Kenny screeched to a stop. “Nine-and-a-half minutes. That’s got to be a record.” He turned in his seat to look back at us, panting as if he’d run a marathon. “Maybe don’t mention this in my review. My boss won’t appreciate the rush order, if you know what I mean.”
“Thanks, man.” Sebastian stopped me as I went for my door. “Come out my side. Yours opens into traffic.”
I slid out after Sebastian as he jogged off with the dogs. “Come on,” he called over his shoulder. “It already started.”
As eager as I was to find out what it was, I rarely jogged for anything that wasn’t a traveling ice cream cart. I followed them into McCarren Park, where a large group of people—and their dogs—took various positions on rubber mats. A couple instructors walked through and arranged the dogs in what looked like stretches.
“When I asked about what to wear,” I said as I approached Sebastian, “you might’ve mentioned this.”
He arranged four mats in the back row, squatting to unroll them. “Why the hell would I?” he asked, glancing up to scan my bare legs from the hem of my dress to my ankles.
Piano played in the background. I helped Sebastian position each dog between us using treats from my Bruno bag to get them to stay. Bruno sat on his haunches, panting as he looked around, probably trying to determine the nearest source of food.
An instructor came by and set bowls of water in front of Opal and Bruno. “Welcome to the class,” she said. “I’m Michelle.”
“How does this work?” I asked, removing my booties.
“We’re here promoting the new doggy gym and daycare facility we’re opening in Union Square,” she said with a smile. “Today, we’re just having fun. Dogs get exercise, treats, and some special attention from me and my partner. Humans get a free class.”
“Don’t tell her it’s free,” Sebastian said, trying and failing to touch his toes. “I don’t want her to think I’m a cheap date.”
“Sorry about that,” Michelle said, positioning herself behind Bruno. “Set an intention for the day, then get into the downward-facing dog position like my colleague at the front.”
“Since I’m in a dress, I think I’ll stick with upward-facing dog,” I said, lying on my stomach so I wouldn’t give the crowd of onlookers a show.
Sebastian leaned forward on his outstretched arms, extending his legs behind him. “But I’ve been dying to see what kind of panties Georgina Keller wears—if any.”
“You should’ve asked. George wears boxer briefs like most guys.”
Sebastian scowled, obviously uncomfortable in his position. “Very funny.”
The teacher got Bruno to roll onto his back, then took his paws and stretched him. I looked past her. “Here’s something you can use in the article. The right girl won’t care if you spend money on her,” I told Sebastian. “That’s the point of planning around her interests. That’s what’ll impress her—not how much you paid for Pilates.”
“Puplates,” Sebastian corrected me.
“We just call it yoga for dogs,” Michelle said.
“Really?” Sebastian frowned. “Not even doga?”
“No.”
He tsked. “Missed opportunity.”
I arched my back, lifting my head to the sky.
“Nice form,” Michelle said before returning to the front.
“Very nice,” Sebastian agreed.
“Thank you.” Feeling Sebastian’s stare on me, I fixed my dress and pushed my hips back over my heels for child’s pose. “For the record,” I said, “I’d prefer a fun, ‘cheap’ date to a boring, expensive one any day.”
“Yeah?”
“Earlier, when you said that stuff about having an enviable lifestyle . . . do you only see it as a way to advance your career? Or do you also use it to impress women?”
“Of course I do. Mostly because I didn’t have much growing up. At least in a material sense.”
With my arms stretched to the top of the mat, I peered at him from under my bicep. He’d alluded to that last time we’d been at a park. Though my curiosity grew, it didn’t seem like the right conversation while he had his ass in the air.
“It won’t matter to the right girl,” I said.
“Salary doesn’t matter to you?”
“When dating someone?” I made a slightly above average income and had still been taken advantage of. I’d never mooch the way Neal had done to me. “Nope.”
“No—your salary. You asked if having money and status is important to me. Is it to you?”
The moment Vance had brought money into our meeting, my outlook had shifted. It wasn’t the number itself that tempted me, but the security of it. “I’m not trying to prove you wrong,” I said. “Do you want to meet a girl whose interest in you correlates to what you spend on her?”
Watching the instructor at the front of the lawn, Sebastian kept his palms on the mat as he attempted to walk his feet to meet them. He gave up and skipped ahead, standing with his hands turned out at his sides. “In my experience, it’s not a good sign.”
Instead of feeling superior that I’d made my point, I just hated that Sebastian had experienced that at all. Maybe the women he’d dated were used to a certain lifestyle and had made him feel he had to support that. “I’m sorry I assumed you were something you’re not,” I said as I touched my palms in front of my heart.
He didn’t respond right away, mirroring my hands. “I’m sorry I dismissed you before I’d even officially met you.”
I pressed the flat of my right foot against the inside of my left knee. “I’m sorry you’re putting yourself through puplates for me.”
“I’ve gone through worse to get laid,” he said in a wobbly tree pose, and my balance faltered.
I knew Sebastian well enough at this point to recognize the teasing in his voice, but it seemed the wall between us could be coming down. The question was what we’d find on the other side—and what we’d be to each other without a line to separate us.
18
Georgina
Following an afternoon of playing in portable sprinklers, mastering the dog gym’s mini obstacle course, and giving Bruno more treats than he normally got in a week, I parked on a bench to clean up and feed the dogs. Bruno took his pills with a little peanut butter, too exhausted to fight with me.
Sebastian had excused himself twenty minutes earlier, and when he finally returned, I almost didn’t recognize him in a crisp, black button-down, jeans, and his hair styled off his face. Only the beginning of his five o’clock shadow gave him away as the same Sebastian I’d started the morning with. He carried a wicker picnic basket and what looked like Pendleton blankets rolled under one arm.
Sitting on the bench with Opal between my legs, I curled my toes in my boots. He looked so handsome. “What’s going on?” I asked.
He held up the basket. “I promised you supper.”
Sebastian looked like the kind of date I’d expect to find at my front door. “Did you say supper?”
“Yea, sometimes the Boston in me surfaces. First-date jitters.” He held out his hand. “Come on. This is the last night of the outdoor film series.”
I glanced past him to see people setting out blankets under a screen at the opposite end of the lawn. I’d been to my fair share of movies in the park, but never on a date, which was arguably the height of romance in the city. Sebastian had really pulled out all the stops to change my opinion of him. Was it just for the article, or was there more to it than that?
I took his hand tentatively. Were first-date jitters even a thing for someone like Sebastian? Because hearing that, now I had them too. “What do you think the feature is tonight?” I asked as we crossed the lawn with the dogs.
“Surely some kind of fairy tail.”
“You mean like The Little Furmaid.”
He snickered. “Brokebark Mountain.”
My heels sank in the grass, so I stooped to remove them. “Love in the Time of Collars,” I said. “Featuring Sandra Bulldog and Drool Barrymore.”