Chapter 2: Picnics and BBQs

Summary: Annie and Jeff are social.

xxxxxx

Jeff bounded up the steps to Annie's apartment. He was lugging a grocery bag, per Annie's request. As he paused before knocking on her door, he wondered again what the hell they were doing. Friends do this kind of thing. So what if I was originally planning on spending my summer away from everyone? I could learn to be more social. Plus Annie is very, ahem, persuasive. He took a breath and then knocked.

Annie opened the door, widening her eyes. "Hey there." She overtly took in the sight of him from head to toe, noting his casual attire of cargo pants and t-shirt. She mock-pouted. "Too bad there's no suit this time."

Jeff pulled his sunglasses down and held his gaze steady. "I didn't really think it was appropriate attire for a picnic. Plus, you've had more than enough of my suit already."

She scoffed. "Jeff! You know I'll never have enough of you in a suit!" She motioned him into the apartment.

Jeff held back a grin. He stepped inside and took a look at Annie as she walked toward the kitchen, noting her skimpy jean shorts and flip-flops. Well this was a different look. He eyed her backside and milky white legs. It hit him in the moment that if he had hidden away for the summer as he originally planned he might never have known casual summer Annie Edison.

From the looks of it, that would have been a terrible shame.

He plopped the bag down on the table as he recalled the last time he was here, a mere three days ago. That had been an interesting visit. Annie had requested that he come over after work so that she could see him all lawyerly, and well, there may have been a little bit of kissing. Just a little. And some mild, very mild groping. But they were careful not to take things too far, as they hadn't yet negotiated. Much to Jeff's frustrations, Annie pressed pause again while explaining they needed to have that conversation when they weren't all 'worked up.'

Problem was Jeff couldn't figure out how that would ever happen. Ever since the Tranny Dance they couldn't stop stealing kisses and ogling each other. If he were watching any other duo he would have been nauseous.

But he couldn't stop thinking about her lace panties.

Annie started opening the bag. "Thanks so much for picking up this stuff. I'll just make us some sandwiches and put a basket together." She began unwrapping a loaf of bread.

"You know I don't do bread. I picked up some stuff I can eat too."

Annie frowned. "You can't just take a sabbatical from your no carb routine? Come on, Jeff, it's a picnic!"

"I've taken enough time away from my no carb rule as it is. And suspiciously those times tend to be when I'm with you."

She turned her nose up slightly in the air as she held the loaf to her chest. "Well I can't help it if I'm usually persuasive."

He smirked. "I'm thinking at this moment we really need to schedule that talk we've been planning on having."

Annie flushed as she clutched the loaf more tightly. She looked down. "Remember, that's why I suggested we picnic. So that we can be out in, um, public. That way we can have a level-headed discussion."

"But won't the baby hobbit be present?" He glanced around the room. "Speaking of, where is she?"

"She's napping. She'll be up soon. But, as I said before, we can talk in front of her as long as we're careful what we say…"

Jeff stepped closer, grabbed the loaf, and tossed it on the table. Annie squeaked.

He wrapped his arms around her. "That feels weird. Maybe we should discuss things right now since she's sleeping." He began peppering her neck with kisses.

"Um hm…." Annie tilted her head and pressed her mouth to his. They began to kiss slowly.

After a few moments, Annie pulled back, pressing her hand to his chest. "I told you we can't have this discussion when we're kissing. We need to have clear heads."

He sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Then I guess we can't have that discussion right now."

"Right."

"So might as well do this then." He quickly brought his head back down and pulled her to him. They began kissing more earnestly.

Annie sighed into his mouth. He's also very persuasive. Stupid handsome hobo.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff discovered having a picnic with Annie Edison was a little bit of a production. Not that he should have been surprised. She tended to put forth the maximum effort in everything she did.

He glanced down at the array of sandwiches, all perfectly cut diagonally. Next to said carb monsters was a small container holding olives (with toothpicks placed in the centers), a bowl full of chips, and a tray of freshly baked oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. God I'm going to die.

Annie dusted off the picnic blanket as she carefully laid out the buffet. She then coyly reached into the basket and brought out a plate of rolled ham with slices of cheese on the side. "And this is for you, mister." She gently placed it in front of him.

He was actually touched, dammit. Despite the calorie-loaded cheese, he had to admit she was thoughtful. "Annie, thanks."

She smiled. "No problem. You can eat olives too, right?"

"Of course."

"Good."

He surveyed their surroundings for a moment as he surreptitiously took a cookie and shoved it in his mouth. Annie stifled a laugh.

He remarked as he chewed, "So you said you come here every weekend?"

"Yes, ever since the weather's gotten nice, I like to take Sophie to see the ducks. If it's just the two of use I put her in the stroller and we take a walk."

Jeff remarked sarcastically, "That sounds like fun."

She huffed. "Hey, it is. My bubbe used to take me here when I was little. I feel it's something I should do with Sophie. You know, create nice memories for her."

He glanced at her and winced. "Sorry, right, that's a really good idea, Annie. I'm sure she'll remember it."

"Thanks. I want to give her as normal of a childhood as I can, you know, given the circumstances. Gotta compensate for the sex shop." She laughed nervously and began fiddling with the blanket.

He grimaced. "Annie, you're a great mom. I'm actually astounded you do this thing so well. She's really lucky to have you."

Annie looked back up at him and blushed. "Aww… thank you. You're sweet."

He frowned as he pulled at some blades of grass. "I am not."

"Okay. You're not."

"Thank you."

"And you're definitely not sweet for coming along here with us today."

He reached over and slid an olive off its toothpick before popping it in his mouth. "You promised me a talk, Annie. How could I refuse?"

She sat up straighter. "And we'll get to that. But we are also going to have fun, mister."

"Right."

"Shirley and I have fun."

He looked at her in confusion. "Wait… Shirley?"

Annie shrugged as she handed Sophie her bear. "She usually comes here with us, you know, when she can. She brings the boys. We just came here last weekend actually. She's always in the mood to picnic."

"I guess I didn't realize you and Shirley were that close."

"Of course we are. I told you I forgave her for all that nonsense, and she has kids too, so she understands some stuff the rest of you guys don't. And once we got through all of her judgmental stuff, we've actually had a pretty nice time. She's even toned down her opinions of me and Vaughn."

Jeff tensed. "Speaking of…"

"What is it?"

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he played with a blade of grass. "Did you ever picnic here with him?"

"Of course. I told you I come here every weekend."

He narrowed his eyes. "Like in this very spot?"

She eyed him curiously. "No. I wouldn't do that to you. I'm considerate."

He let out a breath. "Thank you."

Annie rotated her head as she took in the scenery. She sighed as a grin crept across her face. "And it's such a perfect day. It's so beautiful."

Jeff found himself staring at her. For a moment he couldn't breathe.

Jeff quickly glanced down at Sophie sitting in front of him, sucking on her bear. He paused as he took in the situation. "At risk of offending your perfect day sensibilities, can I ask why she's dressed like this?"

Annie rolled her eyes. "Jeff! She's adorable. Why don't you ever think my baby is adorable?"

"Again, I've never said such a thing. I'm not talking about her specifically, more what she's wearing. These sunglasses are too big for her face. And why does she need sunglasses and a sunhat, which again is way too big for her."

"She needs to be protected from the sun. She's delicate."

He scrunched up his face. "Oh please. Here, let me just take off this ridiculous hat." He carefully removed it and then stared at the massive amount of golden brown hair springing up in all directions. His eyes widened and he whipped off his sunglasses to fully appreciate the scene before them. "Jesus Christ!"

"Jeff! We've been over this!"

He looked up at her. "Sorry. What's going on with her hair now? I thought it was better lately." He eyed Sophie suspiciously as the baby smiled excitedly at him. Poor kid has no idea.

"I don't know. It's been growing like crazy all of a sudden. Mostly in the back but now it's also sticking up more on top."

"But I just saw her a few days ago, and it wasn't like this."

She swatted him on the arm. "I'm thinking it might be the humidity. I though the hat might help honestly. I know you get freaked out if you have to see messy hair."

"Oh, please, I do not." He paused as he continued to appraise the situation. Yup, it was dire. He raised his eyes to address Annie, a pained expression on his face. "Um…there has to be something that can be done, right?"

She threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know. I'm thinking of taking her to get her first haircut. Originally I thought it could wait awhile but like I said she's been getting a lot of hair recently and it's kind of unruly. And now with summer weather starting, it's a mess. So maybe if they can snip it down a little or something…"

Jeff was attempting to push the hair back down. It appeared to be just as beastly as ever. "Yes. Do that. I know a good stylist."

"She's a baby. I'll just take her to Cost Cutters."

Jeff gasped. "Cost Cutters! No way in… heck. I'm making a call." He whipped out his phone.

"Jeff!" She reached toward it.

He yanked it away. "It'll be my early birthday present to her!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After settling the Sophie Edison Hair Issue of 2010, Jeff and Annie were able to relax a little. Well, their version of relaxing.

Jeff played on his phone while Annie began to pick up Sophie.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to take her over to the pond. To see the ducks." Annie placed the hat back on Sophie's head.

"Okay." He shrugged as he resumed playing bejeweled.

She narrowed her eyes. "Maybe I'll get you away from that thing sometime today."

"Hm?" He kept his eyes glued to the screen.

"Nothing." She smiled as she leaned in to give him a kiss.

"Oh…um…" He mumbled as he began reciprocating her advances. He dropped the phone on the blanket.

Annie pulled away and hesitated a moment before smiling brightly. "Off to the ducks!' She got up and hauled Sophie over to the pond.

Jeff pouted.

When Annie and Sophie returned from their duck viewing adventure, Jeff motioned for Annie to sit down beside him. He was lying back on the picnic blanket, propping himself up by his lower arms. Sophie busied herself by crawling over and pulling open Jeff's lower leg cargo pockets.

Jeff decided to ignore that for now. At least she seemed occupied and thus they could devote some attention to negotiations. He turned his head toward Annie. "So can we talk now? Just a little bit?"

"Um, sure." She stretched out beside him, facing him and leaning her head on her hand.

He took a breath. "It's okay you know. We don't have to do anything. We've been fairly chaste so far. We can go back to friends-friends. It won't be that difficult."

Annie frowned as she reached over and began lightly touching his upper arm. "Is that what you want?"

He sighed. "No, but I know you said you needed some time. And I understand that. I don't want to be a jerk about it. But I also realize you may have had second thoughts. So I just wanted to check in and let you know it's okay if you do."

She reddened as she bit her lip. "Not at all. I want to take things further if you still do."

He lowered his voice to a growl. "I do."

Her cheeks darkened further as she began to run her hand over his upper chest. "But I'd like us to ease into it is all. You know, just in case this is a stupid idea."

He raised his eyebrows. "Now you think it might be a stupid idea?"

She shook her head. "Not really. But I was talking to Nancy, and she made some good points."

His eyes widened. "Wait… you told Nancy?"

"Of course. I tell her most things. She's my sponsor. I trust her. She's been right about a lot of things so far."

He sighed. "Fine. So Nancy thinks this is a stupid idea?"

"She's ambivalent. She doesn't know you. And she suggested that we do this slowly. That way if it gets too weird, we can backup and maybe go back to normal if we need to."

"I guess that makes sense."

She continued to rub her hand over his chest and glanced up coyly. "So maybe we could ease into it? And then if that feels okay, we figure out how to go about the whole…" She mouthed silently "Sex thing."

He chuckled. "Fine. I guess we can define easing into it. But what do you mean figure out how to go about the whole…" He mouthed silently, "Sex thing?"

She looked down. "I'm just thinking through the logistics…"

"Logistics?"

"I know you don't like my bedroom. I took down the beads, by the way. I put up some tasteful lavender scarves…"

He shook his head violently. "Nope. I can't do it. She's right there. And you even said she's becoming more aware of things." He looked over to Sophie and noticed she was attempting to put her bear in one of his lower leg pockets.

Annie stilled her hand. "But she's sleeping really well lately. If we're quiet…"

He lowered his voice to an almost whisper and grinned impishly, "But see, I plan on making you scream."

"Jeff!" She swatted at his chest and then turned away.

He continued grinning as he turned over on his side and reached over to touch her shoulder. He whispered into the back of her neck. "I can't help it. And I'd hate to have you feel like you needed to hold back. In fact, it might be dangerous to do so."

She whispered back, "You mean like holding in a sneeze? I'll explode my brain or something?"

"Jesus, Annie!"

"If you can't take it, don't dish it out, mister."

"Point taken."

She turned over to face him and cleared her throat as she brought her voice back to normal volume. "Um…. anyway, back to logistics. I guess there's my couch?"

He uttered in a low voice as he stared into her eyes, "Or my bed."

She bit her lip. "Um, you have a nice bed from what I recall touring your apartment."

He began caressing her arm. "It's king size. With a very high thread count."

"Sounds nice."

"It is." He paused and looked at her intently. "So?"

She looked from side to side and smiled broadly. "I guess I'd just need to arrange a sitter. We'll need to coordinate schedules…"

He began gently moving his hand through her hair. "And we should probably define the para-somethings."

"Right. I have some ideas on that."

"Okay. Shoot."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie reflected on her discussion with Jeff surrounding the para-somethings. She thought as awkward as the talk could have been, it actually went fairly smoothly. She discovered Jeff Winger wasn't really that hung up on pushing the sex issue, although he clearly made his interest in taking things further known.

They agreed on a number of key points, mainly that they wouldn't have to be exclusive, no sexual involvement with Britta (Jeff made sure to add for either party although he stated that was up for negotiation before she lightly punched him), they wouldn't tell the group or other students at Greendale, they wouldn't tell Jeff's mother, and most of all they would remain friends. And if one of them started to feel weird about the whole thing they would let the other one know as soon as possible and they'd figure it out.

Because they were friends and friends have to be honest with each other.

And they sort of defined taking it slow. Annie had proposed a rough timeline of escalating physical exploration with a yet to be determined date for the full deal, but approximately around Sophie's first birthday in early July. That gave them roughly 5-6 weeks to ease into it as well as for Annie to line up a babysitter. And Annie promised Jeff she was already in the process of weaning Sophie so he might get to explore other areas later in the summer. After she mentioned that fact, she noticed he pretty much agreed to anything else she suggested.

Jeff Winger wasn't that difficult to figure out. She honestly didn't know why he tried so hard to hide himself from people. Silly doofus.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About two weeks into summer vacation, everyone in the study group received Evites to a barbeque at Pierce's mansion. The reason for the gathering was to celebrate Troy's decision to move in with Pierce.

As Annie predicted, Jeff's initial impulse was to ignore the whole thing.

"Oh come on, it's summer. I'm not going to spend any of my free time with that racist geezer."

"Pierce did a nice thing in inviting Troy to come live with him. Troy was having a hard time living with his dad and his dad's new girlfriend, you know. And plus, I think it'll be fun."

"You can't be serious. We'd be on Pierce's home turf. God knows how offensive or weird that will be."

Annie huffed. "Jeff! It'll be a good way to see everyone. Have you seen anyone in the group besides me and Britta since the Tranny Dance?"

Jeff frowned. "No, actually. But I have been texting with Abed. He keeps saying he needs to interview me."

"And are you going to do it?"

"No. I've been putting him off. He'll get the message eventually."

She raised one eyebrow. "I doubt it. This is Abed we're talking about, remember. If you don't want to do the interview, you need to be direct with him about it."

Jeff rolled his eyes.

"Or you could just be a good friend and do it."

"Whatever."

"And anyway, Sophie and I can just go to the barbeque without you, mister sourpuss. I already told Troy I was coming. He said he wanted me and Sophie to come. It was really sweet." She smiled.

"Wait….How often do you talk to Troy?"

"Stop it, Jeff. You don't need to be jealous. Troy and I are just platonic friends."

"I'm not jealous."

"Sure. And anyway, Troy said he wanted to talk to me about something, so I'm going. He sounded really excited."

Jeff sighed. "You know what, you're right. I should be more social. I'm in."

Annie clapped her hands and beamed. "Oh yay! It'll be so much fun for us all to be together again!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie and Jeff decided to carpool to Pierce's mansion. Annie was a little surprised Jeff brought up the idea, especially since he insisted on driving his Lexus.

By way of explanation, he remarked, "You have a baby, and so do I, and I'm not leaving her unattended all day in Dildopolis' parking lot while Thanos is on vacation."

Annie explained to him that they would have to go through the trouble of installing Sophie's car seat, but he was adamant that it wasn't that big of a deal. Since it would have been easier for Jeff to just drive himself, she began to wonder what was up.

As they arrived she was conscious of the fact he was eyeing her in her light blue sundress. She was glad he appreciated the effort she made in making herself presentable for the occasion. Just as she had made it known earlier how much she appreciated him growing out his facial hair a little bit. And she found he was kinda cute in his cargo pants and sandals. Jeff Winger in casual wear was a sight to behold and she enjoyed getting used to it.

Annie felt her cheeks become hot. She realized if she was going to get through this party successfully without the group catching on, she needed to stop thinking about the kissing. And the touching. And the plan about doing some other stuff. She flushed and lugged Sophie out of the Lexus as Shirley pulled up in her van.

"Oh hello An-nie and Jeff-rey! I didn't know you two were riding together. Oh and sweet little So-phie!" Shirley waved and smiled manically at the baby as she absentmindedly slid open the back door of the van so that Jordan and Elijah could get out.

"Hey Shirley," Jeff remarked absentmindedly as he grabbed some stuff out of the trunk of the Lexus. What the hell did Annie put back here? Was this a casserole? When does she have time to make this stuff?

Shirley cooed at Sophie for a moment and then walked quietly over to stand beside Jeff who had his head inside the trunk as he rummaged around. "I haven't seen you since the dance. I'm surprised you came. Good for you."

Jeff jumped. He stood up while he kept sifting through items in the trunk. "Shirley, I don't want to get into this. Just so you know, Britta and I worked it all out. No hard feelings."

"I know. She told me. She communicates with me, unlike some people."

He reached over and grabbed a bag. He eyed Ruthie sticking out of the top. Yup, definitely not mine. "Hey, sorry. I've just been busy. Contracting work for my old boss."

She lowered her voice and stared at him sternly. "You could have thanked me you know."

"For what?"

"For defending you. And the rest of the group. I put Slater in her place."

Jeff turned to face her and closed his eyes for a moment before slowly opening them. "Shirley, thank you. Really, I had no idea things would get so chaotic after I left. Britta filled me in. I guess I just didn't want to think about it anymore. The whole thing was bizarre."

"And yet you apparently talk to An-nie. Why is that?"

"She wasn't at the dance. I've been trying to compartmentalize." She has no idea how true that statement is.

"I see."

"Shirley..."

"If you come here, I will forgive you."

He shrugged. "Sure."

He could feel Shirley's gleeful grin as she wrapped him in a hug. He may have smiled ever so slightly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff and Shirley wandered over to where the festivities were occurring in the backyard.

"Well this is an interesting place." Jeff looked up to see a huge house with slightly crumbling steps and pillars. Of course there are pillars. He tried to count how many rooms there must be by looking at the windows but quickly gave up after he reached twelve. No wonder Pierce had room for Troy.

"I'm just going to see where the boys ran off to." Shirley made her way toward the back lawn.

Jeff scanned his surroundings and then spotted Annie and Sophie huddled over in the corner of the back porch with Troy. He gulped as she realized Annie was giggling with wide eyes as Troy whispered something to her while tickling Sophie's chin.

"Hey Forehead, glad you could make it."

Jeff turned to see Pierce standing beside him. What is it with people sneaking up on me today? He sighed as he took a good look at Pierce who was wearing an apron and a chef's hat while clutching a pair of tongs. "Hey Pierce. Thanks for the invite."

"It's my pleasure. Troy and I wanted to celebrate becoming roomies. And get the group all together again. It's been over two weeks."

"I know. An eternity," Jeff remarked sardonically.

"I agree a get-together was long overdue. I saw you drove Annie?"

Jeff shifted his eyes behind his sunglasses as he began to make his way to the table. Pierce followed. Jeff placed the casserole-thingy down and dropped Sophie's snack and toy bag on the ground. He remarked nonchalantly, "Yup."

Pierce nodded enthusiastically. "Good. Troy told me that she ended things with Vaughn. Thank the master Lotus. I don't know what I would have done had she shown up with him."

Jeff frowned. "Oh that's right. You two had a falling out, right?"

"I'll say, Jeffrey. He didn't appreciate my musical talents. I don't care what Annie said, she wasn't going to get me to talk to him. And he never made any overtures to me." Pierce sulked.

"I didn't realize Annie was trying to get you two to make up. But I guess that makes sense since she seems to like you for some reason."

Pierce scoffed. "The feeling is mutual. I'm so glad she's away from that non-talented dirty hippie."

Jeff paused for a moment while he let what Pierce said sink in. Were they actually in agreement on something?

Pierce puffed out his chest and then let out a long sigh. "Well be good to her, Jeffrey. She's my favorite. And that little Sophie is a treasure. I wish I could have spent more time with my stepchildren." He patted Jeff on the back as he walked away.

Jeff paled and called out "Wait…Pierce!"

"Hey jerk face. Long time no see."

Jeff turned to see that Britta had sidled up to him. She was wearing dark sunglasses, ratted jeans, a Radiohead t-shirt and a vest of some sort. And combat boots.

"Dammit Britta, I need to go talk to Pierce."

"Since when do you actually want to converse with him?" She motioned with her hand. "Come over here with me and crack open a beer. It'll make this whole ordeal more bearable."

"Not now, Britta. I have to deal with something." Jeff squinted as he walked toward Troy and Annie.

Jeff was stopped in his tracks by Abed who seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

"Hi Jeff! Glad you could make it. Where shall we conduct the interview?"

"Not now, Abed." Jeff attempted to gently push him aside.

Abed looked at Jeff curiously and then followed his gaze. "Oh, I see. I wasn't sure if Leonard was right. His eyesight isn't the best. But it makes sense."

Jeff turned to him. "What the hell does that mean?"

Abed shrugged. "Leonard said he saw you and Annie sucking face the night of the Tranny Dance."

Jeff's eyes widened as the remaining color drained from his face. "Goddamn it Abed!" He lowered his voice, "Come here…." He yanked Abed toward the side of the house.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eventually Jeff was able to find Annie near the buffet table. She was munching on some carrot sticks while holding Sophie with one arm.

Jeff glanced around, realizing no one was within earshot.

"There you are. We need to talk."

Annie looked up. "Hey, where did you go off to?"

He lowered his voice, "Did you know that Abed knows?"

Annie's raised her eyebrows. "Knows what?"

"About the Tranny Dance."

She gasped. "You mean…"

He nodded. "Yup. Apparently Leonard saw us."

"I didn't see Leonard around."

"I didn't either but I wasn't really paying much attention to anything going on around us."

Annie blushed. "Um, so what…is Leonard spreading it around?"

"I have no idea. Thank God it's summer. Hopefully it will all die down before school starts."

She nodded. "But Abed…."

"I had a chat with him. Turns out he's mainly interested in gaining information for his characterization in his next film. He swore he wouldn't tell anyone and that he hasn't told anyone else. And as far as he knows, there is nothing to tell beyond the one kiss."

Annie gulped. "Well, good. We can trust Abed."

"You think?"

"Yes. He's pretty rule-bound you know. If he promised he wouldn't tell then he won't."

Jeff nodded. "Right."

"As long as you gave him his interview. You did, right?"

"Of course. I'm not a complete idiot."

She smiled. "Well then, that's settled."

He was about to speak when Britta came strolling up and gave Annie a sideways hug. "Hey there Annie, sorry I got roped into tofu duty. Apparently Pierce and Troy don't know how to prepare it. So I was helping them get it ready for the kebabs."

Annie smiled. "Hi Britta. How are you?"

"Oh, no complaints. Summer break and all. We missed you at the dance. I hope you don't mind, but Shirley told me about the whole Vaughn situation. I'm sorry it didn't work out." Britta started playing with Sophie's hat and making exaggerated fish faces at her.

Annie shrugged one shoulder. "It's fine, Britta. But thanks."

Britta smiled. "And you missed out on some dramatics. I know Shirley filled you in." Britta shot a glance up at Jeff and rolled her eyes. "All due to this pig."

Jeff glared at her.

Annie shifted Sophie to her other side. "Come on you guys. Let's just try to have a good time."

Britta smirked. "Hey pig boy and I worked it all out. We're cool. I want to go on the record that I do not love him. It was all a big misunderstanding." She looked over to Jeff again. "And I'm telling everyone that. To be absolutely clear."

"Thanks, Britta." Jeff stared up at the sky. Why me?

Britta smiled in satisfaction as she looked back to Annie. "Hey, I can hold her if you want. Let me take her."

"Oh, um, sure. Thanks." Annie handed over Sophie.

Britta exclaimed, "Yikes, she's getting heavy."

"She's actually pretty small for her age. She's only in the 20th percentile."

"I don't know what that means but cool. Let's go find Shirley and get away from these other weirdos." She shot a glare at Jeff.

"Hey!"

Annie giggled. "Sounds good." She turned to Jeff. "I guess you'll just have to hang out with Pierce."

"Very funny." He crossed his arms over his chest.

Annie and Britta shuffled off toward the lawn. Jeff turned to find Troy by his side. He tensed.

He mumbled, "Why does this keep happening?"

Troy was munching on a beef kebob. "Dude, I don't know what you mean."

"Sorry. People just keep sneaking up on me today."

Troy looked at Jeff and glowered. "Hey, I noticed you came with Annie."

Jeff looked at him suspiciously. "Yes I did. What of it?"

"Nothing, man. I just thought you were too cool to hang out with any of us this summer."

"Well obviously that's not the case. I'm here aren't I?"

"Yeah. With Annie."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what, you and me should hang out. Since you're being all social. Let's play some basketball or something."

"I'm pretty busy with contract work this summer, I'm not sure if I'll have time to fit that in."

"You know what, Jeff? Sometimes you really are a jerk."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eventually the party winded down. Everyone said goodbye to each other with promises to get together soon. Annie ended up inviting everyone to Sophie's first birthday party, to be hosted at Shirley's house in a few weeks.

Jeff and Annie drove back to Dildopolis with a drowsy Sophie in the backseat.

"That was fun, right?" Annie nervously played with her skirt.

"I guess."

"And nothing dramatic happened. It was all good."

"I wouldn't say it was all smooth sailing. There was the Abed thing…"

"But you took care of that."

"True. And then there was the Troy weirdness…"

"Um, I saw the two of you talking. It seemed kinda tense. But then I heard you guys make plans for basketball?" She looked at him hopefully.

Jeff nodded and sighed wearily. "Yup. Troy and I are on for a game."

"What were you two talking about?"

"God knows. He has some beef with me but I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe playing some ball will help."

She nodded as she turned to look out the window. "That's probably a good idea."

Jeff kept his eyes on the road. "So what were you and Troy talking about? Did it have anything to do with why he's upset with me?"

She frowned. "I don't think one has to do with the other. But if you must know, he asked me and Sophie to move into the mansion."

Jeff sputtered. "He what?!"

She turned to look at him. "Calm down. Why are you freaking out about that?"

Jeff's eyes widened as he quickly looked at her and then resumed focusing on his driving. "Are you going to?"

"No, silly."

"Oh."

She returned to looking out the window and was silent.

Jeff glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Why did he ask you to move in?"

She sighed. "Because he's worried about me and Sophie living at Dildopolis. He knows it's not a great area. And he and Pierce were discussing the situation and thought it'd be best if he approached me since so far Pierce hasn't been very convincing."

"Wait…so far?"

Annie sighed more deeply as she turned back to face him. "Yes, you might as well know. Pierce has been after me to move in with him for a few months now. Before that he kept trying to give me money. But I thought it was kinda weird, right? I mean I wasn't going to just move in with him and I'm not going to just take money from someone when I haven't earned it."

"So Troy asking…"

"Pierce thought I'd be more amenable to living with both him and Troy."

Jeff relaxed slightly and nodded. "I guess that makes sense. And you turned them down?"

"Yes, for the same reasons. I mean it's sweet of them, but I can't. I don't want to rely on people like that. I mean what if something went wrong? Then Sophie and I would be out on the streets. The last time that happened it was just me, but I can't risk that with Sophie. I just can't."

Jeff felt something wrench inside his chest. He wasn't sure what that was about so he kept driving in silence.