Page 40 of The Serendipity

So will being unintentionally mauled by a dog who’s trying to play with—or eat?—the opossum climbing your body.

And then there’s everything that happened after: Sara wrangling her dog back upstairs. Willa driving the opossum out. Me blurting out words to her I already regret.

The whole situation was a disaster.

Tomorrow, the first thing I will do is send out an email telling all residents that effective in thirty days, there will be no more pets. None. No dogs, no cats, no fish. No puppies that almost outweigh me.

No animals of any kind.

Then I’ll find some kind of pest control company that deals with opossums—and will actually call me back—to do whatever is necessary to eradicate them.

I shudder, then make my way to the sink, where I remove my suit jacket, dumping it unceremoniously on the floor. Why not? It’s already spent a good deal of time on the ground tonight.

Rolling up my shirtsleeves, I scrub my arms up to my elbows with hot water until my skin turns pink. Until I’m sure I have no more animal hair or germs—or possible rabies. Then I turn the water as cold as it can get and splash it on my face.

Did that really just happen?

The opossum. The dog.Willa.

And then the words I blurted to her after the opossum was outside. I wince, remembering what I said. Upon further examination, it was probably timed poorly.

No—timedhorribly.

The more I think about it, the more I think I shouldn’t have said what I said at all. Ever.

Is it too late to go downstairs and take them back? I’m not sure Willa would let me in if I knocked right now.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, startling me. By the time I’ve dried my hands, it’s stopped. A text pops up before I can unlock it.

Bellamy

Are you okay?

Bellamy

I leave you alone for a few hours and what happens? Disaster.

Bellamy

Should I come back? Do we need to order a rabies test?

Bellamy

Do they have tests for rabies?

Bellamy

Do possums carry rabies?

How could he possibly have heard what happened already? The man is always attentive, always intuitive. But so far as I know, he’s not surveilling the building with cameras and a live feed.

Archer

First, it’s opossum, not possum. Second, they don’t carry rabies.

Archer

Third, how do you already know?

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