“About what?”
“He has dogs and he’s about to have chickens.”
“Sounds like your kind of man,” my sister says in a sweet sing-song voice.
“He’s at least ten years older than me.”
“And?”
“And... I don’t know. He’s probably married.”
“Did you see a ring?”
“No.”
“Men’s rings don’t generally get in the way like a woman’s does.”
“He did touch me.”
“I’m sorry. He did what?” her voice changing to suspicion.
“No, not like that. I ran into the door, and he touched my lower back to keep me from falling, I guess.”
“Okay, but is he hot?”
“He has the cutest laugh lines around his amazingly beautiful hazel eyes, and his thick dark hair is peppered with grays.”
“Girl, you’re sprung.”
“Am not.”
“Yeah, okay. Tell that to the giddiness in your voice.”
“He is handsome, and I honestly expected a female doctor, maybe I’m just still in shock.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” she says, laughing.
“Ugh, I’m hanging up, I need to open the store.”
“Okay Sis. Don’t think about handsome Ethan too much today.”
“Goodbye dear sister,” I reply to her. I hear her laughing as I end the call and stuff my phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
I click the open sign on, unlock the front door and go about my business, trying not to think about the new hot vet.
But ten minutes later, I am pulling myself from a daydream about how he looks with just that stethoscope on. All tall, dark and handsome with an intoxicating smile.
“Christ, Lily, pull yourself together,” I say to myself.
I unload the fresh pet cookies into the glass case, turn on the computer and start inventory.
Two hours into the workday and I am bored out of my mind without my sister here. I have watched so many funny cat videos that my cheeks hurt now and I’m pretty sure I could do at least one of the dances they do on TikTok. I walk around the quiet store, trying to figure out if there is a way I can rearrange things. I tend to do that when I get bored, rearrange furniture, as someone enters.
“Hello!” I say to the woman.
“Hi,” she says as she looks around the store.
“Is there something I can help you find?”