I laugh. ‘Sure, Millie. I’ll quit my job and do yours instead.’ I’m laughing, but I start to picture going to Millie’s place of work instead of my own and feel a twinge of jealousy followed by a surge of hope. What if . . .

‘I’m gonna have to tell them, aren’t I?’ Millie says.

At that moment, the nurse bustles in, shooing us out of the room.

‘We’ll come back in the afternoon,’ Mom promises Millie as we scurry out. We make our way back through the maze of hallways and into the parking garage. Mom makes multiple references to how badly I must want a shower, which I do, but she calls attention to it so many times that I check myself in the car mirror, wondering how awful I must look.

Now that I’ve seen Millie, all I can think about is seeing Murphy. I’m so excited my body is buzzing. But as we near the house, I realise I’m not sure if the idea of working in Millie’s lab has something to do with my excitement.

She couldn’t have been serious, I remind myself. Although there’s a nagging voice in my brain again asking me: Why not?

Chapter 29

Murphy pees on the garage floor when he sees me, which makes me laugh and breaks my heart. How have I survived being away from him for so long? My mom sighs theatrically, but I don’t care. I almost peed when I saw him too. I feel immense relief to wrap my arms around his shaggy body, to have my face covered in his sloppy kisses.

When we’re inside, my dad starts laughing at how hard Murphy’s tail is wagging. ‘You’d think we tortured him all week!’ he exclaims, picking up a glass before Murphy’s tail knocks it off the coffee table.

I pet Murphy behind the ears. ‘I missed you so much, buddy,’ I whisper.

I shower and halfway unpack, throwing clothes in the laundry. When Millie gets home tomorrow, I want to stay at my parents’ with her, so there’s no point in schlepping my stuff back to my place, or confusing Murphy by bringing him home and making him leave again. There’s just one problem with being at my parents’ – I feel like I’m already regressing, turning into the person I was before I left to go on the trip. It’s all starting to feel like a fever dream.