Page 96 of The Quirky Vet

"So––"

My voice cracks.

Fuck.

Okay, I'm definitely editingthatout.

I begin again.

"So, hi everyone." I raise my hand and wave at the camera. "My name is Muir, and in a break from usual programming, I'm momentarily taking over Fitz's TikTok account. For those of you who may not know who I am, I'm the guy who shoots and edits a lot of Fitz's videos. You may have caught a brief glimpse of me during our trip to Brissie, but usually, I'm the guy behind the camera."

I clear my throat. "But not today. Because today, I have animportant question I want to ask Fitz, my best friend since we were ten years old."

I pause.

I know I'm forgetting something else I wanted to say, something sappy, probably cringey, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.

Okay. Forget it.

I'm getting straight to the point.

Looking directly into the camera, I pull out the ring box and open it even though the camera is too far away to pick up any details. "Fitzgerald, first-middle-name redacted, second-middle-name-redacted, Eastridge, will you do me the honour of marrying me…properly?"

I hold still for a few seconds with a hopeful smile on my face, then sag with relief that it's over as I grab the phone and work on cropping the video to remove my wonky start and the extraneous end bit. I hope he liked that redacted names bit because I'm pretty sure he would've murdered me for sharing his middle names with the world. And you can't marry a corpse.

I've got backend access to Fitz's TikTok, but I've never used it to upload a video before. With shaky fingers, I clickPost, and it's done. My proposal is out there in the world.

I wonder if he'll see it before he comes home.

It's just gone four, so he should be leaving the clinic anytime now, barring any last-minute emergency.

We've been in touch throughout the day via text. He was acting a little strange this morning, like he was possibly starting to come down with something, so I wanted to make sure he was okay. He's been assuring me he's fine. I really hope he's not getting sick, but it is flu season, so you never know.

I'm putting my shirt on when I hear a familiar voice.

"Hey, bubba."

I spin around. Fitz jumps down the couple of porch steps and strides over to me. He's smiling so I take it that's a sign he's notsick. But is he smiling because he's seen the proposal video or is he just smiling because he's home and happy to see me?

I honestly can't tell, but I'm leaning more towards the latter.

We hug and kiss and, damn, even after a day at work, he still smells good.

"Have a good day?" I ask.

"Yep. You?"

"Yeah, just chilled around the house."

"Nice."

Okay. I'm starting to think he hasn't seen the video yet. Surely he would have said something by now, right?

"Did anything exciting happen?" I ask, pressing, hopefully not too obviously, for an answer.

"No." He takes a big step back. "At least not yet."

"What do you mean?"