'Tis confusion!

a night in continues

I plopped down in the spot Q had vacated, and turned to Sal.

"You really thought Q was gonna keep the cat?"

Sal shrugged. "Honestly, yeah. The guy has cats coming out of his ears. I figure he was probably thinking, 'eh, what's one more?'". I slugged him in the arm playfully. "I don't think he's that bad." 

"Trust me, when you've known Q as long as I have, you start to notice patterns," Sal said. I stretched and leaned back onto the couch. 

"Don't tell me you're already tired," Sal teased.

I glanced at him. "Are you really one to talk?" He smiled. "True."

Q came back into the living room just then. He looked at the three of us. "Looks like the cat's owner has indeed been located."

"Really? Cool, ok. Where's the guy live?" I asked.

"Not too far from here, actually," Q told me. "Do you wanna go with me to drop him off in the morning?"

"Sure. I think I'm off work tomorrow anyways." I paused and sniffed the air curiously. "What's that smell?"

"I'm probably burning the garlic bread," Q replied offhandedly. "I should go check."

"How are my meatballs?"

"...You should probably go check those, too," Q said.

"Shit."

We went back into the kitchen.

As I turned the meatballs, I glanced over at Q. He was nose deep in the fridge, digging various items out of it. When he straightened up, I noticed that he looked almost depressed.

I stroked his shoulder gently. "You ok?"

He smiled, but it didn't seem genuine. "I'm fine. Really. I'm just not looking forward to taking the little guy back to his owner tomorrow."

"I'm sure you're not. But c'mon, you have Benjamin..and me," I reminded him.

"How could I forget," Q replied, but his smiled seemed more genuine. He leaned over and kissed the top of my head.  I returned the smile, then turned my attention back to the pan.

A short time later, we were all gathered around the table, ready to dig into the mountain of spaghetti that sat before us. "This smells great," Sal commented. "I'm surprised Gatto hasn't shown up at your doorstep looking for some." Not two seconds later, Q's cell rang. He checked the caller id and smirked. " His ears must be burning." 

"Is that Gatto?" Sal asked. Q turned the cell around and showed Sal the name 'JoeyG'. "Son of a...' Sal griped teasingly. Q grinned and put the phone to his ear. "What's up Joe?... oh, yeah? Yeah, not much, just eating dinner..spaghetti..yeah. ..No, there's plenty if you- yep. See ya soon, ya mooch." Q laughed as he hung up the phone. "That boy's a true freak of nature. He's got a sixth-sense when it comes to spaghetti-"

"Or doughnuts, or tacos, or cherry pie." Sal added.

Barbara and I exchanged grins once more. I could see she was enjoying herself as much as I was.

Less than ten minutes later, there was a knock on Q's door. He jumped up and went to the door, returning with not only Joe, but Murr as well.

"Hey guys," Murr said. "Joe told me you invited him over for dinner so I thought-''

"There's not enough," Sal quipped. "Gatto alone could demolish the leftovers in thirty-five seconds."

"Not to mention, nobody asked, told, whatever, that you were coming along.'' Q frowned. "That's unlike you guys."