Chapter 21
Cato
I didn’t want to make Maizy feel bad. I really didn’t. But I’d set my sights on dating her so long ago, that now we were finally coming together, I wasn’t thrilled about being one of four. She had to choose one, and if I were perfectly honest, I wanted it to be me. The other guys might be great, but I didn’t really want to see her with them.
I wanted to see her with me.
You couldn’t blame me, really.
But I wasn’t going to be a dick about it. If she wanted us to get to know each other, hang out, even become friends, I was fine with that. On the positive side, it was going to be great to hang out with someone other than attorneys. I was the only scumbag lawyer in the group, thank god.
Anyway, I upset her with my big mouth when I told her I’d wanted her for myself. Now I felt like a shit.
“Hey, Maizy, c’mon. It’s all good, everything will work out. Look—at the very least, we’ll always be good friends,” I said, ruffling her hair. “I mean, work would be unbearable without you.”
She looked at me with a small but grateful smile. The Chianti was making me warm and relaxed, so I pulled her to me. Her lips parted just in time to greet my exploring tongue. God, she was delicious.
We were interrupted by the doorbell.
Of course.
When she pulled away from me to go answer it, I looked around the apartment. I’d never been there before. It was a typical small New York apartment, but it was nice in a girl-ish sort of way—overstuffed furniture and lots of scented candles and throw pillows.
Maizy came bounding into the kitchen, all smiles, holding the hand of a tall dude, who must have been Von, who had two dogs on leashes. He walked right up to me, hand extended.
“I’m Von, great to meet you. I understand you two work together. You must have a lot of fun.”
“Hey, man. Nice to meet you. And I wish the place we worked was fun,” I said, shaking my head.
He laughed.
“But we do our best to stick together and not let the bullshit get us down.”
I got down on my knees to greet the dogs. They were big, happy mutts, and when Von clicked his tongue, they both sat back on their haunches.
“You trained them well. Look at that,” I said, returning to standing to watch the dogs fight their urge to jump all over me.
Von reached to pat them on their heads. “They’re good boys. All the dogs are for the most part, but these guys are the best behaved. That’s why I brought them tonight.” They looked up at him, then at me, and then back at him.
“Chianti?” Maizy asked, handing a glass to Von.
“Oh, yeah, I need this. I had a hell of a day,” he said.
“Hey, you’re a vet, right?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, I am. Got my own practice across town. And today was a crazy one.”
“He also is a sucker for taking in stray animals,” Maizy said with a smile.
I raised my glass in toast to him. “Can’t blame a guy for that.”
He raised his glass back. “Better be careful. I can be very persuasive about getting people to adopt animals who need homes.”
“So what happened at work?” Maizy asked.
Von settled onto the stool next to me.
“Someone discovered one of those nasty puppy mills and rescued the dogs. There were about ten of them, and half came to my practice and half went to my buddy’s practice. Poor babies were a mess.” He shook his head.