15. Theo

Carlton was a walking pile of nerves and guilt. I hadn't realized how much this was impacting him. I thought he was busy and tired, sure. But this went so much deeper than that. He couldn't continue working like this. It was going to put him in an early grave, and frankly, I liked the guy and wanted him to stick around.

The only problem was that I didn't know what to do about it. Sure, I was picking up the pieces around the house and that was helpful, but it didn't seem like enough. If this was a forever situation, I'd probably suggest that he go looking for a new job, even one within the company. It simply wasn't sustainable.

But this was a big project, which meant that in theory it would have an ending point. And we could work through anything short term. Or so I kept telling myself. It was getting more difficult by the day to see him getting more and more worn out and frankly miserable.

That and I missed him.

I put the two cat carriers on the bed. My furry companions had a follow-up appointment from when we got them fixed. I was pretty sure that entailed a vaccine or two, as well. They were not going to be impressed by more needles, but it was needed.

Ideally, I'd have asked Carlton to take the day off so he could help. When we took them the first time, having two sets of hands made a ginormous difference. He had a big meeting this morning though, and I didn't want to pester him about it. I'd been doing that more and more often lately; letting him know about things after they happened. Why would I pester him about an electrical switch that needed repairs, when I could let him know after it was done that all was good?

Because he was my mate and not some random person, that was why. And that was another thing that made all of this more difficult than it needed to be. In my quest to protect him, I was putting a wall between us, and it needed to end. And it would… when this project was over.

Our fur babies loved to sleep and eat. Those were their two favorite things to do. Ninety percent of the time that was all they did. But of course, now that I wanted to get them into the carriers, they were running around like it was their job.

It wasn't even that they were scared, either. One of them had pounced on the ring from around the milk gallon when I dropped it, and everything went to chaos from there. I had to laugh at all the money I spent spoiling them to have a single piece of garbage be their new prized possession.

"Come on, guys. We're going for a nice ride." They would have no reason to believe me about the nice part, even if they did understand me. The last time I took them anywhere, they came home having been fixed. It was hardly a great track record on my part.

I thought back to the time we brought them on our picnic, when Carlton showed me his beast for the first time. It was by far one of the best days of my life. Maybe I needed to set us up with another picnic. It might be a nice way to give my mate a break from all his daily stress.

After five minutes of playing their game of "dodge the human as we chase a chunk of plastic," I finally resorted to pulling out the treats. It worked… ish… and fifteen minutes later I was out the door and on my way.

The vet was far easier to handle than getting them there. They were super nice at the office, and everyone oohed and awwwed over our sweet babies. The vet even gave us discounts for our visits because, "Superheroes deserve rewards." I hardly called being at the dumpster at the right time heroic, but I gladly took the discount. Pets were expensive.

Once we arrived home, I let them out, and they went straight to the patch of sun they loved this time of day and curled up in one huge ball together. Why couldn't they have been doing that when I was getting ready to leave? It was a good thing they were so adorable because I couldn't even be mad at it.

"I see how it is. Sleep when I'm not trying to grab you." They ignored my teasing.

I'd taken the entire day off of work. Things around the house needed tending to, and if I could get them done while Carlton was at work, he wouldn't feel like he needed to help. At least that was my logic.

Pouring a cup of now-cold coffee, I made a mental plan on how to tackle everything. I started by putting in a load of laundry and then worked room by room until the entire place was back to normal. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, and I realized I was going to need to pivot on my dinner choices if it was going to be done before bedtime.

I grabbed a quick shower and ran to the grocery store for some shrimp. Carlton loved my shrimp pasta, and it was a quick meal I could throw together when he got home instead of the beef I'd originally planned. Maybe it was time to invest in a slow cooker.

My phone buzzed in my pocket while I was in the checkout lane, and I waited until I was outside to look at it. My mate had been fond of sending me pictures I wasn't willing to share with anyone else.

Good news. The power is out at work. I'm on my way home.

How sad was it that having a power outage was considered a positive?

Yay! I love u!I punctuated it with a smiley face and raced home.

I put the hot water on for the pasta, letting it come up to temperature as I put the rest of the few groceries I'd picked up away. Garlic bread was in the oven, the table set, and the shrimp only five minutes from being done when he walked in.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" He crossed the room and kissed my cheek. "Something smells delicious." He eyed the shrimp. "You are the best."

"I have my moments. If you want to take a quick shower or change, there is about ten minutes to play with." I twisted the burner down a touch.

"Play? That sounds delightful." He grabbed my ass. "But maybe we could save that until after dinner."

His words were playful, but his eyes? They showed a heaviness.

I had dinner on the table when he came back in, hair damp, my favorite pair of his pajama pants low on his hips and wearing a fitted tee.

"Looks delicious."

"I was just thinking the same," I said with a wink, and we started to eat.

"You did my laundry."

I nodded.

"You didn't need to do that." He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss. "Thank you."

"I had the day off anyway. It was the follow-up visit to the vet, and I had some things to do around here. I don't mind."

He set down his fork.

"I mind. I hate that so much is falling on you, that I have the best day ever because someone hit a transformer with their truck and I had to leave work early, that this is the first time I've seen you at a reasonable hour in two weeks. I hate it all."

"I do too," I confessed. "But it's only for a project. We can do this."

"But then it will be the next project and the next. I understand if you…"

"Don't you even think about saying it. I love you, Carlton. We will figure this out." I wanted him to feel supported and not pressured. Careers were important, and I wouldn't want anyone to tell me how to deal with mine. "Do you like your job?"

"I worked hard to get where I am." Which wasn't an answer to my question.

"But do you like your job?"

"I used to think I did."

"And now?"

"Now it's… it… I don't like the way it sucks up my entire life and keeps me from you. Yes, it's worse than normal, but the reality is that I will always work more than full-time. Being single, it kept the loneliness at bay. But now? Now I wonder if maybe I should've made other choices along the way."

I pushed my chair out, stood up, and led him by the hand to the couch where we could sit and have this conversation without the table in the way. We were soon joined by four furry loves, and we hashed everything out. If Carlton had told me he loved his work, it would've gone a very different direction, but he didn't. And when all was said and done, he was going to put his foot down about working late nights and begin looking for a new position.