# New neighbors

Author: davsionnach
Tags: Anthropomorphic, Dingo, Fox, No-Yiff


"There's a moving truck down
at the Jensen's old place."


Inci was just coming in from work. 

"Huh? What was that?" 

Dav pulled a couple steaks out of
the refrigerator and set them on the counter.


"Someone is moving into the
Jensen's old house." At Dav's seemingly absent-minded stare she added,
"We have new neighbors."


"I didn't think they were
selling it."


"Since they're going to be
gone for at least a year they decided to rent it out."


"Ah, OK. Steak all right for
dinner?"


"Never mind that right now. You
should go down there and say hello. Maybe offer to help."


"I was just about to start dinner."


"I'm not terribly hungry. I had a
late lunch. You should go say hello. You could use a friend that doesn't work
at the restaurant."


"I have friends that don't work at
the restaurant."


"Yeah, they all work at other
restaurants. It wouldn't hurt you to have someone besides me to talk to where
the conversation doesn't always end up about work."


"But..." 

"Oh, hush. Go on and meet the new
neighbors. I'll get changed, make dinner and come down and meet them myself.
I'll put together something for dinner I can bring down and share with them.
You know they won't be in a spot to be cooking for themselves tonight anyway."


Dav knew it was time to surrender. 

"All right. I'll go." 

He put the steaks back in the
refrigerator, closed it, paused then reopened it and grabbed out a six pack of
beer. Inci raised an eyebrow at him.


"I'll feel odd going empty handed,"
he said. "Besides moving heavy boxes and furniture is better with beer."


"Fine. I'll be down in a little
while."


*****

Dav headed out the door and down
the street. As he approached the moving truck a dusty-tan dingo bounced out of
the back onto the sidewalk. He cocked an eyebrow at Dav while glancing down at
the beer in his hand.


"Hi. My name is Dav. I live a
couple doors down. We saw the truck and figured I'd come down and see if you
could use a hand. Also, thought this," he jiggled the six-pack "might
make things a little more pleasant."


"You, mate, must have been
sent by heaven above. The two things I needed most, beer and an extra pair of
paws. My name's Ris. Just moved into town from a few months in San Diego.
Before that spent my life in Torquay, little postage stamp of a town about an
hundred kilometres southwest of Melbourne. Not to be too forward, but how about
we pop open a couple of those beers while we scout things out a bit."


They wandered through the house
getting a mental map of the rooms with Ris adding commentary about where the
furniture was going to go.


"By the way, that's a nice
kilt, mate. Scottish or Irish?"


"A bit of both." 

"Well it shows off your legs
real nice. You a runner?"


"Uh, yeah." 

"Me, too. We should head out
together sometime. Being new around here I could use a little guidance for some
good routes."


They got to the kitchen. 

"Excellent, the fridge is
plugged in. Let's get the rest of that beer in there for later."


Ris eyed the label on the bottle. 

"Sionnach's Saison. I'm a bit
of a beer-head, but I haven't heard of that brand before. It a local? And
didn't I see that name on a restaurant over on 16th Street?"


"15th Street. Yes, it's really
local. It's mine. Both the beer and the restaurant."


"You own a restaurant and
brew? Mate, I think I just found my new best friend. Always wanted to give
brewing a try, but it never quite made it to the top of the list. Please let me
come help next batch you make."


"Sure. There are times an
extra set of paws on brew day can be great to have."


"You think we should order a
pizza or something?"


"Actually my wife was going to
put something together and bring it over a little later."


"Oh. Uh, great. I guess we
better quit dawdling and get this truck unloaded."


They made quick work of the truck's
contents.


"Well, that's it for the truck.
How about we grab a couple more of your beers while we wait for your wife to
wander down."


"No need to wait much longer,
here she is!"


Inci was coming up the sidewalk
with several plastic storage containers full of food.


"Your timing is impeccable, my
love," Dav grinned at her taking the food from her. "There isn't a
single box left for you to help with."


Inci swatted Dav's backside and
gave him an irritated look.


"Oh, hush, you. Hi, I'm Inci,
Dav's wife," she held out her hand towards Ris. "I figured you might
not feel like cooking your first day in so I brought over something for dinner.
Nothing too fancy, just a pasta salad with chicken."


"Name's Ris. Thanks for
loaning me your husband. Once I got here I realized I had no idea how I was
going to get the furniture in, then suddenly up walk an idle set of paws.
Dinner was very thoughtful of you. All that's in the fridge right now is a few
of your husband's beers and I'm honestly hungry enough to eat a baby."


"So, is your wife around? I'd
love to meet her, too."


"Nope. No wife, never has
been."


Inci blushed. "Sorry, stupid
of me to just assume."


"Ah, no worries. No harm done.
We're all just getting to know each other. Let's head inside."


They went into the dining room,
unpacked the food onto the dining room table and started eating.


"To be honest my last
relationship is kind of how I ended up here. A few months after I moved to San
Diego so we could be together things just started falling apart. Then it got to
the point we just couldn't stand to be in the same house anymore, so I packed
up my things, said goodbye and left. That was about three days ago. Wanted to
find a place with a good theater scene a nice long distance away and decided to
come here."


"Theater scene, are you an
actor?"


"Just a bit, mostly bit roles,
you know, crowd scenes or the chorus. I actually get more into the set design
and construction. I've already got a job lined up with the Tyrone Theatre
downtown."


"That was fast. How did you
pull that off?"


Ris seemed a little embarrassed.
"Actually my ex has an in with the artistic director and pulled a couple
strings to get it for me. Just as anxious to see me leave as I was to get out.
On the way here I spent almost every minute I wasn't driving trying to find a
place to stay and came across this place to rent. Signed the lease
electronically this morning when I was somewhere around Omaha, picked up the
keys on my way into town."


Dav looked at is watch.

"Oh, no. It's almost midnight.
Sorry, Ris, I really have to get going. I have to get up early for work
tomorrow. Still want to get together for a run? Maybe Friday morning about
7:30?"


"Sure, mate. Sounds good, you
can give me a tour of the neighborhood."


"All right. I'll swing by and
we'll head out."


"Great! See you Friday!"

Dav and Inci shook Ris's hand and
headed back down the sidewalk to their house.


"See?" Inci said giving
Dav's tail a gentle tug. "That wasn't painful at all, was it? You might
actually have a friend that doesn't work in a restaurant!"


Dav reached up and scratched Inci behind
the ears.


"I guess not. It might be nice
to have a running partner sometimes. And you're right, it's nice to have a
conversation with someone that doesn't turn in to a shop-talk-gripe-fest."


"What's that? Did you say I'm
right? You know how much I like being right."


Dav returned the tail tug, then
paused to give Inci a kiss.


"When are you not right? Let's
get home."

Source: https://sofurry.com/view/890236