Page 29 of Passion

That shit hit me in the heart so hard. “No. I don’t regret being paired with perfection. Giselle, you are perfect for me. I just hate this shit that you’re going through with Clayton. Do I wish we didn’t have to deal with that shit? Yes. I’m sure your answer would be the same. I know the kids’ well-being is your priority, but kids are resilient. Your mom is a therapist. She could help Kizzie and Dakota through it.”

“I know. I just don’t want to put them through it if I don’t have to. They are used to splitting time between their dad and me, but they’ve always seen us on good terms. We’ve disagreed at times, but it was never anything like this. I’m trying to be understanding and patient, but like you, it’s getting harder by the day. I’ll endure anything, though, to make sure my babies come out unscathed.”

I nodded as I decided to let the conversation go. I took a sip of my strawberry lemonade and retreated within my thoughts. Losing her was the last thing I wanted, but I felt like that was where we were headed. She was going to leave me to appease Clayton’s pitiful ass feelings. She was looking at it as protecting her kids, but this was all about him having control over her and using the kids as leverage.

I wouldn’t put up with it for long. If she didn’t leave, I would eventually have to let go… let her life go back to how it was before me. There was so much potential between the two of us. I thought having her would make me better. Her being with me had already made me better. My core was softer. I was more patient and freer to express my feelings. I’d never been the expressive type, unless someone had pissed me off. I didn’t have a problem expressing my anger or irritation.

But love? That had never happened until now. I was cool by myself, but like Fab and Neyo had said in that song, she made me better. She didn’t know that since she had never met the old Gentry, but if things didn’t change or if I didn’t see any progress being made in the situation, I would have to let go. That shit wasn’t fair to either of us, but at this point, it didn’t matter if we let it continue without doing something about it.

“Yo! Can you meet up this evening at my place?”

I rolled my eyes to the sky. It was Paul. I already knew this shit was about trying to squash things between Clayton and me. It had been another two weeks, and Giselle told me she pressured his ass last night, telling him she had obtained a lawyer and would be taking him to court. I was more than sure he begged her for more time to squash things with me so we could get to know each other.

I didn’t need time to get to know his bitch ass. It wasn’t about Giselle or the kids. This was about him and his insecurities. Fuck that nigga. That was what my mind was saying. Instead, I responded to Paul by saying, “Yeah. What time?”

“Around six thirty or seven. Let’s go with seven, because I know most days, you don’t leave the clinic until six.”

“A’ight, man. See you at seven.”

I ended the call and looked at the chart for the next appointment. It was a cat, and for some reason, they were my least favorite. They just seemed predatory to me. Evil. I’d seen many cat fights, so I tended to steer clear of them. I also had an appointment to go to a farm later. I saw farm animals as well. That was why I stayed so busy.

When I walked into the examination room, I noticed it was the lady from nearly a month ago that was new to the area. Shakira. “Good afternoon, Ms. Shakira. You have a cat too?”

“Good afternoon, Doctor Fleming. I rescued it. Sasha isn’t too happy about it, but I couldn’t walk away from it. It was at my back door, just meowing. You can see how malnourished it is.”

“Yeah. Have you named it yet?”

“No, because I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it or turn it in to the local animal shelter. If I name it, I will get attached to it. I just have a heart for animals.”

“I see. That’s not a bad thing. We have that in common,” I said as I cautiously approached the cat.

Even with as feeble as it looked, its eyes said, fuck with me if you want to, nigga. “What’s up? I’m Doctor Fleming, and I’m here to help you, okay?” I said to it as I held my hands out.

The cat jumped into my hands, surprising me, then purred against my chest. I was able to see that it was a female. “It seems like she likes you.”

I chuckled. “I suppose so. That’s rare though. I have a love-hate relationship with cats.”

She giggled. “I got attacked by a cat as a kid. Well, not really attacked. A boy threw the cat on me, and it scratched me up so bad. It was fighting, and so was I. I lost that battle. It had even caught me in the eye. Thankfully, it was minor, and it healed over time.”

“Dang. I would be scared to fool with cats after that.”

“I was for a while until I realized the cat was in defensive mode and wasn’t attacking me. It thought it was being attacked.”

I nodded as I examined the cat. It sat still surprisingly and just stared at me as I took care of it. My assistant came in the room with us with three vaccines. One of them was for a variety of diseases and was called FVRCP, another protected the cat from leukemia, and the last one was for rabies. Still, the cat didn’t move and allowed me to inject those vaccines without trouble. I wasn’t sure what was up with it. Maybe it didn’t really have the strength to fight.

Like my mom had once said, animals tended to trust me. It was like I was Doctor Dolittle or some shit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t privy to their language, but I got along better with animals than I did with humans. When I finished with her, Shakira reached out to her, and she went back and purred against her as well.

“I think you’ll probably name her. She’s laying it on thick.”

She giggled. “I think you’re right. Thank you so much, Doctor Fleming.”

I tilted my head slightly. “Call me Gentry. I call you by your first name.”

She nodded and smiled. I smiled back and immediately felt guilty. It was almost like I was subtly flirting. I nodded and got out of there. This shit with Giselle and Clayton was taking a toll on our relationship. If I was noticing other women and finding myself being attracted, that wasn’t good. I was somewhat attracted to Shakira. I didn’t feel that the first time I saw her, although I thought she was beautiful.

I dropped off the chart at the front desk and prepared to leave the office to go check the OG. I rolled my eyes at the thought. OG was the horse’s name. It was an older horse that basically just grazed in the pasture, living out its final days. The owner said it was constipated. This would be a real shitty job, no doubt about it.

I was on my way to Paul’s, jamming my boy, Kendrick. As suspected, the visit to see OG was a real shitty job. The owner allowed me to try a home remedy on his horse. It was in so much pain. He’d kept feeding her, and that was only making it worse. She wasn’t consuming enough water. She needed something that would work immediately, or she wasn’t going to make it. So, I did something I saw my grandfather do when I was a kid. Being that the horse was on the ground ailing, it was easier to do what I needed to do.