Author's note
Don't own any characters of the show, this is made just for fun, enjoy and please review !
….
"You know you're gonna love him."
Sara didn't answer, she was lying basically on top of him, her head posed on his chest while he played with her hair, entwining his fingers through her soft auburn strands. She liked it here, his apartment, it was cheaper than hers for sure, and it was pretty messy, but she liked how he always tried to clean it up a little before she came here, she felt like this was place she could get used to.
"You two can only get along, I mean," her boyfriend pursued, "you have so much in common you're basically two duplicates of the same person."
"Yeah," Sara said, "I mean, I'm sure he's great, Linc, and I... uh... I'm looking forward to meeting him."
Even she didn't by the lie coming out of her mouth. It wasn't that she didn't like Lincoln, quite the opposite actually, she was having a really nice time with him, he was a good guy, he wasn't bossy or trying to turn him into something he liked more thinking he was allowed to just because they were dating, she felt free with him, and that was what she liked about this relationship, that no rules had been settled, he wasn't going to be pissed at her because she hadn't called or something, and she felt that maybe, that was because they hadn't exactly put a word on their relationship yet, they hadn't done anything to make it official. And that was always at that time that her past relationship went to hell, when it got official, serious...
Lincoln had talked dozens of times about his brother, she could understand that, given the fact that his mother had passed away long ago, his father abandoned both of them when they were kids, Lincoln would consider his brother like his only family, so this, introducing her to someone he loves this much, not only was it intimidating, it was what you could call "making it official". Plus, if he introduced her to his family, maybe he was expecting her to do the same, only she didn't really picture him getting along with her father.
"So is tomorrow good for you ?" Lincoln pulled her out of her thoughts, and she shook her head trying to wake herself up and make up some excuse.
"Right" she said, "hum... tomorrow's not the best time, I was going to do some cleaning, so... another time maybe ?"
She could see Lincoln's suspicious eyes on her, so she did what she did best in these situations. She fled.
"That reminds me," She discretely sneaked out of his embrace and rolled off him before picking up her clothes on the floor, "I really should get going, my dad wants to talk to me about some stuff, and he left like a billion messages, anyway..." She put her clothes on, stumbled while putting on her jeans and hit her head against the wall clumsily.
"You okay ?" Lincoln felt like he had to ask so he wouldn't appear like a jackass but he really was just holding back a laugh.
"I'm fine" Sara said finishing dressing up, "well," she pursued, "last night was great, really, hum... I call you ? You call me ? Whatever you know, no pressure, really, no pressure."
Come on, she thought, get the message, get the message !
"Sure," he said, "I'll call you, maybe we can fix a date, and I'll introduce you to..."
"Your brother," she finished for him a little annoyed, "I know."
She knew, only she seemed incapable to remember the name of the said brother, something like Marco ? She figured if he was this important to Lincoln, it would probably look bad to say the wrong name, so she didn't say anything, she only hoped he would repeat one more time the name before she had to meet the guy.
"Great" He said shrugging.
"Totally" She said a little bit too enthusiastic to be credible.
"Oh and Sare ?" Lincoln said making her turn around as she had prepared to leave.
"Uh, yeah" ? The young woman said.
"Maybe one of these days," Lincoln said carelessly and clearly not noticing what he was doing to her, "I ought to meet your family".
Sara gulped, smiled -and oh god this was the worst fake smile there is to make- and nodded, "Sure" she let out before she was out the door.
She let out a sigh as she walked out from the building, heading straight to her place.
She walked all the way to her apartment, throwing the keys on the table once she got there before crashing her bed. She knew she couldn't delay the "meet my brother" thing much longer, and especially she knew she shouldn't freak out so much about it, she liked Lincoln, she really did. Okay, so maybe her past relationships had ended poorly, but it only takes one to get it right, doesn't it ? And maybe, commitment with Lincoln wasn't that scary. Well okay, maybe a little, but that had nothing to do with him, it was only coming from her, and if she was ever going to overcome all these fears for someone, Lincoln appeared like the perfect someone. She smiled weakly. She really needed to stop making excuses, that was for sure, there was no hiding out forever anyway, she would have to meet -what's his name ?- eventually, she knew that.
She sighed heavily before getting up and picking up her phone, dialing Lincoln's number. She only got the voicemail.
"Hey, Linc," She said, "Uh, it's me, I just wanted to tell you, uh... I'm good for tomorrow, I mean, I'm available, so, uh... just call me back ? I love you." She hung up with another sigh. The sooner she'd do it, the sooner this thing would be over.
She put her phone down and let herself fall on the bed, she could just sleep for a week.
...
She didn't, she was woken at three in the morning by some really loud music coming from next door.
"What the hell..." She muttered to herself bringing a pillow over her head. She could hear the hard rock music playing as if it was actually playing in her apartment. She sighed before throwing the pillow away and getting up. She put a silk white bathrobe on, before going out to knock on her neighbor's door. The door opened only a few seconds later.
He was wearing jeans only, no shirt, his more or less short hair were wet and sticked to the side of his forehead, she could still see the glistening moisture on his chest, indicating that he was probably getting out of the shower, his body was muscled, not reaching a ridiculous proportion but enough for her to know for sure that he was working out frequently. She suddenly caught herself staring as she realized that this was the first time she actually saw him. He had moved in last week, and even though she had heard him quite a lot, this was the first time they actually met. She didn't picture him that way, she imagined more like a drunk young adult or something.
"You're looking for something ?" He said speaking loud enough to cover the sound of the music.
"Hum..." She said speaking loud too, "I was just wondering if maybe you could put the music down a bit ?"
He grinned with a laugh that showed off his white teeth, "I'm sorry," he said as he eyed every inch of her with apparently no shame, his stare lingered on her long legs that the bathrobe didn't completely cover, "I can't do that" he said once he was done checking her out.
"Uh..." She said irritated, "Why not ?"
"Oh I would," he said very serious, "It's just I have a girl in here, and don't get me wrong, I don't usually get loud in bed, if you know what I mean, but the thing is, the girls I'm with can get pretty high in acute with their voices, especially when I'm doing that thing where..."
"Okay say no more," She begged one inch away from plugging her ears.
He grinned once more, obviously not embarrassed for one second.
"We'll try to keep it down" he said before shutting the door on her shocked/disgusted face. He couldn't help but laugh at his reaction once he got in his apartment, there was no girl in there of course. He picked a beer from his fridge, still smiling from the shocked look on his neighbor's face. He just loved girls like her, the good girls, the cute frigid ones who turn around acting disgusted when they look at something they want but know they shouldn't, so easily shocked...
He shook his head, his smile still in place. This was going to be fun.
Sara stayed immobile for a second after the door had been slammed in her face, before she shook her head and held back a scream from frustration. After a few vain attempts to find sleep she left the building and dialed her boyfriend's number.
"Hello ?" He said and she was happy he picked up.
"Hi, baby, it's me," She said, "Tell me I'm not waking you up ?"
"No," He reassured her, "I was up anyway, what's up ?"
"Nothing," She said, "It's just there's a jackass playing his music real hard next door, and I tried to confront him but he was... persuasive, anyway is it possible that I come sleep at your place ? I mean I get if you're busy or..."
"Don't be ridiculous," he said with that light tone she loved so much, "Just get your ass back at my place."
"Thanks, Linc" She said honestly thankful.
His apartment was only a fifteen minutes walk from hers, but tiredness won over her and she took a cab. When she got there she took the stairs, reaching the third floor before knocking on his door. He opened almost instantly.
"Hey babe" He said letting her in.
"Hi" She said, "Sorry again, it's just..."
"Hey don't apologize," He said, "You're welcome here anytime, I want you to feel at home here."
She smiled genuinely.
"That's really nice of you, Linc," She said.
He shrugged. "Don't worry about it."
Her smile widened. "So, you wanna go to bed ?" She suggested.
"Oh" He said as if it wasn't a big deal, "Not that I don't like where you're going with this, but uh... well, my brother's here."
Sara chocked. "Wh... what ?" She let out in a scared squeak, "No, he... I thought I was meeting him tomorrow..."
"You were" Lincoln said really not making a big deal out of it, "But you're here now, and so his he, you're not gonna hide in the bedroom, are you ?"
"Of course not" She said hiding the fact that she was actually liking that option better, "Well... what's your brother even doing here ? I mean it's the middle of the night..."
"Yeah, well we do that sometimes, you know ?" He said shrugging, "Just hanging out, drinking some beers, we were just watching some football game on TV, wanna join us ?"
"W... sure" She said her nervousness obvious.
This time Lincoln finally noticed how nervous she was about this and he laughed warmly.
"He's not gonna eat you, Sare" He said, "He's a nice guy I swear, come on." He dragged her to the living room and that's the first time she ever saw him. Sitting on her boyfriend's couch, a beer in his hand, he turned to her when he heard them arrived and the blue of his eyes actually stunned her. He was wearing a white tee-shirt, showing his tanned arms designed with thin supple muscles and a pair of blue jeans. He got up to salute her and extended his hand as he did so.
"Hi" She said shaking the hand he was offering her, while telling herself that it wasn't as scary as she thought, but above that, that she was sounding like an idiot, "Uh..." she tried to clear her thoughts, she still remembered her name didn't she ? "I'm Sara, uh... I've heard so much about you..."
"Same for me" The young man said.
Come on now was the time to have an illumination about his name, Marco ? Marshall ? Mika ?
"Still we haven't been really introduced since now" The young man said, "I'm Michael, nice to meet you Sara."
She'd have to remember that one.
"We were just watching some TV," Lincoln said, "You wanna join us, babe ? I could get you a beer."
"Thanks" She said, "But I kind of got here to get some sleep"
"Right" Lincoln said, "New neighbor's giving you a hard time ? You know I can just go out there and yell at him if you want, that way you can be sure he won't keep you up at night."
"That's nice, Linc" She said, "But you know I think I'm gonna take care of this one on my own."
"Someone's bothering you ?" Michael asked.
"Just some new guy in the building playing some loud music at night" She said, "It's okay, I got this, I... I'll handle things."
Linc nodded, "Well, anyway" he said, "You know you're always welcome here"
"Thanks, sweetie" She said.
"So or we still on for tomorrow ?" Her boyfriend asked, "The dinner ? Just the three of us ?"
Michael shrugged after looking at Sara, "I'm still available" He said.
"Yeah" The young woman said, "So am I."
"Perfect, then we're on"
"Well" Sara said, "You guys have fun watching the game, I'm gonna go to sleep"
She pressed a short smack on Lincoln's lips before pulling away.
"Good night, Linc" She said before turning to his brother, "And uh..." she added, "Goodbye..."
She pressed her lips tight together.
"Michael" He finished for her.
"Michael, right" She said nodding, before hiding her shame and getting inside the bedroom. She'd have to right that name down, in case she forgot it again. But she never did again.
