“I’m sorry, what?” I gaped at him.

“Come on, Marky. You can’t be all that serious about him. I mean, it’s clear you have experience, and though I’m young, I have plenty of sexual experience myself. I’m a better match for a man like you than someone who was a virgin until he met you.” He moved toward me again. I side stepped him.

“The fuck? You don’t know anything about me, and you thought that this would get my attention off him and on you?” I snapped. But before I could continue to berate Manny’s unhinged ideals, Owen came stomping toward us, still bare-ass-naked, and decked Manny square on the nose.

He looked at me, “Sorry, Papà, but this required rule breaking,” turned his attention on the now screaming in pain Manny on the floor, “Are you fucking kidding me right now?! You think you can come to MY MAN’S house and ‘shoot your shot’ with him? What the fuck is wrong with you?! You are a disgusting excuse for a human being. And to think, I really did want to be friends with you. Get the fuck out of this house right now before I hurt you again.” Owen shouted every word of that. Manny looked horrified at the angry Owen.

“No, no! You must have misunderstood!” Manny tried.

“Misunderstood ‘I’m a better match for a man like you’? What the fuck is to misunderstand about that? Who the fuck do you think you are?! You think a man like him would want your slutty, loose hole, or your shitty personality? Get real. He wouldn’t want you, even if I wasn’t in the picture.” Owen shouted even louder, rearing back to deck Manny again. I caught him this time.

“That’s enough sweetheart. I’ll accept this small moment of broken silence, but now you need to go finish your punishment. I’ll handle this.” I told him softly. I kissed his forehead, then shooed him back to the table.

I turned my attention back to the mess Owen made of Manny. His nose was absolutely broken, that much was clear with the amount of bleeding it was doing all over my floor. I sighed. By the grace of whatever god there was, Roy happened to pull up in my driveway just then.

“Hey Old Man, what’s going on here? You hit Owen’s roomie?” Roy offered Manny a hand to help him stand back up.

“No. Owen hit him. Manny here decided it would be a fantastic idea to come here to try to seduce me. Unfortunately for him, Owen is in the other room in the middle of a punishment and heard everything he said, so he came out here and punched him square on the nose.” I told Roy.

“That’s the second time you said punishment. What the hell does that even mean? You can’t punish an adult like he’s some sort of child, you’re not his dad.” Manny spoke through his pain and dripping blood.

“That is where you are mistaken. I may not be his father,” I leaned to put my face level with his, with plenty of space between us, “but I am most definitely his daddy.” I told him, staring at him in the eyes with a hard, angry look.

“So you have a daddy kink. I can get on board with that.” Manny said, making me and Roy both chuckle.

“Well, you’re not wrong there. But that’s not what this is.” Roy said through his laugh. “Their relationship is more than you will ever understand, kid.”

“Not that it’s anything you need to know. But let’s go ahead and make one thing clear now. There is no chance in hell I would ever do anything to risk my relationship with Owen, but I especially would not dump him for a promiscuous, doped up kid like you. I do not sleep around, and I don’t like partners who do. And I absolutely don’t like associating myself with people who use recreational street drugs. So even if I wasn’t already extraordinarily happily taken, you would not even be on my radar.” I told Manny. Then I looked at Roy, “Portalo al pronto soccorso e poi torna. Digli che ha preso qualcosa e di testarlo per la droga. Devo andare a controllare il Mio Tesoro.” I told him. He nodded and guided Manny out of my house. When I was sure Roy got Manny into his truck, I headed over to Owen.

“Hey sweet boy. You okay?” I asked Owen as I sat down next to him at the table.

He looked at me expectantly, like he was waiting on something. Then I realized he didn’t want to speak because I’d told him to continue his punishment.

“If you can answer me without cussing like a sailor, I’ll give you permission to speak now.” I told him.

“No. I am not okay. I’m livid. I thought Manny and I were finally going to be able to be friends. He seemed like he wasn’t going to do anything that he usually does. I really thought he was trying to be my friend. I was so excited to finally get to be friends with him.”  Owen was getting teary eyed.

“That night I met him, I thought he wasn’t all that bad. I mean, I believed you when you told me he was trashy, but I also didn’t think he’d be such a poor excuse of a roommate to try something like this, especially knowing you are going through some really serious stuff right now.”

“We were getting along so great too. I have no idea what the heck was going through his head. Why would he do something like this to me?” Owen was clearly upset.

“Baby, not that this makes what he did even remotely okay, but I’m pretty sure he took some sort of drug. He wasn’t thinking straight. I’m not saying that excuses what he just did, it absolutely does not excuse his actions. But I don’t think he would have risked your friendship if he were sober.” I told him. I wasn’t trying to stick up for Manny or anything, more like, I was only trying to defuse Owen’s anger. Speaking of roommates…

“Hey. So this whole thing makes me want to ask this even more than ever. I’ve been thinking a lot recently. And maybe this is a little too fast, but honestly I would love it. Do you, maybe, want to move in with me? Like officially. Not just here most of the time, and leave a little of the time. I want you to always stay here.”

Owen dropped the pen in his hands, and stared at me in shock. I wasn’t sure what to say in this moment. I didn’t know how long he needed to process what I’d just asked him. I wanted to give him however much time he needed, but I also wanted very much to know his answer right this very second.

“Um… You know what,” I started, suddenly very nervous for his answer, “I actually need to go to the bathroom real quick… I’ll be right back.” I quickly got up and rushed to the bathroom before he had a chance to stop me. I actually did have to pee, so it wasn’t a lie. It was definitely convenient timing though.

When I came back out, Vincent was ringing the doorbell now. It suddenly felt like my house had become a lively place in the past couple of hours. I went to answer the door, and as soon as I opened it, he barreled past me.

“Yeah, sure, come in Vinny.” I said in a factious manner.

“Roy texted me. What the hell happened?!” He was clearly upset. He looked down at the ground and that’s when I realized I’d totally neglected to clean the bloody mess Manny left all over my floor. Okay, that’s a bit of an over exaggeration, it wasn’t really that much blood. Just small puddle, probably the size of a dollar coin, maybe a little bigger, and a splatter of droplets. I think the reason most of this was on the floor was because Manny had fallen to the ground when Owen punched him. I went to the storage closet where I kept all my cleaning supplies, and gloves and such. I grabbed the cleaner, a few paper towels, and gloves and worked on cleaning the mess up.

“So you gonna tell me what happened now?” Vincent asked as I began cleaning.

“Manny looked like he was high on something, came here to shoot his shot with me, and Owen decked him in the face. Roy showed up just after that and I asked him to take Manny to the ER so I could stay here with Owen to make sure he was okay.” I caught Vinny up to speed.

“Where’s Owen now?” He demanded.

I sighed, not at Vincent, but at the mess this day had turned into, “Sitting at the table finishing a punishment. He still has about ten minutes left to be writing.” I told him. Then remember he was still nude, “Er. But maybe stay here a second, let me go get him something to cover up with.” I didn’t want Owen to feel uncomfortable.

“Oh you don’t have to worry about all that. It’s fine! I’ve seen him in his sub wear anyway.” Vincent said as he started to make his way further inside. I quickly grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Vin. Owen isn’t like you and me where we’re totally comfortable being completely nude in front of people. You and I have a years of stripping in front of strangers that he doesn’t have.” I politely reminded him.

“Oh… Yeah, okay, that’s fair. I’ll wait here then.” Vincent replied, bashfully scratching the back of his head.

I went to throw away the cleaning stuff, and grabbed Owen some pants. I walked back to the table where he was still sitting, finishing his paper diligently. He looked up at me and I handed him the pants.

“Vincent is here to check up on you. I brought you some pants so you wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. This entire punishment has just been completely derailed, so it’s fine if you want to finish it up a few minutes early. Are you done writing?”

“Mhm. Here you go.” He handed me the paper then took the pants.

“Put those on and go greet your friend.”

“Yes sir.” He said. His tone was very cheerful, like he couldn’t be any happier right now.

“Hey, by the way, how is your hand? I know that punch had to have hurt you too.” I asked, realizing I never did ask if his hand was okay.

“Oh, it’s fine. Honestly, barely felt it in the moment with how angry I was, and now it’s just not something my brain is focusing on.” He said, smiling. He looked down at his knuckles, open and closed his fist a few times, then shook his hand vigorously, “See? Totally fine. Nothing’s broken. But if you think I should, I’ll ice it so it doesn’t swell up later on.” He said.

“You’re alright. Go see Vinny.” I nudged his butt to head toward the door. When he was out of sight, I looked down at his paper. It was wet, stained with I assumed tears.