A bit breathless from our bout of laughter, I grabbed the first document from the counter in front of me and began to fill it in. “Xander… can I confirm your last name? I need it for the form.” I looked back into the handsome face in front of me and smiled, more relaxed now.

“Alexander Lewis.” He smiled in return and I felt my heart skip a beat.

Focusing back onto the paper in front of me, I steadied my nerves with a deep breath. “And this address you gave on the phone earlier, is this your permanent residence?”

His smile broadened. “It is. I moved here with my father about 3 months ago. I’m staying in the guest house out at his place.”

“All right, well, welcome to Glenn Bay then, I guess.” I attempted to return his high-wattage smile with one of my own. “And Miss Snowball here, how long have you had her?”

“About two years, I got her as a kitten back in San Lisandro. Oh that reminds me, I have her former vet records right here…” He began to rummage through a side pocket in the carrier that Snowball was beginning to doze off inside of. “Here they are!” He produced a thin stack of papers and placed them on the counter before me.

“Great, that should be all I need for now, I’ll call you back up if I’ve missed something. Sorry I’m a bit slow, this isn’t my usual job here… I’ll bring you and Snowball into the exam room shortly once I get the basics filled out.”

He picked up the carrier and walked the few feet to our bay of chairs that served as our waiting room.

San Lisandro? I’d heard a lot about it before but never been there, even though it was only about a 45 minute drive from the community college I attended when I was living in Sierra Hills. Kids from my school would drive out there to have huge parties for the weekends, coming back Monday mornings before class hungover and sleepy, but I was always too busy with my studies to join them. One of my former girlfriends had tried to convince me to go with her over winter break of my Sophomore year, but I had needed to return to Glenn Bay that week to help my father out with some renovations to the house, and shortly after that we broke up, so I never had a second chance.

One of those little missed opportunities of life you mourn for a moment or two, then move on. I muttered to myself. “I could still go alone… maybe this summer?”

“You seem pretty focused over there.” Xander commented from the chair tucked into the corner that he’d chosen.

“Oh, hah, sorry… got a little lost in thought while I was doing this paperwork. It’s not my strong suit, I’m better at doing physical stuff.” My face instantly went crimson the moment I said this, images of the extremely… physical… activities I had very much enjoyed watching last night flashing through my mind. “I mean like, uh, construction work, kayaking, that kind of thing.”

My face moving a bit too close to the documents in front of me, I resolved myself to finish them as quickly as possible to get Xander into the exam room.

“Ah, I see. Kayaking sounds fun. I’ve never been, myself. Maybe you could teach me sometime? If it’s not too much trouble that is.”