Page 78 of Sit, Stay, Love
‘Hey.’ Toby’s voice boomed through her speakers, soft and deep and warm.
‘Hey,’ she said, sounding a little too breathy for her liking. ‘How’s our ginger tom?’
‘He made it through the night, but he’s going to need regular feeds. Can one of your foster carers help?’
‘I’ll ring around.’
Feeding a newborn kitten was a massive undertaking. They required a bottle every two to four hours. Sera had a few people dotted around the local area who fostered cats and dogs, and the occasional rabbit or guinea pig. If Rose’s Rescue became crowded, or an animal wasn’t settling into the shelter situation, or there were babies that needed extra attention, she could call on one of her foster carers for help. Rose’s may have only four dogs in the kennels at the moment, but they had another five in foster care.
And Rose’s Rescue might be small, but Sera’s dreams for it were big. She wanted to add high-end boarding for cats and dogs, a doggy day-care with a video service so people could watch their furry friends from work, and maybe even a pool so she could offer hydrotherapy services. She had the room and the support, it was just the money that had always eluded her. But her fingers were crossed that would soon change.
‘Guess what?’
‘What?’
‘I just signed a contract with the funeral place. Twelve months, and a regular paycheque.’ She squealed excitedly.
‘Ser! That’s amazing. Congratulations! You deserve it.’
‘Thanks, Herriot. They showed me a dead body.’
‘What? Ew.’
‘I know, right? They took me into where all the stuff happens with the deceased persons, and there was a dead guy in there.’
‘Shit! Didn’t they realise?’
‘I don’t know! They were like, and here’s the mortuary, as if they were on a game show or something, arm sweeping out over a new set of crockery.’
Toby was laughing. ‘And with your coffee maker, you can get this dead guy!’
‘Complete with new suit!’
They burst into laughter, gasping and wheezing.
‘Oh,’ she said, rubbing her stomach. ‘We shouldn’t be laughing. It’s disrespectful.’
He chuckled a little more. ‘I guess. Hey, why don’t I grab some champagne and we can celebrate tonight overSurvivor? And if you’re lucky, I might even let you watchJurassic Parkand you can lust after Dr Ian Malcolm.’
‘Ooo. I love it when you talk dirty.’
He laughed again. ‘See you around seven.’
She hung up, on top of the world. Regular writing work, a steady income and laughing with Toby. Really laughing, until-her-sides-ached kind of laughing. The relief that crashed over her made her sigh out loud.
Her phone rang as she pulled out from the curb. When she saw it was Ethan, a pang of something oddly resembling guilt coiled in her gut.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I was going to ring you later about tomorrow. I was thinking we might go back to the dog park, if you’re up for it?’
There was a beat of silence. ‘I suppose I’ve got to push through that. But I didn’t call you about tomorrow. I want to ask you something.’
Sera’s eyebrows shot up, then quickly knitted into a deep frown as she listened, her mood bouncing from surprise to absolute terror. He’d had a last-minute invite to a movie premiere and its after-party on Saturday. An announcement about his casting inSit, Stay, Lovewas going out in a press release the day before, so he’d be talking up the project on the red carpet. And he wanted her to be his plus one.
‘I mean, if you’d like to,’ he said.
Her mouth opened and closed, then opened and closed, then opened and closed once more as words tried to find their way from her brain to her tongue. Sweat beaded across her brow, so she turned up the air conditioner and angled the vent towards her face.
Sera was not a party person. She never had been, not even at uni. And she was certainly not a red-carpet person. She didn’t own a single pair of heels, and she only had two dresses. One of which he’d already seen. She swallowed over the lump in her throat. ‘I… uh… um… you don’t want me there. You’ll be working.’
