“You can’t attend and not share something,” Linda said, and Raven wished she’d been informed of that rule before showing up.
“It doesn’t have to be a big, dark secret,” one of the women insisted.
“Okay, then,” Raven said. “I need help picking my nail polish color for the new week. I was thinking either a canary yellow or an olive.”
“The problem has to be a little meatier than that, sweetie,” Linda said.
Raven scanned the earnest faces in the group, realizing she might get useful advice for her most pressing crisis. “I have a crush on someone, and I need to get over it as quickly as possible.”
It sounded pitiful out loud, but the women nodded understandingly.
“Is it someone in Cedar?” Linda asked, and Raven discerned a slight forward shift everyone made in their seats.
“Oh, no,” Raven quickly said. She would rather dive headfirst into the shallow pool than name Silas. “He’s from back home. A friend of a friend.”
And Raven was glad that no one pressed for further details as they grew silent to ponder a solution.
She was in unfamiliar territory. Her crushes had never been this high stakes, so she couldn’t pursue the connection like she usually might. Regardless of how much she wanted to experience a kiss like the one in the closet again.
“You only have three options, in my opinion,” Danika said, assigning each point a finger. “Get over it by—you know—getting under someone else.”
There was a scattering of agreement and approval at that suggestion.
But Raven would not be attempting that in a small town. She’d end up screwing the guy who handled the salad bar at the grocery store, which seemed like an unnecessary awkwardness to deal with whenever she wanted a garden salad.
“You can also stifle it,” Danika continued. “Crushes are fleeting. If not fed, they tend to wither away.”
Raven nodded. It was true. But unfortunately, that would be a little harder for her since she worked with Silas and saw him almost daily. And if she decided to stay, she’d have to figure out how to manage it.
“What’s the last one?” Raven asked.
“Embrace it,” Danika said, and Raven wanted to scream.
She thanked the woman, knowing she was nowhere closer to figuring out how to handle her predicament.
* * *
The moment Silas opened the door to his brother’s vet clinic, a black lab lumbered towards him and immediately exposed his belly. Silas also didn’t hesitate to bend to give the good boy a rub.
“Levi, for the love of God, you’re giving people the impression I never pet you,” said Ms. Edie, an old Black woman whose razor-sharp tongue was notorious across town.
Silas greeted the older woman, and she paused to assess him and his brother, who’d followed her out of the patient room.
“It’s a wonder how your parents didn’t go broke feeding you boys,” Ms. Edie said.
“Maybe that’s why they were so reluctant to retire,” Isaiah said.
“They still on vacation? When are they coming back?” Ms. Edie asked as she handed Silas Levi’s leash to attach.
“Mid-September,” Isaiah said.
“So they’ll be back in time for the first snowfall, ha! Foul decision,” she said before patting Isaiah and saying, “Okay, I’m off. Thank you for seeing Levi last minute, Dr. Reynolds.”
“It’s not a problem, ma’am.”
“Say hi to that husband of yours for me.”
Silas gave the Labrador a few more scratches before letting him follow his owner out the door.
