)”
Getting through her work the next day proved to be easier now that she had something fun to look forward to. Becca was very much a goal oriented sort of person – she liked to have little things to look forward to in order to get through her weeks and months. She wasn’t feeling ennui about her job at the animal hospital, but she was getting so tired of the small town. And she wasn’t the sort of person who would go visit Denver by herself. She may have been thirty-two but she still didn’t trust herself to not get lost or worse on her own.
Maybe Erin and the girls would be interested in visiting Denver with me, she thought as she worked, careful to keep most of her thoughts focused on the pet in front of her. A girls’ trip would be pretty fun. I haven’t taken a real vacation in a long time.
When Friday afternoon finally arrived, Becca went home and changed out of her scrubs and into some tight jeans and a pretty aquamarine tank top. She had dressed up like they were going clubbing, but all Erin had said was that they were going out to dinner together. I just never wear these clothes anymore. Maybe I ought to just get rid of them soon. It was a sad thought, but downsizing wouldn’t be a bad idea considering that she lived in such a small apartment.
She had just finished putting on some makeup when her door buzzed. She threw a purse strap onto her shoulder and headed downstairs to meet her friends who’d been gracious enough to come pick her up. Becca didn’t own a car, mostly because it seemed like an expense that wasn’t worth it but also because she’d never learned how to drive. Meridian was so small that not having a car never really seemed to be that big of a deal.
“Hey girl,” Erin said to her, grinning from the driver’s seat. Jasmine jumped out of the back seat and opened the rear door for her, after giving her a quick and friendly hug.
Becca got into the car, a bit overwhelmed by the fact that the whole crew was there to pick her up. Teri smiled at her from the front passenger seat. “How’s it going?” Becca asked all three of them. “Thank you guys so much for coming to get me and for planning this.”
“Ah, no problem,” Teri said. “We’ve been meaning to get together for a while now.”
“And your lack of driving skills is endearing,” Jaz added.
Becca didn’t think that could be at all true, but she appreciated the sentiment nonetheless.
They rode to a restaurant that wasn’t too far away from Becca’s apartment building. She’d been there before, but it had been a while – again, due to her dislike of going to public places by herself. This is why a lot of people have significant others, she thought. But she didn’t want a significant other just for that reason. She wasn’t even sure she wanted one at all.
The ladies went into the little saloon-type restaurant and bar. There was a stage that was partially lit by purple and blue lights. It was meant for karaoke, but Becca knew that things like that didn’t start until later, once the bar became livelier. She much preferred it at the earlier times. She and her friends sat at a round, dark wood table together and the hostess handed them their menus.
“Maybe we could just get a bunch of appetizers to share,” Erin suggested. “The appetizers here are the best.”
“I kind of had a big lunch at work,” Teri said with a nod. “So appetizers would be better for me.”
They all looked at Becca, whose face reddened. “Uh, sure, that’s fine by me. As long as we get the nachos and the cheese fries.”
“Of course we’ll get those,” Erin said. “Those are staples.”
When the waitress came over to their table, the ladies all ordered drinks as well as several appetizers, including the two that Becca liked the most. At the moment, she was looking forward to her cherry soda because she’d grown a bit thirsty after a long day. It wasn’t super hot outside, but the air was dry enough to leave her feeling parched.
“So how’ve you been?” Jaz asked her, smiling pleasantly at her just like she had in the car. “I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve done something like this.”
“Becca’s a workaholic,” Erin said with a light laugh.
“But she does great work,” Teri pointed out. “Caring for animals is such an important job.”
Becca blushed a bit. Once again, she felt like the focus of their attention. She supposed that her friends really had been looking forward to spending time with her, but it felt like sort of strange having so much attention focused on her.
“I do like what I do a lot,” she said with a smile. “It can definitely be stressful and sad, at times, but I still enjoy it. I feel like I’m making a difference. In some ways, I feel like I’ve got hundreds of pets, because each of my patients feels a little bit like my own. Sort of like how some teachers feel as though their students are their children in some ways.”
“That’s really great,” Erin said. “Well, to be honest, we called this meeting of the Becca Appreciation Society because we’re a little worried about you.”
There it was.
Becca raised an eyebrow. “Worried about me? Why?”
“We’re paying attention,” Teri said. “We’re frien
ds on Facebook with you. We see that you’re never really doing anything that’s not at least in some way work-related.”
Becca pouted slightly. That wasn’t really fair. She didn’t think that social media should be the marker for whether a person was doing well or not. She knew plenty of people who barely used it and they were perfectly happy. Like my parents! …Bad example. Don’t say that out loud.
“I do things,” she said in protest. “I just mainly like to do things like read or go for walks around parks. I’m not into partying or clubs.”
Her friends laughed a little. “We know,” Erin said. “And that’s okay. We’re just… Well, we don’t want you to be lonely or miss out on something that could make you happy.”
“It feels very much like you’re trying to start a timeshare presentation or something,” Becca said with a laugh. “You realize that, right? What is this, an intervention?”
“Not really,” Jaz said. “But we’re curious about what you’ve been doing… socially lately.” She and Teri exchanged a look. “Are you seeing anyone?”
Becca blushed but laughed in order to make it seem like she wasn’t as embarrassed as she truly was. “I’ve been dating a little,” she said. It was only a half-fib. She’d been looking at dating apps, but that was as far as she’d gotten for the most part. Meeting with a stranger just wasn’t really her thing. She barely chatted with anyone on those apps. Starting to chat online was also so daunting. Messaging apps weren’t exactly introvert-friendly.
“You should date more,” Jaz recommended, though it sounded more like a command. “It’s good for the soul, and you can be totally non-committal about it if you want.”
Becca scoffed a little. “Casual dating just never interested me,” she clarified. “I always felt that the end goal of dating should be marriage… or at least a solid long term relationship.”
Her friends giggled at her, but they were also nodding their heads, which was encouraging.
“We don’t want you to rush into anything you’re not comfortable with,” Teri assured her. “We just also don’t want you to miss out on any good opportunities.”
The waitress returned with their appetizers. Becca was so caught up in their conversation and the feelings that it brought up within her that she took a bite of what had looked like a fry but was actually outrageously spicy. She gagged and took a long swig from her glass of ice water. Her friends, of course, noticed and laughed. Not at her, but also definitely not with her.
“Sorry,” Jaz said, cringing slightly. “My bad. I ordered some jalapeño cheddar sticks as well.”
Becca clearly missed that detail, but it was too late to go back now. She did her best to douse the flames with her water and a few bites of a cheese fry.
“See, this is another reason that dating isn’t for me,” she said once she could comfortably breathe again. “Too many chances for awkward mishaps like that. Have you all met me?”
“Aww, pshaw,” Erin said. “The right guy will find your awkwardness adorable.”
Her other friends nodded in agreement.
Becca thought that it was a pleasant idea, but she wasn’t sure how many ‘right guys’ there could possibly be for her. Navigating the wide field – even in a small town like Meridian – was no easy task.
“Maybe one of these days, you guys might want to go clubbing with me in Denver?”
Her friends beamed at her. “That sounds like so much fun,” Teri said with a grin. “Maybe a slight change of scenery, even for a day, will do wonders for you.”
I just wish I had more than one good clubbing outfit, Becca thought.
They continued to eat their snacks and delight in girl talk together. Even though she was still a bit out of her element, she had to admit that time spent out with her friends gave her a renewed energy that she didn’t get when she was by herself at home or when she went out on her own.
As soon as she was back at her apartment, though, she slipped right back into her pink striped pajama pants and curled up with a book on her sofa. Being sociable was nice, but most of the time, she preferred the peace and quiet of her own familiar space. Becca wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to balance both things at the same time. Relationships seemed to take so much time and effort. She wondered if she should get herself a dog. She’d been through it all before with men and she didn’t believe that she’d ever find the love she shared with her high school sweetheart.
She was afraid to mention this to her friends, of course, because high school was nearly over a decade ago at this point in her life. She didn’t want to give them the wrong impression, that she was pining for some guy she’d known when she was a moody teenager. Honestly, she wasn’t. At least she didn’t think she was.
I don’t necessarily think that I’ve peaked already. She put her book aside, on the coffee table, and sat up a little, reaching for her phone instead. She didn’t want to Facebook stalk him, but the idea had popped into her head and there was no letting it go until she followed through.
He probably didn’t have a Facebook account anymore. A lot of her friends had given up on the platform a while ago. But then she saw the profile pictures and clicked on the face that just had to be his.
Becca didn’t linger long on there, actually. She gave his profile a quick glance, got too embarrassed, and closed the app entirely. She put her phone back on the coffee table, trusting that she’d ignore it there. I’m glad that app doesn’t inform people when their profile have been viewed. I don’t even want to imagine what it would be like if…
She was grateful to go to bed soon after. Tomorrow would be another busy day at work, but she looked forward to it, knowing it would help to clear all of these silly ideas out of her mind. Becca still believed that her friends had been trying to stage some kind of an intervention for her, even if they only jokingly called it that. She didn’t want them to pity her.
But she sure was looking forward to going to Denver with them.
Chapter Three
It had been a long time since Ashton had set foot in Meridian. He was truly a ‘city-slicker’ now, and his parents would come to visit him in The Big Apple instead of making him fly all the way back to the city he’d left in the dust. He appreciated that, but as he walked through the familiar halls of Denver Airport, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty that he’d abandoned the home of his birth. He’d been quite busy over the last few years, but was that really an excuse?
He was pleased to see that nothing had really changed while he was gone. Of course nothing’s changed, he thought. Nothing ever changes in a place like this. But it was also an airport. The real changes or lack thereof would be found when he hit the road and drove to Meridian itself. Ashton also couldn’t forget the reason for his reunion with the place. As he imagined the drive back to his parents’ old house, he thought of their old dog and wondered what seeing Skipper was going to be like after so much time had passed. His parents said that he was sickly now, but it was still difficult to imagine the sweet, always-smiling beagle being anything other than jovial and excited when he saw Ashton come home.
There was a car at the curb outside of the airport waiting for him. Ashton gladly accepted the ride, smiling at the driver and giving him a generous tip before they even hit the road. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Alexa managed to score him such an upscale limo service there, but he was still pleasantly taken aback. His assistant was awesome. He was going to do his best to be as friendly and upbeat as possible during this sad time. He knew that his parents would appreciate it. I just have to make sure not to cry as soon as I see Skipper.
It was only about a half-hour drive from Denver International Airport to Meridian. He sat comfortably in the back seat, the cool black leather was just what the doctor ordered for his aching shoulders. He could tell that he was having some minor pains due to stress – also, the flight hadn’t been the most comfortable thing ever. Turbulence always got to him. Looking out the window, he watched as the city gave way to t
he rolling, rocky landscape that he knew so well. He couldn’t say that he was glad to be back, but he also couldn’t deny that something inside of him, at least some small piece, had really missed his home state and hometown.
Ashton could pretend all he wanted that he was a city boy, but he was a Coloradoan at heart.
He fell into a light sleep until the limo pulled into his parents’ driveway. The feel of the car stopping was enough to rouse him, and then he looked out of the window at the cute, cottage-like house of his youth. It was painted yellow with teak molding around the windows and on the door. Ashton thought it was a pretty ugly house, but his heart also swelled a bit as he looked at it, stepping out of the car so he could go into its warm, familiar embrace.
The limo driver hopped back into the car once Ashton had been delivered to his destination and peeled off back towards places unknown. Walking up onto the white front porch of the house, Ashton knocked on the door. He’d like to say that he had a key and he was just trying to be a good guest, but he actually misplaced his key sometime back. It hadn’t seemed like the sort of thing he would need anymore…
After waiting a few anxious moments on the porch, the front door finally gave way and Ashton was greeted by his mother. She looked up and immediately started to cry as she opened her arms for him. He hugged her, rubbing her back. He’d prepared himself for the sorrow, but it still gutted him to see his poor little mother so broken-hearted. “It’s good to see you here again,” she somehow managed to coherently say amidst all of her sobs.
“It’s good to be back and see you, too,” he replied, pulling away gently so he could look at her. She hadn’t really changed, except her hair had more gray strands. Had she always been so small? Mrs. Miller was a petite woman with pale blonde hair amongst the gray, and she was dressed like a housewife from a movie in the 1950s, starched white apron included. To say that his parents were old fashioned was putting it mildly.
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