AnimeCon Harem 16: Epilogue pt KB (Patreon)

Brian opened the car door, heaved himself out of the driver’s seat, and stretched. He felt good. Well-rested. It was amusing to think on what a strange feeling that was—feeling great wasn’t normal for him. Typically he would be tired from work, teetering between the apathy that comes with exhaustion and total burn out. Living with Chloe, especially towards the waning months of their relationship, simply stressed him out. He’d been blind to that, or too close to see it at the time. Rather than having time at home to unwind and decompress from a rough work shift, Brian had been attempting to use his shitty tiring work hours as a respite from dealing with Chloe.

Crazy to think about how things ended up, Brian thought to himself as Kelly came around the rear of his car and took his hand. How things got so bad, and then at the time I was still trying to think of ways to win Chloe back. Was I insane? Was I just too invested to realize it was way past time to just write all of it off as a loss, the whole damn relationship?

“You good?” Kelly gave him a look.

“Yeah, I just—yeah,” Brian chuckled. “Just got caught up in everything.”

“Yeah?” Kelly asked as they started down the parking lot towards the supermarket entrance.

“Yeah, it’s honestly just the comparisons,” Brian said. “How tiny little things you do sort of make me stop and realize how bad things were, back when I thought Chloe and I were together. We used to come here to shop.”

“Take it she didn’t hold your hand?” Kelly glanced down at their clasped hands and wiggled her fingertips to tickle against his. “What, was that some sort of sexist thing she didn’t want to be seen doing? ‘Cause she was a strong, independent woman who didn’t need no man?”

“Hah,” Brian shook his head. “It was—I dunno. Hard to describe. Holding hands wasn’t something she’d have even thought of? She’d have been deep into her phone, or uh, or making a point to have her arms crossed so I knew she wasn’t happy with me. Something like that. Her attention either wasn’t on me at all, or she was trying to… illustrate her displeasure? If that makes sense? With her body language and eyes and everything.”

“What a clown,” Kelly rolled her eyes. “Surprised she wasn’t more jealous or possessive, honestly. You’re a good-looking guy, I feel like you had fair odds on some girl noticing the way Chloe was treating you and making a move.”

“Well, I’m not that good-looking,” Brian laughed.

“Shut the fuck up,” Kelly scoffed. “Wait—no.”

Kelly tugged him to a stop just before the automatic doors of the grocery, turning him to face her and looking up into his eyes. She wasn’t much shorter than him, and when she demanded his attention, really locked onto him like this she was completely captivating. Brian couldn’t look away from her.

“Sorry,” Kelly took his shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss. “I thought—I thought you were saying that in like a normal, fishing for a compliment kinda way. But, I’m realizing you weren’t. You’re saying that in a… I never get compliments, so when I do, they’re suspect sorta way. Brian, you’re good-looking. You’re sexy as fuck. Even just looking at you too long starts to get me worked up, gives me those distracting little tingles. You know? Chloe never really complimented you, did she?”

“Uhh,” Brian didn’t know what to say to that.

“But, she expected them or demanded them from you,” Kelly guessed. “Yeah… yeah, that sounds about right. How close am I?”

“Um,” Brian’s arms had been raised and unsure of what to do, but he finally rested them on the small of her back. “I was gonna say ‘uncomfortably close,’ but instead I think maybe… you’re very, very comfortably close, just right where you are. Right here. It might sound cheesy for me to say, but—”

“I’ll allow it,” Kelly blinked up at him with a serious expression.

“But, just—man,” Brian blew out a breath of relief he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Sometimes it’s like I get so caught up in how much I want you, that it gets hard to even see how much I need you. Kelly—I love you.”

There was something incredibly satisfying about seeing those words stun Kelly, and then it was deeply gratifying watching a slow smile spread across her beautiful features and even a bit of a blush come in as blood rushed to her face.

“I love you too,” Kelly kissed him again, then swatted his chest. “Dork. S’not fuckin’ fair.”

“What’s not fair?” Brian asked, taking her hand again and leading her inside the grocery store.

“I don’t know,” Kelly griped with a lopsided smile. “That you can just… do that. Do that to me, with such a straight face like that. I mean—what the fuck?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Brian said. “You started it, though.”

“We should make out, right here,” Kelly proposed. “Bet Chloe wasn’t big on displays of affection, either. This is like—this is like cheat mode, it’s like I get free points with you just for not being Chloe and treating you like scum all the time. Just the normal, everyday, couple things I obviously want to do anyways have like, this big effect on you. Doesn’t even seem fair.”

“I feel like last time we started making out in public, this switch got flipped and you immediately wanted to escalate to banging in public.”

“No—no—that was totally different!” Kelly’s face was definitely red, now. “Wasn’t gonna let things go that far, here. It’s a grocery store, geez. We can be civilized and wait ‘til we get back out into the car. Right?”

“You’re blushing, Kell,” Brian observed.

“I’m not blushing,” Kelly denied. “Just—this is all going both ways, you know? Whatever effect I have on you, you have that effect on me, too, alright? People saying the L-word used to make me gag, because dropping L-bombs at each other was this super cringey puppy-love infatuation thing to me. But then, now when you say it, knowing that you mean it, that we—that, you know. I can’t just brush it off as a joke, anymore.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Kelly gave his hand a squeeze. “And like—you can’t just bring up banging in public as a joke anymore, either. We’ve done that, Brian. It’s not a joke anymore, it’s like this persistent reality that could come to pass any moment we both let our guards down. You realize that, right?”

“I, uh, I actually don’t have any condoms on me,” Brian admitted with a sheepish look as Kelly took a shopping basket with her free arm and they started down the produce aisle.

“Great, just great,” Kelly teased. “That means it’s not even just the threat of spontaneous sex—now we have you rawdogging me down with a messy creampie just… hanging over our heads. As something that just might happen, if we’re not real careful. I mean, I’m on the pill, but Brian—”

“Alright, alright,” Brian shushed her. “Cut it out, I don’t need to be walkin’ around everywhere here with a boner.”

“Always did wonder how that worked,” Kelly remarked. “You realize that when you wear gray sweatpants like that, women can totally make out your junk already? You can’t exactly tuck your dick up into your waistband when you start getting hard—not without him peeking out the top. Right?”

“Onion,” Brian pointed her attention towards the open-air display heaped with onions.

“Christ, two-seventeen for one onion?” Kelly made a face. “Seneca’s a nice town and all, but all the prices here are stupidly high. One onion should be like, right around a buck, buck seventeen.”

“Bunch of rich people neighborhoods throughout the area,” Brian shrugged. “Gated communities, million-dollar homes. Price gouges just come with the territory.”

“I guess,” Kelly shrugged, grabbing an onion off the top and squeezing it. “Though, on the other hand—this is all actual nice produce, here. Normally back home, er, back where I used to live, you’d have to hunt through them for a bit for an onion that wasn’t already soft or gross. Squishy.”

“Half of the store here even is like, specialty foods,” Brian gestured across the supermarket. “Whole foods, gluten-free stuff, ‘healthier’ versions of all the normal stuff you’d need that’s less processed or has less preservatives or whatever.”

“Was Chloe into all of that?” Kelly asked, depositing the chosen onion in their basket.

“A little, yeah,” Brian admitted. “I made good money at my job and all, but sometimes those grocery costs’d start to really sting.”

“Well, I’m not too picky,” Kelly shook her head. “I think I used to be, but. Yeah. Living with Chelsea and them, actually working shit minimum wage jobs—they really teach you to appreciate being smarter with how you spend your money. Oh, I don’t know if we even told you, yet—I transferred. I’m part time at the Seneca Dollarydoos, now.”

“Really?” Brian found himself surprised. “Fuck, I keep kinda forgetting that a month just went by. Zipped on by before I even noticed, and you all were still going through every day and dealing with life and everything.”

“Sort of,” Kelly shrugged again. “Working did help some. Less time to mope around and just be sitting there waiting for you to wake up. And, your Seneca Dollarydoos isn’t bad at all. Just boring, they don’t get crazy busy like the old one I worked at used to.”

“Are we still going to try to get you together with Emily’s mom?” Brian asked. “As her protege, that whole idea? I really do think you could get somewhere with, you know, acting or modeling or something.”

“I uh—we—well,” Kelly grew uncharacteristically flustered. “The thing is. While you were out of it, I, yes I have spoken to Anne Garcia. Once. And uh, about that—Emily doesn’t even know yet, that I’ve talked with her mom. It’s complicated. Long story. I don’t think I wanna talk about it, yet.”

“Oh,” Brian blinked. “Okay. Didn’t mean to—”

“She knows,” Kelly said in a whisper. “About everything. The charm, the group. Everything. And, Emily’s mom doesn’t just know, she knows. That’s, that’s all I’m gonna say. And—uh, you didn’t hear it from me. Alright? Oh, look—dairy. Ricotta and then more parmesan, right?”

“Uhhh,” Brian said, taking a moment to process the bombshells that had just been dropped on him. “Yeah. Just. Wait a sec, should I talk with her? About all this?”

“Nope, nope,” Kelly shook her head. “Leave it be, stay out of that whole… everything. We aren’t touching that until, and I guess if, Emily ever wises up and starts poking around that stuff. Not even sure if that’s what’s really best for her. Christ. Just—look, not gonna talk about, it if I can help it.”

“Right, yeah,” Brian frowned, nodding along. “So, I guess then the real question is—do we need sixteen ounces of ricotta cheese, or should we go with the twenty-four ounce one?”

“Let’s just get the—” Kelly did a double-take at examining the containers, leaning in with narrowed eyes. “Fuck, why are these so expensive?!”

/// Another short and sweet bit, wanted to get the last of these tiny ideas written out to see how they fare. For those of you who think this has stretched on way past where an Epilogue should be, want to say that AnimeCon's epilogue will also somewhat be Renfaire Fantasy's prologue. Knew this would happen, and I'm gonna have to decide sometime later where the demarcation point is where I want to say one story stops and the next officially begins. Realistically, the actual convention is already over with, so AnimeCon is done. But, then we're not really into Renfaire proper yet, either. 

Sorry for the delay getting this section out, dealing with... a lot. Moving in the next couple weeks, hopefully.

$26K for a mobile home nearby that was built in 2019. Much older mobile homes in my area have all been listing at $60k or higher, so this was something I had to pounce on. Toured it and it's in great shape, my brother checked it out and approved it, the only real downside is that this one doesn't have a shed. And, well, yeah trading up to this eviscerates my entire savings so it'll take me a bit to build up a safety buffer again.

And then right when all of that is going down, THIS little guy shows up.

Two warbles removed, he's on dewormer and antibiotics now, vet said he's maybe ten weeks old and malnourished. Gonna foster him for the next few weeks for sure until he's in better shape, already have a couple lined up looking to adopt him after that. He's a fuckin cutie, though. Like, damn. I'd keep him if I could, but I'm already at my limit for cats I can care for long-term.

He's set up in the pet pen for now, bought him a cat bed (not pictured there) and have a towel and food dishes and litterbox in there. All the cat bedding from last winter had already been thrown out.

I've just been calling him Little Guy, he answers to that better than anything else so far.