Lucky in Love (5 page)

As Noah strolled through the living room that morning in his sweat pants and T-shirt, he gave his standard nod in the direction of the urn as he went past.

“Morning Pearl.”

Moments later he joined us in the kitchen. Jason, Gabe and I had already been busy for over an hour and the fruits of our labor were now deliciously displayed all over our kitchen table. On this particular Saturday, we had prepared scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, Belgian waffles with strawberry topping, bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, fresh fruit with a yogurt dip and extra-large and extra gooey cinnamon rolls. I could hardly wait to start eating. Neither could anybody else.

“Man, I love Saturday brunch!” Noah declared as he assessed the banquet we had prepared. He reached his arm around my back and gave me a kiss on the top of my head.

“Anything I can do to help?” he asked, knowing full well that we had already finished.

“Nope, we are pretty much done I think.” I pointed at the mess behind us and then back over to the bountiful spread on the table. Noah grinned with satisfaction as he pulled out a chair and had a seat. Jason had a seat next to him.
             

“How do you always manage to time it like that?”

Noah smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

“It's an inner clock thing.”

As Gabe sat down on the chair in the corner, I reached into the fridge for one last thing, the freshly, squeezed orange juice. Couldn’t very well begin without that. Then, I took my seat opposite Jason and nodded at the guys.

“Alright boys, let's eat.”

What followed was a rather long period of silence, as we all piled food onto our plates and began gorging ourselves on the feast that lay before us. Once we overcame the initial hunger, we were able to slow down and make time for some conversation.

“So what's everybody doing today?” Gabe asked in between bites of his third Belgian waffle.

Jason looked up from his smoked salmon and said, “I'm spending the day with Tara.” He had a smile from ear to ear. It made me happy just seeing it.

“Really?  That's so nice.”

Jason hadn’t had the best of luck with women, in spite of the fact that he was an outstanding catch, and I knew that he would be in good hands with Tara.

“Tara is the teacher, right?” Noah hadn’t even looked, but at least he was making an effort to participate.

“Uh-huh,” Jason nodded, still smiling.

“They high-jacked
Lucky's car Thursday night.” I went to kick Gabe under the table, but missed and hit the leg of his chair instead, causing him to look at me as though my actions had been completely unwarranted.

Naturally, Noah’s curiosity had been peaked. “Who did?”

“Jason and Tara,” Gabe continued right on with his story. Thankfully, he didn’t get very far. As I looked up from my plate to shoot a dirty look at Gabe, my gaze got caught on something rather unexpected in the living room. I shifted my eyes over to Noah who was sitting beside me.

“Um, Noah...did you forget something?” I pointed my finger past him and towards the doorway into the adjoining room. When Noah turned his head to see what I was pointing at, he seemed even more surprised than I had been by the sight of a rather scantily clad woman who looked quite lost as she stood there holding on to the back of the couch as if it could offer her some sort of support in her time of need.

“Oh, shit.” Noah dropped his fork in his plate and quickly pushed his chair back from the table to get up. He hurried over to the girl who was still glued to the couch, silently staring into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Babe.  I'm sorry, did we wake you?” He almost sounded concerned. It was the last of their conversation we were able to hear as they lowered their voices and talked amongst themselves while we were only a few feet away. While a stranger at brunch was certainly unexpected, the sight of a nearly naked girl wandering around the house in search of Noah, was not. Therefore, the three of us remaining at the table returned to our meal without much hesitation.

“You ever notice how he calls every girl 'Babe'?” Jason pointed out while popping a large strawberry into his mouth.

I snorted, “It's ‘cause he can't be bothered to remember any of their names.”

“So the girls think it's a term of endearment...” Gabe chimed in.

“But, really there's nothing endearing about it, in fact, it's really quite offensive!  I don't know where he finds these girls...” I was shaking my head without even noticing. Being disgusted by Noah’s interactions with women had become almost second nature to me.

Just then, Noah approached the table again. He was about to say something when Jason cut him off.

“Don't even think about it, man!  I couldn't invite Tara, you definitely can't invite Bambi over there.” Having already struck out once, Noah turned to look at me.

“Sorry, rules are rules.” I put my hands up as though there was simply nothing I could do. Going for broke, Noah pleadingly turned to Gabe, but he wanted no part of it.

“I know you are not going to ask me to let a stranger in on Saturday brunch! This is family time!” He looked almost hurt by the fact that Noah would even make such an outrageous request.

Without saying a word, Noah spun back around and left the kitchen. The three of us watched from the doorway as he escorted his date back up the stairs. Assuming that he would be spending the morning with her, we resumed our meal once more.

Moments later, a still half-naked, but now extremely pissed looking “Bambi”, came stomping back down the stairs carrying the rest of her clothes in her arms. She huffed and puffed the whole way to the door, before making a dramatic exit by slamming it loudly behind her.

Shortly after she left, Noah came strolling back into the kitchen and returned to his seat at the table without saying so much as a single word. All we could do was stare at him in complete and utter disbelief.

“What?  You guys said she couldn't stay.” He was already shoving another fork full of eggs into his mouth.

“Yeah, but didn't it occur to you to maybe NOT stay with her?!  You could have taken her to breakfast or something.” I couldn’t believe him! This was ridiculous behavior even for him. But Noah just looked at me with a feigned look of shock across his face.

“And miss Saturday brunch?  No way!  Besides you heard Gabe, this is family time.  And am I not a member of this family?!”

Gabe pounded his fist on the table in agreement, “Absolutely!”

Before I had a chance to reprimand Noah any further, I was interrupted by the quiet humming coming from a cell phone. Immediately everyone began to look around for the source of the vibration. It didn’t take Jason long to find it, as he reached behind my glass of O.J. and held up my phone for everyone to see.

“Two things.  One, if you are going to hide a phone at the table turn it on silent not vibrate and two, don't hide it behind a CLEAR glass.” Now, I was the one being scolded.

“I'm so sorry guys, but I have to take this.” I knew I was committing a major sin against Brunch, but I had been hoping this call would come for nearly two days, and now that it had, I wasn’t about to let it go to voice mail.

“Hey it's Family Time!” Gabe was clearly not happy about my decision to interrupt what had already been a fairly tumultuous meal.

“What happened to the rules??” Naturally, Noah had to give me a hard time, too.

“Oh come on, rules were made to be broken!” Before any of them had a chance to say anything else, I ran for the patio door and rushed outside to take my call.

Gabe was still shaking his head.

“You think that's the guy from Thursday night?” He was looking over at Jason.

“Probably.”

“She must really like him.” Gabe was beginning to soften again.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jason agreed. Then he noticed Noah’s silence.

“Hey Noah, what's with you?  You're being too quiet.”

Noah looked up from his plate with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. When he spoke, he lowered his voice to be sure the conversation would only be audible right there at the table where they sat.

“I saw her naked.”

“Who?  Living room girl?  Yeah, we all saw her naked.” Jason wasn’t seeing the significance of his statement.

“No, not her. Well, yeah, but no that's not who I mean.  I saw Lucky naked.” He had raised his voice a little towards the end and was now looking over towards the patio to make sure I was still way out of earshot.

J
ason looked at him curiously.

“When?”

“This morning.  She must have thought I was still sleeping or something 'cause she was in her room changing and she left the door cracked.” He was grinning so broadly, he looked as though he might break into an uncontrollable giggle at any moment.

“Did you see her tattoo?” Gabe asked probingly.

Noah looked across the table at him. “No.”

Gabe smirked and shook his head. “Then, you didn't see her naked.”

“What's the tattoo?  Where is it?  Wait, you've seen her naked?” Noah hadn’t expected this sudden turn in the conversation.

“Uh-huh.  I see her naked all the time.  We share a bathroom.” Gabe casually poked a piece of sausage with his fork and shoved it into his mouth.

“And what?  That means you shower together?!” Noah was getting agitated.

Gabe just waved his hand at him and calmly said, “Don't be jealous, it's not an attractive look on you.”

Then Noah turned his focus on Jason, “What about you?  Have you seen her naked, too?”

“Are you going to hit me if I say yes?” Jason pretended to duck behind the maple syrup.

“Are you kidding me?” Exasperated, Noah reached for his glass and began chugging his juice like it was vodka.

“Calm down.  We hit some nude beaches together when we went to Europe.  All of Spain saw her naked.” If Jason had meant for this information to ease Noah’s sudden onset of frustration, it didn’t work.

“Well, that's just great.  So, what you're saying is that you, Gabe, and Spain have seen her naked.  And I'm the only one who hasn't. You know the part that really kills me is the tattoo. Just tell me where it is.  It's crazy hot right?”

Right then, the back door opened and I came back inside. I happily waltzed back to my chair and sat back down. Looking around the table as though nothing had happened I asked, “So, what did I miss?”

“Never mind that, who was on the phone?  Was it lover boy from Thursday night?” Jason wasn’t going to let me off that easily.

“Maybe.” I knew there was no point in hiding it any longer.

“Ok, but if you guys go out again, this time try to work in a ride home.  You shouldn't be the kind of girl that hangs around Main Street after midnight.” Gabe had been shaking his fork back and forth at me throughout his entire speech.

“Definitely securing a ride home ahead of time.  Of course, I kind of thought I had that covered last time, too.  Is something wrong, Noah?  Why are you staring at me?” I looked at him with his eyes locked on me as though I was hiding a golden egg in my pants.

“Oh, he's just trying to picture you naked,” Jason replied very matter-of-factly.

“
Ew, stop it you, perve!” I instantly slid my chair further away from his, while he began to try and explain away his staring and Jason’s comment.

“I was not picturing you naked.” He leaned back in his chair. Realizing that he couldn’t undo the damage that had been done, he shifted gears. “Anyway, I
gotta go, I could really use a shower. Unless of course, you'd like to join me?”

I scowled at him with disgust.

“Yeah, I'm going to go with, no.”

Noah nodded his head as he stood up.

“You're right, probably wouldn't be a good idea.” Then he took his plate and dropped it in the sink, before making his way past us and out of the kitchen.

As brunch was coming to an end, Jason, Gabe and I began the dreaded clean-up process Noah had so conveniently avoided. After clearing all the plates and putting away the leftovers, I stood before the mounting trash can and decided there was simply no way we would be able to fit anything else in it. So, I bravely tackled the trash and dragged the extremely heavy bag outside to the garage.

After I left the kitchen, Jason turned to Gabe who was busy loading the dishwasher.

“So...Lucky doesn't have a tattoo.”

Gabe grinned. “Yeah, I know.”

Jason laughed and walked back over to the stove to grab the last of the pans. “You're not right dude.  He is going to do nothing, but try to see that tattoo now.”

“Yeah, I know.” Gabe couldn’t help feeling satisfied with himself. Sure, he felt a little bad about involving me, but getting one over on Noah would be worth it.

When I came back in to the kitchen, both guys managed to wipe the smiles off their faces before I could see and I was never the wiser.

I Thought You Wanted Pancakes…

It was
closing time at the bar that Noah worked at, the same bar I, myself, had spent so many years in, night after night, mixing drinks and trying to study by the dim light of the beer cooler, every chance I got. It was early Sunday morning as I walked in to find the cocktail waitresses busy clearing glasses and wiping down tables, while the bouncers were sluggishly moving past them dragging the trash cans and mopping the floors. In the midst of everyone, were the two bar backs, buzzing back and forth between the bars with filled glass racks and empty ice buckets, hastily trying to get everything restocked and cleaned up, so things would be ready to go the next night.