Page 132 of Wanted Beta

She’s our priority. That doesn’t change.

Chapter Sixty-One

Jack

Enzo actually decides we’re closed for the day after we eat lunch together uninterrupted. He locks up and returns to the kitchen with the dishes. While we’ve been so quiet he’s been refusing my services as a pot cleaner so this time I don’t even ask.

“What show are we catching up on?” Arrow asks, as he gets to his feet.

“Uh, you can pick. I don’t mind,” I admit, knowing it’s not where my thoughts will be.

He likes to get lost in something that’s emotionally engaging. I like to stare at the screen while I figure out song lyrics that aren’t working or work out a problem that’s been bugging me.

It’s usually the only time I have for that kind of stuff, so it’s become a habit.

“If you want to practice, you know I’m always up for listening,” he offers.

I smile. “I know. I’m not in that kind of mood. We can watch whatever you want.”

“As long as Gio’s not going to complain about my choices,” Arrow says.

“You know he just can’t stand that show with the singing puppets, so we’ll skip that one.”

He snorts. “They’re not singing puppets. They’re singers in disguise.”

“Right.” Like there’s a difference.

He shakes his head at me. “We won’t watch that one.”

“Good. It’s not exactly my favorite, either.”

“You know you can pick,” he reminds me, as he gets to his feet.

“I know, but you know I’m not really watching the show. I just like to see your reactions to stuff. It’s cute how excited you get when someone wins a toaster, or whatever.” I get up and follow him out of the dining room.

“No one ever wins a toaster on the shows we watch, just FYI,” Arrow says.

“I did say I wasn’t really watching them, right?”

We go upstairs and find Gio steaming one of his suits in the corner of the main room of the apartment. The kitchen, dining room and living room are all in one big space, with the bedroom I usually share with Gio to the right, and the room Arrow usually shares with Enzo to the left.

There are two bathrooms, one at the side of each bedroom, and that’s all we’ve got.

I don’t know what might need to change once Beth moves in.

Two bedrooms have been working for us since we moved out to the city, but she’s probably more used to having her own space. We had our own bedrooms before, and eventually two of them were hardly ever being used so this set up made sense for us.

Now, I don’t know that it does.

Not that we’ll be worrying about that anytime soon.

Beth might have gotten close to Gio, but she hasn’t found that level of intimacy with the rest of us yet, and we all agreed that we couldn’t tell her until she seemed to like us enough that it wouldn’t freak her out to hear it.

“Are you almost done?” I ask Gio.

He looks over. “Almost. Why?”

“We’re about to catch up on Arrow’s shows.”

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