Almost Easy

Welcome Home

Brian’s POV

Zoey called me on her way home to get an address and she sounded like she’d had a bad day. I was hoping the surprise I had for her would be a good enough to restore her good humor. I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face.

I wandered around my place making sure everything was in order. I happened to see her pull into the driveway from the upstairs windows and moved quickly to open the door.

I walked out with my hands spread wide as Pinkly followed me out of the door. “Welcome to Casa Haner.”

She slammed her car door and glared,“You lied to me.”

“Yeah but it was a good lie, right? This is much better than a tiny apartment,” I said pointing to my 4 bedroom house.

She looked from me to the house as Pinkly jumped up to greet her.“True but you still lied. What the hell?”

“It was funny. You should have seen your face when I told you I only had one bedroom,” I said as I watched her pick my baby up and let her lick her face.

“Who are you cutie?” she said as she closed her eyes as Pinkly continued her face bath. “Aren’t you adorable?”

“Yes I am. Thank you,” I chuckled.

“That’s a gay man’s dog if I’ve ever seen one,” she said sourly.

“I’m turning you in to the P.C. police,” I retorted “That’s my baby you’re talking about.”

She put Pinkly down on the ground and I bent to pet her. Pinkly immediately rolled over for me to pet her stomach.

 “At least make him work for it,” Zoey blurted sourly.

“Ignore her baby. She’s sex starved, and it’s made her bitter.” I replied as I stroked Pinkly’s tummy. “Come on, killer. Let’s show Zoey the house.” With a last pat, I chuckled as I rose to my feet. 

“I’m glad I amused you,” she said as she grabbed her duffel bag from the trunk.

I walked over to the trunk to help with the rest of her stuff “I don’t remember you packing this much shit this morning. What did you do? Stop and grab some more stuff after work.”

She frowned as she pointed to another large duffel and makeup case “This isn’t even a lot.”

I grabbed both as I noticed her staring into space.

“Hey, bad day,” I asked as I pulled her bags from the car.

“Yes,” she said shortly grabbing her makeup case.

“Want to talk about it?” I asked, grabbing her arm to get her attention, looking into her green eyes.

She shook her head and smiled "Can we just go inside?"

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Zoey’s POV 

I was pretty surprised at how beautiful Brian’s place was. I had expected a frat boy’s apartment complete with bean bag chairs and a raggedy old table that he inherited from his parents. Something like Zacky’s first place but instead was greeted with warm colored walls and comfy neutral couches. The rest of the furniture pieces were mismatched but they existed in harmony because of their colors.

 “Let me give you the grand tour,” he said happily, obviously proud of his home. 

As I followed him from room to room, he gave me a description of each piece of furniture or some funny tale of an event that happened. It seemed as Jimmy had broken and replaced just about everything in the house based on the stories.