Chapter Seventeen
Ridge
I started slowing down on my cat sitting a couple of months into my relationship with Memphis.
Spending three, four, or five days away from him just wasn’t something I was wanting to do.
And my new schedule gave me the joy of picking my own jobs and working my own.
I was doing more personal-assistant-type work, which I didn’t mind.
Most of that was running errands and easy enough.
But when my very first clients whereas going to Europe for two weeks and wanted me to house and cat sit, I didn’t feel like I could decline.
If it was just cats, it wouldn’t have been that bad—they could be home alone all day.
But their dog was older now and needed me there at least once in the middle of the day and on through the night.
For two weeks, I didn’t sleep in Daddy’s arms once.
We saw each other for some lunches, but not much else because the house was on the other side of the universe from Daddy’s place.
Fine, it was only on the other end of the city, but it might as well have been across the universe, given how much that distance messed with our ability to get together during the week.
We made do with video chatting, and Daddy came down on the weekends so we could have a short date local to my job, but in a lot of ways, it felt like I hadn’t seen him in forever.
When the clients returned, and I was officially free of pet duty, I went directly to Memphis’ place, needing to see him and unwilling to wait until morning.
Their flight had been late, and instead of dinnertime, they arrived closer to ten, which had me arriving at Daddy’s after eleven.
I hugged him tightly and then dragged him to bed, where I slept and slept and slept.
I hadn’t realized how poorly I’d been resting until that amazing night’s sleep.
I woke up the next morning just before noon and walked out of the bedroom, surprised to discover I wasn’t alone. I had assumed Daddy would be gone to his office, but he was sitting on his sofa tapping on his laptop.
“I didn’t know you were home today. Why didn’t you wake me up?” I kissed his cheek and stayed standing, not wanting to get in the way of his work.
He shut the laptop and set it on the coffee table. “I decided to work remotely so you would sleep in.” He opened his arms, and I climbed onto his lap. “I didn’t like not having you here.” He kissed the top of my head.
“I didn’t like not being here,” I said. “I don’t sleep well when I’m not with you.”
“You know there’s a solution, right?”
“Solution to what?” I wasn’t awake enough to trust that I understood what he meant.
“To not sleeping well.”
“What’s that?” I bit back a yawn.
“Move in here with me.”
I wanted to squee and tell him yes a thousand times, punctuating each agreement with a kiss. I refrained. This not a step to be taken spontaneously. I was emotionally ready for it, but physically? Not so much.
“We need to talk about bills,” I said. “I’m not sure I can afford this place.” Which was a lie. I was 100 percent sure I couldn’t afford this place.
“I knew you’d say that, so I made a spreadsheet.” He slid me off his lap onto the couch and opened his laptop. Sure enough, there was a spreadsheet. It showed his utilities from the time he got there until the time we met, as well as his rent.
“Why does it end here?”
“Because I want to show you how much it costs for me to live here alone. Once you started being here a lot, that data is no longer valid.”
“Oh, look at you, all sexy-math man.”
He rolled his eyes, which wasn’t his typical daddy way, making it even funnier.
“I guess I don’t understand why you’re showing me this.” Not one of the monthly totals on there was within my budget.
He pulled out another spreadsheet, which was the same as the one he just had, but with some new columns.
“This is since I’ve known you, and this month here, this was the month you were here most of the time. Now let’s look at the difference between this and the others.”
He tapped away, and suddenly there was a graph there. Daddy wasn’t joking about his math. He had all the calculations. “That’s how much more it costs for you to be here. And from what you said about your rent at your place, you can afford this total.”
“Shouldn’t I be paying 50/50?” Which was impossible, no spreadsheet needed.
“Why would you? I am going to live here regardless. That’s a fixed expense for me. Paying the amount above that is plenty.”
I didn’t like things being unfair and unbalanced, not when it came to money, but the way he said that made sense. Or, more likely, I wanted it to make sense and went with it.
“So now you have no excuse to say no. You have to move in with me now.” He put the computer down and wrapped his arms around me.
“Have to? I wouldn’t say ‘have to.’ But I want to. Does that work?”
“Yes, sweet boy, that works.” He pulled back onto his lap, kissing me until I nearly forgot my own name. Gods, it was good to be back.
From the time we made the decision, it was less than a week before we were unloading my apartment into his car and bringing things over bit by bit. I still had two months left on my lease, so we weren’t in a huge rush from that perspective, making the moving part of moving much less stressful.
I didn’t exactly have quality furniture, or much of it at all, for that matter.
When we set it in the hallway, one of the neighbors came by and asked if I was selling it.
I told him no, it was free. News spread quickly, and every piece went to good use, which made me happy and was a thousand times better than renting a storage unit that would cost more than the items were worth or tossing still useable pieces.
Daddy made the entire process so much easier than it would’ve been if I’d organized it on my own.
He thought of everything from designating a space just for my little things to helping me incorporate the kitchen items I liked using into the ones he already had.
We didn’t need two sets of bowls or pots or glasses, but we each had preferences for utensils, and it made sense to be able to use them both.
I was standing looking out the window when he came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me. I leaned back into him.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“I was thinking that I am the luckiest guy in the city.”
“Oh, you can’t be”—he rested his chin on my shoulder—“because I am.”