Canine Cyborg Boyfriend

Chapter Three

Ben crouched behind the dumpster on a bed of brokedown cardboard boxes. Tears streamed down his chiseled cheeks. He quickly wiped his tears when he heard the loud opening of the heavy door from Tequila Mockingbird's back exit. Someone was shuffling over.

"Bro..." A familiar voice sighed as Matteo heaved a heavy trash bag into the dumpster. Ben peered up to his new friend, his vision blurry from tears. Matteo just shook his head. "You don't got a place, do you?"

"I... usually just sleep here when she locks me out." He motions to Karen's flower shop. Matteo sighed once more, rubbing his face with one hand.

"I'm probably going to regret this," he mumbled. "Look, you can stay with me, if you need to."

"Like a home?" Ben blinked at Matteo. His long eyelashes clumped with dewy tears. When he was a puppy, one of Karen's ex-boyfriends had given him to her. She had grown tired of him chewing on her shoes, but discovered her customers liked coming in to see him. He was mostly an afterthought to her and left to his own devices.

"Well, yeah, I mean just until you get on your feet." Matteo ran his fingers through his long hair, pushing it back. Ben immediately jumped up, giving Matteo a big bear hug, lifting him off the ground for a moment.

"Thank you, Matteo. Thank you so much." Matteo was slender, but he was 6'. To most people he was considered tall, but Ben had a good 8" on him. He tensed, he couldn't remember the last time someone picked him up like that. Ben sat the chef back down. "Oh thank you! Thank you!"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Like most of the restaurants in Stars Fall' town square, Tequila Mockingbird was an historic brownstone. It was owned by Matteo's boss, Domingo.

Domingo had his hand in every pot, whether he liked it or not. He ran the town's oldest restaurant and led the town meetings as town selectman. And as a man who never married or had children, he had a soft spot for any troubled youth that wandered to his door. He worked tirelessly for this town because it was his home. He was a father figure of sorts to Matteo, whom Domingo was grooming to one day run his own restaurant.

Upstairs from the diner, was an office converted apartment. Domingo rented it out to Matteo for a small fee. Some would call it cozy. Others would call it shitty. But, Ben called it magnificent.

Matteo opened the door to a studio apartment. There was a loveseat on one side of the room and a full size mattress propped up against the wall on the opposite side. Facing them was an open kitchenette, next to it a door which led to a cramped bathroom with only one working light bulb. There were several windows on the wall above the loveseat. 

Directly beside the loveseat were several cheaply made bookcases, which overflowed with books of all colors, shapes, and sizes. On the other side of the loveseat was a small wood table, which was home to several half-read books and a surprisingly not dead potted ivy.

"Bathroom is in there," he pointed to the door. "Laundromat is three blocks away. Uh... Yeah. Oh, the couch isn't a pull out, sorry."

Ben burst into the room, running around and grinning. He was sniffing every inch of the space, examining the books and dashing to the kitchen. Matteo stood in shock, watching the ridiculous display. It was like Ben was a kid or... a dog turned cyborg.

"Uh... okay, some ground rules." He started using his fingers to count as he listed them out. "Clean up after yourself, no dirty dishes or clothes. No friends over or anything, too small. Absolutely no drinking, no drugs, and no smoking." He hesitated. Was he doing the right thing? Ben certainly looked like a decent guy just on hard times. "I'll give you... a month."