“Oh no.” “What’s wrong?” RJ looked up from his position on the couch where he was working on his laptop. David sighed. “I gathered all the books laying around the house so I could rearrange them properly when I put them back on bookcase, but I’ve realized they won’t fit.” David gestured to the bookcase. “It’s full, and these are all the books left over. Apparently I’ve been buying too many books…” “Doesn’t seem like a difficult problem to solve. Get a bigger book case. I don’t mind having a lot of books in the house either.” “Well, I appreciate that Sir. But this is a very houseboy thing, you see. We try to organize and clean up, and end up creating a whole other problem. This is how it starts. First, I clean up the books. Now I need a new book case. So now I have to fit another book case in here. Which means I have to re-arrange the living room.” RJ chuckled. “Let me know when I need to get up from the couch.” David tilted his head back and groaned. “Aaarrgghhh.”
“Why can’t you just buy a bit of a bigger bookcase? You won’t have to re-arrange the living room.” David turned and looked at him. “I think we need a second one, Sir. I have a feeling I won’t be able to stop buying books.” “Have you heard of a library, boy?” “But they’re so cheap at the thrift store! And I keep them for as long as I want.” “Oh, houseboy problems. Well, I can restrict your budget, but I don’t want to punish you for buying books.” David pushed a strand of hair away from his face. “Why don’t you put some shelves on the walls in the guest room? Big empty wall load-bearing wall in there. You can run em the whole length of the room. My parents would love having books to browse while visiting.”
David looked astonished. “Sir that is an amazing idea.” RJ smiled. “I have other good ideas than the ones I come up with in the bedroom you know.” “You are good with coming up with those ideas,” David agreed. He surveyed the books again. “Ok. So, now I need to get the measuring tape. And the laser sight. A pencil. Gonna need to go buy some wood…sandpaper, I have sand paper, stain, mounting hardware…” he ticked the items on his fingers. “If you give a houseboy a cookie…” RJ teased, referring to a the children’s book about a mouse who wants a treat. David picked a book out of the stack and held up a cookbook with a cover showing a plate of cookies. “Ahem.” RJ laughed. “Say uh, you think you’ll have time to make those cookies later?” David flipped the book open. “Sure.” He found the right page. “These look pretty good actually. Oh drat. I’m out of vanilla. Well, while I’m out at the hardware store, I could stop at the grocery store. It’s across the street. What else do we need? Where’s my notepad.”
RJ’s eyes followed David until his pert butt disappeared out of view into the kitchen. David’s energy lingered behind. RJ snuggled back into the pillows. He liked having another life in the house, it turned a boring day working from home into a comfortable day in. RJ turned back to his laptop but it was hard to focus. His mind was coming up with things to do David in bed this evening.