Page 52 of Pet Project

“Don’t fire him,” Toby runs up to me pleading. “I’m the one who yelled first. It’s my fault.”

I pull him into a hug and glare at Jessica over his head. “Sid isn’t the one getting fired.”

My manager blanches and has the gall to look surprised.

“I have been the manager since before Walt retired. I’ve been here for years!”

Ignoring her, I push Toby back to arms length to ask, “What exactly did she say to set you off, Pup?”

“I didn’t say anything to your boy toy!” Jessica cuts in before he can answer me. “I know he and the rest of the trailer trash freaks are off limits.”

Toby turns to face her and I’m almost too slow in stopping him from launching himself at her. Since I restrained his body, my pup takes a deep breath in preparation of what I’m sure would be scathing. Unfortunately, I don’t think the dean will look past another incident with him, so I act quickly.

I barely have my hand over his mouth when Eric’s voice from behind me has me struggling not to laugh out loud.

“Just cuz we get more cock in a week than you’ll get in your life, Sour Patch Tits, doesn’t mean you get a free pass to be a hateful bitch. If you’re an example of what the hetero guys in this city have to choose from, I’m not surprised that the meat market for dick is having a booming expansion lately.”

Jessica’s scream of frustration makes me wish I had my hands free to cover my ears, but she at least takes off her apron and grabs her purse from beneath the counter. When she reaches the door, Eric steps aside with a wave of his hand.

She looks back at me with rage evident on her face, but I will never tolerate bigotry in my shop. I tell her that her last check will be mailed to her and that she is no longer welcome inside my establishment. I guess I’m taking another trip down to the security office on campus this afternoon.

62

TOBY

After the bitch exits the shop, the students who are hanging out start applauding. Jessica has been a real problem in here for a long ass time. It was practically torture when I was avoiding Owner for those weeks with having to deal with her bigoted ass. Now that she’s officially gone, the rest of the students she drove away should start coming back.

Owner’s arms loosen and I relax against his side. I’m not ready to move away yet. The whole reason I ducked in here after class instead of heading for the dining hall is because I was hoping for some snuggles. Shy’s in deadline mode in the art building, so we won’t see him until well after sundown for the next few days. Therefore, I came to Owner for some good pets.

“I’m sorry, Owner,” I mutter into his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to cost you your manager.”

I really don’t mean to fly off the handle, but when I saw her tearing down the new guy, I lost itand now Owner is going to have even less time to play with me and…

FUCK!

We debated for hours the other night over the title that Don should hold with us as his pets. Like I pointed out the night he brought us both home from the club, we couldn’t useMasterwithout some well-meaning overly sensitive person throwing a hissy fit on Shiloh’s behalf. So, we landed on Owner for when we’re at the club or at home – and his shop is neither of those places.

“I mean… Fuck! Don! Shit…”

Lips press against mine and my brain short circuits before it can succumb to full blown panic mode. The tension in my body flows away as I sink into the bliss that is my Owner taking control.

Wolf-whistles from the customers in the shop break through my serenity and I jump back, almost falling over a stool in my excitement. Don just chuckles at the blush that I can feel heating my face.

“If I knew that’s all it would take to shut him up, I might have tried that before Mattie showed back up in my life,” Eric murmurs from somewhere behind me while I struggle to get my face back to a normal color.

“No you wouldn’t,” Donnie tells him and steps behind the counter to start tapping on the screen. “It would be too close to incest for you, and you know it.”

While the two of them laugh at my expense, my eyes are drawn to the new guy staring at Eric. Even with Jessica spewing her venom, I’ve never seen him show any aggression or negative emotions. The worst I’ve seen onhis face is annoyance or exasperation. He’s an overall friendly guy and a ton of fun to talk to when it comes to menu planning for healthy, but tasty meals.

Right now, he looks like he can’t decide if he wants to be happy or lose his lunch.

“Izzy?” he asks softly and Eric freezes mid-sentence with Owner before turning around to look at the new guy. “Do you remember me?”

Based on the look Eric is giving the poor guy, it looks like the answer to that question is a resounding “no” and I can’t help but feel sorry for him. My friend spent a lot of time sleeping around before Professor Barnes came back into his life, and a lot of that time was used as a tool to forget some really bad shit that happened to him.

It was only a matter of time before one of Eric’s conquests caught up to him, but this is really going to make things awkward for Owner having his new guy being a notch in our Brat Queen’s bedpost.

“What’s going on, Pup?”

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