Girlfriend

Alright. I might give Carson a call to see if he'll have Mom and Pop's open late that night. If he says yes, we can probably have the place to ourselves.

A grin spreads on Jason's face as he feels Katie tugging on his warm emotions. She'd gotten awfully good at it, and it was hard to get in a bad mood anymore when she was around.

What? You think I'd say no to lunch? I am so there. As long as we can go to the park afterward... Trooper needs a good walk and your company would be perfect.


The little ringing bell could be heard through the open door to the garage and all the guys look up expectantly. Somehow, Eli's phone call wasn't a secret, nor was his date or not-date the other night. No one knew what had happened since he was remaining obnoxiously close-mouthed about it. Today, however, they all knew Scarlet was here, and hearing the bell, they knew it had to be her.

As Eli heads for the door, several of the guys whistle, one of whom was Tal himself, who had probably started most of the razzing, though it couldn't be proven. Eli turns around and walks backward toward the door, throwing them all an annoyed look. "Behave," he chides. "Customer."

"Girlfriend," someone tries to correct.

Eli points a warning finger at him. "Customer. Get back to work." Sliding into the waiting area, he shuts the door behind him to cut off another loud whistle. Seeing Scarlet, he offers her a grin. "That was quick."

Ambling to the desk, he makes a note of the time of arrival. "Okay... it should be a couple days - someone will call you when it's finished... in the meantime you can leave your keys here and... we can give you a ride to where you need to go next."

His eyes come back up from the paperwork to meet Scarlet's gaze. Their evening watching fireworks seemed like ages ago, even though it had only been a few days. For now, Eli's business tone is set aside. "I actually have time to give you a ride. It'd give me a chance to ask how you are as a friend instead of a customer."


Leo doesn't get out of bed for several hours, drifting in and out of sleep. Battling his fever, he winds up taking something for it, but all it does is make him sick to his stomach and throw up, so he stays in bed, hoping it will just wear off. His phone rings at least three times but he just lets it go, not feeling like answering it. At this point, he didn't care that he needed to clean his apartment or even go lock his front door... all he wanted was sleep, and even that was hard to come by.