Page 28 of Bro Amazing

At least one small portion of the house got cleaned. As I head upstairs, I note the banister and the upstairs hall need the same level of deep cleaning, but that will be for another day. Right now, it's spicy pages time.

I can actually sit down at my desk now that I don't have the butt plug in, and I let myself fall into the work of setting up a scene and fleshing out the characters and then letting them discover where they want to go for themselves.

After a while, I'm vaguely aware of a ringing emanating from the other side of my room. It's not until the third ring that I'm pulled out of my manuscript to search for the source.

Dad's name flashes across the screen of my phone, and I fumble to answer his call before it goes to voicemail.

"Hi, Dad."

"Everything okay, hun?" he asks. "You sound a little breathless there."

"Oh, I'm just writing. Got a little distracted, that's all."

Dad chuckles. "You always have been one to get lost in a task and forget about the world around you."

"What can I say?" I laugh a little, even as my eyes want to shift back to my computer screen. "I'm enjoying my work."

"Well then, I don't want to keep you long, but I wanted to check in and see how you're doing. Ask how the new place is," says Dad. "Your mom and I weren't super impressed by the state of the house when we moved you in, and we never did get to meet your roommates."

"Hey, Clarissa," says Quintin, walking into my bedroom without knocking. "Oh, you're on the phone."

Quintin doesn't leave though, he just stands there in the middle of my room, waiting. Like he plans on just listening to my side of the conversation.

"One second, Dad." I close my laptop with my free hand as I say to Quintin, "What can I do for you?"

Silently, I beg Quintin not to say anything sexual. It'd be just my luck that he'd have come in to ask for a fuck when I'm on the phone with my dad.

"We're ordering pizza," says Quintin. "Anything a no go for you?"

The tension rolls out of my shoulders. This is a fine, perfectly ordinary question, and one I don't even have to think about before answering.

"Anchovies, pineapple, olives."

"Olives? Seriously?" Quintin shakes his head. "You're missing out. We'll be downstairs."

I return my attention to my phone. "Sorry about that."

"Not a problem. I'm just glad you're eating regularly. You used to forget to eat all the time when you'd be working," says Dad. "And it sounds like you need to get going. Maybe your mom and I could come up sometime soon and take you out to lunch. We'd love to hear all about how your writing career is going."

"That sounds great. Definitely. Name a day and I'll put it in my planner."

"Your mom would love to meet your new roommates too," adds Dad. "You know how she worries about your safety."

"Um, I'll have to see, with their work schedule. Like I said, they tend to work crazy hours. Not just long, but all over the place too."

"At least they have a good work ethic. Probably how they can afford such a house. Helps with so many of you living there too," says Dad.

"That's life in the big city." I force a laugh, looking around the room for an escape before our conversation veers off into territory I'd rather not talk to my dad about. "Well, I shouldprobably get going. Five guy roommates, I'll need to be there right when the pizza arrives."

Dad chuckles. "Probably. All right, talk soon. We love you."

"I love you too, Dad."

Running my fingers through my hair, I blow out a deep breath to calm myself. That went surprisingly well. My dad didn't seem suspicious, and Quintin didn't give us away. And we're getting pizza, which I love, so I'm just going to put my parents out of my head, because I donotwant to think about them as I spend time with my boyfriends. That would be too weird.

Figuring I still have some time before the pizza arrives, I reopen my laptop to finish the scene I was working on when my dad called. Once I get to a good stopping point, I close the computer and head downstairs.

They aren't in the kitchen or their computer room, so there's only one other likely place for them to be.

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