Mason
Jesse grabs the cat by the scruff and shoves a needle into its hind end, injecting the sedative. Within minutes, the poor thing is lying on its side with its mouth hanging open, eyes glassy. I wince when I finally get a hold of the leg and feel for the break. Two spots, one down by the paw and another up by the shoulder.
“She needs pins, Jesse; it’s a clean break here and here.” I point to the upper leg and lower leg, indicating where we’re going to need to do surgery. Jesse blows out her breath slowly and flutters her raven hair with it.
“We’re going to need Dr. Warren,” she seems rather happy about that, which confuses me. And then I see it, the gleam in her eyes. Jesse has a severe school girl crush on Dr. Warren and I have a feeling that it’s not going her way.
“You’re right, I can’t do this, and we’re going to need him.” I get on the intercom and page Dr. Warren to the medical examining room. The man shows up and immediately I smell it on him, Emily’s perfume. So maybe something is going on there that I don’t know about.
I eye the man up and look at him as competition. Both of us nod at one another as if we both know that we’re after the same thing, and Jesse gives up both weird looks before we turn our attention to the cat. Dr. Warren harrumphs and mms here and there as he’s examining the cat, and then he states the obvious.
“It’s going to need pins,” he says, motioning for Jesse to come over. She looks exuberant. “I won’t need you on this one, Mason. Perhaps you can go home early today considering Gail isn’t here.” I narrow my eyes at him and then give up on the pithy statement I have for him.
As I’m walking down the hall, I think I’m beginning to see how this is going to play out. Dr. Warren has Jesse for an assistant, and he’s going to ignore me because he doesn’t like competition around women. So whenever Gail is at home sick or off on an appointment, I’m going to be left here twiddling my thumbs. Well, I can twiddle my thumbs wherever Emily is at.
I hunt around the cat kennel room first, and then I hunt around the small animal room. I find Bandit happily peeing in his water dish and roll my eyes. After I’ve cleaned him up and straightened up my mess from doing so, I make my way to the dog kennel. Sure enough, I find her sitting at the opening of the pen that holds Baby, the rowdy German shepherd.
“She seems more relaxed today,” I say from the doorway. As soon as the dog spots me she takes a few hesitant steps back and her ears flatten on her head. I wonder if it’s her that’s nervous or if she’s reacting that way because Emily’s shoulders suddenly stiffened. She must not have heard me come in.
“She was.” Ouch, that stings. I make sure to close the door behind me gently and stay where I’m at. I don’t want to provoke the dog into leaping out and ripping out my throat.
“Look, I was wondering if you might teach me some of your tricks. It might come in handy,” I look at Emily hopefully and see a flash of concern on her face. She thinks I’m doing this just so that I can talk to her, and she doesn’t want to lead me on. I can see it written all over her face. I know she’s attracted to me. I’ve seen the look she gets on her face occasionally on other women’s faces too, and they’ve slept with me.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt. Well, I mean, it might. She bites, and they’re not nips.” I’m not sure if she’s trying to deter me or just trying to be honest, maybe both. My hands come out of my pockets as I push off the wall and stand a few feet off to her left, behind her. Baby starts to drool again, her lips arching.
“The drooling is an indication that she’s nervous,” I repeat what I’ve learned from school and Emily nods once, standing up slowly. Her entire body goes rigid as she takes a few steps towards Baby, and the dog lies down.
“Do you see what I just did there?” I shake my head and Emily turns her body partially away from the dog, making me nervous. “Baby was trying to take control of the situation, and I didn’t let her. It’s something I learned from watching dog training videos. Right now she needs to know that I’m trustworthy and that I know what’s best for her in this moment. She doesn’t really want to be in control. Baby’s not really a dominant dog.”
My eyes widen. I know they do because she chuckles at me, and then her expression entirely changes when she looks at Baby. Her face softens, and I can see the adoration she has for just one dog, does all her love fixate on one thing?
“So you just stiffen your body and walk towards her?” I know I sound disbelieving. I’ve heard of this before, but never really put it into practice. When I went to school, it was mostly textbook learning, not a lot of hands on.
“No, it’s not just about your body language. You have to feel it. I’m doing it because I care about her. You can’t do it because you’re afraid. Don’t be afraid of her, she’s just a lonely dog who’s afraid of people because she was abandoned.” Something tells me she knows a lot about being abandoned. The way she says it has me wondering just how much, who dared to abandon someone as sweet as her.
“Okay, I’m feeling it.” I clear my throat and Emily steps aside. As soon as my foot touches the concrete of the pen, Baby darts without warning towards my leg and Emily steps in front of me. She doesn’t have to say a word, just backs Baby into the corner and waits for the German shepherd that probably weighs as much as she does to lie down.
“Maybe we should practice with a calmer, relaxed dog before you try this out on Baby.” I hear mirth in her voice; did she know that was going to happen? Of course she did, that’s why she was ready to step in front of me at any second. I admit as I was stepping into that cage I was afraid. I could feel my heart rate increase and my breathing had completely stopped. I was waiting for an attack, which must have set the dog off.
Emily closes the door of the cage, but not before she gives Baby a pat on the head. I follow her down the row of cages past the larger breeds and past the middle sized breeds. We end up at a cage with three little Chihuahuas in it, and I cross my arms over my chest. Emily turns to me with a serious face, no humor there anymore.
“If you can get them to relax and behave without saying a word, then you can move on to the next cage of dogs. We’ll work our way up to Baby. If she’s adopted by the time you get to her pen, don’t worry, there’ll be another one just like her in here in a few days.” I’m about to argue with her when she opens up the pen door, and the little toy dogs come skittering to the front, unable to jump up past the barrier. With just one motion of her hand, the little dogs stop their yipping and sit down on the floor as if they’ve been acting that way their entire lives.
“Alright, I’ll do it this way. But I want something in return.” Emily doesn’t look at me, her eyes narrowing.
“You were the one who wanted my help,” she reminds me, but I’m not going to let her get away with this that easy.
“I did, but you’re not teaching me how to handle Baby. You’re now teaching me how to handle very non-masculine dogs.” The corner of her lip twitches ever so slightly and I feel pride in knowing I’ve made her smile without having to emasculate myself with a German shepherd.
“What do you want in return?” The hint of a smile is gone and she’s all business now, her eyes still on the dogs in front of her.
“I want a lunch date,” I tell her with finality. “Tomorrow is Friday, and I know a great place not too far from here that serves breakfast and lunch at the same time. So even if you’re not into lunch, we can do breakfast.” Emily looks up at me with her lips in a thin line, and then her gaze darts back down to the dogs.
“No,” she says quietly. In all my life, I’ve never been turned down for a date. Not once have I heard the word no from a girl. It must be heartbreaking and frustrating for men who hear it all the time.
“No?” I ask, just to make sure. She nods her head and takes a step back from the dog pen, closing the door. “Fine, but you’ll still teach me?” I see her about to say no and feel my gut sink. I’ve ruined all my chances, right here, by asking her out too soon.
“On
one condition,” she says, and I wait for it. “Don’t ask me out on a date again.” With that, she walks away from me and out of the dog kennel room.
Chapter Five
Emily
I don’t normally need an alarm clock. But this morning mine actually does go off, and I have to pull it off the nightstand to get it to stop. The house is quiet by the time I get the beeping piece of plastic to stop murdering my ear drums. I swing my legs over the side of my bed and put my head in my hands, its pounding.
Laura told me last night she was going into work early, and Jim, of course, always goes into work early and stays until about four or five in the afternoon. So I’m alone in the house for the first time in weeks. I manage to stand up and make my way down the stairs with wobbling legs, trying to determine what gave me an actual headache. I never get sick, even with Laura working in the ER all the time.
There are a slew of different allergy pills and pain pills in the medicine cabinet in the downstairs bathroom. I pull out some Advil and twist the cap, pulling out two. They’re large liquid filled pills so they should work quickly. As soon as I have them I fill up a glass of water in the kitchen and chase the pills with the entire thing.
A hot shower should make me feel better. I’ve been feeling off ever since my encounter with Mason yesterday. I wanted so desperately to tell him that yes; I would go out to brunch with him this morning. I wonder idly if he even knows it’s actually called brunch. My shower is hot and long, but it doesn’t really help relieve the tension in my neck.
I don’t wear any perfume today, just my usual. I make sure to put my hair up in a messy ponytail so I won’t look as if I’m trying today. When I take one look in the mirror at my face, I groan. I definitely don’t have to do anything else to make it look like I’m not trying to be pretty. I have bags under my eyes. I decide that’s too much. I don’t want to look like I’m hung over.
So as I’m doing my work on my computer for school on the laptop downstairs, I have slices of cucumbers under my eyes to firm up the skin. By the time I’m done turning in my essays, and participating on the discussion forums, the bags under my eyes are minimized. Some of it might be due to the Advil too.
I put on a little eyeliner to make it look like I actually showered today and got ready, and then I make my way out to my car. On Fridays, I can go in early to take care of the animals. Then I spend the rest of the day paying attention to them all, hoping that someone will come in and adopt. Fridays are usually busy adoption days for the shelter, and so are Saturdays.
My car is starting to look like it needs a bath considering there’s dust on the roads; we haven’t had as wet a spring as we should be. I don’t bother waving to anyone as I drive to work; the neighbors haven’t really made themselves prominent in my life. I pull up in the parking lot with a heavy heart, wondering why turning down one date is affecting me this much.
It’s too early for Mason’s car to be here, so I don’t look for it. Instead, I lock my car as I get out and head directly for the building. Taylor meets me at the door with a smile and walks back with me to the cat kennel, telling me about a new cat they have that needs some special care. As soon as we’re in the room, I see Jesse opening up the door to follow us. She looks a little peeved about something.
“I told you I could show her today. It’s not a big deal,” Jesse says in a sweet voice to Taylor. He gives her a passing look and turns his attention back to me. I don’t understand why the attention is all on me all of a sudden.
“I think I’ll be alright on my own, thanks,” I tell them both, my tone dismissive. Jesse gives me a dark look before she turns around, and I let out a sigh as I realize I’ve just ruined my chances of being friends with her. That’s alright; I don’t need to drag her down with my personal issues anyway. Taylor gives me a curious look before he leaves the room too, but not before I see the curiosity turn to disappointment.
“They’re all acting strange, Midnight.” I confide in the cat as I get her out of her cage, giving her a treat as I brush her. The door opens again, and I feel my back go rigid, and Midnight seems to sense my unease, just like Baby did yesterday. I turn around to find Mason leaning against the doorframe again, his eyes on the cat.
“I came to check on Butterscotch, the new cream tabby with the broken leg.” I shrug one shoulder absentmindedly, feeling awkward around him now. He makes his way to one of the cages and opens up the door of the tabby he’s talking about. The cat head-butts his hand eagerly and laps at his fingertips. It’s the first time I’ve seen one of them really react to him in a positive manner.
“I’m sorry about yesterday, I was rude and should have just left it at no.” I blurt out the words before know what I’m doing, just wanting to make it less awkward between the two of us. Mason is quiet as he checks over the wrapped leg, and then he hands the tabby a treat before he closes the cage door. He finally turns to look at me with his eyebrows furrowed.
“He wasn’t worth your time and definitely not your mourning,” Mason’s voice is low as he says it, his eyes dark. I blink a few times, forgetting about the cat on the table in front of me for the first time in my life. I never stop paying attention to the animals here for someone else’s entertainment.
“She,” I correct him, and his eyes pop open as his mouth starts to drop.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you were, you were,” I finally understand what he’s trying to get at and feel my face flush crimson, the heat almost burning my flesh.
“No, no that’s not what I meant. Wow, this is awkward,” I try to find the right words and lean my hip against the table as I idly run a hand over Midnight’s head. “Can you keep a secret?” I can’t believe I’m about to tell him this.
“If it’s yours I can,” Mason responds cryptically, now completely focused on me. I’m finding it increasingly hard to focus when I’m looking at his eyes, which oddly looked green yesterday and now look blue in the dimmer lighting. Maybe they’re more of a sea green.
“Eight months ago, something happened to me that didn’t involve a guy. It involved a woman, and it’s not what you’re thinking. I’ve been having a hard time,” I search for the right word and Mason waits patiently, “coping with it.” He’s silent for so long, searching my face that I feel like a germ under a microscope.
“You know you don’t always have to cope with things on your own. Sometimes it’s okay to ask for help,” I snort, unable to help it.
“Believe me, I’ve asked and received, and it’s done nothing. The last therapist told me I have to do what I refuse to do to be able to move on, so I think that option’s out.” Midnight picks at my arm and I scoop her up to have something to do. My ears are red from admitting that I’ve been to a therapist.
“I didn’t mean help from a therapist, but I’m glad that you tried that route. I meant from a friend,” I try for a smile, but it won’t quite reach my eyes.
Mason
I have no idea what she’s talking about, but if it involved therapy then it must have been awful. I know when I was a kid, my father took me to therapy when my mother passed away. No matter how many pictures I drew, it never made me feel better about it. I just learned to cope with it on my own.
Emily’s eyes are shimmering with embarrassment, and I feel bad for even pushing her yesterday. All last night, I kept wondering if it had been me. I was wondering if I wasn’t good enough for her to go out on a date with. I admit I was angry for a while, but mostly because I was ashamed of being turned down. Now I feel like a complete tool.
“I could use a friend,” she finally says, tucking Midnight away into her kennel cage. I feel a pressure in my chest release when I hear her say that, but I have a feeling getting to know Emily is going to be like getting to know Baby. It’s not going to be easy, and there will be a lot of road blocks along the way, but in the end I think it’ll be worth it.
“Good, so friends usually eat lunch together at work.” I’m early, for two reasons. I wasn’t able to sleep
much last night and actually woke up without the need for my alarm clock. And I wanted to come in to check on Butterscotch. Maybe there was a third reason, but she doesn’t want to be a reason right now so I’ll stop thinking about it.
Emily seems to be thinking hard over my offer, and I roll my eyes at her, getting out the next cat for her to brush. I notice that Cream sickle is missing and do an inward smile. I’m glad he found a home. The next feline to be graced by Emily’s touch is Sam, a Siamese cat who is missing one ear.
“Don’t get your fur in a knot, Emily, I was just saying we could swap deserts and complain about bullies, nothing like singing the Mason and Emily sitting in a tree song.” That does her in. She takes Sam from me and gives him a snack as she begins to brush his short hair. I think she brushes them more for the attention than actually making them look good. Because short haired cats don’t’ really need brushed.
“Whatever, I don’t bring dessert. And there aren’t bullies here. Okay, maybe a few but I’d never tell you whom I think is a bully.” Sam twirls under her fingers and rubs his tail in her face, making her sneeze. I take that as a good time to exit and back out the door. Just before I make it out the door I call out to her.
“You’ll tell me one day!” Just as the door closes I see Taylor at the end of the hall with a clipboard in his hands, his eyes narrowed. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of medical waste cleanups for me in the future.
“How is Butterscotch doing?” He asks as he walks up the hall towards me. I see he’s wearing a pair of jeans today rather than his slacks.
“She’s good; no sign of infection and the swelling has gone down significantly.” I try to sound as professional as possible, walking beside Taylor down the hall. It’s not a wide hall, and we have to walk close together, but we’re not touching.
Rescue (Emily and Mason) Page 4