Page 6 of Winter Ends
Giving in a little, but not completely, I finally answered. “Let me think about it.”
We ended the call, and I braved crawling out from under the blanket. I shivered violently as the cold air of the room hit me again. My feet were ice on the wood floors as I walked back to the baseboard to check on it. As I feared, there wasn’t any heat coming out of it, yet it continued to make those popping and hissing noises.
“Just fucking great,” I murmured as I grabbed a thick pair of socks from my dresser and shoved my feet into them. Looking around the room, another shiver raced through my body. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was hanging out here today until I could get the landlord in to look at the heat. I got dressed, throwing on the warmest shit I had, which meant a pair of jeans that had the least amount of holes in them and a long-sleeved shirt with a hoodie over it. Mom would faint if she knew I was about to go out in the snow like that, but I didn’t have much of a choice.
I only had a pair of canvas shoes that weren’t my work shoes. They’d be soaked by the time I got anywhere, but I wasn’t about to wear dress shoes out and about. I stopped by the office on my way out of the building and put in a work order about the heat. The lady working there gave me a small smile and said they’d do their best to look into it. It didn’t make me feel all that confident that I’d have heat by the time I got home. I would probably have to look into crashing with Chase and Nathan.
My fingers slid across the screen as I typed a message to my friend.
Me: Hey. Are you and lover-boy decent? I need somewhere warm.
It took a few minutes, but a message finally came through.
Chase: Fuck off. Yeah, you can come over.
A smile lit my face as I walked down the sidewalk, the snow crunching beneath my feet and soaking into my shoes. This sucked so bad, and I wished I had taken my mom up on her offer to help me get some winter clothing. I was still holding on to hope that this was a one-off and the snow wouldn’t be around for long.
By the time I reached Nathan and Chase’s place, my feet were on the verge of frostbite. They hopefully wouldn’t have a problem with me taking my shoes off to dry them out. Fuck them if they did. I needed my damn toes.
Their building was worlds nicer than mine. Nathan had gotten a cushy job as a programmer for some game company. The biggest perk was that he got to work from home a lot, so I guess it helped to be comfortable.
My knuckles stung as I knocked on their door and waited. I rubbed my hands together as I waited for the circulation to warm them back up. My choice of attire was probably stupid. Maybe I should have added another layer. It got cold at the beach, but this was fucking ridiculous.
When the door opened, Chase raised his eyebrows and looked me up and down. “You forget how to dress yourself?”
“Damn. And here I thought I’d asked the right person for help today.”
I turned to leave when Chase grabbed my arm and pulled me through the doorway.
“You’re not going anywhere. What the hell happened, man?”
I explained about how the heating wasn’t working in my apartment and he said that I could stay for as long as needed. Knowing him and his boyfriend, I didn’t want to hang around too long. They were horny as fuck, and I’d rather not listen to the two of them go at it.
“I have to work again tomorrow, so at least I’ll be out of your hair for a while for that,” I explained as I sat on the couch. Chase shrugged as he walked into another room.
A small black and white ball of fur jumped up onto the seat next to me, and I suppressed the urge to scream like a little girl. I’d met Chase’s cat Oreo before, but it didn’t make her any less terrifying. Or any cat, for that matter.
My grandma had this mean old cat when I was little, and it would always chase me around, hissing and scratching at me. Whenever I’d try to tell her about it, she didn’t believe me or say that I’d probably done something to upset the cat. I’d been terrified of the animals ever since. You could tell me they were the nicest creatures on the planet, but my brain refused to believe it.
My heart pounded against my rib cage as Oreo sat there and stared at me. Her tail swished back and forth, but she didn’t move. What the hell did she want? I sure as shit wasn’t going to pet her. What if I reached out and she scratched me?
“Oreo.”
She jumped from the couch and ran into the kitchen when Chase called for her. He shook a bag of food before pouring some in a bowl and setting it out for her.
“Dude, you look like you just saw someone die.”
I wanted to laugh. My heart was still hammering away. So stupid that I was still so terrified over a little cat.
Chapter 4
Shawn
Friday nights were always the busiest. It didn’t matter if there was snow on the ground. The weekend’s start drew people out to celebrate the end of a long work week, which was fine by me, since it meant a better paycheck, more individuals to flirt with, and more tips.
And the man who was scowling at the other end of the bar.
If he didn’t lighten up, customers were going to complain. Daniel hadn’t smiled once since the start of the shift. Not that I hadn’t been trying to put one on his face. It was a lost cause, of course. I only seemed to piss him off even further.
