Page 124 of Hello Stranger

“Yeah,” I said, trying to keep things light. “You know. For us to just kind of stay in the vet and client category.”

Another pause. Dr. Addison reached back and palmed the back of his head. “You’re saying that you just want us to have a vet-client relationship?”

I nodded. “That’s right.”

“Nothing more?”

I nodded again.

A long pause. Then a tense question: “Can I ask why?”

“Sure,” I said, trying to keep things super friendly. “Well, it’s been a bit of a crazy time for me, lately. And I actually, um, you know, not on purpose of course, but just kind of by accident… I guess you could say I developed a thing for somebody else.”

Dr. Addison stood there a second. Then he said, “A thing? You developed ‘a thing’ for somebody else?”

Wasn’t that what I just said? “Yeah. You know. So…”

“When?” he asked.

“Um,” I said, my voice sliding unnaturally high. “Recently?”

“Who is it?” he asked next, sounding brittle.

“Oh, just a guy. Ya know. A guy I’ve had to spend some time with lately.”

Dr. Addison started pacing around.

That much, I could see.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It just kind of happened. I wasn’t even really sure that you were interested, anyway.”

“You weren’t sure I was interested?”

“I mean—were you?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice sour. “I was interested.”

Wow. This was not the reaction I’d been expecting from a guy who stood me up and then never called.

Dr. Addison adjusted his tie. “So… you’re going to date this other person?”

“I think so,” I said.

“And,” he went on, studying the ground like he was trying to solve a problem, “if I told you that I really like you a lot, would that make a difference?”

I wasn’t sure what to say.

“If I told you,” he went on, “that I can’t remember the last time I met someone who woke me up like you do… That there’s something about you that I can’t get out of my head… That I keep thinking about you and wondering if we might be… really right for each other…” He looked up. “What would you say?”

I’d say, “Don’t stand me up next time?”I thought to myself.

But to Dr. Addison, I just said, “I’m so sorry. I just think it’s too late.”

And then—maybe out of politeness, or maybe just because it’s not every day that someone saw something so valuable in me—I added, “Thank you, though. For feeling those things.”

Next, the door to the clinic slammed open and a vet tech said, “I’m sorry, Dr. A. We’ve got a Great Dane with torsion.”

Dr. Addison gave a curtgot itnod. Then after the tech was gone, he let out a deep sigh, and said, “Do I have any chance at all of changing your mind?”

---