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“Yes, we absolutely do. You’d have to speak to our finance department once we have a final number and pay a minimum deposit of two-hundred dollars now, but yes. I’ll need you to sign this form as an acknowledgment of the possible expenses.” He taps on the clipboard before passing it to me.
I exhale, a bit more appeased, and take it from his hands. My credit will make whatever payment plan they offer impossible (thanks again, Roger, you self-serving prick), but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Ginger. She’s the only family I have left.
“Done,” I say when I wrap up my signature and hand him the clipboard back.
“Great. I’ll go back and hand this over to reception and then we’ll get to working on Ginger. In the meantime, I’d suggest you go back home and get some rest. We’ll call you when we have an update.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
With a kind smile, he shakes both our hands and walks back through the double doors he came from.
In silence, I tap my debit card to the reader, praying it goes through. Once the two-hundred dollars are paid, we’re dismissed. Will calls us a cab and we ride back to my place where I fall asleep in his arms while crying softly into his shirt.
When I wake the next morning, it’s because my phone won’t stop ringing. For a split second, I consider throwing it out the window. But when I’m flooded with memories of last night, I fumble around my bedsheets for my cell, noticing that Will is nowhere to be found.
“Hello?” I ask a little breathlessly.
“Is this Bridget Quinn?”
“Hi. Yes, this is she.”
“Bridget, hi. This is Dr. Sloane. Declan Sloane.”
My heart erupts in a sprint as I clutch the phone to my ear, bracing myself to hear whatever comes next. I’m over pleasantries, but I realize my cat’s life rests in this man’s hands, so there’s nothing I can do but bear it. “Hi, Dr. Sloane. Do you have an update on Ginger?”
“Yes. I’m calling to let you know everything went fine. We emptied her bladder and did a study. Turns out that she had some crystals in her urine, and they were causing the blockage and pain. She had a high fever, but we were able to get it down, and she’s stable now. Did you happen to change her diet recently? Because that might be a factor as to why this happened.”
I sniff, realizing only now that I’d started crying again. “Not really. I don’t know. I mean, I did start giving her these new dry treats, but they’re super popular. I didn’t find anything on the internet that could lead me to believe they were bad for her.God, I’m a terrible mother.”
He laughs softly over the other end of the line. “You’re not. These things happen. And she’s going to be fine, so no worries with that.”
I exhale, the weight of the world suddenly off my shoulders. “I’m so relieved to hear that, you have no idea.”
“I’m happy I was able to help. Really. Ginger is a beautiful cat. As beautiful as her owner.”
Uhhhh… What?
I choose to ignore his comment. After all, my cat is still in his custody. “Now that we’ve got the good news out of the way, could you tell me the bad news?”
“The bad news?”
“The final number? On the bill?”
“Oh, uh—” He coughs. “I was able to waive most of it, and we were off by a lot from the initial estimate. So you really only have to pay about one-seventy more, I think.”
I pause. “What?” Is my luck finally turning? After spending all night crying into Will’s chest wondering how I was going to afford it, how much I hated my ex for ruining my credit, and how impossible it was going to get a reasonable interest rate from their finance department, I wake up the next morning and the problem vanishes?
There’s a silence over the other end of the line as if he’s considering saying something.
“What? What is it? You’re making me nervous, doc.”
“Please. Call me Declan.”
“Uh. Declan.”
“I just… am going to be extremely unprofessional here, but… Are you seeing someone, Miss Quinn? Bridget?”
I nearly drop my phone. Did he seriously just?—?
