Chapter 13

"It's gonna be fine. You've got this, Muenster." Anna closed her eyes and did an upper-body shimmie, trying to literally shake off her nerves. She looked at herself in the newly-cleaned bathroom mirror (her doing), checking to see if her hair looked gross or if she was bleeding.

This wasn't the first time she'd asked a girl out before, admittedly her track record was abysmal but at least she tried. She figured dating success was one of those things where she'd have to wade through a bunch of rejections before it finally evened out and she got the "yes" that mattered.

And maybe Dr. Maren was going to be that yes.

Dr. Maren...the woman with a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine who knows more about everything than Anna knows about cleaning a toilet. The woman who also just happens to sign her paychecks. The woman who she almost tripped last week with her mop.

Okay, so it'd take a miracle for Dr. Maren to say yes, but she had to try, right? She promised herself and technically Elsa that she'd ask. And with an hour left in her shift, Anna didn't have much longer to do so. This had to be a face-to-face thing, she reasoned, mostly because she was also too much of a wuss to ask for her number.

She wiped her hands with paper towels she newly restocked and took one last glance at the mirror. "You've got this," she repeated.

Suddenly, the bathroom door opened, and from the outside of Anna's safe haven appeared the one woman she wanted to see the most. Just...not right now.

Dr. Maren stopped in her tracks, wide-eyed, "Oh! Sorry Anna, I didn't know you were cleaning in here."

Anna turned around and replied in a voice that was way too high-pitched, "Hi!" She cleared her throat and tried again, "U-uh yeah, I...I just finished. Cleaning! I mean I just finished cleaning, I didn't do anything in here. Just, you know, cleaned."

This was already going against the plan, well it would have if Anna had a plan in the first place. If she did, though, the plan surely wouldn't have ended up with her asking Dr. Maren out in the women's restroom.

"Okay, well great job as always," Dr. Maren replied. "I only came here to wash my hands anyway, I just ate a cupcake." Ah, so she likes cupcakes. That's good to know. "I don't want to get frosting all over my paperwork, you know?"

She walked past Anna, who got a quick and not-creepy whiff of her strawberry-scented shampoo, and washed her hands. Anna stepped back to her cart so as to give the doctor more than enough space at the sink, and pretended to be checking through her supplies. To be honest, she probably could have just left, but she wanted to milk this interaction for as long as she could.

Amidst the sounds of rushing water, the doctor asked, "So how are you?"

"Ah you know, just...doing my thing."

She giggled, "Your thing? What does that mean?"

Yeah Anna, what does that mean? "Like cleaning, and eating, taking care of Elsa. That's my thing."

"Your thing consists of three responsibilities." That sounded like it was supposed to be a question, but it felt more like a statement. Dr. Maren turned off the faucet and grabbed a couple of the freshly-stocked paper towels. "Well at least you're keeping busy. What else do you do when you're not at work?"

Anna's eyes widened. This (probably) rich, successful, and beautiful veterinarian just asked her, a simple commoner, what she did outside of work. She was interested, or maybe she was just asking an innocent question. Probably the latter, but Anna was a big dreamer. She opened her mouth to speak, and was shocked when no words came out.

She couldn't remember anything that she did.

Time came to a screeching halt. If there was a camera looking inside her brain, all you would see were tinier versions of her running in panic inside a burning office, with half of them trying to put out the fire and another half trying to break windows in order to get out. And all it would take to calm things down was if one of those mini-Annas would just turn the sprinklers on.

What did she do outside of work?

She already said cleaning and eating, did she mention Elsa? Oh yeah, of course she did. She would talk to anyone about Elsa. What else did she do?!

Think Anna, think. You're a person with interests, you do things. But what kind of things? What would even sound interesting to a doctor? Doing math blindfolded? She couldn't even do math with a calculator.

Wait, Anna had a degree in Elementary Education. She could talk about...uh...making lesson plans? Gosh, she was hopeless.

And then, finally, one of the also hopeless mini-Annas turned on the sprinklers and she was able to think again. She blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Guitar! I, uh I-I mean I play the guitar."

That piqued the doctor's interest. And successfully piquing Dr. Maren's interest was now tied with graduating as her greatest accomplishment.

"Wow. You play the guitar?" She asked.

Anna laughed, or at least it sounded like a laugh in her ears. "Why do you sound so surprised?" Oh dear, that sounded too rude. She needed to apologize before she got fired, or worse: Dr. Maren stopped talking to her. "Uh I mean-"

She shrugged, "No, I'm not surprised. Well I mean I am, but that's cause I wasn't expecting it."

"What were you expecting me to say?" Anna felt the office fires in her brain threatening to start up again. She needed to stop interrogating her boss. Her drop-dead gorgeous boss who just giggled to herself and oh my goodness it sounded like rainbows and sunshine.

"To be honest, I thought you were gonna say something like baking. You strike me as a baker, I don't know."

"Ha!" Anna shrieked, even though she was going for a playful exclamation. "Yeah you don't want me anywhere near an oven, trust me. One time I was baking cookies and I forgot to put baking soda, and they came out looking like CD's."

Dr. Maren laughed again, this time at her. Or, rather, at what she said. If she was laughing at her, Anna would probably shrink away and never talk to her again.

Suddenly, Anna's struck with the realization that they're having an actual conversation together. It was in a dank and poorly-lit restroom, but beggars can't be choosers. This was the longest she'd talked to Dr. Maren outside of appointments with Elsa and her "interview" to get the job. And this was all completely by accident. The good news, she figured, was that they could talk to each other. And communication was key in any relationship.

Anna's also struck with the realization that, despite the location, she was gifted with enough free time to ask Dr. Maren out. Before either of them had to go back to work, or before they were interrupted by someone who had to do their business.

And that starts a fire in Anna again, but this time in her heart. A fire that made it beat faster and raised her temperature by fifty degrees. Which doesn't make sense, but when has romance ever made sense?

"Well when you have the time, you should tell me more about playing guitar. I'm interested." Dr. Maren gave her a polite smile and walked to the door. Time was running out, she needed to say something. Anything. Preferably words about asking her out.

She had to do it. For her, and for Elsa. She wanted to go home with good news to tell her best friend. Even though all the husky would care about was getting her lunch.

Anna closed her eyes for a second and cleared her throat. "Uh, w-well if you want, we could-"

Dr. Maren was gone.

The bathroom door closed fully and maybe even metaphorically, mocking her for taking too long.

Anna stuffed another spoonful of cereal into her mouth, chewing it with probably a bit too much force. It tasted like regret, sugary pieces of grain, marshmallows, and regret.

Elsa, right next to her, dug her nose and mouth into her bowl full of dog food. Which probably wasn't made of sugary pieces of grain, marshmallows, and regret.

The husky finishes her food way before Anna did, who gave up on eating halfway through and pushed her bowl away. She groaned and lay her head on the table. After the puppy drank her water and peed on her pad, she walked back to her owner and stared up at her curiously.

Elsa yipped curiously.

"Don't rub it in," Anna replied, pointing a finger at her. "Asking people out is hard."