Page 115 of So Wild

“Tabby, they’ll get hair everywhere! And they’ll piss on me!”

“They won’t! They just had a wee downstairs. Just cuddle them close, they’ll help with your anguish!”

Sam looked down at the chubby black and gold puppies and had to admit she felt better. She picked up the little girl Scott liked, the one with the quirked eyebrow. The puppy nuzzled her cheek and she laughed out loud.

“That’s it,” Tabby said, tucking herself into Sam’s side. “Cuddle it out.”

She hoisted a particularly chubby puppy into the air. “You’re all such good doggies, aren’t you? You deserve to live long and prosperous lives, don’t you?”

Sam, who suspected she was being buttered up for a seven-dog adoption, decided to change the subject. “Where have you been?”

“Vets, and then I went and saw an old mate of mine. We watched the news thingy’s about the shop. They were shithouse. Those capitalist dogs don’t have any facts and they took shitty photos of you, too. They should have used the ones we have on Insta.”

“I don’t care about the pictures, I care about us being called a front for sex trafficking.”

“Oh yeah, don’t worry about all that shit.”

Sam looked across at her. “What do you mean?”

“I called a friend of mine. He knows some people and some things and let’s just say those tweets got buried under a bazillion bot tweets about you being in Fadeout Festival and some singer called Samantha Diaza. We’re back to relative online obscurity.”

Sam’s relief was cut with a little sadness. What was she going to do without Tabby around helping her with everything? “You’re a useful woman to know.”

“Yeah,” Tabby nestled two puppies on her belly. “Remember when I Tased a guy?”

Sam laughed. “How could I forget? You should still get rid of that, by the way, I don’t think the cops believed you when you said you pushed Scott’s dad over. You’re like two feet shorter and one hundred kilos lighter than him.”

“Ah, what are the pigs gonna do? Arrest me? Besides, I saved our lives. And the shop.”

“I don’t know about the shop seeing as we’re gonna lose a lot of money and fuck a lot of people over with the rescheduling.”

“We’ll be fine! It’s Fadeout tomorrow, and once you win, heaps of people will want to go on your wait list.”

Sam couldn’t dredge up the enthusiasm to smile. “If I win, or even place.”

“You will. Anyway, don’t worry about the money. I’ve got clients lined up for days. We’ll get SDI back in the black in no time.”

“Until you vanish, at which point, I’ll be left with six puppies, one dog, several conspiracy-laden social media accounts and a wait list that’s ten miles long.”

Tabby frowned. “What’s gotten into you? Like, you’ve never been the most optimistic person in the world, but you seem down.”

Sam would have laughed if she wasn’t so fucking drained. “Are you forgetting the thing where the father of the guy I’m sleeping with, who was also my childhood neighbor and nemesis, tried toburn our house down?”

“No, but like…there seems to be more going on with you right now. Like you’re super salty about me leaving even though I haven’t said anything about leaving.”

“But you will,” Sam shot back. “One minute you’re here tattooing full time, the next you’ll be in India learning hatha yoga until Delhi-belly sends you home again.”

“Hey, I was almost certain I wanted to be a yoga teacher until the turmeric fucked me over! And don’t take your trauma of being in love with the son of an arsonist out on me, okay?”

“What?” Sam spluttered. “Don’t be an idiot, I’m not in love with Scott.”

“You are, but it’s fine. Scottison’s in love with you, too. Also, his dad’s going to the nutshack, so he won’t be an issue. Just call your man and you two can get back inside each other, metaphorically-speaking. Also literally.”

The extent of Sam’s outrage was so large, she couldn’t speak. She just shoved her sister in the shoulder.

“Oi,” Tabby said peaceably. “No violence in front of the pups. They’ve witnessed enough bullshit today.”

“The pups have…? I cannot believe…” Sam shook her head. “You’re so irresponsible!”

---