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“It’s downloading now,” I say before taking a delightful sip of my coffee

“Hey,” he says as he turns to face me “Can I ask you for a personal favor?”

“Sure,” I reply easily, holding up the coffee cup in a silent toast

“Think I can leave Brutus with you next weekend? I’ out of town”

Brutus is Dozer’s tiny little Yorkie dog that Aaron and I have dog sat on occasion

“No problem,” I say That’s not even a favor, and I can’t help but tease “Got a hot date?”

“Actually, yeah,” he replies with a cheesy s back to his computer screens

This is not unusual Dozer dates lots of wo our kiss that went nowhere, especially since he had told

“These are hookups, Bebe,” he’d toldserious What you and I could have had… that would have been serious, and I’m not ready for serious”

So Dozer has becoe should start a tally co the most women

I’ of Dozer’s nonco, but I end up blurting out, “I had a date last night”

Dozer freezes and slowly pivots to faceopen It’s no secret I’ve been averse to dating Everyone under God’s green earth has tried to set me up on dates over these last few months at Jameson, and I shot them all down

“Ithe need to have Dozer like Griff “He played football with Aaron He’s blue-collar Like salt-of-the-earth kind of guy, you know? And he took us to the Steelers gaht”

Dozer’s eratedly, “Ho-l-y-y-y-y sh-i-i-i-i-t”

He moves over to me, presses an arm onto my worktable, and leans closer “This is epic Tell ”