So far, Alexander was having a good day. The costume ball from the night previous hadn't been a complete disaster, and today, he'd just had a very good phone call. He'd spoken to his partner back home who was taking care of the clinic while he was on vacation. A week or so before leaving for the cruise, he'd set the broken leg of a young, healthy horse. It had been especially crucial because the owners of the horse had planned on putting the animal down if his leg did not mend properly. Alex never understood why people did that to horses, just because they couldn't race anymore or carry a person on their back. His friend, however, had told him that already, the horse was healing quite nicely. It was a little thing, really, but such little things reassured Alex that he was a competent veterinarian and he was doing what he was meant to do in his life.
So when the phone rang, minutes after he'd hung up with his friend, he answered it, half-expecting it to be his friend... or, as an afterthought, either his father, Leto, or possible Levon, if Leto had dialed the number first for him. No one else back home had this number, after all. "This is the illustrious Dr. Alexander Woods speaking."