'Tis confusion!

"I Noah guy."

Q and I fell asleep in each others' arms. His phone buzzed at a quarter to ten, and as I reached over to silence it, I caught a glance out the window. It was pitch black outside, and still raining heavily. I shook his shoulder. 

"Q, hey. Your phone just went off, I think it's a text." Q rolled over to face me. "Mmh-hmm," he murmured. "Probably Sal. you can check." He stroked my arm, then rolled back over. I pulled the phone off the nightstand and checked. "It's from the cat's owner, that James Jam guy. Says it's pouring rain and he's stuck at a friend's house. He wants to know if you can hold onto the cat for a bit longer."

Q yawned. "Uh-huh, sure. " He nestled deeper under the covers, and the snores that followed shortly thereafter let me know that he had in fact fallen back asleep. I grinned and rolled my eyes as I got out of bed. Walking down the hall to the kitchen, I noticed the door to the guest room was open. I peeked inside as I walked by, and say Sal and Barbara, curled up on the bed. Sal's arms were wrapped around Barbara, and she had her head resting on his shoulder. I smiled to myself as I walked by. In the living room, Joe was fast asleep on the couch, a blanket pulled over his head, and his feet completely exposed. (Leave it to Joe to do things totally backwards.) He stirred as I walked by.

"Crap. I'm sorry, did I wake you?" He smiled and shook his head. "You're good, don't worry about it."

"I'm going to make coffee, you want some?" I offered. "Sounds good, thanks."

"Coming right up." I went to the kitchen and started setting up the coffeemaker. Once it was finished, I filled three cups. I carried one to Joe in the living room. He was still on the couch, checking something on his phone. "Look at this," he said, scooting to the side so I could sit next to him. "It's gonna rain- pretty much nonstop- for the next three days." 

I sat back. "Wow." Joe nodded. "Yeah. Looks like there's a flood watch in effect for the area. " "Hoo boy." I got up and walked over to the window. Looking down at the street (what I could see of it), water was already starting to cover the ground. I spun around and faced Joe. " you wouldn't happen to know anyone with a boat of any sort, would you?" Joe grinned. "Yeah, I might 'Noah' guy," he quipped. I groaned.  "You're terrible." He laughed. "So I've been told." 

So, what's Bessy up to today? Or is she hiding under the couch? "

"Nah, I think she's in the laundry room with Murr," he joked. I laughed. "Honestly, she's at home with the pups. I was gonna try and get her over here, but if that Noah dude doesn't show up with the ark soon, I may have to resort to plan b."

"Which is?"

"Quinn's got a snorkel around here, I'm almost sure of it." I laughed again. 

"Speaking of Q, I'm gonna go see if I can rouse him with some caffeinated goodness."

"Ohh, is that his pet name for you?" Joe winked at me, and I walloped him with a couch cushion. "Dirty." He smiled. "Hey, if you're gonna hang with us, you've gotta roll with the punches. "

"Don't I know it." I returned his smile. "Be back soon." I grabbed the other coffee cups and strolled back to the bedroom. Q was still asleep, nestled deep under the covers. I set the mugs down next to his phone, which was flashing a new text alert. I picked it up from the nightstand, read the message, and smiled. I leaned over and poked Q in the shoulder. "Wake up man. Take a look at this."  Q sleepily reached for his cell phone, and almost dropped it on his face. I stifled a giggle. "I'm sorry. That wasn't nice." He glanced at me. "That's alright. I'll just remember that for later."

"Fair enough." I sat down next to him. "Did you read it?" He looked down at the screen and nodded. "Sal, Sal, Sal..." He cleared his throat, and read the message aloud, in a voice tinged with the olde english accent that made me melt. "Good sir, I regret to inform thou that I haveth borrowed one pair of tiny sweaters for the feet-" "So, socks," I interjected. Q grinned. "Shush, you." I mock bowed. "Sorry, m'lord." He winked at me, then continued reading. "I intend to return them post haste, after using them to their full and complete potential. I shall also be bathing them in the sweetest of detergents and spinning them senseless in a large and powerful contraption that is used solely to remove strange and offensive odors from cloth materials." I stretched out on the bed. "So, he borrowed socks, but he's gonna return them after washing his strange, potentially funky odors out of them..and he couldn't tell you this face to face like a normal person because....?"

"Because it's Sal, and you'll remember I told you, he's a huge drama queen. Life isn't worth living without a little theatrics. I'm fairly certain that's why he hasn't flat out murdered James by now." I burst out laughing. "You know, you're probably right." Q grinned and reached for the coffee closest to him. "I usually am." The two of us sipped our coffee in silence for a moment, then Q got up out of bed and headed to the bathroom. I followed him out and headed down to the living room once more. I couldn't help glancing in the guest room one more time. Barbara was still sleeping, but Sal was awake. He was sitting on the end of the bed, fully dressed, except for socks. He glanced up, saw me, and smiled. I smiled back, then motioned to his feet. He rolled his eyes. "The little guest Q insisted on bringing home pissed on my socks last night." I opened my eyes as wide as I could. "Why would Joe do that?" Sal laughed so hard he fell off the edge of the bed. The noise woke Barbara and sent Q running into the room. "Everything ok?" he asked, glancing at Sal, who was still on the ground, face completely red. Sal nodded and wiped tears from his eyes. "That was a good one. Oh man."

 Q looked at me. "Did you break Sal again?" I grinned. "He was due for it."

"It's not even eleven a.m." Q told me.

"Your point?"

"....Fair enough. Sal, get your ass up and kindly tell me which of my socks you're borrowing, and why." I looked at him quizzically. "Why does it matter which pair he borrows?" 

"So I know which pair to burn later."

Sal rolled his eyes. "Funny man." Q shrugged. "Hey, it's my job." I turned to Q. "Somebody peed on his socks during the night. We've narrowed it down to the kitten, or Joe." Q snickered. "Well, my money would normally be on Gatto, but we all know how the man enjoys his sleep. So it was probably the kitten..this time." 

Just then, Joe stuck his head in the room. "Why wasn't I invited to this party here? I feel like Murr right now." I laughed, and suddenly, the doorbell rang.