“Sean Sale.” Brett’s tone had been steady but resonated with feeling. “I still think of the day you first agreed to go out with me as the luckiest day of my life. But now . . .” He’d swallowed and moved a little closer, voice dropping lower. “Now, I’m hoping you’ll make this one the luckiest day ever. Sean, will you marry me?”
Of course he’d said yes, and Brett had produced the matching bands.
“What, no diamond?” Sean mock pouted.
An hour later, when they were in bed, exhausted from their celebrations, Brett had presented Sean with another ring. A special ring. With a diamond.
When people lamented the lack of a diamond in his very masculine and formal engagement ring, Sean would merely smile secretively and murmur about how diamonds weren’t the be-all and end-all of a relationship.
Sharing that secret smile with himself in the toilet mirror, Sean decided he looked amazing, picked up his backpack, and headed out to run to the library. He really needed to study and get a head start on a few assignments. He’d already delayed enough subjects so he was six months behind on his dental assistant diploma. At the start, Brett had been excited about Sean joining him in his surgery and had offered to help with the coursework. Since Sean had started dragging his feet, Brett’s enthusiasm had taken a dive. Which made Sean feel more than a little guilty for not being more eager.
It wasn’t that Sean didn’t like what he was learning. He did. Mostly. It was more that he actually liked chatting with patients. Even though Brett joked Sean could talk with a mouth full of cotton rolls, very few people were coherent with a veritable forest of mirrors, scalers, and probes sticking out of their gob. And Sean much preferred having two-way conversations.
He’d promised Brett, though, hence his declaration that morning that he would be at the library all afternoon. But the sun was high overhead, the sky a shade Sean wouldn’t say was unlike the colour of his eyes, and the air was clear and warm. Okay, it was stinking hot and there was no sign of rain, but it would be an actual sin to waste such a pretty day sitting inside looking at pictures of gum disease. Still, it would make Brett so happy if he did the work.
Sean wove through the people waiting for the bus, down the hill, and past the private hospital. A couple of skateboarders—most likely students at the uni across the road—shared the footpath with him, the rattle of their boards a counterpart to the slap of his sneakers on the cement. He watched the students speed ahead of him, probably heading somewhere fun, their study finished for the day. It didn’t feel fair that he had to work full-time and also study and miss out on days like today. Maybe he could study at home instead of the library. Sit on the balcony in the sun and fresh air, with the view of the ocean right there.
He crossed Smith Street at the lights with Kumbari Road and cut through the winding backstreets, still vaguely heading towards the library near Australia Fair Shopping Centre. Except that when he reached a certain side street, his feet automatically took him around the corner, towards Tony and Ross’s house.
Decision made, even if subconsciously, Sean jogged up to a low-set house with a short brick fence out the front he barely had to change pace to hop over. As he went across the front lawn, dogs started barking from the backyard. Usually, by the time he’d reached the front door, Ross would have yelled at them to shut up and been there to greet Sean with Reginald.
Today, however, the dogs kept up the racket, and Ross didn’t open the front door. Sean wasn’t greeted with an excited white-and-tan floof bouncing on the end of his leash while Ross tried to instil some obedience into him. Maybe Ross had gone out. Sean had, after all, said he wouldn’t be picking Reginald up until after five today, and it was only one thirty now.
There was a note pegged to the screen door with Sean’s name on it, however. He pulled it free and read, Reggie’s around the side. Find another sitter.
“What the fudgeballs?” Sean pulled the paper free and turned it over, hoping for more of an explanation.
Ross had been their dog-sitter ever since his partner, Tony, had joined Brett’s surgery as a