Page 28 of Pet Project

“Hey Hastings.”

Only one person calls me that without condescension.

“Spencer. I just finished closing up. What’s up?”

I can hear Lucky giggling in the background and I think trying to whisper, but as a little he is not very good at whispering. “Daddy is going to invite him and then you invite Toby and then we will leave them there!”

Spencer groans in my ear before muttering, “Don’t suppose you can pretend you didn’t hear that?”

I chuckle at the absurdity that my life has become, but listen to the proposal they came up with for getting the two best friends to work their shit out.

“Sounds like a plan,” I tell him as I stretch my arms above my head. “If you want Shiloh to have a chance to process it before I get upstairs, you should let him knownow. I have about ten minutes worth of cleanup and then I’ll grab him to head over.”

“Why does he need time to process?” Spencer asks before I can end the call.

“Because I haven’t been able to tell him I joined the DC yet,” I tell him and press the end call button. Throwing the door closed on the safe, I start laughing to myself, imagining how my kitten… erm Shiloh will take the news.

33

SHILOH

I didn’t mean to hit Donnie in the face with my plug tail, honest. He just surprised me when I was digging through my box of gear to decide what was appropriate to have my new sexy roommate see me in at the club for the first time. I wasn’t even going to use that one! I only bought it to work up the courage to try and get Toby to see me as more, but I really am a scaredy cat.

“For the last time, Shiloh, I’m fine. It’s not even swelling up,” Donnie says from the seat next to me. After I heard the thunk, I slid myself under the bed until I saw his feet leave the room, but when I looked, half of my gear and my bag were gone, including the plug tail…

“O-okay,” I manage to get out as we pull into the parking lot of the club. Before I can get it myself, Donnie grabs my bag out of the backseat and heads for the front doors of the club.

Oh, fuck a duck, this is going to be embarrassing.

I barely manage to catch up before I hear Clarence’s voice ring through the lobby area.

“Who didyouget into a fight with?”

By pure reflex, I start gathering my braids in front of my face to hide. There’s nowhere to disappear in the lobby and I have to check in before I can let myself go into kitty space. I’m so distracted by trying to hide that Clarence has to call out to me a few times to get my attention.

“Hey, kitty cat,” he croons when he sees he finally has my attention. “Ready to get checked in so you can claim your nap spot?”

I can feel myself starting to sink further into that more animalistic headspace with every second I’m in the building, so I nod and pull out my wallet so that Clarence can swipe my ID card and let us through. The beep and green light is always my brain’s signal that it’s safe to relax and I feel myself drift a little further away from being human.

“Do you want my help getting changed?” the man next to asks… Donnie. I almost forgot who I was here with. Wait. There was something I was supposed to do before going back….

“I’ll let them know you’re here, sweetie,” Clarence says from behind us. “Don’t worry about it and go ahead and enjoy yourselves.”

Donnie leads me to a private changing room instead of the group rooms. I don’t understand why he’s worried about changing in public. He played sports all the way through college according to Eric.

“I don’t need a private room. I’m fine with changing in front of the other people here,” I tell him, hoping he can get his money back for reserving a private room. “Anything I don’t want to share with everyone else, I just use a stall.”

My shorts can be a little difficult to put on, especially with threading my tail through the hole in the ass. I bought them hoping to push me into wearing the plug, but I can’t bring myself to put my fingers there to prep enough to get the plug in.

“The room is for me, kitty cat,” he tells me with a soft pat on the top of my head. “Group changing and shower type areas bring up memories I would much rather keep buried for the time being.”

Oh.

Is it wrong that I’m a little disappointed that this special roomisn’tfor me?

Damnit, Shiloh! You’re supposed to be getting him together with Toby!

Giving him a nod, I set my bag down and start pulling out everything so that I can get changed… Ignoring the plug…