“Andie,” Maya said, and I could hear the anxiety in her voice, even as it was masked by a layer of cheerfulness. “Stay calm and—” Whatever came next was lost in another wave of barking, as she tried to get closer to me while simultaneously holding back her three dogs, who were all straining against their leashes, trying to get closer to the excitement.
I saw the guy finally catch up with his dog, and then everything seemed to happen at once. Bertie jumped up at me again, just as he grabbed the leash to pull his dog back, and Jasper tried to follow. I held on to Jasper’s leash as hard as I could, and he was pulled back, making a kind of gagging cough sound, and I silently apologized to him while I wobbled on my heels but managed to regain my balance, thrilled that I’d somehow remained upright. I looked over and saw that the guy was not so lucky—he was on the ground, trying to push himself up to standing, while his dog made matters worse, running in circles around his feet and tangling the leash even further. All the dogs were barking like crazy now, though I was relieved to hear it was back to happy excitement barking and not angry, territorial barking.
“Hey!” Maya yelled, and then she let out a piercing two-finger whistle. All the dogs stopped barking immediately, and the sudden silence was surprising, like I’d forgotten what it was like not to have that sound track. “Sit,” Maya said firmly, and her three dogs sat simultaneously. Maya gave Jasper a stern look, and he sat too. She looked at the other dog, who just wagged his tail back at her. “Sit,” she said, but the other dog tried to jump up, like he was under the impression it was opposite day.
“I’m sorry about that,” the guy said. He pushed himself to standing, wincing slightly. He straightened his glasses and looked over at me, and his ears turned bright red again. The guy hadn’t gotten any less cute since I’d last seen him, and I was glad he was the one who’d wiped out this time, and not me. However, there was now the fact that I was walking dogs in a dress and heels, which I had no doubt looked beyond strange. “Hey,” he said. “Nice to, um . . .” But there didn’t seem to be anything to follow this, and his cheeks flushed and he gave me an embarrassed smile. I realized I was staring before I made myself look away. Dimples like that should honestly not be allowed.
“You guys know each other?” Maya asked, shooting me a smile.
“No,” I said at the exact same time the guy said, “Yeah.”
There was an awkward pause that I was about to jump in and fill—it wasn’t like it would take all that long, and then we could get back to walking the dogs—when the guy said, “We—uh, the other day. Bertie got loose, but he was rescued by . . .” There was an expectant pause, and I realized he was waiting for my name.
“Andie,” I said quickly, then shook my head, since Maya was starting to look impressed. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“It was,” the guy said emphatically, though mostly to the asphalt, not to me. “I would have been in serious trouble if anything happened to him.”
“Bertie, huh?” Maya asked, leaning over to scratch the dog’s ears. “Nice to meet you, buddy.”
“And I’m Clark,” the guy said.
I looked up at him as he said his name. It seemed to hang in the air between us, like I could see it in a cartoon bubble, inked and shaded. I wasn’t sure I’d ever met anyone with that name before, and it echoed in my mind for a moment, calling up dark-haired reporters with secret identities and handsome movie stars in black-and-white. Clark. I decided it fit him, which I realized a second later was ridiculous, since I didn’t even know this guy.
“I, um, thought you said you didn’t live around here,” he said, and I could tell that he was nervous, his voice fading out at the end of the sentence like a radio station getting fainter.
“I don’t,” I said, looking down at Jasper and trying to mentally communicate that now would be a great time to start walking again, but Jasper just yawned and scratched his ear with his back paw. “The thing is—” I took a breath to start to explain, then stopped when I realized I didn’t know what to say. That I was on a job interview for something I wasn’t even sure I wanted?
Maya jumped in when the silence threatened to stretch from thoughtful to awkward. “We’re taking these guys on a walk.”
“Are you . . . I mean, are you a dog walker?” he asked, crossing his arms and then uncrossing them. “Or do you just have a lot of dogs?” He was wearing another T-shirt with a slogan on it; this one had what looked like a picture of a British phone box, but blue, and it read THE DOCTOR IS IN. This made about as much sense to me as his other shirt had, but I figured Tom or Bri would know what it meant.
“The former,” Maya said, surprising me. I guess I hadn’t expected super-proper language from her. It seemed to go against the tattoos. “Dave and Maya’s Pet Care. I’m Maya.”
“Wow, that’s—” Clark said, and then fumbled with the leash again as Bertie tried to run in the direction of the pug.
“Try looping it,” Maya said, holding up one of her wrists. “It helps you get a better grip.”
“Thanks,” he said, doing this immediately and then straightening his glasses. “I haven’t had a ton of experience . . . you know, with dogs.” Jasper jumped to his feet suddenly, looking directly across the road. Since I couldn’t see anything, I wondered if it was just a squirrel—or the hope of a squirrel. Either way, I tightened my grip on his leash, just in case.