18 Holes and a Bottle of Rum…

Working for the Martindale Leventhal Veterinary Clinic meant that Dr. Eddie Leventhal was obliged to participate in the annual golf tournament that his clinic sponsored. Funds were raised to help Seniors who had pets and couldn’t afford vet bills if they ran into trouble. Over the past two years, the clinic had raised fifty thousand dollars, which was safely deposited into a trust account to help those in need.

The tournament was being played on a course known as Scenic Pines. It was considered one of the most impressive courses in the Toronto area. There were fifteen teams of four who would be competing for great prizes. There was a chance to win a Range Rover by scoring a hole in one on the seventeenth hole. The lowest scores would win lovely prizes and bragging rights.

Dr. Leventhal was silently praying that Mark LaDuke wouldn’t end up in his group of golfers. He had played with him the previous year and it had been a miserable experience and a lot of it had to do with their feelings towards the co-owner of his clinic, Sandra Martindale.

Sandra, LaDuke and Eddie had all gone to and graduated from Veterinary school at Guelph University. LaDuke was in Eddie’s opinion a blowhard and a crappy Vet. When Eddie tried to date Sandra during their University years, Mark LaDuke had constantly interfered.

After graduation, Eddie and Sandra opened a clinic together, but the problem was LaDuke. He was still hanging around on the perimeter. Even though Eddie had feelings for Sandra, she had kept things strictly professional and platonic. Working with Sandra had been a tremendous pleasure but Eddie knew he couldn’t continue much longer. At the beginning of their partnership, she had rebuffed romantic overtures and he was now always nervous about overstepping boundaries. Eddie had decided that not being able to express his feelings and keeping everything internalized was not healthy. He was thinking about telling Sandra about dissolving their partnership days after the golf tournament. He had already scouted a new location for his practice. Maybe she and (this made him shudder) LaDuke could form a new partnership.

Much to his chagrin when the names were drawn for the foursomes, Sandra, LaDuke, a woman named Melanie Suarez, and Eddie were selected to play together. He couldn’t win the…