The knock on the door part-way through the movie startled me enough I actually jumped before grabbing the remote and pausing it. Confused, I got up and peeked through the peephole to see Tommy standing outside.
I hadn’t expected that, but it was a welcome interruption since it meant I had a chance to thank him for the past couple of days. So I opened the door and let him in.
“No chain this time?” He teased as he stepped inside. “You’re not nearly as wary today.”
I shrugged a little as I wandered back to the couch to sit down. “Why are you here, anyway?”
He raised an eyebrow at my blunt question, but held up the book. “We didn’t finish.” His eyes dropped to the box of books and he suddenly looked a bit chagrined. “Oh, you – already have this. That’s why you returned it?”
Unfortunately, the replacement copy I’d bought was on top of one of the stacks of books. “No, I – bought it afterwards. It looked interesting,” I admitted.
Tommy’s brows furrowed. “So why return it, then?”
“Gift giving culture,” I explained as he took a seat at the other end of the couch. “Gifts are given to family members, friends, sometimes to coworkers or business associates, sometimes to acquaintances at some parties, or maybe to hosts or guests depending on context.” I shrugged. “I don’t fit in any of those categories, so there was no reason for me to have it.”
“Huh, didn’t realize there were so many rules on gifts,” he mused. “But I thought we were friends – or starting to get there, anyway.”
I felt my heartbeat pick up a bit at the idea. Did he…want to be friends with me? “We don’t really know each other,” I pointed out cautiously, my heart still enthusiastic about the suggestion. Even if I knew it wouldn’t last, I couldn’t exactly turn down the possibility of any friendship, especially if it was with someone who seemed decent, and honestly, Tommy wasn’t that bad. If it had been Colt offering, I’d hesitate, but Tommy was easier to want to be friends with.
“Okay,” he agreed as he settled comfortably back into the couch. “Tommy Moretti, short for Tommaso. My parents are Marco and Isabella, and I have a younger brother named Damion. I’m 33, though of course as an angel that doesn’t mean much. Uh, let’s see – you already know I’m a pilot and have my own plane. I own a house on a private airstrip – so I have a hangar for my plane at the house,” he explained as if that made perfect sense. He must make a lot from his job. “Apart from flying, I enjoy reading and online gaming. I participate in the enclave’s parties more because I feel obligated to than that I genuinely enjoy them – I tend to be more serious than the parties really allow for, I guess? I do have a temper, but it usually cools off quickly. Hmm, what else?” He thought for a minute. “Favorite color is black, believe it or not; favorite animal is large birds of prey, not really any specific one; I mostly enjoy slower music or relaxing music; favorite foods are basically anything Italian, like pasta, pizza – anything similar to that, to be honest; and, uh – oh, I’m gay.”
I blinked in surprise at the onslaught of information, trying to process all of this. But the one thing I was taking away from it all was that he apparently wanted to be friends or he wouldn’t be telling me all of this.
“Your turn,” he prompted when I was still quiet. “Tell me about yourself. You don’t have to tell me things you don’t want to. I know you’re a banker, you like to read, you moved here two years ago, and you’re a cheetah shifter. So go from there.”
I tried to go back through everything he said so I could offer an approximately equal amount of information. “Cooper Doyle. I’m bi and demisexual. I don’t really have a favorite food or color, well….” I thought back to when my mom used to cook family meals. “I guess I used to really like homemade pizza, but I haven’t had any in a long time. I like animals but I’m allergic. I know,” I made a face as he looked surprised, “shifters shouldn’t be allergic to animals, it’s like breaking scientific laws or something, but I suppose we do that already so what’s another one? Uh, I don’t listen to music much, but mostly because I don’t even know where to start with trying out new genres or musicians. I like some R&B, though. I read and, uh, watch movies.” I motioned towards the TV screen. “Not much else. I don’t really like parties and stuff.”
He got a sympathetic look on his face. “I’m guessing you’re a bit of an introvert?” At my expression, he gave me a soft smile. “I put it together at the dinner party – my parents are both pretty introverted, so I’m somewhat familiar with the signs. Not enough in time to stop Colt from ruining your evening, unfortunately, and I’m sorry about that – I should have realized you weren’t excited about coming and intervened before we dragged you out of here.” He actually looked genuinely guilty about that.
I couldn’t blame him for not realizing I was an introvert, though. Most people didn’t really understand what that meant, anyway, or used the term for other things, too.
“It’s fine.” I was curious about the present tense verbs for his parents, though – did that mean they were still alive? “Are your parents – are they around?” I asked very hesitantly, not sure if that was a risky question.
Thankfully it didn’t turn out to be. “Yep, both alive and well. See, I kept testing above average at my schools. All my teachers and whoever kept telling my parents they should send me to better schools than the public schools I attended, but my parents couldn’t afford it.” He shrugged. “I was okay with it, to be honest, I knew my parents were doing the best they could and I figured if I could do well enough to get a college scholarship, then I’d basically earn my own way to a better school and could get a good job after that and help them. Anyway, then my baby brother was born and he had some complications with his birth. Magic stuff – he was born with his wings out, which isn’t normal. Mom had some issues with the birth, too, and when it came down to it, my parents decided the best thing for Mom and Damion was to move out of the city to some place quiet and remote.” He paused, looking a bit gloomy. “It wasn’t the best setup for me, because a country school probably wouldn’t help me get into a good college, and my parents felt bad about it, and that was when Adelaide stepped in. She’s Mom’s sister, and they…don’t really see eye to eye on stuff. But she offered to take me in, pay the medical bills from Damion’s birth, and make sure I got into a good high school and college. In the end, that’s what we went with and I have mostly lived with her since.”
“What about your parents and your brother? Are they okay? Do you see them much?” I found myself very curious about what it would be like to basically be taken in by another family member just to help. Adelaide was probably a better person than I initially gave her credit for – she seemed so formal and reserved that I’d just assumed she was stuck-up and now I felt kind of bad about that.
Tommy took a few moments to respond. “I don’t see them often,” he admitted. “My brother should be about 16 now, but I see them once a year, maybe? I don’t know him well at all and my relationship with my parents isn’t strained, but not exactly close, either. I’ve lived more of my life away from them than with them. It’s normal for angels to strike out on their own, but I kind of regret that in a way that ended up happening earlier with me when I moved in with Adelaide.”
Okay, that felt sad to me, but maybe that was just me projecting my own feelings on the subject – the idea of having real parents and a real brother out there that he wasn’t close to. For all I knew, though, I did have biological family out there and was even in a worse boat.
Somehow Tommy seemed to come to the idea of my family, too. “So what about your family? I assume they don’t live nearby?”
I fiddled with the TV remote, not really looking at him. Here’s where people did the “oh no, so sorry for you” face.
But I still took as deep a breath as my lungs would allow me and explained. “My biological family didn’t want me. I don’t know anything about them other than that they surrendered me, it wasn’t like they died or anything. I was adopted by human parents who hadn’t been able to have kids. They didn’t know I was a shifter when they adopted me. Dad had a shifter friend, though, so when he figured it out, he told Mom and they decided to keep me anyway.” Dad and Mom had both made a point to tell me, once I got old enough, that they’d never considered giving me up. Sure, raising a shifter child as humans was a lot more challenging than raising a human child, but the fact that they had still wanted me anyway meant the world to me.
“They ended up having my sisters after that,” I went on. “I guess it’s normal for people who can’t have kids to sometimes end up having them anyway after they adopt? Ellie and Elsie were born one year after the other and acted like twins, even though they weren’t, and Maci was after them.” I could feel the dark memories start to stir and automatically pulled my knees up to my chest. “Just before my senior year of high school, we were all in the car together, on our way to go shopping for new school clothes and we were in an accident. The really bad kind, where the car went up in flames and everything. I was the only survivor, thanks to shifter genes. People told me I was lucky, but I didn’t feel that way. I was lucky when they adopted me, but not – not when they died and I got stuck behind alone.” I tried not to cry, that wouldn’t be the best impression for a new potential friend. “I, uh, went to live with my human grandfather after that, he was my only other relative but he didn’t know I was a shifter and was already suffering from dementia and had a caretaker come in regularly to help him. There was a good university a couple hours away that I was going to go to, but for…reasons, I ended up going somewhere else instead, and Granddad died a few months later.” I shrugged a bit. “So now I have no more family. Just me.”
Always just me.
“I’m sorry.” Tommy reached out and briefly squeezed my hand, his eyes sympathetic but not obnoxiously so. “That’s pretty young to lose everyone like that.”
I tried to pretend it was no big deal. “That was about eleven years ago now. After college, I got a job at a bank and stayed there for a few years before I ended up here. I’m currently a branch manager.”
His brows rose. “That’s a pretty fast career promotion, I’d think – though I’ll admit, I don’t know much about banks.”
I was willing to take the offered sidetrack and run with it. Anything to not have to talk about the accident anymore. “My career has gone pretty well,” I agreed. “I was doing well at the first bank and got an assistant manager position here, but then I got the branch manager job when I started picking up on slight discrepancies in several accounts and discovered that the then-branch manager was skimming pennies off thousands and thousands of accounts and basically stealing millions for himself in the process. When I reported it to corporate, they somehow decided I should take his place. I’m good with numbers,” I explained. “It’s not everyone’s thing, but numbers make sense to me and I like them.”
Tommy asked me some about what my job involved, then willingly reciprocated when I turned the question to him – feeling like we’d been on the subject of me for far too long – and discussed what he currently did. His most lucrative jobs, apparently, involved flying small corporate planes when their CEOs wanted to go to a conference or go golfing or whatever the need was. Small plane, easy trip, great pay. He explained that a few of those trips each year could cover all his expenses for himself and his own plane, and he had several regular customers that he’d fly for. He’d also done the work to get licensed for a hot air balloon, although he didn’t have one of his own yet.
“It’s more of a quiet, peaceful ride,” he informed me. “Slow, but nice. You have to pay closer attention to weather and air currents and stuff because you have less control in a balloon than a plane and not as much protection against the elements. But it’s pretty cool in its own way. At some point I’m going to get a balloon, but – and this will sound silly – but I haven’t decided on what I want it to look like. Colorful is common, so they show up better for other aircraft, but, you know, red? Rainbow?” He shrugged helplessly. “It was easier with a plane, they most often come in silver. Hot air balloons require more choices.”
I bit my lip, trying not to giggle at his admittedly silly dilemma. “Well, I hope you’re able to find one you like.”
He gave me a mock insulted look. “You’re laughing at me!” He accused.
I immediately clapped my hands over my mouth, trying to hide my smile, but I suspected that wasn’t exactly subtle. “I’m laughing with you?” I suggested instead.
This did get him, because he immediately broke into a grin and then shrugged, laughing helplessly. “Yeah, well, I did tell you it’s a silly thing. I suppose I should just quit caring so much. It’s not like it’s even as big of an expense as the plane.”
We were interrupted by the TV blinking at me, asking me if I wanted to continue my movie or if I’d gotten lost. I mean, not exactly the second part, but that was the gist of it.
“Oh, I like this movie,” Tommy piped up when he noticed what had been playing. “What do you think of the sequel?”
I jerked my eyes back to him. “There’s a sequel?!”
“Yeah, not done by the same production company. Different actors, super low-budget, and there’s a big debate amongst fans whether it’s dismal or awesome. Some people argue the actor change and cheaper special effects absolutely ruined the series, while others argue that it actually works better for the context – makes it feel more real, if you will.” Tommy seemed amused at my expression. “We can watch it sometime if you want – now, if you’re free, or another night. Or I can write the title down for you so you can find it later.”
I could watch a movie with someone who was wanting to be my friend? Even if this wouldn’t last – because my friendships never did – that was something I eagerly grabbed for.
“I’m free tonight.” Then I realized that might sound too eager. “I mean, I don’t go back to work until Monday – we had two weeks off – so I’m basically here for tomorrow and the weekend anyway. Um, if any of those work for you.” My eyes dropped to the book he’d set down on top of my box of books. I kind of wanted to ask him if he’d finish reading it, but was that okay? Did friends ask that?
“Sweet, I’m free tonight, too. I have a flight tomorrow, but I can come back this weekend. Which would you prefer,” he held one hand towards the TV and one towards the book – had he realized what I wanted? “Finish the book or watch the sequel? We can do the other one this weekend.”
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