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Barley let out a quiet sigh while he waited for the coffee machine to finish the process. The café was even more crowded than usual today, not to mention noisy, which the loud coffee machine only made worse. It was starting to give him a headache after just a couple hours of his shift. When the coffee was finished, he picked up the paper cup and walked back to the counter, forcing his customer-facing smile on as he handed the cup of hot coffee to the person behind it.
- Here you go, sir. Have a nice day!
The sharply-dressed tiger on the other side of the counter simply picked up the cup with one paw and walked away wordlessly, never lifting his sight from the phone he was holding in the other paw. Barley sighed again, his shoulders sinking in resignation. "Just grit your teeth", he thought to himself. "It's already Friday. Just two more hours." He lifted his head again to serve the next customer, reciting his usual line.
- Welcome! What would you like tod-
Barley cut himself off, tilting his head back until his eyes met that of the customer. Before him stood a very tall bat lady, easily two full heads taller than him, looking down at him with a smile. She was wearing a black sweater, even darker than her naturally dark gray fur, thick enough to be functional and protect one from the cold but also tight enough to very deliberately show off her curves. She was carrying an expensive-looking bright pink purse, a similar tone of pink to her flat bat nose and her wavy hair, which went down to her shoulders and covered one of her eyes. She looked old- well, not old, but certainly older than him. About mid-40s, if he had to guess. She definitely had this... aura of power and confidence, like-
Wait. Crap. She said something. Did she order? Was he really checking out this customer instead of taking her order? "Quick. Say something. Anything."
- U-um. S-sorry, I didn't catch that. Could you. Say that again, p-please?
The customer behind her, a rhino in a brown suit, let out a groan of impatience and looked at his wrist watch, but she simply smiled and repeated her last sentence.
- Of course. I would like a hot tea, please.
He nodded and turned around, reaching for a bag of tea, his cheeks bright red. What was he thinking? He could only hope this lady wasn't the type to leave complaints. He kept mentally chastising himself for the entire duration that the cup of tea took to prepare, which felt like an eternity. When it was done, he picked up the paper cup and handed it to her, trying his hardest to force his polite customer smile in hopes that she wouldn't ask to speak to his manager.
- H-here you go, ma'am. Have a nice day!
To his surprise, she simply nodded, still smiling, picked up the cup and walked over to one of the nearby tables. He couldn't help but stare at her back for a couple more seconds. Why was that smile of hers so disarming? He shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned his attention to the next customer in line, who was muttering something to himself as he stepped forward.
- Welcome! What would you like today?
--
A couple weeks had passed since that encounter, and the bat lady kept coming back to the café every weekday around the time of his shift. Every time, she ordered a cup of hot tea and sat down at one of the individual tables to drink it by herself while she looked at her phone. And every time, Barley couldn't help but steal a quick glance at her. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but she seemed... special. Intimidating, in a way. He didn't always get to take her order, but whenever he did, he always instinctively kept his head low and tried to not make eye contact very often. She never said much apart from her order and the occasional "thank you", but she always did it with a smile.
It was a quieter day. Only a couple of regulars sat at the tables, but most were empty. Barley was behind the counter, preparing coffee for a group of three teenagers at the counter, when he heard the telltale sound of high heels walking through the front door of the café, easily audible even through the coffee machine's whirring noise. He wasn't the only one to turn his head; several customers turned their attention to the door, and sure enough, the bat lady was standing there, confident as always, like she was used to being the center of attention. She walked over behind the group of teenagers and waited patiently.
Barley's coworker, a lop-eared bunny, tried to get her attention from over the counter, signalling that several people were taking orders and there was no need for her to wait in queue.
- Can I help you, ma'am?
She shook her head, smiling.
- Thank you, but I would like to speak to the charming young man over there instead. I don't mind waiting.
... wait, what?
The bunny looked confused for a moment, but simply nodded her head and walked over by the coffee machine, where Barley was still busy preparing the order. His cheeks were bright red, of course.
- Heehee. I didn't know you got yourself a girlfriend, Barley.
- Hey! S-stop that, I don't actually know her!
They both whispered quietly enough that the sound from the coffee machine drowned out their voices.
- Heh. Alright, alright. I'll be over there, keeping watch. Just call me if she's being weird and you need a way out, okay?
Barley nodded and put the three paper cups on a tray, which he carried over to the counter and handed over to the group of teenagers.
- Here you go. Have a nice day!
They barely seemed to react, each of them picking up their cup and going on their way, barely acknowledging Barley's existence. He was used to that already. What he was not used to, though, was what happened next. The bat lady took a step forward, looking down at him with her usual smile.
- Hi there. Um...
She stole a glance down at the name tag on his uniform.
- Barley, isn't that right?
They hadn't interacted much before, so Barley hadn't noticed, but she had a very pretty accent. The way she pronounced the "r" sound was so soft.
- Uh-huh. What can I do for you, ma'am?
- I couldn't help but notice that you've been, well, looking at me ever since I stepped into this café.
He gulped. Oh god, she really was going to call his manager, wasn't she. He lowered his ears in shame, almost shaking.
- I-I-I apologize if it s-seemed that way, ma'am, I'm very sorry if I offended you, I-
She simply chuckled in response.
- Oh, relax. I'm used to the attention. What I'm not used to, however, is getting it from handsome young men like yourself.
- ... huh?
He raised his head and looked up into her eyes with a face of visible confusion. She reached into her purse.
- I don't want to be inappropriate, but... well, if you're interested, give me a call after your shift is over. I would like to have a drink with you. Only if you want, of course. No pressure.
She took out a black business card and slid it across the counter. Barley reached out and picked it up, caught completely off guard. The card said "Lara Cortés" in fancy white letters, with a phone number underneath. Barley looked up at her, then back down at the card, frozen in place.
- I... uh... a-alright...
- You can just throw it away if you're not interested, I got tons of those. Oh, and I'd like a hot tea, please.
Barley stood there for a good few seconds before he reacted, tucking the business card into the pocket of his apron.
- O-of course! Coming right up!
He walked over to the coffee machine again, and his coworker didn't take long to join him.
- So?
- Well, she uh. She gave me her phone number.
- Yeah, I thought so. Normally I would have stepped in right there, but...
- ... but what?
- Well. Your tail was wagging the whole time, so I figured you didn't want me to interrupt.
Barley's cheeks lit up even brighter, if that was possible at all.
- I-it wasn't! Stop making things up!
- I'm not making it up, silly. So, are you okay with it or not? Do you want us to kick her out?
He stole a quick glance at the counter, where the lady was idly looking at her phone.
- ... no, no need.
The bunny smiled and dropped the issue.
--
Barley fiddled around with his phone, lying in bed in his pajamas. As soon as he left work, he debated whether or not to call the number on the business card, but couldn't decide one way or another. Now, a couple hours later, it was way too late to call anyways, but he thought he could drop her a text message, maybe. He held his phone to his chest and closed his eyes.
His mind was racing. This whole thing just seemed surreal. Way too good to be true. So maybe it wasn't true. Who was this lady anyways? He opened his eyes, held his phone up and typed into the search bar: "Lara Cortés". A company profile was the first result that came up. He clicked on it and, sure enough, a corporate photo of the same bat lady came up. She seemed to be a consultant... sales... somethingorother for the same company that made the phone he was holding. He didn't understand half of the jargon on the page, but he did gather that this was some fairly important lady.
So why would she be interested in someone like him? He was just some Labrador that worked at a café. A part time minimum wage worker. A college dropout. A completely unremarkable guy in every sense of the word. People like her just didn't go for guys like that. Was this some sort of scam? A practical joke?
... but what if it was real?
He rolled over, resting on his elbows. What did he have to lose, anyways? He opened up the chat app and entered the phone number on the business card. He started typing.
[barley!] Hey Lara!
He shook his head and quickly deleted that. No, no, that's way too informal. They barely know each other.
[barley!] Miss Cortés,
He shook his head again. That's way too formal. This isn't a business email. He deleted that as well, and proceeded to try about a dozen standard greetings, none of which convinced him. He buried his face in his pillow and let out a groan of frustration.
Thirty minutes later, he had finally composed a message he was... well, not "happy", but "okay" with.
[barley!] Hi, I'm sorry I couldn't call you today. I would still like to grab that drink, though, if that's okay with you! I don't have to work tomorrow, so how about then, around 6 maybe if you're free?
He stared at the screen for about ten more minutes before finally hitting "Send". He immediately locked his phone and collapsed onto the bed, exhausted. By the time the response message arrived, he had already fallen asleep:
[LMC] no problem! around 6 sounds perfect. see you at the café <3
--
When Barley walked into the café, it didn't take him long to spot the bat lady sitting by herself, typing away at her phone with a serious expression on her face. He approached the table and shyly spoke up.
- Um. H-hi.
She lifted her eyes from her phone and her expression immediately softened, giving him a warm smile (which also showed her fangs). She got up to her feet and extended a hand forward.
- Hi. I don't think I've properly introduced myself yet. I'm Lara.
He reached out cautiously and shook her hand, smiling as well, though his was more of a nervous smile.
- B-Barley.
They both sat down at the table. She crossed one leg over the other, resting one elbow on the back of her chair that she was too tall to fully lean back into. Barley, on the other hand, sat very rigidly, resting his paws on his knees. They sat in silence for a few seconds, as Barley tried to make eye contact but quickly averted it as soon as she smiled back at him. After some waiting, Lara was the first one to speak up.
- That shirt looks good on you. This is the first time I'm seeing you without your work apron. It's a shame they make you wear that, you have good taste in clothes.
He reached up and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, looking away.
- Wow, th-thank you...
He could only manage to stutter out a quick response before they both went quiet again. He turned his head to the counter and thanked his luck that his coworker wasn't on shift today to torment him.
- Listen, Barley, I know this was kind of sudden. I'm not in the habit of taking people out for a drink, if I have to be honest. It's just that from the way you had been looking at me, I figured you'd like to.
- I- um, well... I wasn't the only one looking!
- Oh, trust me, I know.
- Well, uh, why me then? Out of everyone that you could have asked out, I mean...
- Ah. That one's easy. I just think you're cute, that's all.
Barley could swear his cheeks were on fire. He just sat there, looking down at the table, his tail wagging and repeatedly hitting the back of his chair. Lara simply chuckled at his reaction.
- But most importantly, I don't want you to feel obligated to anything. I just wanted to have a little friendly chat with you. No compromise.
He sat in silence for a bit longer, then nodded his head. Lara grabbed the paper cup in front of her and took a sip of her tea.
- So. Would you like to tell me a little about yourself?
- Uh, well, I don't think there's all that much to tell. There isn't much interesting about me, I'm just a guy who works at a café.
- Oh, come on, don't be like that, I'm sure you have plenty of interesting stories to tell. What about your family?
Barley looked away and his expression became more serious. He sat in silence for a few seconds, trying to find the words to respond.
- Oh. Sensitive topic, huh? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked.
- No, no, it's okay, it's just... I don't really talk to them anymore. It's a long story.
She nodded, also serious.
- Alright. Well, what about hobbies? What do you do when you're not here at the café?
- Well... I guess movies?
- You do movies?
- N-no, I mean, I watch movies. I like cinema, a lot. I was actually doing media studies back in uni, before, uh, I had to move out. That's how I spend a lot of my time. And I talk about movies with my friends a lot, too.
- Ooooooh. A cinephile, hm? Watched anything good lately?
- Um. Probably nothing you've heard of, since it's usually- wait, I-I mean! I didn't mean to say you're not, like... I just, it's mostly indie stuff, and it's not very popular, and-
She laughed, cutting him off.
- It's okay, Barley, I know what you mean. Yeah, I probably wouldn't know of it, since I don't watch much independent cinema. I do like movies a lot, though.
Barley raised his head again, mentally kicking himself for not shutting up. Lara seemed unconcerned, though.
- I've actually tried to get into independent stuff myself, but every time I've tried to go online and ask for advice on what to watch, people in that community tend to be... well, a little...
- A bunch of pretentious and sexist assholes?
She laughed again. Her laugh was soft and quiet.
- Well, I didn't want to put it like that since you're part of it. But yeah, that's mostly it.
- No, yeah, I totally get what you mean. I don't associate with those people much, but if you want to follow the local scene here at the city, there's actually a couple really good places to look and...
The two kept talking and talking for a couple more hours, exchanging movie recommendations, Lara explaining (and complaining about) her job, and how she had recently been transferred to a nearby office and that was why she kept coming back to the café. Eventually a buzzing sound came from Lara's purse.
- Oh. Excuse me for a sec, I should take this.
Barley simply nodded, and she reached up to one of her big, pointy ears and tapped a button on her earpiece, partially obscured by her hair, while turning to the side on her chair.
- Lara here. ... Oh, it's you, Cait, I thought it would be work. Is something wrong? ... No, of course I'm fine, it's... wait, is it really nine already?
Barley looked at his wristwatch. It was indeed already nine. Time had passed really quickly for him too.
- No, no, I'm still at the café. Yeah, no worries. The date is just going really well.
She looked to him for an instant and winked. Barley looked down and smiled meekly, his tail wagging rapidly again.
- Yeah, I'll be home soon. ... No, it's fine, I appreciate the call. I'll see you in a bit, alright? Be sure to have a bath prepared by then.
She reached up and tapped the button again, while picking up her purse and standing up from her chair.
- Sorry about that, Barley. I should be leaving now. This was a lot of fun, though. Think we could do this again sometime?
He nodded enthusiastically.
- Yeah, I'd love that!
- Actually. That movie you told me about. How about you come over to my place next time so we can watch it?
- To y-your place?
- It's just a suggestion. If it's as scary as you said I'll need someone to watch it with, and Cait is... well, she's very easily scared so I doubt she'll like it.
It's not like he didn't WANT to, he was just too intimidated to accept outright.
- We don't need to settle on it right now. We'll discuss it over text, alright?
- A-alright!
- Perfect. I'll see you soon, cutie.
She gave him one more smile and then walked out through the front door. Barley sat there for a couple more minutes, trying to process all the emotions going through his head.
--
During the following week, Lara walked into the café every day at the same time, like clockwork, ordered her hot tea, and sat at one of the individual tables. Whenever she caught Barley staring at her, she simply gave him a quick wink and a smile, then turned her attention back to her phone, which never failed to make Barley smile as well. They kept exchanging text messages during the evening, and eventually decided to watch the movie that Barley recommended together, this weekend.
It was now Saturday, and Barley stood in front of a white door in the hallway of an unfamiliar apartment building. He took a deep breath and knocked twice. The door didn't take long to open, but where he expected to find a very tall bat lady, he found instead an orange fox in a frilly maid dress, slightly shorter than him. His head tilted down in confusion.
- Oh, uh, is this...
- Welcome! You must be Barley. Please, come in.
The fox girl's voice was very high-pitched and as cutesy as they made them. She stepped to the side, with her paws in front of herself, giving him a polite smile. "She's actually kind of cute", he thought to himself. A little confused, he stepped inside, as the maid closed the door behind him.
- Mistress! Your guest is here!
As the sound of footsteps approached, Barley couldn't help but notice that the maid had a bright pink collar around her neck. It stood out against both the colour of her fur and her clothes. Before long, Lara walked in, a fanged smile on her face as usual.
- Ah, Barley, there you are. Come on in.
They both walked into the living room, with the maid following behind them. The place was fairly minimalist and functional, without much decoration. To his left, a gigantic TV set covered one of the walls, opposite from a wide couch, and in front of him was the entrance to a balcony covered with thick curtains that barely let any light through. "Pretty much perfect for watching horror movies", he thought.
- Take his coat.
Lara gave her order without even turning around. Immediately, he felt the fox's paws grabbing onto the sides of his coat over his shoulders and pulling it off him.
- So, um, I didn't know you had a... maid?
- Oh, right. I don't think I've introduced you yet. This is Caitlyn.
The fox girl bowed her head down at him, with his coat folded in her arms.
- It's nice to meet you!
- She's not exactly just my maid, but I guess that's close enough.
Barley tilted his head in confusion.
- Not "just"? So are you, like... together?
- As in dating? Not exactly, no. You can think of her as my property.
He blinked. "Property"? Lara walked around the coffee table and sat on the couch.
- Cait, go to your room. We're going to watch the movie now, and you probably don't want to be around.
Caitlyn nodded, a hint of blush visible on her cheeks, and walked away through the hallway. Briefly afterwards, the sound of a door being shut could be heard. Lara turned her head to look up at Barley.
- Judging by your face, you probably haven't seen much of this before, huh?
- M-much of what?
- Kinky stuff. I know what you're thinking, but I assure you, it's all one hundred percent consensual. Cait wants to be my property even more than I want her to.
Barley blinked again. Lara tapped the cushion on the couch beside her.
- I can see you're still a little confused. Here, have a seat. I can explain a bit more if you want.
He sat down, nodding.
- Basically, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. Technically speaking Cait is working for me, so yeah, I pay her. She also lives here with me, though, and her job is to take care of basically everything I need. Chores, cleaning, cooking, laundry, whatever I ask her to. Which is usually a lot, because my work doesn't leave me time for much. On top of that, yes, we do romantic and sexual stuff together, but I'm normally the one who leads all that stuff. I'm the "dominant", or "domme", so to speak, in our relationship.
Barley simply sat there, unsure of what to say. This was all a little too much for him to process.
- Of course we have safety measures in place, like every kinky relationship should. There's safewords, and of course, you can be sure that if I do something to her, she's enthusiastically agreed to it beforehand.
He sat in silence for a bit longer before speaking up.
- Right, uh, so... that's... a lot. I had never heard of people doing, um, that...
- It's not much different from a married couple living together. There's rules, responsibilities and such. This kind of thing just requires more explicit communication to work, but it can work.
Barley nodded. This whole thing seemed a little alien to him, but not... wrong, really. As long as everyone involved agreed...
- Well. That's enough talk about Cait, I think. Did you bring the movie?
She extended a hand forward. Barley put his paw in his pocket and handed her a USB stick, which she stood up and plugged into the TV set. After fiddling with the remote for a moment, she turned down the lights and sat back down by his side, as the screen started glowing white and showing the title of the movie.
--
It had been two months since that. Barley sat alone at the café, toying with his phone and reminiscing about that evening. Lara and him had been getting along much better than he expected, and she seemed to actually enjoy his company. They kept hanging out every week. They weren't properly dating, though, they both agreed that they were fine with being friends, even if his coworker kept teasingly referring to her as his "girlfriend".
Just as he was looking at his wristwatch and thinking that she was kind of late, he heard a cutesy voice speaking to him.
- E-excuse me, Barley?
He lifted his head, and was met with a fox girl in a maid dress. It caught him off guard, since he didn't think he'd ever seen her outside of Lara's place.
- Oh! Hey Caitlyn. What's up?
- Well, um. Mistress told me to let you know that, unfortunately, she won't be able to come today. She has a work emergency that requires her attention.
Oh. Well, that explained that.
- Ah, that's fine then. But hey, couldn't she have just messaged me? There was no need to make you come all the way here, was there?
- I, uh, also have to buy groceries for Mistress, and the store is nearby. And also...
Barley tilted his head. She reached into one of the pockets of her dress and pulled out a small pink box.
- She wanted me to give you this.
He took the box from Caitlyn and looked at it. It was a box of chocolates. He couldn't help but grin.
- Heh, alright. Well, can you tell her thank you from me?
Caitlyn smiled back at him.
- Of course. Now, if you'll excuse me...
- Oh, uh, Caitlyn? Can I ask you something?
She stopped just as she was about to leave.
- Yes?
- Well, it's about... y'know. Lara and you. Like, the way you're...
A small hint of a blush appeared on Caitlyn's cheeks.
- Wh-what about it?
- I've just been thinking about it, like... do you really want to be in that position? Like, on purpose?
She nodded, trying her best to maintain her composure. Clearly she was a bit flustered, but it was not her first time talking about this in public.
- I do, yes.
- But... why? Why would you, like... willingly belong to someone else? Isn't that, you know...
He struggled to find the words to describe what he meant. She finished the sentence for him.
- Wrong?
He stayed silent for a moment.
- Well, I didn't want to put it like that.
- You are not the first person to ask, and I suppose it is difficult to understand from outside. I can assure you, though, I am not being coerced into this in any way. If anything, I am the one who convinced Mistress into trying this out. We both benefit from it and I have been repeatedly told that I have the freedom to leave anytime I wish, for any reason. I choose to serve Mistress because it makes me happy.
Barley tilted his head back in his seat, staring at the ceiling. He spoke again after a brief pause.
- I suppose if you really can leave, and you haven't...
She smiled down at him.
- It is very sweet of you to be concerned, but there is no reason for it.
- Yeah. Thanks, Caitlyn.
- It was my pleasure. Now, I'm afraid I must be going. It was nice talking to you.
She bowed her head, then turned around and left the café. Barley sat there for a few more minutes, lost in thought.
"What a weird girl. I wonder if she speaks like that because Lara trained her."
The thought made his heart beat faster, for some reason. He looked down at the box of chocolates on the table and ran a paw over it.
"Property, huh..."
--
A few more months had passed since then. Lara and Barley kept meeting at the café every day, exchanging a few friendly words at the counter, and even spending some time talking about movies when there were no other customers around. They settled into a comfortable routine where they watched an independent movie together, picked by Barley, every other weekend. He also warmed up to the relationship between Lara and Caitlyn, and didn't think twice about the latter being ordered around in front of him.
One day, though, Lara didn't show up at the café at her usual time.
Barley, of course, was a bit worried, but he didn't think much of it. Maybe she simply had more work to do. Maybe she had a particularly tough customer, or a sales presentation, or whatever. He simply carried on with his shift until the end, went home, changed clothes and got on his computer. After a bit, though, his phone rang, with Lara's name displayed on the screen. He tapped the button and brought it up to his ear.
- Hey there.
- Hey Barley. Listen, uh. You know that plan we have for the weekend? We're going to have to cancel it.
Her voice sounded kinda serious, but more... exhausted than anything.
- Oh. Yeah, no problem. Is something wrong? You sound...
- Yeah, there's been a bit of an issue. I don't think I'm going to have much free time from now on. It's, well, Caitlyn.
- Oh! What happened? Is she alright?
- No no no, yeah, she's perfectly fine. Sorry, I guess that sounded like she'd had an accident or something. It's just that she's leaving.
- Huh? Why?
- Family issues. Her mother got sick, and she's packing everything up to go live with her and take care of her.
A brief pause.
- Oh. I see...
- Yeah, she obviously needs to do that, so she can't work here anymore. It's all good, this stuff happens, it just... caught me a little by surprise, and now I'm finding myself having to do everything that she did until I find a new assistant. So yeah, been fairly busy today sorting everything out, and it's also been a tough day at work.
Another, longer pause. Gears were turning in Barley's head.
- Hey, why don't I cover for her?
Lara took a bit to respond.
- Wait, you want to do that? Really?
- Oh, w-well, it's not like I WANT to, but you seem to be in a bit of trouble, so I could help temporarily until you find someone, and...
- What about your job at the café?
- Ah. Right. I guess that's not very viable.
What was he thinking? He smacked himself in the forehead with his paw.
- ... listen. To tell you the truth I thought of you first. If I know you at all, this seems like the perfect position for you, but I didn't want to say anything because of the way you reacted when meeting Caitlyn.
He rolled over in his bed quietly, to let his tail wag freely. She also thought it would be a good fit for him? Really?
- I have an idea. I'll manage for this week, but next weekend, how about you come to my place? You can help me with some stuff, at the very least.
- Th-that sounds good! See you on Saturday then?
- See you then, cutie.
He hung up the call and buried his snout in his pillow.
--
Barley knocked on the familiar white door. Before long, a tall bat lady opened the door from the other side, though she didn't look much like the usual, elegant Lara. Her bright pink hair was tied up in a ponytail behind her, and she was only wearing a black sports bra and a pair of comfortable sweatpants.
- Hey Barley. Come on in.
Despite her slightly different attitude, Barley still instinctively lowered his head as he walked in behind her, into the living room.
- Sorry about the mess. It's certainly been, uh, a week.
He looked around. The place... didn't look any different from usual, though. The curtains were pulled aside, letting a lot of sunlight into the room. In the middle of the table sat a stack of papers.
- This is a mess? Remind me to never invite you to MY apartment.
She chuckled.
- Right. Well, thank you so much for offering to help. But before we get to that, I've prepared a little thing for you.
She signalled for him to take a seat, which he did. The papers looked like some kind of... legal document. She sat down by his side.
- So here's the thing. I'm offering you a full time position as my personal assistant.
Barley turned to her and was about to open his mouth, but she cut him off.
- And before you say anything, yes, I know you still have your job at the café. Here's the plan. You can come in on weekends to try it out, if you want, which I'll still pay for, obviously. Once you've been doing that for a bit, you can decide. You should take this contract back home with you and give it a thorough read.
He picked up the stack of papers, slightly dumbfounded.
- Wait, so I would be like... full time... here?
- Yes, you'd live here with me. I'd deduct rent from your monthly pay, but even without that, I think your salary would be better than your current one. I understand becoming economically dependent on someone else is a very big deal, so I'll give you the same conditions I gave Caitlyn: if you ever want to stop, you'll have the legal right to two months of pension and you can stay here while you look for a different place.
He paused, trying to run some numbers in his head, and flipping through the papers.
- Isn't that, um. A lot?
She smiled.
- Maybe, but I can afford it.
"If I can take this home, I can ask Angelica to take a look at it later", he thought to himself. "She knows her legal stuff and can probably spot any traps here. But still..."
- Well, uh, this is... it's...
- Like I said, there's no need for you to make any decisions right now. Today you can just help me clean out Cait's room and do some shopping. Probably make lunch too, I tried to make an omelet earlier and it's a miracle I didn't burn the house down.
- Y-yeah, okay, I can do that.
She stood up.
- Perfect. Alright, come here, I'll show you Cait's room.
- Oh, uh, Lara?
She turned around and looked down at him, tilting her head and placing a hand on her waist.
- Something wrong?
- No, it's just. Didn't Caitlyn wear a, um, collar when working here?
- Yeah?
He paused and looked down, embarrased.
- Do you think I could, uh...
A wide grin spread across her face, showing her fangs.
- Oh yeah. You're definitely going to fit in here.
--
Barley was leaning against the wall, lost in thought about the time he started working for Mistress. It had been, what, a year now? Two? No, probably closer to one. His sense of time was never very good anyways. He looked down at himself, in his black, elegant butler suit, complemented by a pair of white gloves, and smiled to himself.
Suddenly, the sound of the door opening snapped him out of his thoughts. Oh crap, was it already five?
- M-mistress!!
Lara walked in through the door and closed it behind her, in her usual work outfit, complete with black, tight sweater and pink handbag.
- Hey Barley.
She walked in and took off her shoes, leaving them by the side of the door. Her flat nose sniffed the air.
- Doesn't smell like tea, does it?
- I- I'm very sorry, Mistress, I thought it wasn't five yet, I was planning to boil water now but I must have-
- Barley.
She spoke in a stern and commanding tone, which made his fur stand on end.
- Come here.
He took a few steps closer to her, looking down towards the floor.
- Closer.
A few more steps, with his eyes squeezed shut, until he was right in front of her. She then reached up and grabbed the front of his bright pink collar, lifting him to eye level with her (which was quite a bit, because of their difference in height). He opened his eyes and found Lara staring back at him, grinning, while he waved his feet in the air helplessly.
- M-mist-
He was cut off by her lips pressing against his.
- Mmph!!
She held him up like that in a deep kiss for a few more seconds. Barley's tail wagged at full speed, and his cheeks were bright red. Finally, she broke the kiss and let him down on the floor again, gently.
- You know it's totally fine, cutie. You're not in trouble. But I do kind of need a hot tea after a long day of work, so go ahead and get on it, alright?
He quickly nodded.
- Good boy.
She let herself fall onto the couch, letting out a loud relaxed sigh. As Barley walked towards the kitchen, with his cheeks still feeling like they were on fire, he couldn't help but think to himself: "This is the best job ever".