Page 57 of Tickled Pink

“Almost,” she answers.

Max grips her suitcase. “I’ll take this out for you.”

She squeezes his arm. “Thank you.”

As Max passes the threshold, a small whine echoes through the room. Phoebe pouts as she kneels on the floor and motions for Stinky to come to her. The brown lab instantly picks herself up and races toward Phoebe.

“I’ll miss you, darling girl,” Phoebe says, leaving kisses on her brown snout. “You take care of my boys, you hear me?”

“We’re in good paws,” I say. “Don’t worry.”

A few extra pets and pats, and Phoebe rises. She heaves one last breath and stands tall, entering boss lady mode. “All right. I’m ready to go.”

I take her hand, refusing to let her pass without touching her one more time. “Call us when you get to your hotel, okay?” I ask.

“I will,” she promises, offering a final kiss on the cheek that I gladly accept.

“And say hi to your mom and dad for us.”

“I will.”

“And don’t—“

“Oh, my god,” Jackie says, obviously annoyed. “Can we go now?”

“Hey,” I say. “She’s leaving for a week, all right?”

“Right. It’s a business trip in LA… where she grew up. She’s not going to Nam. She’ll sit through some meetings all day, pretend she’s too tired to go out and party with me, and spend every night in her hotel room wanking off to the camera for you guys. It’ll be like she never left.”

Phoebe tries hard to smother her smile. “She’s probably right,” she says.

“See?” Jackie motions out the door as Max hops back up the stoop. “Let’s go.”

I give Phoebe’s hand one more squeeze before letting her go. “Be safe,” I say.

“Don’t worry,” she says as she gives Max a last peck on the cheek, too. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Bye, Phoebe,” Max says. “I love you.”

“I love you,” I say.

“I love you, too,” she says, her eyes somehow on both of us at once. “Bye, Stinky!”

Jackie happily closes the door behind them.

I exhale hard, my heart already tugging hard in her direction, but she’s right. It’s just a business trip. Nothing to worry about. I’ve flown from New York to Los Angeles and back again so many times I could do it solo with my eyes closed. She’s in good hands.

I look at Max. And then there were two.

“You wanna get some lunch?” I ask. “We need to sit down and hammer out the Valentine’s Day details. She brought up a good point yesterday. It’s gonna be hard to beat Christmas.”

“Uh…” Max shifts into the living room where his briefcase rests on the sofa. “I need to go to the office, actually.”

I turn up my hands. “What? Seriously? I thought you had the morning off.”

“The morning,” he says as he gathers his things. “Not all day.”

“Okay, but… she just left. Shouldn’t we take a minute to reflect or something? It’s been a while since it’s just been you and me, you know? Let’s have some bro time.”

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