he would swear she was frowning. “Uh no, not until I get in the car. Plus, I’ve got the safety harness I can use to keep her in the passenger seat and that might be better for our getting-to-know-you run.”
“She’s not going to post a review of your dog-sitting service online, you know.”
He looked at Bat’s regal face critically. “Are you sure about that?”
Chapter Nine
A half-hour later, Toby arrived at his apartment with an anxious but curious Papillon beside him. She obviously hated the car because she was super-excited about getting out and barked her enthusiasm to the world. Batshit is here!
She strained at the leash as Toby tried to get her bag of essentials and her crate out of the car without losing his hold on her. Struggling to stay upright, Toby snapped, “Heel.”
Like someone flipped a switch, she aligned herself to his leg and stood, head up and feet planted.
“Wow. I mean, good girl.” Balancing all his stuff and with Batshit prancing beside him like a perfect soldier, he managed to get them into the apartment.
At the door, Bat barked. Of course, she did.
That set off a symphony of woofing from inside.
Oh damn. Toby picked up Bat, figuring Harry wasn’t going anyplace Bat wasn’t. He opened the door and the werewolf attack nearly bowled him over, but he made it inside and got the door closed without losing either canine. He let Bat off the leash and she flew into a smelling orgy, racing around to every corner of the room and then down the hall to the bedrooms with Harry hot on her tail.
In the unexpected silence, Toby unpacked Bat’s stuff, poured her a bowl of her special dry food into her traveling dish, gave her water in the second container, and set them down on an old placemat beside the refrigerator. Basics in place, he peered around for her and barked a laugh when he found her on the end of his bed, head resting on her paws, looking a little apprehensive, but mostly resigned. On the floor in front of her, like a worshipper at a goddess shrine, lay Harry, gazing with adoration, but not making a sound.
Toby sat down beside her and stroked her silky fur. Harry didn’t seem to mind. “The thing is, you guys, I’m confused. There’s this guy I really like. You know him. Ernest. With the cat.”
“Woof.” That was Batshit.
“Right. Well, he did me this huge favor, and I don’t have any right to question him. I mean, it’s not like he owes me anything. Hell, the other way around. But bottom line, I’m pretty sure he’s lying to me, or at the very least, not telling me some pretty important shit. Like I say, he sure doesn’t need to tell me anything, but it seems like he could be in some kind of trouble. I’d honestly like to help him.”
“Woof.” That was Harry. Total canine agreement.
Toby grabbed his phone and, before he could talk himself out of it, dialed the number he had for Ernest. It rang once, twice, three times before the answer came on. “Hi. This is Ernest and Cat. We can’t come to the phone right now. Leave a message.”
Planning what to say would have been good. “Hi. It’s Toby. I wanted to thank you again for everything you did for me, and, uh, I had a really good time too. I know you mentioned it would be good for you to appear to have a boyfriend, so if you want to do something else to continue that impression, just give me a call, okay? I mean, I’d love to, uh, you know, help out.” Jeez, how lame could he be? “I guess that’s all. Uh, bye.”
Toby lay back against his pillows, legs still draped over the side of his bed. “He didn’t pick up. I don’t think that’s a good sign, do you?”
“Woof.”
“Woof.”
“Damn.” He closed his eyes, Batshit crawled onto his chest, Harry jumped up beside him, and that’s where Molly found them a half hour later.
Toby walked out of his third class of the day and looked at his phone—again. It had been almost twenty-four hours since he left the message for Ernest and nothing.
He walked to his locker in the small room beside the teacher’s lounge, pulled out his lunch, and released a breath. After a week of trying to pack a salad or raw veggies and hummus to counteract his pudge factor, that morning his need for comfort had taken over and