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The night before Chimney’s bachelor party, Buck had been running himself ragged. He had been running himself ragged all day really, but that night it started piling up on him.
“How about you come over to my place?” Tommy asked as they were speaking to each other over the phone. “You can show me those cooking skills you were talking about?”
“Really? Your place?” Buck asked. “It’s only been like a week and-”
“Evan, it wasn’t even 24 hours after the coffee meetup [he still refused to call that a date] that we were having sex in your loft,” Tommy stopped him to say. “You invited me to your sister’s wedding. I think you seeing my place is a little overdue.”
“Oh, well…” Buck trailed off, thinking. “Yeah, that sounds great then!” he smiled into the phone. Send me your address, I’ll grab some food at the grocery store and come right over! You don’t mind pasta right? I’d usually make a nice marinated chicken dish but this is kinda short notice and-”
“Sounds good,” Tommy said. “You get whatever you think will make a nice meal.”
An hour later, Buck pulled his Jeep into a driveway leading up to a single story bungalow right next to a gray pickup truck he had become very familiar with in the last month. He parked the Jeep and grabbed two grocery bags from the back seat as he walked up the short walkway to Tommy’s front door.
As soon as he pressed the doorbell, Buck could hear the sound of a dog barking coming from somewhere inside the house. That was weird, he thought. Tommy hadn’t mentioned any dog in the time Buck had known him. Then, in the small window that lined the right side of the door, the face of a little dog appeared.
The dog barked again, and - oh, it seemed Tommy did have a dog. Why had Tommy never mentioned a dog?
Seconds later the door opened, and before Tommy could say anything the little dog tried to maneuver itself around Tommy’s legs and run up to Buck.
“Oh Bean,” Tommy said as his eyes grew wide and he quickly leant down to scoop the dog into his arms before the dog tried to claw up Buck’s legs. Tommy made the action look so easy, so effortless… how?
“You-” Buck blinked, his eyes focusing on the dog in Tommy’s arms. A dachshund, if he knew his breeds right, often called wiener or sausage dogs. This one was small, and could fit right into Tommy’s forearm. It, no he, had solid dark brown fur with a light brown snout and feet. The dog was cute. “You have a dog?”
“Yeah,” Tommy said, hitching the dog higher up in his arms. “His name is Bean. Bean, how about you say hi to Evan.” Bean only blinked his eyes up at him before turning his head around to look up at Tommy’s face.
“You never mentioned him before,” Buck said, reaching a hand up for Bean to sniff him. Bean didn’t.
“Really, I haven’t?” Tommy asked. When Buck shook his head no, Tommy thought back on it. “I guess I have been talking about him less often. Lucy and the others kept nagging me a couple months ago saying that it was impossible for me to not talk about him. So I tried to talk about him a little less and-”
“You should talk about him more!” Buck said as he moved his hand to the top of Bean’s head, scratching his head fur. “How can you not talk about this little guy?”
Bean leaned into Buck’s touch, blissed out. “Ph, he likes head scratches, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, he does,” Tommy said, a gentle smile on his lips. Buck could get used to seeing that smile on Tommy’s face. It looked good on him, really good.
“So do you want to come in now?” Tommy asked, taking a step backwards.
“Oh yeah,” Buck said as he held the bags of food up. “Got everything we need right here.”
“Well then let me show you my kitchen.
🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕
Buck spread out the ingredients along the kitchen counter. The very nice kitchen counter. And oh boy did Tommy have a nice kitchen. Granite countertops, a six burner stove, even the sink had one of those fancy bendable faucets. It was fantastic, everything Buck wished he could have in his loft.
As soon as Buck had opened the package of cheese, he could feel eyes on him. It wasn’t Tommy’s gaze, Buck knew what Tommy’s gaze felt like. Tommy was over in the living room though, looking for something.
Buck’s eyes trailed down to the floor, and right around the corner of the counter that indicated the entrance to the kitchen, only seven inches above the floor were two eyes.
Two large begging eyes.
Two large begging eyes belonging to a very cute dachshund who certainly knew how to use them to his advantage.
Buck turned back to the bag of cheese and grabbed a fingerful. He then squatted on the ground and held his arm out to the dog. “If you’re quiet,” he whispered. “You can have some. Don’t tell Tommy though, I don’t know if you’re supposed to eat this.”
Bean slowly walked up to the outstretched cheese and gave it a quick sniff, before his small teeth came out and grabbed it from Buck's hand. Buck smiled as he watched the dog eat the small chunk of cheese, how could Tommy have kept this little dude a secret?
“Found it!” Tommy then yelled out, coming back from the living room as Buck stood up and turned to the oven.
“What were you looking for in there anyway?” Buck asked.
Tommy came up behind Buck and wrapped his arms around his torso. “You’ll see later,” he said as he smiled into Buck’s neck.
As Tommy leant over Buck’s shoulder, looking down at what he was cooking on the stove, they both heard a whining come from the floor below them. Buck looked down, only a step away from both of them stood Bean, staring up at them with his begging and pleading eyes.
“What is it?” Tommy asked the dog. “Are you hungry?”
The dog stomped one of his little paws, or he tried to, Buck assumed, it wasn’t that effective when his paw was only a fraction the size of Buck’s hand.
Tommy chuckled. “I’ll feed you when our dinner is ready.”
Bean obviously hadn’t been satisfied with that answer as he gave another stomp and a small bark.
Even though Buck wasn’t looking at Tommy, he could feel Tommy roll his eyes at his dog. “Fine,” Tommy sighed as he grabbed a bit of the cheese in one of the bowls on the counter. “I’ll give you some cheese now if you can leave us alone for ten minutes.”
Buck blinked as he watched Tommy give Bean a piece of cheese. Oh, oh …
That dog had played Buck… oh he was smart.