Wake Up Call...

I can't believe I've gotten so far behind... It really has been forever...
Apologies to those who were eager for an update, work has overtaken what I used to call a life...
But!  Tis a new year--and I hope to set aside time to put work into this story and into the other ideas that I have been tossing around in my head...

Much love, and I hope you enjoy!

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I couldn't sit still.

My hands were fidgeting and my foot tapped incessantly as my eyes disobeyed me and checked the door every 2 minutes.

Vero and I headed to our usual hang out spot and claimed our long booth in the back of the restaurant--not that we needed to--as soon as the owners saw any of the guys, our booth would magically be available.  Perks, I suppose.

Flower had texted Vero that him and the guys were on their way, but I hadn't heard from Brendon since yesterday afternoon.

Vero slammed her hand down on my drumming fingers.  "For crying out loud,"

"Sorry," I smiled meekly, pulling my hand from the table and continued to fidget with my hands out of sight.

"Why are you so nervous?"

Leaning my elbows on the table I picked at my napkin, tearing it apart piece by piece.  I sighed, "I just want things to go well."

"It'll be fine, it's not that big of a deal." Vero shrugged.

I looked at Vero like she was crazy, "Um, the hell it is!  What if they can't find anything to talk about?  The guys are already so close, I don't want him to be left out.  What if they want to talk hockey?  Brendon doesn't like sports.  What if Brendon goes on one of his spiels about work?  God forbid, what if they don't even like each other?"

Vero answered me with a simple, blank stare and shrugged.

"He just means a lot to me."  I sighed.

"Who," Vero asked, "Brendon or Sidney?"

I was taken back, and totally sensed some sass.  "What does that mean?"

Placing the menu down on the table, she brushed her long black hair out of her face and behind her shoulders.  Vero leaned forward and clasped her hands in front of her, ready to give it to me.

"It didn't matter with me, why would it with Sid?  When I first met Brendon over lunch we didn't have anything to talk about.  He wasn't interested in anything I had to say about my work or hockey.  I sat there for 30 damn minutes while he rambled on about how to invest and how he's not in it for the money as he drives off in a fucking Lamborghini.  I don't like the guy, yet you still choose to go out with him."

Shocked, I sat there with my jaw hanging, speechless.

Vero just rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed.  "Oh don't look so surprised.  He's self centered and thinks he's hot shit."

I couldn't bring myself to look Vero in the eye.  I knew Brendon could be cocky, but he wasn't that bad.  Wasn't he?

Laughing, she finished with a punch to the gut.  "The worst part is, I hate the girl you are around him," she finished.

"Woah, hold on--" but I was cut off by the finger Vero waived in the air.

"The Elaine I know would not put up with him.  The Elaine I know hates being called 'baby'.  She wouldn't put up with his douche bag friends, or sit there as her so-called 'boyfriend' introduces her as just 'a good friend' to everyone at his work party.  She wouldn't let it slide when she's blown off constantly but feels guilty when he's upset that you had plans on a Friday night.  My best friend wouldn't let some guy come in between her and her best friend.  She wouldn't ignore the blatant signs that this guy isn't worth her time.  That she isn't being true to herself."

I was furious.  How dare she say that, she practically accused me of being fake.  I wasn't.  I wasn't being a push over and I wasn't breaking a cardinal rule or letting a guy come between me and a friend.

She was wrong.  But for some strange and cruel reason, I couldn't find the words to throw back at her and defend myself.

"Just what I thought," Vero laughed.  "Well, when you find her, you let me know."

---

To say Brendon was in trouble was an understatement.  Elaine was pissed off, though she hid it well.

After 30 minutes, the boys were making cracks at her boyfriend's tardiness and she was able to laugh it off.  After almost 2 hours, the subject was dropped and Elaine started knocking back drinks.

While the guys were digging in to the appetizers Sidney sneaked off to the bar.  He spotted Elaine in the corner and waived to the bartender for a refill of both their drinks.

He walked up to her to see her staring at her phone.  Taking a seat next to her he asked, "Have you gotten a hold of him?"

Elaine threw her phone into her purse and took a swig of her drink.

Slowly, she looked up and stole a glance from Sid.  Her eyes were watering and she couldn't hold back from sniffing.

He's dead, Sid thought.  That mother fucker made her cry.  His body tensed as he thought of a million different ways he was going to torture his ass.

Clearing her throat, she spoke quietly.  "You won't be able to meet him."

"It's ok, we can reschedule," Sidney cooed as he rubbed her arm reassuringly.

"No," she said harshly, "we won't."

She finished the rest of her drink and dropped a twenty on the bar before taking off.  Elaine walked right past the booth full of their friends and out the door of the restaurant.

Sidney hurried over to the guys and told Vero that he should head out to check on Elaine.  He didn't want to push her--he hadn't exactly been supportive of this meeting in the first place.

Vero elegantly excused herself and Sid took a seat.  He was met with very confused Frenchman, Jordan breaking the silence.

"Let's go beat the shit out of him.  Who's in?"

"Me!" they all said in unison before paying the bill and heading out.

Over My Head...

“I’ll have the document on your desk by the end of the day,”

I walked out of my boss’s office, and made my way through the winding halls back to my desk.  I had gone into his office to talk about a spreadsheet I’d made for him and ended up sitting through an hour of him blabbering on about how he ‘needs the employees of this company to this this and that’ and yadda yadda yadda… I wasn’t really paying attention—obviously.

When I got a few steps from my cubical, my office mate Maggie came running up to me with a silly grin.

 “Guess who’s on line 3 for you?”

It took a second, but when thinks clicked upstairs I joined her and smiled wide.  We giggled like school girls before I fell into my chair and picked up the phone.

 “Brendon!”

“Hey beautiful.”  My smile couldn’t get any bigger.

 “How was the wedding?” I asked, twirling the phone cord around my fingers.

“It was good!  I’m glad I got to see my sister, she looked gorgeous,” he paused, “I missed you though,”

Oh thank God.  “I missed you too,”

“Got plans for this evening?”

“I do now,”

“My place at 6,” I could practically hear him smile through the phone.

“See you then!”

I hung up the phone and I swung my chair around to face Maggie.  I had butterflies and couldn’t keep the 

smile off my face.  She only had two words for me.

“Get. It.”

---

It felt like the clock was working against me.  When it felt like it had been an hour, only 20 minutes had gone by.  By the time 5 o’clock rolled around, I had been sitting at my desk with my purse and jacket in hand, literally watching the second hand on the clock tick.

I raced home, glad my new place was closer to work.  Jackie helped me ransack my room in search of the perfect outfit.  I put on the black jeans and grey top that scooped down low in the back.  Running out into the family room, I threw on grey flats and twirled for approval from Jackie and Vero who strangely refused to help.

With thumbs up from Jackie and a shrug with rolled eyes from Vero, I hopped in my car and was off to Brendon’s. 

I knocked on the door and fidgeted with my hair until I heard the door click.

“Hi!” he smiled.

Brendon stood there in a pair of dark grey slacks and a baby blue button up tucked in.  His tie was loosened and sleeves rolled up.  I felt like I had forgotten what he looked like: his skin was tanner than I remembered, his hair a darker dirty blonde, and his blue eyes were just piercingly beautiful.

I was snapped out of my daze, “Are you going to come in?” he asked, chuckling. 

I practically lunged at him.  His arms wrapped around my waist and held me in tight as I buried my face in his neck.

“I missed you too,” he laughed quietly.  Those butterflies were back.

The oven buzzer went off and broke us apart.

Brendon catered to our dinner and I took my coat off before taking a look at the kitchen.

There were vegetables cut up and seasonings all over the counter.  A cooking book was open and I went to take a peek to see what we were having for dinner but Brendon got to it first, closing it and pulling my away.

“Nice try,” he snickered.  He stepped towards me until my back was up against the island. 

“Hi,” he said again.

Looking like a fool, I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.  “Hi,” I whispered.

He leaned in and kissed me lightly on the lips.

It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  I sighed before leaning into him and kissing him back.

---

Over dinner we talked a little about the weekend and his sister’s wedding, it sounded like it was gorgeous.  

Brendon didn't have too much to say about it though—especially about the pre-wedding festivities like the infamous bachelor party.

Breaking open a bottle of wine, Brendon and I moved to the couch and curled up under a blanket.  It was just a quiet night in, comforting and relaxing.

His fingers were trailing up and down my arms, soothing me.

I broke the silence, “Brendon?”

“Yea baby?”

“Are you doing anything Friday night?”

“A bunch of the guys from work were thinking of going out for some drinks.  Why, what’s up?”

Untangling myself from the blanket, I sat up.  “I was kind of hoping you’d want to go out with me,” I paused, “and meet some of my friends.”

Brendon sighed and unwrapped his arm from around my waist.  “I don’t know, I mean the guys have been talking about heading out for while,”

I couldn’t hide the disappointment in my face, or my voice.  “Oh, oh ok.  Maybe another time.”  I curled back into his side, but it wasn’t merely as comfortable as it had been just a minute before.

“I guess I could just catch up with the guys another time,”

I bolted back up, “Really?”

Brendon shrugged, “Sure.”

“Great!” I beamed, “You’re going to love them, I promise!  And you’ll finally be able to meet Sid—he’s wanted to meet you for a while.”

---

"Fuck that, I don't want to meet him," Sidney grumbled.

He was laying on Marc's couch playing XBOX when Vero came in talking about the crew meeting Brendon on Friday.

"I don't get it.  First you complain about how Elaine didn't tell you about him and now you don't want to even meet him?" said Marc.

"We've been perfectly fine lately not even mentioning him,"

That was true—things were normal between him and Elaine.  Sid would meet up with her during her lunch breaks, she'd come over to his place for dinner and a movie.  They still goofed around and talked like best friends, but once Brendon was brought up things got a bit tense.  Before, he didn't have anything against the guy, but lately Sidney seemed to find everything he had heard about the guy and turned into something negative.  

"She obviously doesn't want my approval and I don't want to meet the guy and then spend the rest of the night hearing her talk to the girls about how dreamy he is and how amazing he is in bed and all that shit.  Damn it!"

"Ha!  Sucker!" Marc shouted after he killed Sidney in SOCOM.

"I can guarantee you won't hear her say that," Kris snickered.

"What does that mean?" Sid asked.

"I overheard the girls talking one night.  Apparently he's no rock star in the bedroom."

"Ohhh, that sucks," Marc laughed.

Kris paused the game and checked to see if the coast was clear and Vero wasn't around before he leaned into the boys.  "Actually, from what I heard she's never liked that kind of music."

Marc and Sidney looked at each other, confused.  "What the hell does that mean?" Marc asked.

Rolling his eyes Kris explained.  "No guy has ever made her, you know, peak, during sex,"

Marc practically gasped, "Elaine's never had an orgasm?!"

"Dude!  Fucking keep quiet, I'm not supposed to be saying anything." Kris turned back to the TV and the game continued.

Sid just sat there, quiet.  

How is that possible?  Never has a guy made her come?

Wait, why does he care so much?  

And why does that make Sid feel just a bit better?