Don and Jake - Chapter 4
#4 of Don and Jake
Decided to go ahead and post Ch 4 because it's so short and just contains plot development with nothing "juicy." Also I suck at dialogue.
Jake pulled into the parking lot of T-Bone Records. Pulling the store keys from his pocket he unlocked the door and, hit the lights, and started setting up for the day. He had just started the coffee machine in the small back room that doubled as a breakroom and the stockroom when Katie, a 19 year old squirrel who came to the city for her freshman year of college and worked part-time at the shop, walked in, her bushy tail swishing.
"Hey Jakey-wakey," she said, making him cringe from the pet name she liked to call him by.
"Morning Baby Girl, how was your weekend?"
"Ugh, what weekend? I spent the past 48 hours writing a paper about igneous rock formations. Have you ever tried to come up with 15 pages-worth of shit to say about igneous rock formations?"
Jake chuckled, "Nope, can't say that I have, hun."
"But enough about that, how did your 2 super gay dates go?"
The wolf let out a sigh, "Well, everything was going great until the last few minutes. I told him about my housing situation."
"Oh shit, how'd he take it?"
"Not bad, but certainly not great. He went quiet for a bit, then said he needed to think about things. Haven't heard a peep from him for a couple days."
Katie nudged him affectionately, "Sorry. Hey, you said he's like a big time business guy right? Maybe he's just been to busy."
"I suppose that could be true."
"Hey, can we listen to my music," she asked, referring to the AUX Input plug on the store sound system all the employees are allowed to plug their MP3 players into.
"Depends," he said, "are you just gonna pump that K-pop garbage for hours?"
"Yep!"
Jake gave an exaggerated sigh, "I guess then." ****************************************************************** It was mid-afternoon and Jake was in the back looking to see if they still had any vinyl copies of Nick Cave's 'Let Love In' for a rather impatient chimp at the counter. After a few minutes of searching proved fruitless he headed back behind the counter where Katie was ringing someone else up. The chimp was checking his phone in a most irritated manner.
"Ok Sir, I checked the back and we have every Cave album EXCEPT 'Let Love In.'"
"Ugh, that just fucking figures, doesn't it!"
"Well he was a delight," Katie said as the primate stormed out.
"Wasn't he just," the white wolf said, looking toward the door when he heard the bell attached to it ring, signalling a new customer. He gasped as Don entered and walked up to the counter sheepishly.
"Hey," he said kinda quietly.
"Hi."
"Can we talk? Maybe just walk over to that little cafe next door? It shouldn't take long"
Jake looked over at the young squirrel, "Think I can trust you to not burn the place down in the next few minutes?"
"Probably," she said cheerfully.
"Good enough, let's go."
They exited the record store and walked right over to the tiny Cafe Chatouiller, taking a seat at one of the two-seater tables outside. Don lowered his eyes, his shoulders slumped in his black shirt with green tie, "Look, I'm really sorry about the way I acted Sunday."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, you actually responded better than I thought you would."
"Well I still feel shitty about it so I wanted to do something to help," he said, handing a file to Jake. He opened it and saw pictures of a beautiful apartment. According to the address its part of the exclusive American Arms condos in Downtown West. "What's this?"
"Well, I bought this apartment before I bought the place I live in now and I never sold it. If you want, you can move in."
Jake tossed the file back onto the table annoyed, his New Orleans coming out fully now, "Look man, I don't know what kind of relationships you've had in the past, but you get that I ain't tryin' to be your pet, right?"
Don cocked his head and looked confusedly at the wolf before understanding suddenly dawned on him. "Oh no no, it's not like that! I have no interested in having a kept boy-toy around. Like I said, I own the apartment. You'd be my tenant, I would expect rent from you."
"I don't know man, I've known you for, like, less than a week. Feels kinda weird."
The huge bear nodded, "I understand, it was just a thought. Sorry."
"Again, no need to be sorry."
"So, we're good?"
"We are." They hugged, then Don walked Jake back to the store.
"So, when would you like to get together again," the wolf asked.
"Are you doing anything Friday night?"
"Nope. I even have Saturday off so there won't be any rush."
"Great! I'd love to have you over at my place, I could cook you something."
"That sounds just fine." The brown-furred bear gave him his address and left, leaving Jake to his job.
"So how was it," Katie asked as he walked back inside.
"Great, actually."