Rescued

Chapter 1: Reunion

*** Charlotte's POV ***
Present day

"So Morris's boss was asking if I had any single friends. I told him about you." My best friend and co-worker Danielle, Dani for short, informed me.

"Don't know why you bothered." I responded, grabbing a chart and disappearing to the waiting area to do an intake for an adorable set of scotty terriers. I let myself get showered in wet kisses and wiry white hairs. I definitely like well-visits as opposed to the other reasons we see animals.

I came out of their room with a giant grin on my face. Dani was still there, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. I started preparing the vaccines those two pups were due to get.

"Don't you even want to hear about this guy? He's got tall, handsome, and rich down to a science. And he works with his hands." Dani pushed, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Not interested." I told her matter-of-factly.

"How about if I told you that he was thinking about getting a rescue dog?" She floated out there, knowing that she would snag some attention that way.

"What's he looking for?" I asked cautiously.

"How about I plan a chance for you two to casually meet and you can ask him about it?" She smiled her dazzling smile, knowing that it wins over even the toughest clients.

For a half a second, I considered it, but then the reality of my weekend hit. "I can't. I'm gone all weekend."

"After work one night next week then." She persisted.

I sighed and left her hopeful in the back galley. I entered a room with a tough customer, a cat who was notorious for biting techs. Great.

I managed to come out generally unscathed, and thankfully Dani gets pulled into a couple of different things so I don't have to give her an answer about this set-up. I'm not prude, I just don't see the point.

The few guys that I've dated have never measured up to the one who stole my heart back in my freshman year of high school. They were all impatient and self-absorbed, not even in the same league as Harley. I was often made to feel like a freak because of my commitment to animal rescue, and maybe I was. There were times that I much preferred the company of aninals to people. They were just less complicated.

I lived alone, but had a rescue dog named Murray, two cats - Minx and Joey, and a parakeet nicknamed Mr.
Bonanza. It was a motley crew, but they were mine and I was theirs. Why add an unfamiliar man to our mix? We worked.

I ate cereal for dinner and left milk at the end for the cats.  Murray and I cuddled on the couch to doze off watching some nature show on one of the streaming services. And Mr. Bonanza woke me two minutes before my alarm, right on cue. We had a dynamic that worked for us all. Why throw that out of whack?

While I tried to convince myself that I had everything that I could possibly need to be happy, I watched other people find their happiness in others. I was at that age where all my friends were either getting married or having babies. Gannon's wife was expecting their third. Dani was convinced her boyfriend of two years, Morris, was going to propose any day now. And my social media feed was full of all these people I knew but didn't really, living out their happily ever-afters.

I wasn't dumb enough to just accept the fairytale endings, though. I knew how hard these folks worked to contain the reality, the messiness of getting the picture-worthy family. You don't see the failed dates, the awkward first encounters, the heartbreak. No thanks.