“Yes, okay! Hellohellohello!” Koby laughed as he tried to close the screen door and get into his mom’s house before any of the latest litter of puppies could escape. They were determined little furballs, though, full of energy as they tumbled over each other to greet Koby with wagging tails and lolling tongues. “Hey, y’all!” he called out.

His mom and sister called back, saying hello and telling him to come to the kitchen. Koby pulled his boots off and padded through the house in his socks. Juniper, one of his mom’s older golden retrievers, came and bumped her head into his leg as he walked down the hall, wagging her tail slowly and smiling at him.

“Hello, beautiful girl,” Koby said fondly, bending over and kissing the top of her head. “Did you make these?” he pointed at the rambunctious litter currently bouncing all over the both of them. “They’re terrible. I’d send them back.”

Juniper just looked up at him with a doggy grin, then ambled off into the kitchen.

Disregarding his mostly black clothes, Koby scooped up the puppy who had been trying to tug one of his socks off his feet. Koby flipped the little fella onto his back in Koby’s arms so he could rub his belly.

“And who’s this naughty boy, huh?” he asked as he entered the kitchen. “Mr. Green Collar who likes to bite socks, hmm?” Each of the five eight-week-old puppies had different colored collars on so Koby’s mom could tell the difference and remember who had already been adopted.

“He doesn’t have a home yet,” his mom said coming over to Koby. She kissed his cheek and ruffled his hair because she knew it drove him nuts. Koby sighed, his hands too full of puppy to do anything about it. “How are you, sweetheart?” his mom asked, petting the various dogs she passed on the way to the fridge. “You want me to make you some tater salad?”

Koby shook his head and sat down at the table next to his older sister. Ginger was currently engrossed in reading something on her phone, so she reached out her hand to blindly flail at Koby. She might have intended to squeeze his shoulder, but what she ended up doing was batting his face with her fingers.

“Nice to see you too, sis.” Koby licked her hand to make her stop.

“Eww.” She hissed and snatched her hand back, her eyes still glued to the article. “You’re so gross.”

“You’re gross,” Koby countered, waving one of the puppy’s paws at her. “Big ikky gross Ginger,” he said in a squeaky voice as if the bitey puppy was talking. Then he turned to his mom. “Thanks, but I’m going right over to Hunter and Chase’s. They’re feeding me.”

His mom shrugged. “Ahh, I feel like making some salad. You can take it home with you after, can’t you, sugar?”

Koby nodded. He knew by now it was easier to let his mom feed him.

“How are Hunter and Chase?” Ginger finally locked her phone screen and dropped it onto the table. “How’s Lyla? She getting on at school okay?”

The green-collared puppy was wriggling in Koby’s lap, trying to nibble on Koby’s fingers with his needle-like baby teeth. Koby let him gnaw on his wrist cuff instead.

“I don’t know,” he told his sister. “I haven’t seen them yet. I can give you a full report after I’m done, if you like. Or you could just come to dinner with me. You know Hunter always makes enough to feed a whole battalion.”

“Nah. Thank you, but I’m heading out to Phoenix. It’s karaoke night.” Ginger waggled her eyebrows.

“Oh no,” Koby said in mock horror. “I’ll ring Kris, tell him to get the ear plugs ready.”

Ginger smacked his arm. “I ain’t singing,” she said in actual horror. “I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”

“We know,” Koby and his mom said in unison.

Ginger gave them both a withering look. “I’m not singing, but I’m hoping that androgynous girl might be back, and holy cow, she can sing.”

She got a wistful look in her eye that made Koby shake his head. “Do you at least know her name?”

Ginger huffed and got to her feet. “It’s only a matter of time,” she said with confidence. “Okay, I’m going then. Bye, Mom.”

“Bye, sweetie.” Their mom had her hands covered in potato peelings as she and Ginger kissed cheeks. “Have fun.”

“I better get going, too.” Koby checked the time on his phone. “Can I take this one with me? He seems to have become quite attached.” Literally. Mr. Green Collar Puppy had his teeth wrapped around one of the buttons on Koby’s shirt and gave a little growl when Koby tried to remove him.

His mom chuckled, brushing some of her brown curls away from her face with the back of her hand. Her fingers were mucky from chopping potatoes, celery and onions. “He just had his first round of shots.” She glanced at the wall, presumably thinking about Hunter and Chase next door. “I know Trooper is fully vaccinated,” she mused aloud, referring to their own dog Hunter got from Koby’s mom back in the spring. She narrowed her eyes at Koby.

“What?” He didn’t trust the look in her eyes.

“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly. “Sure, why don’t you take him on a little adventure. I’ll be in all night, alone,” she added with a dramatic emphasis. “Y’all bring him home when you’re done. Then I can give you your tater salad.”

Koby grinned and bounced the excitable puppy as he stood up. “Cool.” If his mom was up to something, he’d leave her to it. He was sure he’d find out soon enough regardless.

He held Mr. Green Collar in one arm and hugged his mom with the other, plucking some eggshell where it had flicked into her hair.

“Give the guys my love!” she called as Koby headed back out to fetch his boots and head over.

She had taken a shine to Hunter as soon as he’d moved in back in April, initially trying to set him up with Ginger. By the time she (and Hunter, funnily enough) realized he was gay, he was already going out with Chase. Koby didn’t mind missing out on the matchmaking, however. He had been grateful to make good friends with the pair of them instead. In his experience, true friends were far harder to come across than hookups. Besides, Hunter wasn’t his type, as nice as he was. He was an ex-Marine and easily built as big as Matt and Ryan.

Almost as big as Vince.

Koby chuckled to himself as he juggled the puppy in one hand and his bag of goodies for his friends in the other. That had been a fun evening the other night. Mostly. Vince certainly wasn’t what Koby had been expecting. In fact, he was kind of fun.

Although he had obviously freaked himself out with that erection. Koby didn’t blame him, but he had felt a moment of irritation. Why did people have to make bodies and sex and attraction such a big deal? Koby was a firm believer that people should be able to enjoy themselves and one another without making things complicated or weird after. But considering Vince was straight and was obviously aware Koby wasn’t, he hadn’t handled it all that badly. Koby felt like he could cut him some slack.

The door was opened by a ball of fuzz even more excitable than the one Koby currently had squirming in his arms.

“Uncle Koby!” a high-pitched voice cried from under a cloud of red curls. Chase’s daughter, Lyla, pushed her hair back and beamed up at Koby while she danced on her feet. Trooper, Hunter’s three-legged dog, was by her side as always. “Ohmygoshisthatapuppy?” she shrieked at the sight of the little guy Koby was holding.

“It certainly is.” He stepped inside the house before he let all the cool air out. “My mom let me borrow him for the evening.”

When he put the puppy on the floor he immediately started playing with Trooper, who was still really just a big puppy himself at almost a year old.

“What’s his name?” Lyla was unafraid to dive in between them and play too. She had a dinosaur T-shirt on and fairy wings strapped to her back. It made Koby think of that little kid in the art department, Zane.

“He doesn’t have a name yet.” Koby pulled his boots off again. He wondered how long it was before the puppy was gnawing on the laces. “He hasn’t been adopted.”

Lyla looked up at him in horror. “He has to have a name, Uncle Koby. Everyone has to have a name. It’s important!”

Koby chuckled as Chase and Hunter walked into the hall from the kitchen, wine glasses in hand and looking very mellow. Chase had chilled out so much in the time Koby had got to know him, in no small part thanks to Hunter’s calming influence. Koby handed him his gift bag of a bottle of red wine, a box of vegan chocolates, one of Cas’s hand-crafted wooden herb pots and a Christmas poinsettia plant from the market.

“Oh, Lyla’s right,” Hunter said as Chase looked incredulously at the gift bag. Hunter knew to talk over him. Otherwise Chase would protest that Koby ‘shouldn’t have’ and how it ‘really wasn’t necessary.’ One day, Chase would hopefully understand that Koby just bought presents for people whenever he felt like it because he loved them. It made him happy.

“Well, what would you name him?” Koby asked Lyla as he maneuvered around the yapping dogs and kissed his friends’ cheeks. It couldn’t hurt to give the little fella a nickname for the evening, he figured.

Lyla tapped her chin in thought. “What does he like to do?”

Koby laughed as the puppy suddenly pounced on his bootlace, as predicted. “Bite things,” Koby said dryly.

“Biter!” Lyla suggested.

Koby nodded. “Close. How about someone who likes to bite things?”

“Dracula,” Hunter said.

As much as Koby loved horror movies, he felt bad naming the guy after a baddie when he was so full of fun. Besides, Koby knew it would get shortened to Drac or Drake, and that bothered him.

Horror movies weren’t all Koby was into. He also had a soft spot for eighties video games. He’d never gotten into PlayStation or anything, but he loved things like Tetris, Mario Bros. and…

“Pac-Man?” he suggested.

“That’s silly!” Lyla told him, giggling and covering her face with her hands.

Koby grinned at her. “I know, right? Come on, Pac-Man. Let’s go help with dinner.”

A while later, Koby found himself full of vegan fried green tomatoes that Hunter had learned to make specifically for him, sweet potatoes and vegetable pot pie. He sipped his red wine and watched Lyla playing with Trooper and Pac-Man. From what he could gather, they were dragons and she was a cop come to tell them off for eating people’s cars. Her imagination tickled him pink.

“So,” Chase said. He and Hunter were sprawled out on one couch, giving Koby the other to himself. The way he said ‘so’ made Koby think he’d been wanting to talk about something all night. Koby braced himself. “Gabe said that Ryan said that Vince Russo is even more of a hunk in real life.”

Hunter tickled Chase ribs. “Oi,” he said playfully.

“I didn’t say that,” Chase protested. “I was just asking Koby what he thought.”

Koby quirked a smile and sipped his wine again. He hadn’t intended to drink more than a glass tonight, but he’d been having such a nice time he’d decided to stay the night at his mom’s rather than drive home.

“He’s…interesting,” Koby admitted, looking at their recently put up Christmas tree rather than meeting either of their gazes.

He thought that might satisfy Chase, but if anything, he looked more eager, sitting up against Hunter. “Interesting?” he repeated.

“In what way?” Hunter asked.

Koby shrugged. “I don’t know if you remember him from school, Chase, but I do. At least, I thought I did. He seems more complicated than I assumed. He’s nice.” Koby swirled his wine. “I think this project’s going to be more enjoyable than I anticipated.” He looked up from his wine to see both his friends grinning at him. “What?” He frowned.

“Interesting? Complicated?” Chase repeated in delight. “Oh, you like him!”

Koby scoffed, grinning back at them. “Darling, he’s straight and a great big ogre of a man. No offense, Hunter.”

“None taken,” Hunter assured him.

“No,” Koby continued to Chase. “I don’t like him like him. I just think he’s not going to make working on the rest of this sculpture awful.”

“Did he specifically tell you he’s straight?” Chase asked.

“Yes, actually.” Koby rolled his eyes. Well, technically, Vince had said he ‘wasn’t gay.’ But that meant ‘straight’ to most people.

“Ah.” Hunter waggled his eyebrows. “But is there a chance he’s not straight but doesn’t realize it yet?”

Koby sighed. Hunter had thought he was straight. Then it turned out he was not only gay, but demisexual as well. That meant he didn’t experience strong physical attraction without there also being an emotional connection. He needed to be in love to truly experience desire. He hadn’t even known what demi was until Koby had suggested it. Hunter was very proud of his labels now.

Koby couldn’t really imagine feeling like that. He connected with people all the time, in friendships as well as sexually. Being aromantic, his problem was that sometimes he didn’t always understand other people’s emotions that well, like jealousy, for example. It seemed such a redundant emotion to him. He had no problem feeling love, often deeply. But it meant he struggled with romance and relationships. It sometimes felt like he was singing from a different song sheet than everyone else.

“I know everyone around here is dying to set me up,” Koby said wryly, sipping some more wine as Lyla giggled and chased the two barking dogs around. “But I’m very happy. And no, there’s no chance anything is going to happen with the hotshot football player. We’re totally different.”

“Yeah, but…” Chase glanced at Hunter with a mischievous grin. “Opposites attract, right?”

“There’s opposites then there’s polar opposites,” Koby said. “We’re not compatible. And that’s fine. I’m just happy working with the guy isn’t going to be a disaster, that’s all.”

Chase and Hunter shared a look. “No,” Chase said. “Just ‘interesting,’ apparently.”

Koby opened his mouth to challenge him, but Chase started talking about how his own classes at H Triple C were going. He had dropped out during senior year of high school. This fall, he’d started studying for his GED tests, and it was taking some adjustment to get back into learning again.

Koby frowned. It was sweet his friends wanted him to meet someone special, but that person wasn’t going to be Vince Russo. Sure, the guy was probably a jackhammer in the sack, but there were so many other reasons why it wouldn’t work, why it was a bad idea. Even if he was kind of cute in a dorky sort of way.

No – why was Koby even still indulging any hint of that idea? The guy was twice his size and that was a hard limit for Koby. He wouldn’t go to bed with anyone who made him feel unsafe, and being able to pin him down was at the top of the dangerous list. Koby wasn’t particularly small himself. He was a few inches taller than Chase and had a little bulk on him. So usually, finding someone about his build or smaller was no problem. And-

Why was he still thinking about this? He blamed the wine and his meddling friends, then forbade himself from thinking about Vince again. Instead, he joined in playing with Lyla and talking to the guys about their plans to see Hunter’s parents in between Christmas and New Year’s.

It wasn’t until he fell into his old bed at his mom’s house (Pac-Man flopping by his side and dozing off immediately) that Koby allowed himself to admit that Vince did have a very nice face. There was a kindness in those dark brown eyes that Koby had to admit was appealing. Also, a surprising lack of arrogance for a famous sports personality.

As Koby drifted off to sleep next to the snuffling puppy, he decided it was okay to like the guy. That didn’t mean anything was going to happen between them.

Absolutely not.