By the Numbers

by Chris Owen

  Trey raised a brow. "You need help with animal names, clearly. I've never even had a dog, and I know those are less than creative." He paused and watched a puppy sniff one of the sprinkler heads. "We have a two and three. And a Six. Another number name would fit right in there, I guess."

  "Pi." Deuce grinned. "Pi, for sure." That was odd and would make Q feel more secure about her name, he thought.

  "Pie." Trey tilted his head thoughtfully. "That's not a... oh! Pi. Like the number." Deuce wasn't sure, but there might have been a hint of a blush on Trey's cheeks. "Got it. Told you; dumb fireman." He grinned. "Pi works for me. It's your puppy."

  "You're not dumb." Deuce rolled his eyes and then laughed. "When I get a name tag made, I'll put 3.14 on it." That'd be cool. He hoped he wouldn't have to spend ages getting the name right on the paperwork at the vet's office. Q's name had utterly confounded one of the techs, and he was always having to adjust it from 'cue' or 'coo'.

  The puppies had made their way around the yard and were now nosing at both of the humans. Trey lifted Six into his lap and stroked the silky puppy fur with a big hand. "If you want to get started on unloading, we can leave them back here. They should be okay, if we check on them every fifteen minutes or so."

  "Sure?" Deuce looked around and didn't see any means of escape. "They might dig a bit, if they're not watched."

  "That's okay. I warned my gardener, remember? If they start totally destroying everything, we'll figure something out." Trey deposited the puppy back on the grass and stood up, offering a hand to Deuce.

  Taking it and pulling himself up, Deuce held on to Trey’s hand a moment longer. "Thanks." For the hand, for everything, really. He tried to put it all into that word. "I'll make you supper later. Nothing as fancy as what you did, but edible."

  "You want to?" Trey gave him a faint smile. "It's hard to turn down a meal made by somebody else. Thank you." He slid open the glass door that led to the kitchen and waited for Deuce to follow him inside. "I don't have fancy stuff to cook with, but you'll find what you need."

  "I'll go buy food after I unpack." Deuce was pretty easy about that, and he figured he had to stock his bathroom, too, anyway. "How about super fancy burgers and homemade fries? I can even do it low-fat, if that's a big thing. Big salad, something for dessert..." Great, now he was hungry and he hadn't even moved his boxes in.

  "I'll leave it up to you," Trey laughed. "I'm due for a gym workout tomorrow morning anyway, so whatever you want to make is fine with me." He continued on through the house and out the front door. "So this is everything?"

  "Yup. I have a few things in a storage unit, but it's mostly crap like dishes. I lost all my soft furniture to smoke and water, but there's a couple of tables I'll try to save, later on. This is my clothes, mostly, and some things like books, work stuff. My bike is all taken apart. My TV is the biggest thing in here, and it's pretty small, for a TV." It was pathetic, how his life could fit in his car.

  It wasn't a big car.

  "Okay." Trey didn't seem bothered by any of that. "So let's get to it, huh?" He glanced inside the car at the TV and looked thoughtful. "I still have my old flat screen that Holly and I had in our bedroom. It's up in the attic. You can have it for your room, if you want."

  Deuce thought about that for a moment. There wasn't anything actually wrong with his TV except it was old and small. "Maybe Lacey could hook video games up to this one or something."

  Trey nodded. "She has her hand-held one, but she's been asking me for a Wii. I don't really want to put one in her room, though. Hey, if you want to hold onto your own TV, I totally get it. Just wanted to offer."

  "And I appreciate it." Deuce smiled at him and dragged his suitcase out of the car. "A bigger screen would be cool. We can put this one in a closet until we figure things out. I don't spend a lot of time watching TV, but when you're at work I'll probably hole up in my room with the remote, for sure."

  Trey reached in for a box of stuff. "Whatever you're comfortable with. The TV in the living room is HD, so feel free to use it." He straightened up with the box in his arms. "I don't really want you to confine yourself just to your space. I'm gone a lot, man. Use it to your advantage."

  "I guess I'm just used to it by now." He'd probably get used to having the run of a whole house pretty fast, though. "Oh, hey, if you get the box of DVDs just put them in the living room. You're welcome to watch 'em, like I said." The ones that were for more personal viewing weren't packed with the regular ones.

  "That's awesome, thanks. And I'll leave you the password for my Netflix account, if you want to order anything through the TV." Trey turned to bring the box inside, his arms flexing with the weight of it.

  Deuce followed along, pulling his clothes with one hand and carrying one of the smaller boxes under his other arm. "Is it okay with you if I use your bed and mattress for a while? I mean, I know I'm taking over your guest room and all, but I do intend to buy my own stuff. Eventually."

  The box of stuff landed on the dining room table with a thud. "Well, yeah." Trey laughed. "I didn't even think about that, I guess. You can use it as long as you're here. Why buy your own stuff until you're ready to move out?"

  "Thanks." Deuce put his box on the table and headed to his room with his suitcase. "If you're sure, I really do appreciate it. Beer with the burgers." He laughed as he said it -- and hoped Trey didn't think that Deuce was all about getting him drunk and taking advantage. He was only a little about that.

  He went into the room and scoped out the furniture he had to work with. He thought maybe he'd take advantage of the offer of the flat screen TV -- he might get used to it and make himself upgrade when he moved out. If. Whatever.

  It was probably bad to think about it in terms of ‘if’.

  "Hey, Trey?" he called, opening the door to his bathroom. "How's the water pressure?"

  "Good," Trey called back, "unless the washer's going, or the other shower is running, or the sprinklers are on. So maybe not so good." He appeared in the hallway with another box. "Just don't shower at the same time I am and you'll be fine. These look like books; you want them in here?"

  "No showering together, got it." Deuce nodded and took the box. "That came out wrong. I think."

  Trey twinkled at him, showing white teeth. "I shower with guys all the time. The showers at work aren't that private."

  "Now you're just teasing me." Deuce grinned and bit his lip. "We need to move more stuff now, or I'll start trying to charm you into a kissing break. Probably not a good start." A great start, but not a wise one, perhaps.

  Trey appeared to be considering it. Those blue eyes turned serious as he wiped his arm over the sweat on his forehead. "It wouldn't be a bad start. But maybe we should actually get your stuff in here first and pretend you're just my roommate for the first night."

  "No kissing until tomorrow?" Deuce was going to make supper really, really good. And then try to get Trey drunk. "I can probably live with that, and I'll try not to whine."

  If Trey had more comments about kissing, he didn't make them. Instead, he nodded and moved toward the door again. "Tomorrow. At least tomorrow."

  "At least." Deuce sighed and followed. At least he had only enough stuff for about four trips back and forth, total. Then he'd go food shopping, make supper for the two of them, and spend the evening unpacking and finding homes for his things. "I don't suppose you know how well sound carries from room to room, huh?"

  "I can hear Lacey talking in her sleep sometimes, but she and I share a wall. The couple of times I've had people sleep in the guest room, I never heard anything. Why, are you noisy?" Trey grinned and dragged another box out of the back seat. "I'm used to hearing people make noise at night."

  "Okay, I won't be self-conscious, then." He gathered a few bags and couple of boxes, then put one of the heavy boxes back. "Feel free to ignore any and all moans and groans. Or come and investigate, your call."

  Trey's head snapped around, and it was obvious he h
adn't even considered what Deuce was hinting at. "Oh. That! Um." He looked as if he was struggling for an appropriate response. "Have fun?" he finally said, the familiar pink creeping back into his cheeks. Trey was definitely an interesting combination of bold and shy at the same time.

  "I will." Deuce laughed softly and shook his head, then headed back to the house. "I like you, Trey. You keep me thinking."

  ***

  Lacey was, as promised, a mostly quiet little girl who liked to read a lot. She was in love with all three dogs and wasn't at all shy about asking Deuce about them and how to take care of them, which was good. She also wasn't shy about asking all sorts of other questions.

  "Did you meet Dad at work?" She was sitting at the kitchen table with a huge pad of paper and a box of colored pencils. Deuce wasn't sure what she was drawing, but it seemed to be taking sheet after sheet of paper, most of which were landing on the floor.

  "Not really." Deuce was making coffee and Trey was taking his turn with the dogs in the backyard. Deuce had expected Lacey to run after them as she had every other time, but apparently she had other things on her mind. "I met your dad when he saved Q from a fire."

  "He does stuff like that," she said agreeably. She didn't look up from her current picture, which seemed to be mostly green. "But you're the first one he let move in. Do you think he'll get more?"

  Deuce tilted his head. "More roommates?" he finally asked. "I don't think so. He'll run out of bedrooms."

  "I'm not sharing with anyone!" She looked up and grinned. "Except the puppies. And a horse."

  "You're going to get a horse? Cool." Deuce was pretty sure she wasn't getting a horse.

  Lacey waved a hand at him. "When I'm big. It'll stay in the yard, though. So how come you moved in here?"

  So Deuce explained about his apartment, and how most places wouldn’t let him move in with a whole bunch of dogs, and how her dad was all right with just three dogs. Lacey seemed to think about for a bit, but mostly she seemed happy that Deuce wasn't the first in a line of stray people her dad would bring home.

  Later that afternoon, Deuce answered questions about not having a wife or kids, and where he worked, and what games he liked, and what books he read, and how come Q had such a weird name. He left his bedroom door open while he unpacked, so he'd seem friendly and not like he was hiding, and wound up with three dogs and a little girl curled up on the floor while he folded his shirts.

  "There's nothing on TV and Dad says I can't help him cut up vegetables for supper 'cause they gotta be thin. Like, really skinny. I don't see anything wrong with thick slices, do you?"

  Deuce eyed her. "Is this a trick question?" He added a T-shirt to the stack.

  "What's a trick question?"

  He explained trick questions and worried that Trey would be unimpressed with him. His little girl really liked the idea of trick questions.

  "Can I help you unpack?" she asked, and Deuce was trying to find a polite way out of that when Trey rescued him with many apologies, though none at all were needed.

  Deuce was just glad that she hadn't run away from him, crying.

  That was just day one. Things did calm down after that as the novelty of the new guy wore off, and Trey took her out somewhere for the second afternoon, which left Deuce with time to explore the house and backyard and settle himself in.

  After supper on day two, the three of them had watched a movie that Deuce had found hysterically funny but Lacey had deemed weird, and then Lacey had taken Six and Pi to bed. All three of them had gotten up crazy early, and Deuce had taken the pups outside to do their thing, just to make sure it happened without mayhem.

  By the time Lacey was ready to go back to her mom, Deuce was exhausted from trying to impress her and was very glad he wasn't the guy she'd be asking for a car when she was a teenager. He was almost ready to give her anything she wanted already.

  When Trey had taken her for the drop off, Deuce gathered his laundry and got that chore underway and tried to get his head back into an adult frame of mind. He had to figure out the quickest way to his office, see if he could bike it without hurting himself, decide what he'd do to keep fit if he couldn't do that, and get his clothes ready for work. His room was clean, not having had time to degrade to the stage where he'd need to tidy up, so that left a bit of time for him to fill.

  He got his laptop and settled at the kitchen table to look at maps, plotting various ways to get to work. The sound of a truck door slamming came not long after. Deuce looked up as Trey strolled into the kitchen and dropped his keys on the table.

  "So, that was my kid."

  "Your kid is going to rule the world, man. Just so you know."

  "My kid might turn out okay, despite her goof of a father and bitch of a mother." Trey rolled his eyes and retrieved a beer from the fridge, the first Deuce had seen him drink in four days. "Hope she didn't get in your business too much. Just close the door; she knows not to enter without knocking."

  "She was great," Deuce assured him. "She asked what she wanted to know; she made sure the new guy was all right. I expect she'll probably ignore me from now on." He watched Trey, not wanting to ask about how the hand-off had gone.

  "No, worse. She'll get comfortable with you, and you'll find more days of her lying on your floor or your bed. I'll talk to her about it. She'll be back on..." Trey paused and looked over at the shift calendar that was under a magnet on the fridge, "...Sunday. Then not till the week after next. You have a reprieve."

  "I don't need one." He smiled at Trey and gave him as encouraging a look as he could manage. "Really, it's all right. You don't need to chase her away from me. I'll take care of it, if it becomes an issue." The washing machine buzzed and he stood up. "You look like you could do with a quiet night, though."

  Trey took a long swallow of his beer. "Maybe. I have to work tomorrow. Oh, and I forgot to wash uniforms." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Fuck. How many more loads do you have?"

  "None. This is going into the dryer." He had one more, but nothing he needed for the next day -- he'd throw them in when he got home after work and had the house to himself. "Can I help? I can put some food together at least."

  "Are you good with an iron? I hate ironing them. Washing them is easy." Trey finished his beer and looked like he wanted another one. "I think we're just about out of food, though. So it's either the last box of mac and cheese or take-out. Any preference?"

  "I shopped, remember? Not a lot, granted, but there's chicken breast. I'll iron if you grill. And have another beer; you're wound tight. Two won't make you unable to work tomorrow, will it?"

  Trey snorted. "I've had more than two on a work night, believe me. But I'm good with one. And I was kidding about the ironing. I'll go start a load if you want to get the chicken on. Anything to go with it?"

  "Oh." Deuce laughed. "Thank God. I can't iron. Let me check." He went to the fridge and got out the chicken, wondering what else he could throw together. He wanted to kiss the stress out of Trey, but maybe waiting until the man was calmer was better. He wasn't ready to find out what a stressed fireman would do if he got a kiss when he didn't want it.

  Trey paused and looked in the freezer before leaving the kitchen. "Here," he said, and tossed Deuce a package of bacon. "Cook up some of that and I'll make chicken club sandwiches." For some reason, Trey always thought bacon had less calories when made at home as opposed to in a restaurant. He reached in again and dug around. "And here." An unopened bag of frozen french fries followed the bacon. "Not gourmet. But edible."

  "Cool. You're a genius." Deuce got to work on the food, whistling as he thawed the bacon and found a big skillet, then got the chicken going. He could hear Trey in the laundry room, kindly moving Deuce's wet clothes for him, and before long laundry was going, supper was cooked, and they were eating at the table.

  Deuce showed Trey the laptop as they ate, and between bites the two of them found three routes for Deuce to try biking. Surely one of them would get h
im to work and keep him fit. If not, he'd be spending a lot of evenings riding around the neighborhood, or he'd be finding a gym.

  Deuce was not the gym-going kind of guy. Or, rather, maybe he was, but he didn't want to be. Not if he could just ride to work.

  Dishes done and put away, Deuce stifled a burp. "That was great. Brilliant, as I said. Anything good on TV tonight?"

  Trey cast another look at the shift calendar. "This is Wednesday, right? I watch that one show on Wednesday with the guy who catches all the creepy-ass stuff in the river. Otherwise, nothing. You got a movie or something you want to see?"

  "I'm always up for a movie or a guy on the creepy river. If I fall asleep on the couch, poke me. Hey, what time do you leave in the morning? So we can time our showers, I mean."

  "Before seven-thirty. I usually don't take a shower in the morning at home, though. My shift likes to work out early, so I just do it at work. What time do you leave?"

  "Well, if those maps are accurate for ride times, I should head out by about seven forty-five. I'll probably go at seven-thirty to be on the safe side tomorrow, until I can time it myself. And you'll be back the day after, about the same time? We might pass in the doorway."

  Trey shook his head. "Coming home is different. It depends on if we get a call or not before my relief gets there, or if the guy coming in to relieve me is coming from home or a different station. Like, if he worked somewhere else the day before, it could be at a station across town. And he has to wait for his relief before he can go. It's all a domino effect. But most days I should be home around eight in the morning."

  Deuce shook his head ruefully. "I'll take my eight-thirty to five work day, day in and day out. Far easier to remember." He headed to the couch and glanced back to make sure Q was coming, the puppies were still not breaking out of their crate, and that Trey was coming along as well. "Do you need me to do anything on the days you're not here? Water anything?"

  "The only houseplant I have is the violet in the kitchen window. One of my sisters-in-law gave it to me, and I kind of like it. If I'm working overtime and haven't been here for two or three days, can you just check to see if there's water in the bowl? It's self-watering." Trey and Q both followed Deuce to the couch.