wanted to actually wear it. He was an avant-garde designer, a Betsey Johnson on steroids with his giant shoulders and superlong sleeves. Nonetheless, Carly wore his clothes. She worked hard for Victor.
Carly really did love the challenge of getting a talented person noticed for the right reasons, and Victor definitely was a challenge. It had taken her exhaustive hours to get his image rehabilitated. She’d booked magazine interviews, blog tours, appearances on regional morning talk shows. She’d talked June into paying for a website and had negotiated a rock-bottom price for a top-dollar design of it. She’d gotten him in front of YouTube vloggers and Instagram influencers and written so many press releases for so many different channels of publicity that she felt she’d given birth to him herself. And the cherry on the top of her sundae, she had the invitation to share his designs with Ramona McNeil.
With only a few weeks to go to the showcase, Victor was being heralded as the next great designer. Thank you, Carly Kennedy! She’d almost single-handedly elevated his image, for very little money, and she was very proud of that, particularly because Victor had been absolutely no help. To this day, after months of working together, he still didn’t see the difference between a publicist and a lackey.
“So . . . you’re going to get burgers, right?” Victor asked.
“You really want me to go get burgers?” It was less a question than a statement.
“Maybe you could have them delivered,” one of the models suggested.
“Nah, she can go. It’s just a mile or so down the road,” Victor said. He hopped on his skateboard and began to move around the studio. Bubbles thought that was super exciting and began to bark and romp alongside him.
“As much as I’d love to dash down and order burgers, I’ve got the dog,” Carly said with an apologetic wince. Bubbles lost interest in the skateboard and trotted into the kitchenette, her leash trailing behind.
“Bax can stay with us,” Victor said, and went shooting across the concrete floor.
“That’s not Baxter. Come on, guys,” Carly said. “We have the shoot, and Phil has a very limited schedule—”
“We really don’t need you here to do the shoot,” Phil said. He lifted his camera and snapped Carly. “I can take it from here.”
“You gotta go, Carly,” Victor said as he swooshed by her. “I can’t focus without something to eat, man!”
Bubbles reappeared from the kitchenette. As Victor skated by her, she began to bark again. Phil whistled, and Bubbles changed course, trotting directly into Victor’s path. “Whoa,” Victor said, hopping off his board and flipping it up to his hand just before he might have collided with the dog.
“Got him,” Phil said. He leaned down and hauled Bubbles onto his lap. “What are you feeding this dog? He’s heavy.”
“See?” Victor said, waving at Bubbles as he looked at Carly. “We’ve got it under control.”
Carly knew when she was defeated. “Yeah, okay, I’m only your publicist, but whatever,” she said.
When Carly returned a half hour later with two bags full of burgers, Phil showed her the photos. Every one of them featured a basset hound. The photos of Victor’s designs with Bubbles were adorable.
As the others ate the food she’d bought with her personal money, she called Brant again. Still no answer.
She was really worried about her own photogenic dog. Where was Baxter?
Two
Dr. Tobias Maxwell Sheffington III was a tenure-track professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas. One would think that the holder of an advanced science degree might have some basic common sense, but that clearly was not true, because if Max had any, he would have known it was not a good idea to go out drinking the night before a big presentation to his department. He would have remembered that he was the kind of guy who could have a couple of beers, but any more than that was guaranteed to make him blotto, which was how he’d earned the moniker of Lightweight in college. And he would surely have considered that it was never a good idea to sleep with another professor in the department.
It had all been so spur-of-the-moment, an impromptu goodbye party of sorts. For a dog.
Max was conducting a study on how the human bond with canines affects the release of oxytocin and elevates levels of dopamine in the brains of dog lovers and in dogs and, specifically, how the relationship of social behavior and the oxytocin system in canines could lead to a