Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (50 page)

As much as she wanted to sit in
her car and finish out the song, she also knew that wasn't the best idea.
 Sometimes the whole proactive self-defense thing could take all the fun
away from simple things.  Was it likely that someone would come and car
jack her while she was sitting and dancing in front of an apartment building?
 No.  But she didn't want to be a statistic either.  

Lexie had better be the first
person enrolled in her self-defense class, Angel thought.  Yesterday she'd
talked on the phone with Patrick about it, they were going to start advertising
soon.  Monday and Wednesday nights.  Which was good because it gave
her something to do while Adam was at Liam's dojo on Wednesdays.  

Silly, but she'd missed him this
week even though she'd ended up seeing him yesterday.  It was
probably a good thing they'd had an evening completely apart.  Things were
moving fast.  And by things, she meant her emotions.  Yesterday it
had seemed like he'd pulled away a bit.  There was nothing she could put
her finger on.  He'd probably just been distracted by something at work.
 But she just didn't like feeling like she was falling in love with him -
okay, was probably basically halfway there if not more - without knowing how he
felt.

Not that she had any idea how to
bring up that conversation.

Sighing, she grabbed the folding
chair she'd brought from her backseat, along with the bottles of wine - one
white, one red - and headed towards the front of the building.

******

Lexie hadn't been kidding when
she said she didn't have any furniture.  Since Jessica and Hilary had just
gotten there right before Angel, and Olivia ended up practically following her
into the building, they all got the grand tour together.  Which consisted
of being shown the bathroom and the tiny kitchen, which kept the small space
from being considered an efficiency.

There was a mattress in the
corner for her to sleep on, a large television set up on what looked like a
pretty decrepit coffee table, and some cushions and blankets scattered in front
of it.  The tiny kitchen was fully stocked though, with the important
things.

"Found it!"  Lexie
tossed the wine key to Olivia.

Angel just shook her head.
 "This is why twist off tops are the best."

"Corks are classier."

"But ultimately useless now
that most wines are made to be drunk within a couple of years rather than being
stored for decades."

"I should have known!
 He's corrupted you already," Olivia accused, waving the wine key at
her threateningly.  Angel cracked up, because she couldn't deny that her
opinion definitely came from Adam - heck, she hadn't known why some bottles
came with twist offs and some came corked until him.  

"Come on you guys, bring out
the glasses!"  Jessica called from the other room.  

With the wine key in one hand,
wine glass in the other, Olivia sauntered out of the tiny kitchen, Angel and
Lexie following her.  

"So you don't have a couch,
but you have wine glasses," Hilary said, giggling as she sat down on the
chair she'd brought, accepting the glass that Angel had brought her.
 "Thank you."  The soft pink sweater she was wearing set
off her blonde good looks; she might be one of the most sincerely nice people
that Angel had ever met.  

"Priorities," Lexie
responded cheerfully as she plopped herself down on the floor after handing
Jessica a glass.  Angel sat down next to her, feeling a little awkward
about sitting in her chair when Lexie was on the floor; Jessica sat down too.
 Looking down at them, Olivia snorted and sat in her chair. 

Even though she was relaxed,
wearing blue jeans and a blue long sleeved t-shirt, Olivia still couldn't be
mistaken for anything but a take charge woman.  Then again, Angel knew she
appeared that way sometimes too.  She just didn't like taking charge in
the bedroom or in a relationship.  Pretty much anywhere else she was okay
with it.

The redhead eyed the line of wine
bottles that they'd all brought.  Since everyone had apparently decided to
bring at least two bottles, it was quite a little array they'd gathered.

"There is more wine here
than we could possibly drink in one night."

"Challenge accepted!"
 Jessica and Hilary's voices echoed through the apartment and they all
cracked up.

"Are we going to make it out
tonight if we do?"  Angel asked, laughing.  They'd all brought
clothes to change into in case they decided to go out, but she didn't think she
would make it if they were seriously going to drink all that wine.

"I guess we'll just have to
wait and see," Lexie said cheerfully.  "I don't know about you
guys, but I definitely intend to get hammered tonight."

"At least if we go out, it
can't possibly be as dramatic as last time," Jessica said.  She
looked at Angel and shook her head.  "
Last
 time we had a
girls’ night out, my asshole ex-boyfriend ended up at the same club as us and
tried to get in my face.  And then Lexie got in
his
 face."

"And then the guys showed up
and Olivia finally came back from paying the bar tab," Hilary added
cheerfully.  "It was a hot mess."

That led to a much more in depth
recitation of how Jessica had ended up with Chris and Justin and Hilary with
Liam than Angel had gotten to hear before when the guys were around.
 Which was fascinating.  The Venus School sounded amazing, although
Angel didn't really feel the need to go there... although if things didn't work
out between her and Adam... 

What impressed her the most was
how at ease everyone was with Jessica's decision to be with two men.
 Hilary admitted that she hadn't been too sure about it at the beginning,
but she'd supported her friend and now she could see how well the relationship
worked.  Not that they had everything worked out; Angel could see that
Chris' estrangement from her family pained Jessica, even though she didn't say
it outright.  

Hilary and Liam's story was a
little bit more conventional.  And then it was Angel's turn to divulge the
full story of how she and Adam met and got together; which included some
revelations from Olivia.  

"You should have seen him
when you answered your phone with 'Pretty boy!'" Olivia cackled.
 "He actually pouted."

"I would give anything to
see Adam pouting," Lexie said, giggling madly.  Tipping the rest of
her wine into her mouth, she looked mournfully at her empty glass.
 "All this talking is thirsty work.  Should I open another bottle
of wine?"

"Am I drunk yet?"
 Angel asked, thrusting out her own empty glass. 

All of them dissolved into
laughter again. 

"Should we order some
food?"  Jessica asked.  "I could go for some pizza or
Chinese or something to help soak up all this wine."

"That depends, are we staying
here, or going out?"

They all looked at the line of
wine bottles, of which they'd only worked through about a third so far.  

"Staying in!"

******

Pizza arrived, they put on
Princess
Diaries 2
, and no one paid attention to the movie because they were all too
busy talking.  Okay, they paid some attention to the movie whenever there
was something worth watching on it.  Like anytime Chris Pine was on
screen.  Even if he was ridiculously young in the movie, they all knew
what he looked like now so it didn't matter that he was practically a baby back
when the movie had been made.  

But mostly they talked.  And
Angel reveled in the girl gossip.  Especially since she was getting all
sorts of insights into the group of men that Adam was friends with, and some
insights into Adam himself.  She was amused to find out that Jessica and
Hilary had both been intimidated by him, although she could understand why.
 Still, Justin was just as intimidating and it's not like Chris and Liam
were exactly pushovers.  Lexie and Olivia, who had known him for longer,
mostly seemed amused by Angel's effect on him.

"In a good way," Lexie
reassured her.  "It's just nice to see him loosen up a little.
 Hell, he needed it."

"Poor Rick though,"
Olivia said with a laugh.  "He got all of the guys to come down to
Virginia with him and Adam was the one who walked away with the girl!"

"Yeah, we need to find Rick
someone good once he moves up here," Jessica said.  She looked at
Angel, hazel eyes sparkling with interest.  "What about your friend
Leigh?"

"Back with her ex,"
Angel said a little glumly.  "I wouldn't recommend her anyway, not
until she and Michael finally finish their little carousel ride."

"That's a good way of
putting it," Lexie said.  "Reminds me of Jared and
Marissa."

"Yeah, I had the same
thought when Adam told me about them.  I don't really get their
relationship.  Or Leigh and Michael's."

"I try not to be too
judgmental, since a lot of people don't get
my
 relationship,"
Jessica said thoughtfully.  Leaning back against a pile of cushions, her
curls tumbled about her face, she looked extremely relaxed but a little sad.
 "Sometimes I don't get my relationship."

"What do you mean by that?
 I thought everything was going well."  Lexie shifted over,
putting her hand on Jessica's thigh and looking concerned.  Next to them,
Hilary sighed and stretched. 

"It is... it's just..." Jessica
threw up her hands in slightly drunken frustration.  "They won't talk
about the future.  I get the feeling that they don't want to even think
about it.  Sometimes one of them will say something about marriage or
kids, but the second I try to actually turn it into a conversation they change
the topic or... well... you know."  The fact that she could still
blush when talking about sex was pretty darn cute Angel thought.
 "They know it bothers me, but they still won't talk to me about
it."

"Maybe they don't realize how much it
bothers you."

"How can they not know that it bothers
me that we don't talk about the future?  When we first got together, we
always talked things out.  Now they just keep shutting me down every time
I try. 
When
I first seriously thought about being a threesome instead of a couple, I always
worried about not being enough for them or coming between them.  I didn't
want them to feel like they had to compete over me or like I loved one of them
more than the other.  Now I feel like there's no way I need to worry about
driving a wedge between them, because
I'm
the one getting left
out!"

"Have you ever specifically told them
that it bothers you?  Or do you let them shut you down."

The pretty brunette pursed her lips, looking
both thoughtful and defensive.  She sighed. "I let them distract me."

Lexie shook her head.  "Okay,
lesson number one for the night.  Boys are not psychic."

"You know, you probably shouldn't give
out advice that you don't follow," Olivia said mildly, swirling the red
wine in her glass.  She was looking up in the air, her tone as innocuous
and innocent as possible.  

"Shut it," Lexie said glaring.
 "I'm... I'm just shy."

The tension in the air broken as everyone
cracked up again.  Except for Lexie, although even she was giggling, her
pale skin splotched with pink.  She didn't blush pretty at all, but there
was still something endearing about that.  

"Look," said Olivia finally, still
chuckling every time she looked at Lexie.  "Thought we adore men
individually, as a group, I'm sure we're all aware, they're kind of stupid.
 And Jess, you unfortunately always have to deal with them as a group,
albeit a small one.  Worse, they're a dominant group.  Which means
that if something is bothering you, and you hide it, they're probably going to
operating on the mentality that everything is just fine because
they're
taking care of it.  At least, they think they are"

"That's what I was trying to say,"
Lexie complained. 

"If they're not talking to you about
something," Olivia continued, ignoring Lexie, "then it's probably
because they think they have it covered.  If that bothers you, then you
need to let them know because otherwise they're just going to keep doing
it."

"But how am I supposed to force them to
talk about it when every time I try to, they just start kissing me and then...
you know." 

"You could always tie them to the bed
while they're sleeping and then wake them up to start the conversation,"
Angel suggested.  Everyone stared.  Not at her, but at Olivia who had
just literally fallen off of her chair because she was laughing so hard - which
of course started the rest of them laughing again. 

"Oh god..." Olivia gasped out
between burbles of hysterical laughter.  "I can just see it... tied
up... side by side..."

"Stop... oh god, stop it hurts!"
Jessica had tears streaming down her face.  Angel couldn't even say
anything she was laughing so hard at the picture in her mind - which she
somehow hadn't even considered before she'd suggested the tactic.  There
was no doubt that they would both be
furious.

She wondered what Adam's reaction would be to
something like that.  Sure it'd be hot as hell to have him at her mercy,
but she knew half the reason she'd be turned on by it would be because she'd be
thinking about what he might do in retribution.  Very, very bad things.