Quaranteam - Book Two (Ch. 05.5)

"I gotta wonder if all of this is being done to help keep our spirits up, considering how many people have died."

Brian nodded. "It's too much to think about," he exhaled with a deep sigh. "If I stop and think about it, I want to break down crying, so I try to push it to the back of my brain. We came through something, and those people we were, back before this, back on the other side? They aren't who we are now. We only know the people we know now, and we can't go back, can't think back, can't remember back, otherwise that void's gonna eat us up from the inside, you know?"

"I hear ya," Topher said, wrapping his arms around Brian to give his newfound friend a big hug. "You take care of yourself, man, and I'll see you again in January when we're both moved into the building. You and your Team can come up and visit me and mine, assuming we don't all go crazy before then."

"You'll make it, man," Brian said to him, patting him on the shoulder. "You and me, we're survivors, man. We made it through, we've dodged the plague and we're ready to see what the new world holds for us."

"It holds loads and loads and loads of fucking," Topher said with a laugh before exiting the building, heading over to his car, wiping snow off the top of it. Thankfully it wasn't so cold that the Mazda 3 wouldn't start, the engine protesting a couple of times before turning over as Topher sat inside it, letting it warm up a bit.

The drive back to the house was still eerily quiet. In the before times, even being close to North Loop, there would be loads of cars on the road, people heading out to dinner or to the club or to a party or something, but it seemed like people still didn't feel ready to venture out of their homes and to try and interact with one another on the regular yet.

He pulled the car into the driveway of the house he'd been put up in near 43^rd and East Lake Street, driving along and back into the little garage behind the house. He was almost a little nervous to head into the house, but one thing he'd noticed was that despite the wild collection of personalities in his new Team, fights were especially rare. If people weren't getting along, they simply stayed out of one another's way.

Topher headed into the building and inhaled that smell of home cooking that he was still astonished by every meal. Tonight smelled like it was Mediterranean, Greek or Italian maybe. Tiffany, his fourth partner, had been the head chef for The Butcher's Tale, a high end surf & turf restaurant and bar near downtown, and since she couldn't be cooking at work, she'd taken to learning what the family liked and didn't, catering to her new family.

Angelica, his first partner, the model, met him at the door, offering him a wry smile. She was a tall, leggy brunette with a wickedly dark sense of humor. It had taken a little bit for him and Angelica to see eye-to-eye at first, mostly because they'd both been putting on false fronts for each other, him trying to come across as cooler than he was and her doing much the same. By the time she'd woken up in his arms the next morning, however, they'd both dropped the pretenses, and were swapping stories about their first few skateboarding injuries. "How'd it go?"

"Guard found me, but it turned out, he didn't really give a shit."

"I'm telling you, baby," Angelica said, sliding her hand against his back. "The government probably would've just taken care of it. Shit, you probably should've just not paid it, or have let me pay it off."

Topher shook his head in annoyance. "Look, I understand you have money, Ang, and that this wouldn't be a big thing for you, but for me, I would've always felt like I was living in your shadow, hiding behind your money, unable to prove I could do things for myself. Anyway, it's done now and I don't ever have to worry about it."

"There's some paperwork that came for you via mail," she said. "I didn't open most of it, but one of the envelopes was marked 4 Marq, so I figured you wouldn't be too mad if I took a look inside."

"I'm furious," he deadpanned. "I hate you and I never want to see you again. Go and never darken my towels again." He paused for a moment, seeing who could hold it longer, but they both started giggling around the same time. "That's fine. Just blueprints I take it?"

"And asking if we had any special requests. I was thinking about having them convert one of the old apartments into a skate park for us, but then I realized the ceilings were too low."

"Oh well," he laughed. "We'll just have to avail ourselves with boarding downtown during mosquito season. Everybody been getting along okay while I was gone?"

"Diane and Julia were arguing about who got to sleep pressed up against you tonight, and I swear they were going to pull each other's hair out until I volunteered to take a night off and let one of them have my space up against you."

"Aw Ang. You didn't have to do that."

Angelica rolled her light green eyes in amusement. "Somebody's gotta keep the peace around here. And it's been two months since they both joined our family, so I think they wanted to do something special to celebrate the night."

"Dare I even ask?"

"Well, I think they're ready to put their differences aside and spend a night actually sharing you, and maybe even playing with each other too."

"I thought both of them were adamant they didn't want to anything with girls."

Angelica shrugged with a wry grin. "I think they were talking a big game, but now that the reality of us all being together forever is starting to sink in, they may be reconsidering."

"I'm going to end up paddling one or both of them tonight, aren't I?"

"You know they'll only enjoy it. But it'll wait until after dinner. Before that, though..." Angelica wrapped her willowy arms around him, leaning her head down to kiss him with a scorching intensity that took him off-guard, his cock twitching in his pants as her body seemed to envelope his, the kiss cutting right down to his very soul.

"What was that for?"

"I just don't want you getting it that thick skull of yours that those two are the only women in this house who love you, you dummy."

"You know you're too good for me, right?"

She leaned in so she could whisper into his ear. "I know it was just the two of us here when my ex-boyfriend came by the day after I was imprinted to you, demanding I go with him, but seeing you swing that crowbar to knock the knife out of his hand will forever be the sexiest thing I've ever seen. So we're too good for each other. Now shut up and let's eat."