61. Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-One

Jack

E nzo actually decides we're closed for the day after we eat lunch together uninterrupted. He locks up and returns to the kitchen with the dishes. While we've been so quiet he's been refusing my services as a pot cleaner so this time I don't even ask.

"What show are we catching up on?" Arrow asks, as he gets to his feet.

"Uh, you can pick. I don't mind," I admit, knowing it's not where my thoughts will be.

He likes to get lost in something that's emotionally engaging. I like to stare at the screen while I figure out song lyrics that aren't working or work out a problem that's been bugging me.

It's usually the only time I have for that kind of stuff, so it's become a habit.

"If you want to practice, you know I'm always up for listening," he offers.

I smile. "I know. I'm not in that kind of mood. We can watch whatever you want."

"As long as Gio's not going to complain about my choices," Arrow says.

"You know he just can't stand that show with the singing puppets, so we'll skip that one."

He snorts. "They're not singing puppets. They're singers in disguise."

"Right." Like there's a difference.

He shakes his head at me. "We won't watch that one."

"Good. It's not exactly my favorite, either."

"You know you can pick," he reminds me, as he gets to his feet.

"I know, but you know I'm not really watching the show. I just like to see your reactions to stuff. It's cute how excited you get when someone wins a toaster, or whatever." I get up and follow him out of the dining room.

"No one ever wins a toaster on the shows we watch, just FYI," Arrow says.

"I did say I wasn't really watching them, right?"

We go upstairs and find Gio steaming one of his suits in the corner of the main room of the apartment. The kitchen, dining room and living room are all in one big space, with the bedroom I usually share with Gio to the right, and the room Arrow usually shares with Enzo to the left.

There are two bathrooms, one at the side of each bedroom, and that's all we've got.

I don't know what might need to change once Beth moves in.

Two bedrooms have been working for us since we moved out to the city, but she's probably more used to having her own space. We had our own bedrooms before, and eventually two of them were hardly ever being used so this set up made sense for us.

Now, I don't know that it does.

Not that we'll be worrying about that anytime soon.

Beth might have gotten close to Gio, but she hasn't found that level of intimacy with the rest of us yet, and we all agreed that we couldn't tell her until she seemed to like us enough that it wouldn't freak her out to hear it.

"Are you almost done?" I ask Gio.

He looks over. "Almost. Why?"

"We're about to catch up on Arrow's shows."

"Oh," Gio nods. "Yeah. I'm almost done."

He continues running the handheld steamer over the arms of the suit jacket.

I can't see any creases, but what would I know?

I'm not the one dropping a grand and a half on a single outfit.

"You could stick around and watch with us, you know," Arrow tells him as he sinks into the middle of the three-seater leather couch.

"I think he'd rather poke his eyes out with rusty nails."

"That's a bit overly dramatic," Gio says as he finishes with the steamer. "I wouldn't be able to sit still, la freccia del mio cuore. TV doesn't capture my attention."

"I know," Arrow says, sighing. "It would just be nice if we could find something we could all do together, I guess. Enzo included."

"We do stuff together," I protest.

"Non sex stuff? Like what?" Arrow asks, staring at me like he's daring me to come up with an answer.

I wrack my brain, but I can't find one.

Then, it hits me, and I click my fingers.

"We eat together. That's a non sex thing."

Arrow nods slowly. "Okay. That's valid."

Gio smiles at us. "You two have fun watching those singing puppets. I'll be cleaning the bathroom, and taking a relaxing bath, with my ears plugged."

"Aw, that sounds good," Arrow complains.

"We don't have a big enough bath to do that as a pack," I warn him. "Besides, you know Gio does that to relax, and there's no way we'd just lay around relaxing in that situation."

Gio goes into the bathroom next to our bedroom.

He's probably putting those earplugs in right now, before he even starts to clean.

"That would make it sex stuff," Arrow realizes. "And that's the main thing we do together."

"Is that a complaint?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No," he says. "But it would be nice if we could do something else together as a pack sometimes. Something fun that we'd all enjoy."

It sounds like a tall order, at least for now.

Gio needs some alone time, and it's gotten to the point where he seems to need it every day.

It's not a problem, but it makes what Arrow seems to be craving kind of hard to achieve.

Then there's Enzo, who's hyper focused on cooking the best food he can for the restaurant which means he spends a lot of time prepping, testing out new dishes, and hunting down the best ingredients he can get his hands on.

He's supposed to be cleaning up in the kitchen now before he comes upstairs, but he'll probably also look over the contents of the cold store and the pantry and make a list for an early morning shopping spree tomorrow.

Nothing can really shake Enzo out of hyper focus when he's in that zone.

It's usually better to leave him to work through it, but that means they've both been a bit absent lately.

I guess that's why Arrow feels like he wants them to be spending more of their free time with us.

I'll have to speak to them. It's probably why Arrow's perfume's been lighter lately.

If an Omega isn't properly taken care of, their perfume can fade away.

That's exactly what's been happening, and I couldn't figure out why.

Enzo and Gio weren't worried about it when I spoke to them before, and I thought they knew best considering they were with Arrow for a while before I met them.

Now, I'm not so sure.

An Alpha's instincts are supposed to be infallible, but they both let this get past them.

"I'll think of something," I promise him as I take the seat beside him.

"You will?" he asks, sounding hopeful.

I put my arm around him. "Don't worry about it. Watch your show. I'll work on it while you do."

He rests his head against my shoulder, and I stare at the TV as he finds the channel he wants.

I'll talk to Gio tonight, and he can tell Enzo in the morning.

They're both going to have to step things up tomorrow.

It's my day with Beth, and I expect them to take extra special care of our Omega while I'm with her. If Arrow's perfume comes back stronger, I'll know they've done what they're supposed to do. And if it doesn't, then I'll just have to take charge of things for a while.

Arrow might be right about me. I think I have a little bit of Alpha inside me.

I'm his Delta, and I'll take care of him.