Page 17 of Sit, Stay, Love
The women burst out laughing.
Toby stepped out of his examination room, a dark frown across his usually soft face. ‘What’s going on out here?’ His voice softened. ‘Ah. I see. Hey, big Kev.’
‘Sorry, Dr McManus,’ Sera singsonged.
He rolled his eyes.
She handed Kevin to Jess and shook her head as the dog dragged the young woman away. ‘That animal is an unstoppable force.’
‘I won’t be too much longer, do you want to hang around?’ Toby said. ‘Fancy an early dinner? You can tell me how it went.’
‘You just want the gory details.’
‘The details are gory?’ He rubbed his hands together. ‘Fantastic. I need a blow-by-blow of his humiliation.’
She looked daggers at him. ‘I’ll see you next door.’
‘No stealing my clothes,’ he said as he turned back to his client.
Sera splashed water on her face, took off her slobber-covered blouse, grabbed one of Toby’s promotional t-shirts and pulled it on.
Toby’s reaction had thrown her. It was as if he was excited that Ethan might have failed, and he was never mean like that. He was the kindest person she knew. Even when he was teasing her, she never doubted it came from a place of affection. Ethan failing meant that Sera had also failed, and he couldn’t want that. He always supported her. His constant encouragement had been one of the things that had kept her going over the last couple of years. Toby knew how much Rose’s Rescue meant to her, and he must know that even the little extra cash she might earn from helping Ethan would make a difference.
She dropped onto his couch with a confused humph and turned on the television as he walked in the room.
He pointed to her t-shirt. ‘That’ll be fifteen bucks.’
‘Add it to my bill.’
‘That’ll be five hundred thousand and fifteen bucks.’
‘Come on. I owe you a lot, but it’s not that much.’
He grunted.
‘Has Kevin gone home?’
He nodded. ‘They said any time you wanted to tire him out again, you’re welcome to him.’
‘That was Kevintired?’ She shook her head and laughed. ‘Hey, can I ask you something weird?’
He frowned. ‘I don’t know. What is it?’
‘Do you ever feel like people judge you because of how you look?’
‘How do I look?’
She waved her hand up and down in his general direction. ‘Like you do. Gorgeous.’ His eyebrows shot up, but Sera pushed on. ‘It’s just… when I was talking to Ethan today, he said he worries people can’t see past his beauty to the real him.’
Toby barked out a laugh. ‘Jesus.’ He shrugged off his work overcoat and hung it on the back of a chair. ‘I can’t say I sit around thinking about it.’
‘What about when your clients get all blushy and swoony around you?’
‘It’s fine. It doesn’t bother me.’
‘Because everyone’s always treated you like that?’
‘Like what?’
