Page 15 of True Sight

“It’s a dog,” Hank says through a laugh, moving his face away from Annie’s relentless licking.

“I see it’s a dog,” Kolbi starts again. “Why the hell did you bring it to my house? Once Magnolia sees it she’s going to?—”

“Oh my gosh, a puppy!” Magnolia’s voice shrieks as she comes in from the living room. Annie looks at her and takes off to say hello. When the two of them meet, Magnolia falls to the floor to hug her. “Ohh, can we get one, Jack,pleaseeee?” she whines.

“Want one,” Kolbi finally finishes his thought with a sigh and purses his lips at me. He crosses the room from the kitchen to where Magnolia is sitting on the floor petting Annie and sits down next to her.

“She’s so cute, can we get one? Please, please?” Magnolia begs.

“We can talk about it, flower,” my friend says before planting a kiss on his wife’s cheek. They had eloped earlier this spring and are now disgustingly happy just like Hank and Bailey are.Rather it be them than me any day.

“I’m surprised blondie hasn’t come in yet to—” Hank begins before the voice of his own wife cuts him off.

“Is that a dog?” she exclaims, finally stepping into the room.

“Never mind,” Hank finishes.

“I thought I heard something going on out here. Whose sweet angel is this?” She looks around the room.

“Conrad’s,” her husband, and my best friend, inform her.

“Conrad’s?” Her voice tips up as she looks at me. I can see the questions she wants to ask written all over her face but before she can get any of them out a new voice enters the room.

“Sorry we’re late, there was a situation at Butcher and Block we had to take care of,” Ophelia explains as Malcolm follows closely behind her. He has a shit-eating grin on his face and he’s looking at her ass as they come in.

“She calls it a situation, I call it a really good time.” He pumps his eyebrows at me as his smirk grows.

“You two did not have sex in the restaurant,” Bailey chastises, looking up at them from where she’s sitting next to Magnolia and Kolbi. “People eat there, you know.”

“No, sweetie, we didn’t have sex in the restaurant,” Ophelia explains, glancing at Malcolm and matching his smirk. “We did it in the back of Malcolm’s truck in the alley way.”

“Gross, we don’t need to know this,” I sigh irritably.

“Hey, who’s dog?” Malcolm asks, finally noticing Annie who is belly up in the middle of the circle my friends have formed around her. She’s never looked happier and I find the joy I feel about that annoying.

“Conrad’s,” everyone answers at once.

“You got a dog?” he asks, turning his head to look at me. He’s standing beside me and the only one not petting my forty-five pound surprise.

“Seems like that would be the case seeing as how there’s a dog on the floor right now.” I flip my palm up and wave it in Annie’s direction.

“But why?”

There it is—the question I’ve been dreading. The question I knew I would get but at the same time, the question I’d hoped to avoid. I intentionally neglected to tell my friends about Annie over the last few days because I didn’t want to answer this specific question. I knew once I told them the truth, so many other questions would come and I didn’t have the patience nor will to answer them.

You’re such a grump.

You really need to relax.

Being so uptight isn’t good for your libido.

Their words ring out in my head and I decide that if I’m going to truly work onnotbeing everything they tell me I am, a little bit of honesty will need to happen.

“Because my therapist told me to.”

Everyone freezes and it feels like all the air has been sucked out of the room. All fourteen eyes are on me and the only noise to be heard is Annie’s excited pants. After a few beats, my friends and their respective partners exchange uneasy glances. Bailey, always the brave one, speaks first.

“Your therapist?”