“There you are. Come meet Peter.” She walked close and leaned in to whisper, “Don’t kill me, but he’s got a friend without a date tonight and I said I had a friend without a date tonight. Please come with.”
I groaned quietly. “Don’t do this to me, Rachel,” I begging back. “This won’t end well and you’ll probably never forgive me.”
“Come on… please?” she pleaded, sitting on the bed next to me. “I really like this one.”
I closed my book. “That’s the problem. Remember what I said? It’s always a guy that ruins a friendship. I don’t want to go out tonight.” I looked at Clay from the corner of my eye. He glared at Rachel. Not good. Too human. I nudged him with a foot and distracted Rachel by adding quietly, “I like having a friend.”
Rachel smiled and tried to reassure me by saying, “If he hits on you, then it wasn’t meant to be. Don’t worry so much.” She pulled me off the bed and I reluctantly followed with Clay close behind.
Peter, a pleasant looking man with light blonde hair and blue eyes, stood when we walked into the living room. Standing an inch shorter than Rachel, he seemed her polar opposite. He smiled at Rachel, having eyes only for her. I sagged with relief.
“Peter, this is Gabby. Gabby, this is Peter. He’s going to med school. I bumped into him in the library last week. Peter, why don’t you tell her about Scott, while I go get dressed?”
Rachel left the room in a rush probably so I couldn’t retreat myself. I smothered a grin watching Peter’s gaze follow Rachel from the room. It took him a moment to collect himself.
“Nice to meet you, Gabby.”
“You too. Want to sit?” I motioned him back to the couch, and took the single chair for myself. Clay settled himself on the floor between us. “This is Clay.”
“He’s huge,” Peter said, appearing to notice Clay for the first time.
A huge pain in the butt, I thought without any malice. “Yeah,” I said instead. “So, who’s Scott?”
“Oh, a friend of mine,” Peter said looking up from Clay. “He’s also in med school. We had plans to go to O’Donell’s tonight for dinner and a drink or two. Then, I ran into Rachel and invited her with. We thought it’d be more fun if you could join us.”
Rachel waltzed back into the room at that moment. Amazingly, she had already changed into a skirt and complimenting silky top. Hearing Peter’s last comment she said, “Of course you will, won’t you, Gabby?”
Cornered by two love struck fools who probably wouldn’t even notice if I went with or not if it weren’t for the third wheel Scott, I agreed. “Sure, but I need to be home early enough to let Clay out.” A lame excuse, but I needed to prep the idea now so I would have an out later. A public restaurant… this wouldn’t be enjoyable.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine for that little while.” Rachel waved her hand dismissively at Clay. Clay huffed, but she didn’t notice. Instead, she shooed me toward my room saying, “Go get dressed.”
I stood to go to my room, but Clay leapt to his feet in front of me. I stepped to the right to go around him, but he mirrored my move.
Rachel laughed from behind me. “Come here Clay,” she called cajolingly. “Come here and let Gabby get ready.” She squatted down and patted her leg.
I’d seen her do this a few times before and Clay usually, grudgingly responded. Not this time though. He kept his gaze focused on mine and copied my feinted attempts to get around him.
“I’ve never seen him act like this,” Rachel commented to Peter.
I kept my narrowed gaze on Clay.
“I’m surprised you have such a wild looking dog. It seems too big compared to the house and the two of you.” Peter eyed Clay warily.
Giving up, I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around his thick neck pretending to hug him so I could whisper to him. “I’m not crazy about the idea either, but you have to let me go, and stop acting weird.”
I stood and scratched him behind the ear as a pet owner would do. “Ready to be good Clay?” He turned and trotted into my room. Nope, not ready to be good.
Rachel laughed again. She knew I usually kicked him out when I wanted to change and had teased me about it already. I’d pointed out she wouldn’t know how awkward it felt because he never tried to watch her change, but she’d only continued to tease me.
Resolutely, I followed Clay into my room and closed the door. I could just barely hear Peter and Rachel talking as they waited for me. Clay sat on my bed, as usual, watching me intently.
I folded my arms, and whispered, “I am not changing in front of you.” He just settled down onto my comforter and continued to watch me with an eerie canine smile. “Fine. I’ll change in the bathroom.”
I went to my closet and started looking at my clothes already knowing very few things in there compared to the style Rachel wore. The skirt I bought a few weeks ago would look nice, but would scream ‘come hit on me’. Biting my lip, I reached for the skirt. Clay started growling fiercely behind me.