Natural Selection (15 page)

Blast it
! Why hadn’t she called or returned any of his calls?

Chapter
10

Foul Play

After a restless night, Emilia gave up on sleep, getting dressed and driving to the animal clinic before the sun was even up. The overnight caretakers told her that she had to wait for the vet, or at least the receptionist, but she didn’t mind as much as they seemed to think she would. The fact was that after a night tossing and turning in bed, thinking about Kasper and worrying about her dog, she was glad for a change of scenery, grateful for the fresh air.

So she sat outside the veterinarian’s office, phone in hand and hoping for a phone call from her revived lover as she already knew a text message would be out of his league. Despite her distress over Tut, that thought kept her content as she watched the sun come up and over the college campus.

“Miss Ward?”

Consumed in her memory of the night before, Emilia startled as the vet, who wore fish and bone printed scrubs, stuck his head out the door, waving for her to come inside.

“Is my dog okay? Is he doing any better? Worse?”

The vet led Emilia down the long corridor, reeling with the sound of chirping birds and fighting cats. And it was only as she walked into the observation room to see Tut howling at the other dogs that she felt completely relieved.

“Oh thank God.” She rushed him and knelt down in front of the cage Tut had been
assigned, tapping the glass playfully to get him to calm down. “Hey buddy, how are you?”

He howled and wagged his stumpy tail.

“He’s been doing much better over the last few hours,” the vet said, glancing at her clipboard. “You can take him home as soon as we finish the paperwork.”

“Did you figure out what’s wrong with him? Is he sick?” She stood to rise, her hands looking for the cage’s lock. As far as she was concerned, she couldn’t cuddle her pet fast enough.

“Considering his age and history, Tut here seems to be in good shape. The only thing we found truly abnormal were his blood and fecal samples.”

Emilia let Tut rush her and laughed as he nuzzled her neck.

“He tested positive for iron toxicity.”

“Iron poisoning?”

“Yes.” The vet nodded. “We flushed his system and gave him some blood stabilizers to regulate his system.”

Well
, iron poisoning would account for the vomiting and Tut being more lethargic than usual—his lack of enthusiasm for walks.

“How could he have gotten that?”
she asked. “I don’t keep any supplements like that around…”

“Do you have hand warmers? Maybe a potted plant with heavy fertilizer?”

Emilia shook her head.

“Well, he
’s lucky,” the vet told her. “Any higher and the damage could have been permanent.”

Paranoid, but not unwilling to admit it, Emilia tossed out all of Tut’s food and treats, purchasing brand new batches. She was willing to admit that her dog had somehow gotten iron poisoning—how many times
had she heard about the very same thing happening to other dogs? Yet, in an apartment without plants and only an untampered multivitamin bottle, she failed to see how it could have happened. Regardless, she spent that first hour after bring Tut home searching and going through her medicine cabinet, reading every food label she could find, only to give up without any results.

Maybe
, she reasoned, there was a dog food recall she hadn’t known about.

Tut’s eyes
, meanwhile, darted to the top of the refrigerator where his treats used to be and his empty bowl. Clearly not satisfied with his half serving of new dog cereal, he whined and whistled, begging Emilia every time she walked past.

“Sorry
, buddy, we have to keep your food intake moderate for a day or two.”

He whined
again and stared back at his empty bowl.

Knowing he would need to be observed for at
least a day, Emilia called out of work—much to Elaine and Paula’s distress. Still, once she explained the circumstances and assured them she would be at Belhurst Castle early to supervise the rental decorations and setting up, they pacified considerably and let her go. It was, after all, the only time she had ever taken a day off.

After distracting herself and Tut with a walk
, she returned to her apartment and cracked open the books. Naturally, with the pretense of her crisis being over, her mind returned to Kasper and she struggled to get into her studies. Should she call him yet, or would that be too desperate? Would he even be awake yet? At what point would it be an appropriate time to call? Moreover, what if he wanted to see her today? Surely it would have to be at her place considering she couldn’t leave Tut alone. Instantly her eyes saw the pile of dirty laundry gathered in that space between her bed and nightstand, the layers of dust that had collected on the ceiling fan.

Emilia
scrambled to make amends, forgetting her books and working to straighten up her kitchen and bedroom area. She changed her bed sheets and withdrew her small vacuum from out of hiding, cleared the dirty dishes from the sink and gave the shower a quick scrub, and when all was said and done, her small living space looked and felt cleaner than it had in a rather long time, giving her leave to lay on the sofa for a few minutes with Tut.

She had only intended to rest her eyes…

When she woke up it was nearly dark out again and her back was stiff from trying to arrange her
body to fit next to Tut’s on the sofa. Uncaring for her discomfort however, he stretched himself out until his paws were pushing her into the steel spine of the sofa’s back. Emilia winced, stretching as she shoved Tut away from her. He protested with a heavy yawn and headed for his bowl with his tail wagging—a sure sign that he was almost certainly recovered.

Emilia smiled and gave him a cup of food
, only to curse when she saw how she had left her laptop open and unplugged. Now, the power button blinked bright red in her darkening apartment and she cursed again for letting the battery be so mistreated.

As Tut ate, she sat back down and held down the power button to activate the screen. After she heard the soft humming of the fan
, she wiped the sleep from her eyes. The paper she had been working on had saved itself, but what was more alarming than that was the bouncing e-mail logo at the bottom of the screen. Despite how refreshed she felt, she rolled her eyes as she clicked on the icon. What did Elaine want now? What was the cause of panic today?

Instead of a series of e-mails from her employer however
, there was only spam and a file from someone she hadn’t heard from in a year.

Greetings Ms. Ward,

It has
come to my understanding that you and a mutual friend of ours have become reacquainted over the last month. If so, I advise you to consider the events of the previous year and the chaos that followed. Perhaps you are not aware of the destruction you left in your wake when you went to pursue the remainder of your studies? This is understandable, considering how the lot of us were forbidden to both initiate and receive contact from you. Therefore, allow me to both educate you and express my concern about the current situation.

You are deeply loved
, Emilia Ward. And though it was once my deepest wish that our mutual friend find some happiness in this world, his fondness for you causes him to think irrationally and influences him to use self-harm as a coping mechanism. The single lack of response from you alone seems to be enough to distress him into fits of panic. At this very moment he is drastically upset, bordering on manic as a result of a tryst between the two of you.

Keeping this in mind, I advise you b
e kind, Emilia Ward. Our friend is a grave deal more fragile than he pretends to be, and you are, as they say—holding all of the cards. Also, please note that as a result of a scheduling conflict, I will be unable to attend this fundraiser that the two of you have been organizing. I trust you, however, to observe that our friend is looking forward to this event in the extreme, and the potential for disappointment from you to him is great. Please take this into consideration before making any decisions on your part.

Additionally, I would appreciate your gesture of eliminating this correspondence after reading it, as I believe we are both familiar with the extent of our mutual friend’s temper.

Most Graciously,

Esq. Aasif Shiraz (JD, LL.M)

There was the slightest hesitation
after finishing the e-mail before Emilia rushed to the nightstand, where her phone lay charging. Sure enough, she had three missed calls from “Mr. Weber” and a single text message from Claudette.

Emilia cursed herself and everything in her that had made her sleep through her ringtone, not to mention the worry she had caused Kasper. It was all too fresh in her mind how sensitive he could be—how thin-skinned he was at the slightest
sign of rejection. 

“Emilia, praise Allah. Are you al
l right? Where are you? Where are you right this
very
moment?”

If there was any doubt of Kasper’s concern, it was immediately redacted by the sound of his voice when he picked up the phone. For the second time that evening, Emilia cursed herself.

“Kasper, calm down. I’m fine and I’m at my apartment. What’s wrong?”

“I—” He paused and sighed into the phone, and on the other end of the line
, Emilia bit her lip. “Forgive me, my little peach. When I did not hear from you after our engagement yesterday, I feared the worst.”

Emilia hit herself upside the head.
Of course he did.

“I’m sorry
, Kasper. Tut’s been sick, so I didn’t sleep last night—”

“As long as you are al
l right,” he said, his voice cracking a little.

“Of course I am. Is there a reason I shouldn’t
be?”

He mumbled something like, “every bit the foolish girl…”

She laughed at his natural propensity towards frustration. It never seemed to take much from him.

“As long as you are not making anyone else as exasperated as you make me, then I should think not.”

“So you were worried because…?”

“Because,” he sighed with irritation
, “when you did not respond to my phone calls and that blubbery woman told me you had not been to the canine housing field today, I presumed that foul play had befallen you.”

“Not me,” she said
, trying not to giggle. “Just Tut.”

“Ah—”

“If you were so worried about me, then why didn’t you just come over here?” she offered.

“Well
, I-I…”

“Kasper?”

“I am already here—just outside of your apartment complex.”

“You are?”
she said, half-laughing. “Why don’t you just come up? Why didn’t you?”

“I—well, I considered
you were otherwise engaged or that perhaps the sight of your vehicle was a deception and you were out socializing with your friends. Either way, I had hoped you were unavailable.”

“You wanted me to be unavailable?”

“It was better than the alternative.”

“No
,” she said, becoming serious again. “I’ve just been keeping an eye on Tut all day. I would have called you sooner but I fell asleep.”

“Tired from yesterday’s activities
, I presume?”

She loved the increase of confidence in his voice, how it swirled with his normally deep tone and created a melodic tone.

“Don’t be so indecent,” she scolded. “I am a lady, you know.”

“Oh yes
, I do know…”

“Kasper!”

He chuckled warmly at her response. “You are alone then?”

“I am
.”

“Would you like not to be?”

She considered his proposition and was instantly divided by the choices. If she invited him up, they would almost certainly make love again—an act that she was more than willing to repeat. And yet, if she did, there was also the risk that he would grow tired of her from their frequent interaction. Was it even possible to get bored with such fantastic love-making? Would he grow weary of her company faster?

She shook her head—that
seemed an unlikely scenario. But what about her paper-thin walls and the small matter of her needing to keep an eye on Tut—a task she would definitely be distracted from if Kasper was around?

“Maybe we should wait until tomorrow night
.”

“The gala is tomorrow night.” The way he said it nearly resembled a question.

“I know. And being with you will just give me something to look forward to during all the chaos. Besides, if I have to go into work or take Tut to the vet again—”

“I understand
.” he said. “To be truthful, I am greatly revitalized just to hear your voice.”