Caller ID

The ringing of the phone produced a groan from Stephanie. She was so tired. Yesterday she had had to be up early, and last night's distraction ended up being a very late night by the time the guy showed. All she wanted to do was sleep.

At the second ring she got a nudge from Joe. The third ring another nudge and an "Answer it."

When she finally came in last night, she'd found the TV on, Bob asleep on the chair and Joe asleep on the couch. He'd been working a double and she was happy but surprised to see him. Because of his double shift, she'd had Bob for the day and figured Joe would just go straight home to bed when he was done, but instead he'd come to her apartment and was waiting for her. Which she realized was kind of nice. She had big plans, and they included sleeping in, nice and late. Having Joe there meant not only nice warm body to snuggle up to on a cold March Saturday morning, (as well as all the other pluses involved with Joe in her bed), but also that somebody else could get up and walk Bob when he needed to go out this morning.

Currently all those plans were being dashed. She looked at the clock. 6:19AM. Knowing perfectly well who it was she mumbled as she reached for the phone. "Listen to me you sadistic bastard!" She yelled into it.

At that one of Joe's eyes popped open.

"I told you yesterday morning after freezing my ass off I wasn't going running today. I told your merry band of steroid induced, exercised obsessed freaks I wasn't going running today. I told them that again last night after spending almost 5 hours in the stripper shoes from hell that I wasn't going running today!"

By now Joe had propped his head up on one elbow and was listening to Stephanie as she started to really get on a roll.

"And I told you that last night when you finally dropped me off. I AM NOT GOING RUNNING! Not only am I not going running, I'm going back to sleep and when I do finally get up, I'm eating a doughnut! A box of doughnuts damn it! Now leave me the fuck alone to go back to sleep!" She finished on a whine.

Joe's arm had snaked around her waist and under her shirt at this point. He was grinning at hearing her tell off Manoso. He was about to laugh when he saw the expression on Stephanie's face change from pissed to terror.

"Um, yes, Ma'am…… I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else…. Yes Ma'am, he'll be right over." She paused as she listened to the other end of the phone. "Yes, you're right, we should do that." She brought her hand up and covered her eyes as she made a pained expression. "Yes, we should probably do that too. I'll send him right over now, and we'll see you this afternoon at four. Okay. I'm really sorry. Okay. Goodbye."

The hand that covered her eyes, reached back and pulled a pillow over her face, while she reached out with the other to drop the receiver back on it's cradle.

"I'm almost afraid to ask. Obviously it wasn't Manoso."

"No such luck. It was your mother. She's supposed to be working in the kitchen for the Men's Saturday breakfast at church and her car battery is dead. You need to go over right now and jump start her car for her."

"That was my mom?" Joe asked her, slightly wide eyed, but amused.

"Yes. I'm never going to be able to face here again!"

"Don't worry about it." He told her.

"No really! Oh my god! She knew you were here! In my apartment at 6:20 in the morning! She probably figures we were having sex!

"Well this one time we were actually sleeping. But yeah, I'm pretty sure she usually figures we're having sex. She's not stupid you know. Plus she was married to one of the original Morelli's." Joe pulled the pillow away and grinned at her.

Stephanie yanked the pillow back. "It's not funny!"

"Yes it is." He told her.

"No it's not! And where is your cell phone! She should have been calling that before she ever thought to call my apartment! And you've got to get up! I told her I was sending you right over!" She gave him a small shove. "Oh my god! Do you think she'll tell my mother I answered the phone like that?"

Joe did a small eye roll. "She won't tell your mother." He pulled the pillow back and gave her a small kiss. "And I turned off my cell phone and stuck it into your cookie jar with your gun. I wanted to sleep in."

"Oh."

"Truthfully I'm not sure if I should be proud of you for telling off Manoso or worried that you thought you were telling off Manoso. But I'm not worried about my mom." He gave a slight laugh as he climbed out of the bed and pulled on his pants.

"Well…. " She started as she rolled over on her stomach and pulled the covers over her head. "There's one more thing you should know. Your mother suggested that we should go to mass with her tomorrow."

"Right…. Suggested." Joe groaned as he pulled on his shoes, knowing perfectly well, it wasn't a suggestion and that he'd hear all about it when he got to her house. And if they didn't go tomorrow, he'd really hear about it.

"And…" Stephanie started and then stopped.

"And? There's more?"

"Yes. We're meeting her at 4pm today so we can go to confession." She said as she bit her lip.

Joes gave a disgruntled sigh.

"I'm sorry." She told him from under the blanket.

He got a mischievous grin on his face as he sat back down on the bed. "Don't worry about it. You still going to be here when I get done?" He asked her. She pulled the corner of the blanket off her face and gave him a look that basically said he was crazy if he thought she was moving out of that bed anytime soon. "Right, stupid me. You'll still be here. And maybe when I get done with my mom's car, I'll be nice and pick you up some doughnuts."

"Really?" She asked him sweetly.

"Sure." He leaned in and kissed her.

"I'm sorry about this afternoon."

"Don't worry about it. You can make it up to me when I get back with the doughnuts." He grinned at her as he got up off the bed and started for the door. "If we're going to confession, we might as well make sure we've got something good to confess!"

"Joe!"

He just grinned as he headed out to the living room and whistled for Bob to come with him.

Stephanie settled back in under the covers having a feeling she was really going to need some more sleep. One of the last things she thought before drifting back off to sleep was that caller ID doesn't do her any good if she doesn't bother to look at who's calling.

The End