Page 49 of Marcus in Retrograde
“Oh, he’s a barking idiot.” Marcus laughed. “After all he barked at the wall for weeks.”
“Yeah, but he was barking at the kittens, so I’ll forgive him.”
Marcus took the two milk drunk fuzz balls from my arms, placing them in the box. “Let’s go get something to eat. I need food, and you do too.”
“I need sex.”
He laughed, and cupped my chin. “Chase. Make no mistake, I want to sleep with you. But just because we’ve gotten to the point where your demi isn’t an obstacle, doesn’t mean we stop getting to know each other.”
I hated that he made sense. I just wanted him to fuck me, and soon. It had been way too long since I’d been at this point.
He brushed his lips over mine. “Trust me, Chase. You will not regret having dinner with me.”
“Foodie foreplay?”
Shaking his head ruefully, Marcus looked at me through his lashes. “Why do I have the feeling that I’m going to be really, really sore for work on Monday.”
I clapped my hands like an overstimulated seal—I needed to get myself under control—and startled the kittens, who started crying for their mother. I feltterrible—for about a minute until Pollux, who looked distressed, climbed into the box and started licking all of them.
“Christ, my dog is going to have a hairball.”
* * *
Marcus pickedan adorable restaurant just north of Washington Square. It was a little, higher end American fusion place I hadn’t realized was there, and they were open late. Which was necessary on a Friday night in New York City.
Marcus didn’t even open the menu. “I’ve been coming here way too often after work for a to go order,” he admitted. “Now that things have settled in the office, I need to go back to buying and cooking my own food. Mr. Abramovich probably misses me and my hydrant-fouling beast.”
“Mr. Abramovich hoses that thing off every day,” I answered. “Because your dog isn’t the only onepeesseengon it. He also hate when dogs takessheetsin front of his produce.”
“And, he has the best produce,” Marcus said. “I can’t afford to keep eating out like this. At some point, my food budget is going to outpace my rent.”
I nodded. “I’ve been trying to be good. Pollux has actually helped me. When you were working late and the poor guy needed out, I was always popping into Abramovich’s for some veggies and protein that I could whip together really fast. It’s been good.”
Marcus grabbed my hand. “You have no idea how grateful I am that you were there and willing to walk him. I know Missy has the key, but she has a really bad knee and her walking him would have been too much for her.”
“Eh, I like animals.” I raised an eyebrow. “Clearly demonstrated by my hysterics over a cat I’d pulled out of a wall less than twenty-four hours earlier.”
The waiter poured some wine for us while Marcus laughed. “I’m not much better, you know. I can get pretty hysterical over some pretty dumb stuff.”
I studied the light in the wine glass. “But I’ll bet you crying over a dead squirrel didn’t get you punished.”
“Not ever.” He nodded. “My dad is a man’s man, but he’s not about that toxicity. I was raised to be as caring and careful as my sisters. And both of my sisters can beat the tar out of an attacker and change their own oil.”
“Nice!” I said, toasting him.
Tapping his glass against mine, we both took a sip. He nodded, clearly liking the wine.
“Your dad?” he asked.
It was easy to tell by the tone of his voice he knew it was a touchy subject. I stared at my glass, and tried to figure out how to approach that mess. “I’m not the prodigal son,” I said. “There would be no fatted calf if I showed up at the front door of their house. Mom keeps trying, but it’s not happening. Haven’t been home in twelve years. Don’t plan on changing that.”
“Sounds like a plan.” He smiled, and toasted me.
And just like that, I fell for Marcus Romano.
I had already been falling. His patient, kind manner. His willingness to figure out why Pollux was nuts. His sincere apology when he couldn’t make it the night we shifted my apartment around. His fun, innocent, non-flirty texts. The nights we spent chatting and eating good or bad take out in the past week.
He really got me. He could tell I wasn’t about to give him more than that for a moment in time. We didn’t need more than that right now. We were getting to know each other and there was time for deep philosophical questions about our families later.
