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“Don’t be mad.”
Jeremy looked up from his desk where he’d been working on an essay that was due soon. Rich, his roommate-turned-boyfriend, stood in the doorway of their bedroom with puppy dog eyes and a guilty smile.
“What’d you do this time,” he sighed, pushing his roly chair away from his desk.
“You don’t sound surprised.”
“Should I be?”
“Probably not,” Rich said, walking further into the room and letting Jeremy pull him onto his lap. “But you have to promise you won’t get mad.”
“Rich,” Jeremy said, “I can’t promise that if I don’t know how bad the thing you did is.”
“It’s not as bad as last time,” he assured him, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s neck.
“I would hope not. Last time you almost flooded the entire apartment.”
“So you have nothing to worry about this time!”
“And yet you started this conversation off with ‘don’t be mad.’”
Rich rested his head on Jeremy’s shoulder, staring up at him through his eyelashes.
“Well no offense babe but you can be a little… high strung at times.”
“Maybe that’s because I live with you,” he replied, idly running his hand along Rich’s thigh.
Rich sat up straight, his mouth hanging open dramatically.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, I am a delight to be around!”
“You are,” Jeremy agreed, leaning in to kiss him briefly. “You just have too much chaotic energy inside you that you tend to release in large bursts.”
“Oh yeah, well-”
BARK
Jeremy stared at Rich, eyebrows cinched together and head cocked to the side. Rich’s guilty smile returned as he remembered what this conversation was actually about.
“So about that thing I did…”
Jeremy watched in shock as Rich crouched down next to the small, scruffy looking dog sitting in the middle of their living room.
“Isn’t he cute? He’s a border terrier!” He exclaimed, staring up at him with wide, excited eyes.
“Rich, what… where did you get him?” Jeremy still hadn’t wrapped his mind around the fact that Rich had brought a dog home.
“I, uh… well you know how you told me not to go to the animal shelter because I get too attached to all the animals there?”
“Yeah?”
“Well… I did that.”
Jeremy sighed, running a hand over his face.
“But in my defense! Listen Jeremy, in my defense… the lady told me I was the only person who’d come in that he didn’t run and hide from. We were made for each other! I couldn’t just leave him there!”
“You didn’t think that maybe you should at least call me and ask how I felt about you adopting a dog and bringing him into our home?”
He wasn’t angry, and Rich knew that he wasn’t angry, but he did know that Jeremy didn’t like being left out of the decision making when it came to things that affected both of them, which had been the issue in their relationship that came up the most due to how impulsive Rich could be at times.
“Babe I know you’re disappointed, and you’re right, I totally should have told you about him beforehand, but…” He pulled the dog into his lap and turned him to face Jeremy, sticking out his lower lip. “Look at his little face. How could I have said no to that?”
Jeremy had to admit, he was pretty cute. And so was his boyfriend, silently begging him for forgiveness.
Jeremy squatted down and held his hand out for the dog to smell before petting his scruffy little head.
“Alright, what’s his name?” He asked, giving in.
Rich’s face lit up.
“Hercules! How great is that?”
Jeremy sat on the cheap sofa of their living room, one arm wrapped around his boyfriend and his other hand scratching behind Hercules’ ear as he read over his essay one last time before finally sending it to his professor.
Both Rich and Hercules sat up excitedly as he finally moved to close his laptop and set it on the coffee table.
“All done?” Rich asked.
“Yeah,” he said, exhaustion clear in his voice. The sun had set a while ago and Jeremy was looking forward to finally getting some sleep.
Rich smiled, resuming his spot curled up next to his boyfriend while Hercules moved over into Jeremy’s lap.
“I like this,” he said. “It’s kinda like we have our own little family now.”
Jeremy smiled, kissing his temple. “I’m happy to have a family with you… but no more pets for a while, especially not before talking to me about it.”
“Okay but what about, like, a goldfish or-”
“Rich!”
“I’m kidding! No more pets without talking to you about it first.”
“Thank you. I love you.”
“I know… I love you too Jer.”