Chapter 13
Levi
“Why haven’t you already disappeared?” Gary paused in the door of the kitchen, watching me like I was doing something weird instead of just grabbing coffee.
“Teddy’s friend stole him this morning. She’s competitive, and she got up at an obscene hour for her and took him to go shop for something. I don’t remember what Teddy texted me but it was something about one of the new women she’s dating.”
She was a menace to every nice lesbian on campus.
“So you’re not pulling a Dante and we can actually talk about your guy?” Finally stepping into the kitchen, Gary pressed his lips together like he was trying not to laugh. “It’s hard to keep track of who’s talking about their love life and who isn’t.”
Heading over to the table, I sat down and shrugged. “I’m not hiding him and he’s not closeted or anything. He’s private, though, but not as much as Ruslan. Just don’t talk about him being into anything specific and it’s fine.”
I really needed to clarify who I could say what to.
“Deal.” Gary headed over to the communal coffee pot that had more buttons than a spaceship and sighed as he got himself a cup. “We’ve got a few friends in common and I’m pretty sure someone said he was little, but…but can I ask if it’s casual or…”
His utter lack of subtly made me laugh as I picked up my cup again. “How long have you been waiting to corner me and figure out what’s going on?”
“Days.” He groaned as his sub side peeked out. “You’re torturing me. You were supposed to just randomly be hanging around so I could see how you’re doing and figure out why you’re not angry anymore, but you’ve been gone all week. Like all day, every day.”
And he clearly hadn’t appreciated it.
“I’m sorry I made your life difficult.” And sorry I’d taken out some of my bad moods on him. “I will confess…well…not all but a lot for a breakfast I didn’t make.”
Wearing an ear-to-ear grin, Gary leaned back against the counter. “Teddy doesn’t cook?”
My wince made him laugh. “He probably can but he doesn’t…and because he doesn’t his friend who stole him keeps bringing him stuff from her work. But she works at that godawful place with the terrible soup you had to fix. So needless to say, I do all the cooking.”
As Gary shook with silent laugher, I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, haha. They don’t even have proper cooking equipment. They only have one cookie sheet and it looks like it’s a thousand years old. They don’t even have a real stock pot.”
His eyes went wide as he realized how dire the situation was. “That bad?”
“They have one pot that’s big enough to make spaghetti, but it’s so small if you walk away from the stove everything boils over. It’s a fucking mess and their frying pan can only make two pancakes at a time.” I sounded like a kitchen snob but Teddy’s living conditions were ridiculous.
Swallowing back a mix of horror and giggles, Gary took a second to figure out how to respond. “I can’t decide if I should offer to help you pick out some stuff to get him for Christmas or bake you a few things once in a while to make life easier.”
“Bake.” Pretending to bow down to him, I decided to take him up on his offer before he changed his mind. “He’s an easily distractable little and keeps trying to talk me into playing.”
Snickering, Gary nodded. “Got it and glad to help.”
Hmm.
“And you’re more than welcome to come hang out sometime too.” What had he been up to lately? “He’s an outgoing little so playing with someone else would be fun or you could just watch movies with us if I can keep him in a grown-up headspace.”
“That hard, huh?” He seemed to ignore the offer, so I let him.
“Yep. Every time I stress him out or he gets nervous or tired or bored because he agreed to a movie he didn’t actually want to watch.” Gary was back to trying not to laugh again, but I couldn’t blame him. “He’s adorable and really outgoing in that headspace but it’s funny.”
Slowly inching his way over to fridge, he kept glancing back at me. “What would you say if I pointed out how serious this sounds?”
“Ugh, I’m sorry I’ve been a dick.” It seemed I owed everyone around me an apology. “I will not make a snarky response or walk out on the conversation. It’s a legitimate question considering how much time I’ve spent with Teddy over the past week.”
Smiling wider, Gary looked lighter as he bounced the last couple of steps. “So is he a magical little or just really cute and distracting?”
“Really cute and distracting…we’re basically neighbors back home.” I was pretty sure that would make him less worried and I was glad when he looked happier to hear that answer. “I might’ve mentioned that the other day when I wanted to go strangle him, but we grew up around each other.”
“Oh, that’s what you meant.” Gary snickered and pulled out eggs and a container of what looked like cutup vegetables. “That explains what you said and why you came back so…relaxed.”
“We hung out and had fun.” Leaning back in my chair, I focused on enjoying my coffee and not giving myself anything to stress about. “We were always a good fit together. I can see that now, but our families are polar opposites and he’s a bit younger than me. So we were in different circles.”
And I’d just never imaged him as a little.
In my head, no one I’d been around as a kid would want the same kind of relationship that I did. I still felt mostly right about that, but Chipmunk was different. Very different with the way his mother had tried to raise him, so I should’ve taken that into account.
“Is that whole different circle thing going to help or hinder things going forward?” As Gary finished pulling out a few more things, I realized he was making some kind of breakfast potatoes and was glad I’d hung around.
“If I was still trying to make my parents happy it would be a big problem. My mother thinks his is insane.” I wasn’t sure she was wrong but Teddy’s mother was at least a nicer person than mine. “But I’m kind of done with her nonsense and I just don’t care.”
Gary glanced over and lifted one eyebrow. “Okay.”
It was more of a question than statement, so I shrugged and took another drink. “Honest. I think she’d be done with me if she could do it without social consequences. She’s a bitch and I’m just done with it all. I want to be happy and if she can’t deal with that, oh well.”
As he turned on the stove to start browning sausage, he turned and gave me another look. “I can’t tell if I approve of the change in attitude or if it’s making me nervous.”
“Both.” His Dom side wouldn’t like it for different reasons than his sub side, but neither side was stupid. “But in my defense, I’ve been working through a lot of this in the background and seeing Teddy again just put it all in perspective.”
I might’ve been an ass on the outside, but I had technically been processing everything and getting ready to make some decisions.
“So, going back to my original question, this is serious?” When I nodded, he turned back to the stove and seemed to start working out his frustrations on the sausage. “Are we talking about lots of dates serious or do we need to go shopping for rings?”
I wanted to laugh but glaring at him felt better…and made him laugh.
“Hey, one of the things that we all have in common besides the kink shit is that we seem to be the wait until we’re in the right relationship and then throw ourselves into it kind of people.
” Since we both knew he was right, he didn’t wait for me to respond.
“You just…you feel different, so I thought asking might make you think at the very least.”
“I’m kind of in the I shouldn’t think phase because going the impulsive route is feeling kind of nice.” The whole thing had felt kind of nice in an unexpected way.
“But?” Gary laughed as I sighed. “Yep, there’s a but.”
He knew me too well.
“Um, but I’m pretty sure we were talking about what we wanted in our first house together the other day, so I should probably think about what I’m doing a bit more carefully.” We’d just ended up in the discussion, though.
That pink house.
Brat.
“That’s a big but.” Giggling to himself, probably about the but versus butt thing, he shifted from stabbing the sausage to moving it around the pan.
“Do you mean thinking about what you’re doing so you don’t lead Teddy on or thinking about what you’re doing so you don’t end up buying a house you’re not ready for? ”
Oh.
“Um, the second one.” Was the first even an option? “I’m more worried about inadvertently rushing him than hurting his feelings.”
I liked Teddy.
There was something warm and sweet about him mixed in with all his silliness and fun. I felt like myself with Teddy in a way I’d never felt with anyone else.
“I don’t have to hide me when I’m with him.” I wasn’t sure if that made sense, so I was glad when Gary nodded like he got it. “It’s like with you guys but there’s that spark.”
What made us all work as friends was that there’d never been a spark between any of us, and he knew it too, so I didn’t have to worry about hurting his feelings.
Gary was definitely the most sensitive between all of us, but he flashed me a grin and was genuinely excited for me. “I’m glad, but—ha—but I’m going to tell you to be honest with him and to make sure he understands you’re the serious type and not just dating to see how you fit together.”
There was no way he’d think we were just dating to see how we worked, right?
“You’ve talked to him about that, right?” When I didn’t answer fast enough, he turned around and started jabbing at the air with the spatula. “Have you explained that you’re the I’m your Dom and I’m keeping you type?”
“Yes.”
Maybe?
Yes.
I was pretty sure I’d made that clear.
“God.” Gary didn’t like whatever he saw on my face and rolled his eyes. “You’re going to end up married and he’s not going to understand how it happened.”
“Nope. Once his mother hears that word she’s going to be all in and he’ll understand exactly how we got to that point.” She was going to be a menace. “If it makes you happy, though, I’ll be very clear with him about how serious this feels.”
As long as it came up in conversation because I wasn’t just going to randomly announce I was keeping him.
That sounded creepy.
“Fine.” Shaking his head, he shifted his focus back to breakfast and seemed to leave his worries about my relationship behind. “Hey, if you don’t have any other plans this morning, do you want to go Christmas shopping with me? I want to pick out something for Ruslan and a few things for my family.”
“You still heading out at the end of the week?” Gary had been slightly cagey about what he’d been up to lately, but I knew he missed his family and was ready to see them.
“Yeah.” Opening a bag of chopped potatoes, he nodded. “You’re still welcome to come.”
Oh.
“Um, I’m going home with Teddy.” I found myself trying not to squirm as Gary looked at me and gave me a knowing grin. “Stop that. You look ridiculous.”
“Teddy and Levi sitting in a tree…K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love then comes collars then comes Teddy in a baby carriage.”
“I think that order is slightly mixed up and I haven’t seen little-sized strollers.” Making sure the house was big enough for a playroom or nursery depending on what he wanted would be important, though. “Do you think having a playroom and nursery would be too much?”
His giggles said it might be a bit much.
“How big of a house were you looking for?” Barely holding back more laughter and probably the urge to tell me that I was ridiculous, he rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen your parents’ place, remember?”
He was being the ridiculous one now.
“Nothing that size.” My goal was not to have staff…at least not at this point in my life. “We were just playing around and talking about those houses a few blocks over. The ones near that pink monstrosity.”
And the eyes went round and round again.
“Those are million-dollar homes, not starter properties.” Mumbling something that sounded like he thought I had more money than common sense, he sighed. “They’re pretty, though.”
Ha.
“And a good long-term investment because the college isn’t going anywhere.” I’d done a bit of research on the area in general. “They’re also not the most expensive homes around here, so they’re more reasonable than you think.”
His snort said we’d have to agree to disagree on that part.
“You should wait until you’re out of college to even think about something like that.” His logic would’ve been good for most other students.
“I’m in a PhD program, dork. I’m going to be here for years.” How long the fucking programs were was the only downside of wanting my doctorate. “So the wait until I’m steady thing doesn’t really apply.”
“Part of me likes how well planned out this chaos actually seems to be and another part wants to freak out at all your crazy plans.” Shaking his head, he huffed.
“So we’re going to change the subject. Christmas shopping.
Do you have stuff for Teddy’s parents? Is there anyone else in that household you should buy stuff for? ”
Oh, good point.
“Yeah, I need to make a list but there are a few other things I need to get and I need to get something for Ruslan too.” Dante wanted him to feel welcome and comfortable with us, so the Christmas dinner thing needed to go smoothly.
“You still good doing most of the cooking for that dinner? I can help.”
Gary pretended to get offended and huffed. “You want to take over my kitchen? No.”
Drama queen.
“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t offer.”
Oh.
“Um, at some point later this week please ask me if I’ve talked to Teddy about the Christmas dinner thing?” His laughter made me groan. “Hey, I’m sorry if he’s slightly distracting and I’ve had a lot to think about.”
Like house buying and ways to keep my adorable little entertained that didn’t involve bubbles in the bathtub.