A Side Effect of Celebrity

Six

"Is this Claire? Claire Shaffer – from the deli counter at Eden Organic's?"

She wasn't sure that she was breathing at that male voice – supple and deep and slightly nervous. More from surprise than anything else. It had been several days since she'd handed Jay Dawson her cell number – long enough that she hadn't really expected that he'd ever contact her.

"Uh, yes. It is. Is this Jay?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Hi."

There was a distinct smile in his voice. "Hi. Are you busy right now? I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee like we talked about a few days ago?"

Claire cursed her luck as she crossed the street. Brandon's apartment loomed on the other side of the road – twenty-three floors up. "I—I am. I'm sorry. I'm working."

"Oh." Was that disappointment she heard?

She entered Brandon's apartment and dashed for the elevator. "Can you give me a second? I'm just about to enter an elevator. I might lose you."

Jay sounded surprised. "Um, sure. Yeah."

The call, as she expected, disconnected the second the elevator jolted into movement. When she reached the twenty-third floor, she quickly redialed the last number that had called her. On the first ring, Jay picked up.

"I didn't know deli counters had elevators," he said dryly.

Claire laughed as she headed down the hallway to Brandon's apartment. "I'm not at the deli. I have a second job walking dogs. You caught me just as I was heading to pick up a few clients."

Swiftly, she unlocked the door with the key Brandon had left for her and was met by two dogs: the bouncy Australian Shepherd was Spaghetti while the wiry Jack Russel was Meatball.

"Say hello boys," she purred to them as she held the phone out slightly. As if they knew what she wanted, both dogs barked. Meatball jumped up, his paws digging into her leg as Spaghetti spun in excited circles.

On the other end of the line, Jay laughed. "Seems like you've got some excited clientele."

"Excited is one word for it."

Claire pushed her way into the apartment, scooting around the dogs to grab their leashes from where Brandon's boyfriend Marcus had left them that morning. It had become their habit over the last two days – Marcus walking the dogs in the morning while Claire took the afternoon shift when he was at work. Marcus was crashing at the apartment while Brandon was out of town but due to his work schedule, he'd be home late in the evening. Too long for the dogs to go without a second walk of the day from Claire.

At least they were excited to see her. Spaghetti trailed in her wake, not moving an inch from her side as if she would disappear in the span of one step.

"Are they friendly dogs?" Jay asked. "Good with people and pets?"

"Yeah. The guy I'm walking them for says they're total angels. Spaghetti sometimes plays a bit rough, but Meatball shoves him back into his place easily enough."

"Great names."

Now it was Claire who was laughing as she scooped up the leashes and bent to clip them onto collars. "Right?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line as if Jay was debating something, and then he said, "What if I come and join you?"

Claire hesitated. "I'd be glad for the company but...I'm heading to Central Park. It's near the apartment these boys are from so that's where I've been taking them but it'll probably be pretty busy."