Chapter 12

September 28^th, 2020

Andy awoke the next morning much earlier than he normally did. It was the fact that the bed beneath him was new to him. It all felt a little bit off. New bed, new house, but the house itself didn’t change as much of his perspective as the bed did. Sure, the four of them had fit in his old bed back at the condo, but the new bed had plenty of room for them to sprawl out if they wanted, and yet, he still awoke with all the girls basically pressing up against him, Aisling and Niko on either side of him, and Lauren mostly draped over Aisling. The cats were nowhere to be seen, although he wouldn’t be surprised if they wandered across the bed several times during the night.

He did his best to extricate one arm free so he could look at his watch, only to find it was actually nearly nine AM, far later than he’d expected. The girls remained zonked, and he had to admit, they’d all been up a bit late into the wee hours of the morning just wandering around and exploring the house. He still felt like he didn’t have a great handle on the layout of the place, but he figured that would come in time.

Determined not to wake anyone, he wriggled his way downward, disentangling the gilded cage of arms and legs he found himself wrapped in. Once free, he was pleased to see that he hadn’t woken any of the trio, so he headed into the closet to grab a change of clothes.

Immediately, he feared he might have made a terrible mistake, as the walk-in closet was larger than the old condo’s living room, but thankfully, most of his t-shirts were hanging on clothes hangers directly in front of him, and a dresser there seemed to have his pants, boxers and socks. In fact, as he glanced at the walk-in closet, he was a little amused to see how little of what he saw was his own clothes. Sure, all of his clothes were there, but they took up a fraction of the amount of space the walk-in closet had on offer. Each of the girls had carved up their own section of the closet space, although if the Major was to be believed, this wouldn’t be enough room eventually. The Major had even suggested each partner consider taking one of the bedrooms of the manor as their own, simply to have their own space, and their own place to keep their clothes. “Personal space is going to be important,” she had told them. Andy had immediately decided it was advice worth heeding. He grabbed a change of clothes and headed towards the bathroom.

After stepping foot inside of the bathroom, he closed the door behind him, doing his best to keep the noise volume down so as to not wake anyone. He imagined the girls would be up any minute now but saw no reason to get anyone up before they awoke naturally. Some nights they all wore pajamas, but last night, they’d all just piled in one naked mess into the new bed, so the only thing Andy had to take off before he got into the shower was his watch and glasses.

The shower space was just about the same size as the entire bathroom had been in the old condo, but it was a thing Andy had decided he was just going to have to come to terms with. Everything in the new home was going to be bigger, because it had more people to accommodate. It did, however, give him plenty of room to maneuver as he attempted to get the water’s temperature to a level that he was comfortable with. He hadn’t even thought to ask how the utilities of the new home were going to be paid for. He made a mental note to ask someone about it as he stepped under the soothing warm water.

Ten minutes later he’d finished the shower, dried himself off and gotten dressed. As he passed through the bedroom, Andy could see that while none of the girls were awake yet, they had shifted to make up for his absence and were now lined up like three little spoons with Niko’s ass pressed against Aisling’s hips and Aisling’s ass against Lauren’s hips. The cats had also joined them on the bed, sitting at either corner of it, almost like they were on guard duty. Andy reached down to pet Huginn, and the black cat leaned his head up to Andy’s touch. He smirked as the cat slowly pulled away from Andy’s hand, but it was only to roll onto his back, exposing his belly, hoping Andy would give it a rub. He patted the plump cat’s tummy briefly, but not long enough so that Huginn would think it was a game of Attack The Hand.

He didn’t want to remain long enough to wake the girls, so he grabbed his phone from the charger on the nightstand, moved to the door of the bedroom and slipped out, closing it shut behind him as he moved into the hallway. The layout of the house was still fuzzy in his head, but he knew for certain that if he wanted to grab some breakfast the kitchen was somewhere downstairs.

As he wandered downstairs the cook, Jennifer, was waiting for him. She had on the same apron from the day before, but the clothes she had on beneath it had changed to warmer colors. The t-shirt was a light green and the slacks a cream color. “Good morning, sir. Would you like some breakfast?” she asked, a smile beaming at him. She was fidgeting, he noticed, and he was certain that the effects of the vaccine were starting to claw at her. He would have to make sure to take care of both her and the gardener today.

“Sure, Jennifer, that’d be nice. Is it Jennifer, or do you prefer Jen or Jenny?” he asked her, as she started to lead him towards the dining room.

“Whatever you’d like, sir,” she said, demurely.

“No,” he chuckled, “I’m asking you what you prefer to be called. I don’t mind being in charge of the house and all that, but I’m not about to go around deciding what people are called. What do you prefer to be called?”

“Jenny, sir,” she giggled. “Sorry, sir. What would you like for breakfast today?”
“Just, like, a croissant or a bagel with egg, cheese and ham on it? I don’t need anything special.”

“Give me five minutes and I’ll whip something up for you.”

Andy moved to sit down at the dining room table. The chairs were aimed at a much more formal environment, something he was going to have to make sure got corrected. He felt a little bit like Michael Keaton as Batman, sitting at a massively empty table all by himself. He opened his friend group’s Discord chat channel and typed in a message to Eric - you okay in your new place, man? - but he saw that Eric was off-line and didn’t respond, so he figured he’d hear back from him later in the day. Phil was up, though, and the two chatted for a little bit while Andy waited for breakfast to arrive. Jenny poked her head in. “Did you want juice or milk, or should I make coffee?”

“God, the girls may drink coffee, but I can’t fucking stand it. So while it wouldn’t hurt to put a pot on, none for me, thanks. I’ll just have some orange juice or pineapple juice or whatever.”

“Got it,” she said, dipping back into the kitchen, the swinging door closed behind her.

Phil was in good spirits, and let Andy know that he would be behind the wall in the gated community as well before the end of the week, which meant they could all hang out again. Phil insisted that next month, once everyone was settled in their homes, they should all get together and play poker while the new families intermingled, something Andy agreed to immediately, and suspected Eric wouldn’t have any problem with.

“Sir, can I talk to you for a minute?” Jenny said, as she brought out a tray with a bagel filled exactly as he’d asked and a glass of orange juice on it. “I don’t mean to be rude or impatient, but...”

“No no, Jenny, I know. You’re having trouble thinking clearly and would like to get imprinted as soon as possible. Let me eat my breakfast, and then we can go take care of it if you like.”

“I would like, sir, but that’s not it.” The girl looked at her hands as she wrung them together nervously before she looked up at him. “May I speak freely, sir?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, wondering how to be forceful and stern without being overly so. “Jenny, you’re now and forever under orders to always speak freely in the house, okay? What is it?”

“It’s my partner, sir, Katie.”

“What about her?”

“Well, she, ah, she lied on her forms. Sir.”

“About ... what exactly, Jenny?” Andy wanted to know what was going on, but he was also famished, so he took a bite from his breakfast sandwich to try and encourage the woman to continue speaking.

“It’s, well, it’s a bit embarrassing, sir. But you know that Katie and I are partners, right?”

Andy swallowed his mouthful and took a sip from his orange juice before he spoke again. “You did mention it yesterday when you introduced yourselves.” He gestured to a chair across the table from him. “Sit, sit. Now tell me what’s up?”