September (New Orleans Series Book 9), page 11
“He’s about two inches long,” she replied and walked over to stand next to her.
“How are animals this tiny?” Juliet asked.
Gwen smiled at Juliet smiling at Larry while Carly kind of danced around them, still very excited that Juliet was back with her. In Gwen’s opinion, that was one of the best things about dogs: they loved their humans so much that their excitement made coming home to them so much better.
“Has she gone out?” Juliet asked.
“Yeah, but it’s been about an hour. You coming home probably has her tiny doggy bladder going crazy.”
“Do you want to walk with me as I walk her, or should we maybe get out of your hair?”
“You’re not in my hair,” Gwen said. “I was just about to order some dinner. If you want, we could do that together and then walk her. I don’t know if you need to get home or just want to be home after your first trip, so don’t feel like you have to say yes.”
“I’m okay. I stopped there to drop off my stuff before I came here.”
“Oh. Well, I could’ve taken Carly to you. I thought you came straight here.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t mind. It gave me a chance to see your place.” Juliet looked around the apartment for the first time since she had arrived. “It’s nice.”
“It’s small,” Gwen said.
“It doesn’t feel small. It’s a one-bedroom, and it’s just you, right? How many rooms do you really need when it’s just you?”
“I was almost tempted to get a studio to really piss off my mother.” Gwen chuckled. “She thinks I should live in a mansion or maybe a palace, so a one-bedroom is essentially a shack made of plywood to her. She’s very judgy.”
“You’ve mentioned her a few times. I take it, she’s unhappy with some of your life choices?”
“You could say that,” Gwen replied and handed Juliet Carly’s leash so that she could pull out her phone and order in. “In the mood for anything in particular?”
“Anything that’s not a pre-wrapped sandwich is fine by me. Shit!” Juliet seemed to remember something. “I got you that coffee, but it’s in my bag, and I left that at my place.”
“It’s okay. I can always get it another time, right?” she asked, hopeful.
“Yeah, but it’s fresh from the roaster. I want you to try it as soon as possible. Can I get it to you tomorrow, maybe?”
“Whenever is fine by me, but you’ll have to show me how to take care of it and treat it right,” she joked. “How about something local? Cajun?”
“Sure,” Juliet said. “And I can show you how to make it, but we can’t use your coffeemaker.”
“Then, how will we make it?”
“Well, I thought it might be weird if I bought you a new, expensive espresso machine, even though I get a discount on the ones we sell, and the cheap ones wouldn’t do the coffee justice, so I was thinking French press. Ever used one?”
“The one where you push down on the thing?” Gwen asked and mimicked the action with the hand that wasn’t searching for a restaurant with her phone.
“Yes.” Juliet laughed as she put Carly’s leash on. “Let’s walk.”
Gwen placed their order as Juliet explained how the coffee would somehow taste magically better if they ground the beans a certain way and let them soak for a specific amount of time before pressing down and then pouring the coffee. She listened, and she really tried to focus on what Juliet was saying, but she couldn’t stop picturing waking up next to her and Juliet making them both a cup of coffee, then bringing it back into the bedroom, and lying down next to Gwen to drink it while they watched something on TV on a lazy Sunday morning.
“So, I got you one.”
“Huh? Got me what?”
“A French press.”
“You got me a French press?”
“They’re not expensive, and I get a discount on top of it. We sell them in every store, so I just grabbed one for you. It’s with the bag of whole bean that I got you. Well, I got you a couple of sample bags. Okay, I might have gotten a few sample bags. I grabbed a light roast, a medium roast, and the espresso because you said you wanted that one specifically. I thought if you like any of them better than the others, I could get you a big bag next.”
“Jules, you didn’t have to buy me a ton of coffee.”
“They’re just sample bags. Think stocking stuffer, not a giant bag of each.”
“How much did all that run you, though?”
“The samples were free, remember? And the French press wasn’t much with my discount. I promise, I didn’t spend a crazy amount of money on you, but you’re the one who just gifted me two pet cams.”
“I got them for free, too, remember?” Gwen winked at her and looked down at Carly, who was walking aimlessly now and seemed to have lost some energy since their walk had begun. “I think she might be done.”
“Who?” Juliet asked.
“Carly,” Gwen told her with a laugh and pointed at the dog, who turned back to her when she heard her name.
“Oh, right,” Juliet said and looked down at her watch. “We’ve been walking for thirty minutes.”
“What?” Gwen checked her phone. “Shit. The food got delivered. They left it at the door. I can’t believe you rambled about coffee for half an hour.” She laughed again.
“Sorry. Occupational hazard.” Juliet said as they turned around and started heading back toward Gwen’s building.
“Have you always been obsessed with coffee?”
“No. I drank it, but I didn’t know anything about it until I got this job.”
“And how was the job? Your first trip?”
“You talked to me every day. You already know,” Juliet replied.
“Sort of. We mostly talked about Carly and your nipples.”
“Oh, my God!” Juliet laughed hard. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“I can’t believe you wore a sweater tonight.”
“Gwen!”
Gwen laughed along with her and asked, “How did you do with the whole business hotel and long drive part of the week?”
“It was fine, I guess. I’m not a travel pro yet, so we’ll see, but the days are fine. I like training, even though I just sort of ended up in it.”
“What do you mean?”
“My degree is in HR administration. I thought I’d have Molly’s job.”
“But she got it first?”
“No, I wasn’t qualified at the time. Long story. I think they also wanted to bring in someone from the outside. Fresh set of eyes and all that. Anyway, the company is a place people tend to retire from. I’m not sure about Molly specifically, but there are several people with her role supporting other teams, and most of them will retire from Southern, which means I’ll probably have a long time before the job I initially wanted becomes available, and I’d have to recertify.”
“Certify?”
“There are certain certifications for HR roles that companies generally either prefer or require. Southern requires them. It’s about law stuff, mostly, but making sure your ass is covered with someone who’s certified on the important stuff can help when it comes to reducing lawsuits.”
“I had no idea. I went to college but was pretty aimless. I just went because my parents wanted me to go more than anything.”
“So, you didn’t always want to do this?”
“I’ve always wanted to be around animals. I don’t have the heart to become a vet, though, or anyone who works in a vet office, really. I guess I thought about that at one time, but I couldn’t go through with it. This way, I get to spend a ton of time around animals, and I never have to say goodbye to them. Well, sometimes I do when clients move away, and obviously, animals pass away, so that’s always tough, but as a vet, I’d have to–” Gwen stopped.
“Yeah, I have total respect for vets. I don’t know how they do what they do. It’s got to be so hard.”
“My mother thought I’d go that route. We had horses growing up. They were kept in stables, and I’m not really sure why we had them, because my dad never rode them, my mom did, but rarely, and you know all my siblings and their allergies. So, it was really just me, but we had two horses, and I loved them both. I think my mom assumed I’d have my own stables one day and maybe even race them or something, but when I didn’t seem to want to do that, she thought vet. I remain a constant disappointment.”
“I don’t see how,” Juliet said when they arrived back at Gwen’s building.
“Oh, you would if you met her or saw where I grew up.” She laughed it off.
“No, I mean, you’re so successful, Gwen.”
“I am?”
“Yes,” Juliet replied, and they walked up the stairs together. “Seriously, you don’t know, do you?”
“Know what, exactly?”
“Gwen, I was so worried about leaving my dog with a stranger that I was willing to pay all the money I make to find the best dog walker or pet sitter there was, and that’s you.”
“You’re saying I could’ve made more per hour?” Gwen joked.
“I’m serious.”
And Juliet did look serious. Somehow, their lighthearted conversation about coffee and French pressed had turned into a serious one about how Gwen had disappointed her parents.
“Gwen, you’re the top person on that app.”
“It’s a dog-walking app. It’s not like I was at the top of my class at Harvard Medical School.”
“You didn’t just take care of Carly; you loved her.” Juliet turned to her, and they stopped walking just before they arrived at the apartment door. “And you took care of me, too. You made sure that I knew what was going on every step of the way. You even put up cameras for me so that I wouldn’t be stressed out. You took Carly home with you so that she wouldn’t be alone when you didn’t have to do any of that. You could’ve just walked her a few times a day and made sure she had food and water, but you are kind and generous, and you seem to understand animals, and they seem to understand you. Well, at least Carly does, but I read your reviews, and people rave about you like you’re Dr. Dolittle.”
“At least I’d be a doctor.” She shrugged.
“I don’t know what’s up your mom’s butt when it comes to you, but you have a nice apartment in a safe part of the city. You make enough money to take care of yourself. You’re good at your job. You seem to have friends you love, and they seem to love you, too. I think that makes you successful, for whatever that’s worth.”
“It’s worth a lot, actually,” Gwen replied and swallowed hard.
“If you need me to talk to your mom and tell her that, I’d be happy to tell her to leave you the hell alone.”
“I’d love to see that,” Gwen said as she moved to pick up the brown bag of food and unlock the door. “For now, let’s just eat and maybe watch something, if you want. Carly may or may not be obsessed with the animal YouTube channel I put on now.”
“She watches TV?” Juliet asked as she followed Gwen inside the apartment with Carly.
“Was she not supposed to?”
“I never thought to leave it on.”
“Some animals like the background noise when you’re gone and they’re alone. I put it on for her when I was cleaning earlier, and she seemed very interested in the meerkats.”
“Cleaning? Did she make a mess or something?”
“No, I did,” Gwen admitted. “And I didn’t want you to think I was a slob.”
“Are you a slob?”
“Not really. But I’m no neat freak, either.”
Juliet let Carly off the leash, and they both watched the dog run into Gwen’s bedroom and jump all over her neatly made bed.
“Well, there go those decorative pillows.”
CHAPTER 13
“She thought I was into you?” Molly asked.
“And I thought that she might be into you,” Juliet said as they walked back from the store to the office, coffees in hand. “She brought you up a couple of times, and I thought that she might have been trying to get information out of me, like if you had a girlfriend and–”
“I really just wanted to hang out with Carly. But if she was trying to get info about me from you, doesn’t that mean she was really trying to get information about you?”
“That’s a confusing sentence,” she said before taking a sip of her favorite drink that they only sold this time of year.
It wasn’t a pumpkin spice latte. Southern Roastery sold those, of course, and Juliet thought they were okay, but her favorite drink this time of year was a caramel apple latte, light on all the syrups. She loved the hint of tart apple and sweet caramel but still wanted the coffee flavor to make its way through. She even had them make it with an extra shot just in case they went overboard with the syrups, but she rarely had a problem with that here since this was the store closest to the office and had corporate team members going through it every day. It was an honor to be selected to work at this location. They never had to hire externally for it. If someone left, someone else applied internally, and as a result, Juliet always got the best cup of coffee.
“You meant me, right?” Juliet asked. “You’re asking if she really wanted info about me because she likes me?”
“Yeah, you.” Molly laughed a little and added, “She likes you and wanted to see if I was the competition.”
“You really think so? Because I’m not sure, and I’m totally crushing on her right now.”
“You are? That’s great,” Molly said. “You haven’t been even remotely interested in anyone since that ex-girlfriend of yours just up and left. You’re over that, right?”
“I’m very over that, even though I didn’t think I would be at first. It was just hard to understand why she’d suddenly think it wasn’t working, and she wasn’t at all willing to stay and talk after she dumped me. It was like it was totally over for her, and she didn’t want to hear my side of the story or fight for us at all.”
“Maybe she thought you’d convince her to stay.”
“How could I? She had most of her stuff packed and in her car already. She had a place to stay lined up, too. She’d clearly been planning it for a while and hadn’t even bothered to clue me in that she was unhappy. That was the hardest part for me: not that I loved her and missed her like crazy at first, but that she was just done with me. I had some self-esteem issues after that, and it didn’t take long at all for her to move on. I could see that all over social media, and that hurt, too, but I think it was because it felt like she had a head start, and I had no idea. She’d probably been processing our breakup for months, while I was still fully in our committed relationship. She found someone pretty much right away, but I was still stuck on the fact that I hadn’t known. I just felt behind and like an idiot because I knew things weren’t perfect, but I didn’t suspect she’d up and leave.”
“You’re better off for it,” Molly said.
“I know. And I’m glad that we never bought anything together.”
“Carly.”
“Well, I meant property or something that we would’ve had to split up or argue over. She didn’t really want Carly, and Carly’s not property to me.”
“She’s the cutest, and I need a visit, with puppy kisses included.”
“You usually request to hang out with my dog when you’re not feeling so great,” she pointed out. “So, what happened?”
“Nothing. I walked into the parking garage, preparing to head home, but I happened to be there at the exact moment Finley and India were leaving, so I had to see them kiss at India’s car.”
“I’m sorry, Molls.”
“They keep it pretty PG at the office, but I guess that doesn’t apply in the parking garage. India kind of went all-in there, and her hands were under Finley’s shirt, so now I have to live with that image in my head for the rest of my life. Finley, thankfully, pulled away after a few seconds, but I’ve been left thinking about how that kiss probably led to them doing something else that night because it was more than clear what India wanted in those big brown eyes of hers.”
“Maybe you should take some time off or something; go to a beach or do one of those lesbian cruises.”
“Can you honestly picture me on a lesbian cruise? I have a massive crush on a woman, and I hardly talk to her unless it’s about work stuff. If I’m on a ship for a week, I won’t even work up the courage to talk to one person in that time.”
“That’s what the events and drinks are for. Drinks loosen you up. Events give you excuses to talk. You can at least get a break from seeing Finley and India at the office all the time.”
“Since we both know I’m not going on a lesbian cruise anytime soon, let’s get back to you,” Molly replied. “You’re crushing on Gwen, the hot dog walker. Wait. That sounded weird. She doesn’t walk hot dogs.”
“She is hot, though, isn’t she?” Juliet asked before taking another sip.
“Gorgeous. She’s a little older than you, right?”
“Thirty-two. Not a big age difference. I’m almost twenty-eight. So, four years, basically.”
“That’s about the same for Finley and me. I’m turning thirty in a few months, and she won’t turn thirty-five until next August.”
“But you and Finley aren’t together, Molls.”
“Neither are you and Gwen, Jules. One of you would have to ask the other out for you to be doing anything more than flirting. At least, your crush is single.”
“Yeah,” Juliet replied and pulled open the office door, letting Molly walk inside before her. “And I’ll get to see her soon because I have another trip planned, and she’s watching Carly.”
“Not to take away your chances of seeing Gwen, but you know I can always watch Carly for you, right?”
“I know, but I can’t ask you to do that for every trip. I mean, what would I do when you inevitably go on that lesbian cruise and meet the love of your life at bingo? Do they have bingo on lesbian cruises?”
They laughed as they entered the elevator and were still talking about how shy Molly could meet a woman during the swim aerobics class or at a casino. Maybe they’d meet when Molly went down a water slide and landed in the woman’s lap at the bottom. Neither had ever been on a lesbian cruise, so they had to make things up a bit, but it was pretty entertaining.
