Page 32 of All Packed Up

Wendy quite liked the sound of that.

Chapter 9

ARLO

Arlo chuckled as he walked down their hallway and couldn’t help that his gaze lingered on the door of C69 as he passed. He hadn’t heard from Nic since dropping off the charcuterie board last night. Well, besides the text he’d sent thanking them. But Arlo wanted the details.

“Hey man, that charcuterie board was perfect. She decided to keep me thanks to that favor. You’re awesome!”

That was more like the update he wanted.

He didn’t detect any more of the deep red plum scent that had been seeping from their apartment the night before, nor did he hear anymore groans.

Yeah, you could call him disappointed.

His keys jangled as he fumbled for the right one and let himself in his shared apartment.

Tate was on the couch, facing away from him as the TV droned on.

“Hey, man,” he greeted, tossing his keys on the kitchen counter as he passed.

“Welcome home, honey,” Tate drawled.

Rolling his eyes at the sarcastic tone, Arlo beelined for his room to change out of his work clothes. Button-up shirts looked nice and all, but nothing was more comfortable than a graphic tee softened from years of wear. Unfortunately, the general public didn’t view those as ‘professional,’ so he was stuck trapping himself in a stuffy, itchy fabric all day.

He returned to the living room, eager to smoke with his roomie and get on with the chill portion of his evening.

“How was yoga today?” he asked as he rounded the couch—

And came to a complete stop.

“Dude,” he groaned. “I told you to stop bringing cats home from your job!”

“Hey, he’s not even from my job, thank you very much.”

Tate, his obnoxious blond roommate and bondmate, cuddled the cat closer. It was a black cat with a few white markings, and it stared up at him with bright yellow eyes.

“Sure, dude. He just walked in and opened the door by himself.”

Tate’s mouth dropped open. “That’s exactly what happened.” He lifted a hand from the cat’s fur to motion with as he explained, and the feline turned his fluffy little head to watch the appendage do everything but pet him. “Well, I mean, he didn’t open the door by himself, but when I opened our front door to go get the mail, he was right there! Just walked right in like he owned the place.”

Arlo glared at him. This wouldn’t be the first time his roommate tried to bring pets home. They were allowed in the building, so that wasn’t the issue. The issue was, if they kept every animal that ‘walked in,’ they’d have a farm by now.

“You can’t keep him.”

“But he chose us! He walked right in. It can’t get more clear than that, can it, cutie?” Tate spoke to the cat in a baby voice, and Arlo growled.

“Maybe you should stop smoking. The cat didn’t choose us.”

“I’ll stop smoking when I’m dead.”

Arlo sighed. “I was going to cook tonight. But I’m going to walk down the street and get us tacos instead. When I get back, that cat better be gone.”

Tate turned his big blue eyes up at him and would have probably produced a fake tear, but Arlo turned away. No way was he falling for that again.

“But, dude! He’s so cute. Look at him!”

Arlo turned and stared as the lazy cat dangled from Tate’s hands like a noodle. He eyed the cute little stripes that crossed each paw. That was kinda unique. So what?