[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 760 & 761. (Patreon)

Chapter 760: Smart pets.

It still surprises me how well trained Red is. Diana says she didn’t do anything particularly special training or anything, so it’s probably that it’s the German Shepherd nature, but he was quick to get in the back seat of the car after greeting us, then laying there calmly with his head and ears up.

He sniffed and licked my hand when I reached back to pet him. “How does he handle the vet?” I asked Diana.

“Oh, he cries like a baby, but he doesn’t fight. I almost wish he did because it breaks my heart to hear him cry. Thankfully he’s only been there for his shots and once more after he got in a fight with a bigger dog.”

“He got in a fight?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“The bigger dog started it.”

“Cake has only been to the vet once,” I realized. “I should take her for a general checkup.”

“You should,” Diana agreed.

We got home some 30 minutes later, arriving a little past 3:00 am. Diana parked the car outside the garage and Red got out with a wagging tail.

Diana chuckled. “Excited about seeing Cake?” she asked her dog, to which he grumbled while excitedly stomping his front paws.

I was about to open the front door with my key, but it opened before I even reached out.

“Good, you’re here,” Alice said with a wry smile. She was in her pajamas, and so were Noelle and Grace behind her.

“What happened?” I asked, worried and with my alarms once more flaring up.

“No, nothing bad. Or so we think, but…” Alice sighed. “Go to the living room.”

I quickly walked there before even greeting the girls and they all followed behind me. There, in the living room, was Cake, sitting on the couch across from the TV meowing loudly at nothing.

“Ah?”

“She’s been like this for hours,” Noelle said, going over to Cake and sitting next to her to pet her. “Nothing calms her. She doesn’t want treats, water, her box in clean… We figured she missed you.”

Cake jumped out of the sofa to run to me, yet she kept screaming while looking up at me and rubbing herself on my legs before she went back to jump on the couch. She kept meowing loudly. It sounded… sad.

“We don’t know what else to try,” Grace said. “She does it whether we’re with her or if we leave her alone.”

“She won’t leave the living room, either,” Alice added.

“...” What on earth could she…? 

Oh. 

Ooooh. 

Oh, no…

My heart sank. I went over to the couch, sat next to cake and put her on my lap. “It’s a Friday, isn’t it?” I said with a grimace.

“Yeah, though technically a Saturday now,” Grace said. “What of it?”

“Cake always watches TV with mom on Friday nights,” I said. “Every Friday and for at least four hours. It’s the time mom has to catch up on movies and shows, and it became a routine for them.”

“W-Wait, so… she’s been crying for Mrs. Brooks?” Alice asked, her jaw dropping.

“Probably,” I said, scratching Cake’s neck. I sighed. “I’m so sorry, girl.”

Diana led Red into the living room, where the German Shepherd ran towards Cake with playful hops… until he was in front of her. Red immediately sobered down and his large ears dropped. He began to sniff Cake before he started licking her carefully. Cake jumped off my lap and walked away with Red following her.

“Hopefully he’ll be able to cheer her up a bit,” Diana said. “Or at least distract her.

“Poor girl misses her grandma…” Noelle said with a sad smile.

“And Red immediately noticed her mood, too,” Alice said.

“She’d been doing reasonably well here, so I thought we’d be fine, but I didn’t expect her to realize my mom wasn’t here on a Friday night.”

“I guess animals are smarter than I give them credit for.”

“You’ve got the whole spectrum, really," Diana said. “We used to have a horse that was a genius. He’d learn quickly, seemed to understand when talked to and could even open latches. Then on the other hand we had a couple of horses that were dumb as rocks. They’d get stuck in weird places, try to jump fences and fall on their faces and be extremely amused by the flapping of their own lips.”

“...Sometimes I forget you’re a country girl,” Grace said.

“Are Mila and Sarah asleep?” I asked the girls.

“Yeah,” Noelle said. “I was finishing my stream when I heard Cake. Alice heard, too, and came out of her room. Grace says she was just going to the bathroom.”

“I see. Sorry, and thanks for looking after her.”

“Not like we managed to do anything,” Alice said, sighing.

“Maybe I’ll bring her with me to the game room while I stream from next Friday on,” Noelle said. “You think she’d like that?”

“It’s worth a shot,” I said. “She’ll need to adjust to a new routine. So do we, for that matter.”

“Well, thankfully your mom is coming over tomorrow, right?” Grace said.

“Yeah.” Our families were coming over for a barbecue as a sort of house inauguration and big family meeting. “Tomorrow’s gonna be busy.”

“You two should go to bed,” Alice told Diana and me. “You must be tired, right?”

“A bit, yeah,” Diana said, sighing. “We had a long night. We’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“...” I looked over towards Cake and Red there by the entrance. Red was laying on the floor in front of a sitting Cake, quietly playing at biting and slapping each other. “I’m going to stay up for a little longer,” I said. “Just a bit.”

“Alright, then,” Diana said, walking over to the kitchen. “Did you girls take the meat out of the freezer?”

Grace, Alice and Noelle flinched.

“Uh…”

I stood up with a groan and a shake of my head. “Thanks for reminding us,” said. 

We took the meat from the freezer and put it below in the fridge. The girls decided to stay with us, so we made some tea and went back to the living room.

We turned on the TV to watch something and Cake ran over to us. She jumped on the couch and got comfortable right between Alice and Noelle while Red sat at Diana’s feet.

Diana herself sat beside me, locked her fingers with mine and leaned lightly against me. It had been a long night, but we still watched a 40-minute episode of a new show before finally going to bed.

************

Chapter 761: A quiet morning.

Saturday morning. 9:30 am, so a bit over five hours of sleep. More than enough for me, thankfully, but I gave Diana a kiss on the forehead as she stirred beside me and told her to sleep as much as she wanted.

As I went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, I realized we hadn’t agreed to a weekend routine. By which I mean I didn’t know when anyone was going to wake up.

I had a feeling that Mila and Noelle were going to get up late. Mila because she’s fairly lazy and Noelle because she was up until late at night. Alice and Grace too, for that matter. That left me with Sarah, so I made a meaningless bet with myself that she’d not only be the first to wake up, she’d also get up in the next 30 minutes.

I was wrong.

She was already up by the time I got out of the bathroom.

“You really are an early riser, huh?” I mused, grinning.

“It’s a habit that’s hard to break, and I’d rather not to, anyway.” She let out a big yawn and rubbed her eyes. “Breakfast and then a workout?”

“I don’t know when the others will get up.”

“I say we give them 30 more minutes before waking them up,” Sarah said. “10:00 AM is a perfectly reasonable time to wake up on a Saturday.”

“That’s fair, but Alice, Noelle, Grace and Diana were up until 4:00 am, so maybe one more hour?” I suggested.

“Fine.” She let out another yawn. “What were you doing?”

“Nothing naughty, if that’s what you mean. We were tired and the mood wasn’t right.”

That made her raise an eyebrow. “The mood? Did you guys fight or something?”

“No, but Diana and I had a tiring night and Cake was sad that my mom wasn’t here.” Sarah squinted her eyes in confusion at that last part. “I’ll explain later. Go wash your face. You’ve got eye crust,” I told her, giving her a quick peck on the lips. 

I saw Cake and Red walking out of my bedroom, so I called them both over with a soft whistle and they followed me to the kitchen. I filled their bowls and had to stop Red from eating Cake’s breakfast after he practically swallowed his.

“...”

It was quiet in the huge house, and while there’d be a lot to do soon enough, I could take my time for the moment. I walked around the first floor, taking in the silent, empty living room first. So far we’d spent most of our time in the house here, and it was already starting to feel like home. It was like that for the big, empty entrance and the library, though. I don’t read a lot, but having such a huge room dedicated to books and reading makes me feel like I should. I browsed what was essentially Grace’s collection, looking for something that would catch my eye, when I suddenly remembered that Sarah’s and Mila’s siblings were also coming over today and I started to panic, trying to remember WHERE he had put her… raunchier collection. I let out a heavy sigh of relief when I saw that they were in one of the top shelves, one they’d never reach even getting on a chair. Not that kids are that interested in books, anyway, so maybe I got worried over nothing. Still, better safe than sorry.

I went to check the bar next. The shelves behind the counter were empty, as we hadn’t bought anything yet. It looked weird compared to the colorful shelves we had at work, but knowing now the price of some of those bottles, I don’t think we’ll have a full shelf anytime soon.

Finally, I stepped outside, to the backyard. The chill morning air surprised me and made me shiver. It didn’t feel as cold inside. The grass was wet with morning dew and I could spot a few birds on the roof of the pool, but what took my breath away was seeing the reflection of the sun on the large pond in the distance.

I remember that was the view that made me pick this lot. I took a deep breath and focused on the sounds. Birds chirping, a very faint, chill breeze, but other than that… almost nothing. No cars, no people…

I chuckled. I guess there’s still a part of me that enjoys solitude. I may have mostly gotten over my social anxiety, at least the most severe aspects of it, but I’m still an introvert at heart.

Maybe this house really was a good decision.

“Whatchu doing?” Mila hugged me from behind with little to no warning, but her presence surprised me more than the hug itself.

“You’re up? What happened? Did you have trouble sleeping?” I asked her.

I frowned. “I’d be offended, but I do usually sleep in on weekends. No, I set my alarm because I knew you’d all get mad at me if I got up at noon.”

“I wouldn't have been mad,” I told her.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I would’ve felt sorry for you, because Sarah, Alice and Grace would chew you out until the end of time.”

“See!? SEE!?”

I chuckled, turned around and grabbed her by the waist, lifting her up. And spinning us around once. She laughed.

“What? Woke up in a good mood?” she asked, smiling brightly down at me.

“No, but I’m in a good mood now. I’m glad to have you all here with me. I’m the luckiest man alive. I just hope Fernanda will join us one day and…” I sighed. “And I hope that we can figure a way to make it work with Diana.”

“What? Why wouldn’t it work?” she asked, confused.

“She works while we sleep, she sleeps while we study. Most of the time, at least.”

“Ah. Um… W-Why didn’t we think about that?”

“Probably because we mainly see her on the weekends, so…”

“Right…” I set Mila down and she sighed alongside me. “M-Maybe you can talk to Luke?”

“I’m not comfortable asking for favors, especially not work-related ones. Besides, he hired Diana because he needs her there, at those times. And on top of that, Diana herself likes those night shifts.”

“...”

“...”

Ugh, now I feel down again. It’s hard to come to terms with it, but maybe it would really be for the best if Diana didn’t move in with us. We’d still see each other every weekend, after all. I don’t like it one bit, but since I couldn’t think of anything else, maybe I should start coming to terms with the idea.

“Change of topic, but… are you ready for lunch today?” Mila asked me.

“Are you?” I ased back.

“No.”

“What a coincidence. Me neither.”

Having to host lunch for the parents of four of my girlfriends plus my own family? Nothing could’ve prepared me. Has anyone else ever had to deal with this situation? Unlikely.