A Lunch Invitation

Lauren and I had been continuing our Monday night hanging out routine that we'd started when we were living together, and I enjoyed knowing that I'd get to see her at least once each week.  Today we'd decided instead of going out to eat or ordering takeout, we'd pick up some food and cook.  We were in her kitchen, laughing and chopping things, when my phone rang.  Lauren, who was closer to where it was laying on the counter, glanced at it and said, "It's Lynn!"  Without hesitation she answered and put it on speaker.  "Hi Lynn!"

"...Lauren?" Lynn's voice coming out of the phone's speaker sounded confused.

"And me too!" I called, walking around Lauren so I could be closer to the phone.  I had talked to Lynn about once a week since Christmas, and I know Lauren had talked to her every couple weeks, but it was fun to all talk together--something we hadn't been able to do since Lynn came out to visit.

We abandoned our meal preparation and sat down at the table with my phone between us, talking excitedly to Lynn.  She was doing much better and was able to walk several steps unassisted.  She said the worst part was strengthening the muscles that had suffered from her long period of being unable to use them properly.  She was essentially relearning how to walk.  She was working on getting her doctor to agree to let her come out to Denver to visit for a weekend, maybe in the fall.  She was also working towards being able to do a little working starting in the fall.  There was no way she'd be able to get back to teaching full time, but she was hoping to at least do a subbing for partial days just to get out and do something.  She missed teaching and working, and said her parents (she was still living with them because she couldn't get around well on her own yet) were driving her nuts.  Her mom had taken a leave of absence from her job to take care of Lynn and was hovering.

I told her that I'd be home for the 4th of July weekend, and we excitedly made plans to go to the fireworks together.  Lauren pouted, and I reminded her that she could go home to visit too, but she was going at the end of the July for her mom's birthday.

We talked for nearly a half hour until Lynn's mom announced that dinner was ready and she had to go.  Once we got off the phone, we realized our desire to cook had vanished, especially because it was now almost 8, so we walked down the street to the little deli I had loved so much, and now missed immensely.

"I miss high school sometimes," Lauren admitted, as we ate our dinner.  "Not actually being in high school, because that sucked. But you, me, and Lynn being inseparable."  Lauren and Lynn were actually the reason everyone called me Liv.  My mom was one of those moms that insisted everyone call me by my given name of Olivia.  But in 5th grade, when we'd become friends, they'd decided I needed to go by Liv so we could all have names that started with L.  My mom eventually gave in and started calling me Liv sometimes as well.

"I don't miss high school.  But I do miss being with both of you all the time," I agreed.  When I had considered moving, the only thing that made me pause was moving so far away from Lynn.  It was hard, and I even tried to convince her to come with me.  I was glad I had made the move, obviously, but I definitely missed Lynn.

After we ate, I left.  We made plans for me to come back on Wednesday so we could finish what we had started cooking.  Lauren wouldn't cook on her own and Brody was so rarely home for dinner anyway.

Brody was home when I got home and was sitting on the couch with his laptop.  He shut his laptop and set it on the floor, then stood to kiss me.  "How was your day?" he asked, as we sat down and I curled against his side, relaxing into him.

"Good.  Lynn called while I was at Lauren's and we all got to talk for awhile.  It was pretty awesome.  How was yours?"

He told me it was fine and he had just gotten home about 30 minutes earlier.  We made plans to have dinner together the next night.  "Oh, hey," he said randomly about 20 minutes later.  We were still on the couch.  He was watching Sportscenter (is that show ever NOT on?) and I was half dozing.

"Yeah?" I mumbled sleepily.

"When is your next Friday off?  The 19th?" he asked.  I had to think for second, because I didn't even know what day today was.  After a quick mental calculation, I confirmed that it was.  "Okay, I think I'll take a half day at work.  Can we go hiking?"

"Sure!" I replied, excited at the idea of spending the day with him.  "I don't know why you even asked."  He laughed and kissed the top of my head.  Something else occurred to me and I said, "Wait, can you take a half day off when you'll be taking the 3rd off in two weeks to go to Wisconsin?"

"Don't worry about it," he replied.  "It'll be fine.  I'm pretty well caught up now and since we're not taking on any new work, things aren't nearly as crazy."  I nodded and relaxed back against him, but it didn't last long before he said, "Oh yeah, one more thing.  On the 20th, my mom said she'd be in town, and she wants to get dinner with both of us.  Is that okay?"

"Definitely," I said.  "You know I love seeing your mom."

"Oh, wait," he said again, which caused me to laugh hard enough that I had to sit up.  When I had collected myself, I looked at him and waited for him to continue.  "I talked to my sister awhile ago and she invited us out to visit.  We should look at going out for a long weekend sometime this summer."

"Sounds good to me," I agreed.  "Anything else?"

He shook his head and I yawned.  We decided to go to bed and we had only been settled under the blankets for about 30 seconds when Brody said, "Oh, one more thing!"  I groaned and he laughed and said, "I'm just kidding this time."

"You are so dumb," I grumbled, but then I laughed too.

He pushed himself up on one arm so he could lean over and kiss my cheek and said,  "Goodnight, Liv.  I love you, even if you think I'm dumb."

I rolled my eyes and smiled, even though he could see neither in the dark.  "I love you too," I replied.

At work the next day, Josh popped his head into my office.  "Will you have lunch with me?" he asked.

"Absolutely not," I replied, without even looking up from my computer.

"Liv--" he started.

"No," I said firmly.  I looked up at him.  "I'm not having lunch with you.  Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to get some work done."

"Okay," he replied.  He stood quietly in my doorway for another couple seconds, then disappeared.  I was a little curious about what he wanted, but I wasn't curious enough to subject myself to spending 45 minutes with him.  He stayed away the rest of the day, and I stayed at work until it was time to leave to meet Brody for dinner.

To my surprise, he was already there when I got there.  "Hi, beautiful," he greeted me, kissing me lightly.  I hope he never stops greeting me like that, because it will never get old.

I smiled against his lips and then said, "Hi."

"Can I help you?" the impatient-sounding hostess said, breaking into our not-quite-appropriate-for-public greeting.  I flushed while Brody flashed a charming smile at her.

"Sorry," he apologized.  Now the hostess turned red and quickly stuttered that it was no problem and please follow her.  I shook my head as we followed her back to a table.  "Thank you," Brody said to her, smiling again, after she had seated us and given us menus.

"It's not nice to flirt with the hostess," I said, after she had left.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said with mock innocence.  I rolled my eyes and asked him about his day.  He told me about it and then asked about mine.  His eyes darkened when I told him about Josh's lunch invitation.  "You didn't go, did you?"

I frowned.  "I missed when we decided that you get to tell me who I can and can't go to lunch with."

"Whoa," Brody said, raising his eyebrows in surprise.  "I'm not telling you who you can go to lunch with, and I think you know that.  You know how I feel about him, and I hope you know that I said because I'm worried about what he's up to, not because I'm setting rules about who you can spend time with."

I blushed again.  My face might as well just stay red at this point.  "I'm sorry," I said.  "It just sounded like..." I trailed off, not sure what I wanted to say.  I chose a different route instead.  "No, I didn't go."  I fixed my eyes on my empty bread plate and twisted the corner of my napkin.

"Liv," Brody said, reaching across the table to run his fingers across the back of my hand.  "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that."

"I know," I said, shaking my head to clear it.  "I'm okay." I looked up into his concerned eyes and smiled.  "Can we just talk about something else?"

"Sure," he agreed, though he still looked concerned.  We talked about our upcoming trip to Wisconsin and I relaxed slowly.  We made some loose plans for the weekend and I told him about the various Fourth of July celebrations that happened in the cities around my parents' town.

We decided to leave Brody's SUV in town and dropped it off in the parking garage for his office building, then headed home in my car.  I had forgotten about my little fit about Brody's reaction to Josh asking me to go to lunch with him, and I happily let Brody drive my car.  I hated driving and would take any excuse not to.  As he drove, he reached over the center console and let his hand rest on my thigh, the tips of his fingers laying along the inner seam of my pants.  As he got closer and closer to home, he slid his hand further and further up my leg until his pinky hit the end of the line.

"Mmm, you're an evil tease," I protested, leaning my head back against the head rest and wishing my pants weren't in the way.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied, smirking.  He squeezed my leg gently and moved his pinky back and forth across the seam of my pants.  Fortunately (unfortunately?) he had to move his hand to hit the button on the garage door opener when we got home.  He barely had the engine off when I climbed over the center console and settled myself in his lap.   "Well, hello," he said, running his hands from my knees up to my hips, over my ass, and just barely under the hem of my shirt.  He brushed his fingertips over the skin of my lower back and I shivered before kissing him hard.  He moved his lips to my neck and sucked gently at the sensitive skin there, then said, "Are we fucking in the car like high schoolers?  Because that sounds kind of fun."  He didn't move his lips from my neck, and the vibrations from him talking tickled and made me pull away.

"No," I said, running my hands over his shoulders and his upper arms.  "I'm just going to torture you like you tortured me the whole way home."

He laughed.  "I think I can handle that," he said.  "In fact, I bet I can handle it longer than you can."  With that, he pressed his lips back to my neck, working his mouth from the side of my neck down to my collarbone.  In the end, he was wrong, and he was the one that insisted we go inside and finish what we'd started.  Of course, if he'd had his way, we probably would have just had sex in the car, but I wasn't having that.