Pony
After two weeks of having lunch with Liv regularly, I've come to realize I'm falling for her. Again. Or maybe still. Maybe Soda is right and I've never fully fallen out of love with Liv. Whatever the reason is, I'm falling for her. Fast. Much faster and harder than I ever expected. I think a part of it is, is I already know her. I know how quick her temper is, how she has a tendency to make rash decisions when she's angry and she almost always regrets them later on. How whether or not she talks about it a lot, I know Liv has some deep seeded abandonment issues, stemming from her mom running out on them regardless of the fact she doesn't remember her. I'm aware of how people swore Liv was stuck up because it can take a while before she lets someone in, but once she does I know first hand it's worth the effort. I know how intelligent she is, and how when she loves and or cares about something she does it with everything she has. And whether or not I want to admit it Soda is definitely right and I've never fallen out of love with her. "Pony! Pass the damn ham." Soda's voice snaps me out of my thought.
"Huh? What?"
"Ham please." Soda repeats. I hand him the plate, aware that both Darry and Amelia are staring at me.
"You alright, you seem kinda out of it?" Darry asks.
"Probably to much partying." Amelia responds. It's not a secret that Amelia doesn't like Soda and I. Before her and Darry got married she had tried to convince him to make Soda move out, when Darry didn't do it, she made Soda's life a living hell. Within a month Soda, Two-Bit and I had moved in together. Amelia had been ok with me, or rather she tolerated me, until I told her I wasn't interested in dating her younger sister Emily. Once that happened Amelia only sees us when she absolutely has too, which at this point is when we have dinner at their house every third Sunday of the month. She doesn't seem to care that it's put Darry in a really tough situation, for his sake Soda and I do our best to remain respectful and cordial with her, but sometimes it's hard. I ignore her comment completely,
"Yeah I'm ok." I reply. Amelia mutters something under her breath about the "sugar shack" which is what she refers to our apartment as. "How's work Darry?" I ask trying to change the subject, or rather trying to avoid Soda saying something as I can hear him grumbling next to me.
"It's going good. Saw Tom the other day, he said Liv was back in town working at the hospital." The construction company Darry manages does a lot of business with Liv's dad's architecture firm, Darry and Tom have gotten quite close, Tom had actually been a childhood friend of our dad. "You two going to finish what you started?"
"You know Emily will be here in a few weeks." Amelia interrupts. Despite me telling her on numerous occasions I am not interested in Emily at all, she has a hard time taking no for an answer and still brings it up whenever she can. "She'll be here for Nick and Jennifer's wedding." She adds, as she turns in my direction, "You are still attending aren't you?" Darry, Soda and I had grown up with Nick he lived a few blocks over and he's just about the same age as Soda they spent a few months of basic training together, Jennifer had been in my high school class, she's a really sweet girl, came from a very normal middle class family. The two of them have been together forever, I think we're all surprised it's taken them so long to get married.
"Yeah I'm going." I reply, already knowing where this conversation is going.
"You can't go without a date, I know Emily will gladly go with you." Amelia says, smiling a super sweet fake smile at me. I glance at Darry for help all he does is shrug, a quick look at Soda lets me know I am on my own for this one.
"I actually already have a date." This gets Soda's attention, he looks up at me.
"You do?" I shoot him a look, "Oh right, I forgot you mentioned Liv was going to go with you."
"Well never mind then." Amelia snaps standing up so fast she almost knocks her chair over, "Forget I said anything." She says grabbing a few plates off the table and stomping into the kitchen. After fifteen minutes it's pretty clear she's not coming back, Soda and I help Darry clean up before taking off. I spend the rest of the night wondering how I'm going to convince Liv to go with me. I'm still wondering this the next day at work, since I'm not on call that night I swing by the bar after work.
"You look beat." Soda notes as I sit down on one of the stools, "Long day?" He asks as he slides a beer in my direction. Monday's are Two-Bit's regular day off so Soda tends bar that night.
"Normal Monday." I reply taking a drink.
"You talk to Liv about being your pretend date yet?" he asks rubbing a spot off the bar,
"She's out of town at a psychology conference she won't be back till tomorrow night. I won't see her till Wednesday." I tell him, "And I'm not really sure how to say hey I need you to come with me and act like my date."
"How about the truth? My sister-in-law is psycho and I don't want to go to the wedding with her younger sister who is probably just as psycho." Soda dislikes Amelia way more than I do, and coming from Soda who normally likes everyone it says a lot. He did have the misfortune of living with her for a month and a half, and from what I've been told it wasn't a good time. We laugh about it now but about two weeks after Amelia and Darry got back from their honeymoon she had put a paper under Soda's door titled, "Rules for Peaceful Cohabitation." followed by a list of at least twenty rules. After that there was no chance of Amelia and Soda having a relationship.
"That's one way to put it." I reply. Soda rolls his eyes at me, "Who are you taking?"
"I haven't decided yet. Maybe Mia, maybe Kristen. I'll figure it out." He tells me. "You know if you don't hurry up with Liv she's going to stop waiting and find someone else."
"You and Two-Bit been talking about me?" I ask. Soda dissolves into laughter,
"No, but I'm pretty sure Two-Bit wouldn't be sad if Liv decided to move on with him." He pauses, "Why did Two-Bit tell you that too?" I nod,
"Yeah the other night when he was trashed, he woke me up to give me some sage wisdom I think he called it. Then he passed out on the floor."
"Well drunk or not he has a point. Don't make me tell you I told you so." He warns, as he goes to the other side of the bar to talk to the group of girls that just sat down. I finish my beer, wave goodbye to Soda and go back to the apartment. Two-Bit is out when I get home, Monday is usually his poker night, he almost always has cash from tips from the weekend and he almost always comes home completely broke. The button on the answering machine is blinking, I hit it and listen,
"Hey Pone. It's Darry. Amelia wanted me to call you, she feels bad about dinner yesterday and wants you to come over for dinner Wednesday if you aren't on call. Let me know. Talk to you later." Beep. I roll my eyes at the answering machine, remind myself to call Darry back tomorrow and head for bed.
Liv
Had I thought about it I would have taken today off like every other single person who works in my department, but since I wasn't out drinking at the hotel bar last night till an hour before we had to leave for the airport and then had continued to drink on the plane I didn't feel justified. Besides I had some paperwork I had to take care of. I'm about to call it a day when someone knocks on my door, "It's open." I call, Pony strolls in, "I was going to stop and see you on my way out." I tell him.
"I didn't think you were here, Frank told me." Frank is the janitor, he's probably pushing seventy but it hasn't stopped him from asking me out a couple of times. "He's really smitten with you as he puts it." Pony adds with a smile. "I take it everyone else is home sleeping off a conference hang over?" I nod,
"I'm surprised they let Ginny on the plane last night, she could barely walk. Matt had to half carry half drag her on, and he was plastered himself." I report.
"We went to Vegas last year for a big pediatric conference and you've met Morgan haven't you?" I nod, "She was so drunk that she missed the plane all together, it took her two days to get sober enough to get back." Pony tells me.
"Sounds about right." I close the folder I had been working on, "Did you have plans tonight? Julie and Dad are having dinner with Jack, Beth and Beth's parents who are in town. I got invited but I don't really want to tag along." I have nothing against Beth, in fact I actually really like her. She's great for Jack, and he seems really happy. I just don't want to spend the night being the fifth wheel, even though Julie had assured me that wasn't the case.
"I'm actually going to have dinner with Darry and Amelia." Pony replies, "You should come with me, Darry has been asking about you."
"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude on your guy's family time." I tell him. Even though I've heard a lot about Amelia and I am super curious to meet her. Pony nods,
"Yeah it's fine." He pauses for a second, "Liv can I ask you something?" I nod,
"Of course." He runs his fingers through his hair nervously. It's so damn cute I want to scream.
"I was wondering if you wanted to be my date for Nick and Jennifer's wedding, unless of course you already have another date."
"I wasn't actually planning on going." I reply. Jennifer and I knew each other in high school, we had a few classes together but that was it, she was never someone I considered a good friend. I had been surprised to even receive an invitation. "But since you're asking I'd love to go with you." I tell him.
"Good it's a date." Pony says, "I mean it's not a date, if you don't want it to be a date." He rambles, "I'm just going to stop talking now."
"It can be a date." I reply.
"Good, I was kind of hoping it would be a date." He pauses, "So dinner tonight? I have a few more appointments but I can pick you up around 5:30?"
"5:30 is good. I'll see you then." He smiles,
"I'll see you then." I finish up what I have to do, then leave. The house is quiet when I get home dad usually works till after 6, and Julie doesn't get home till after she finishes carpool at the elementary school she teaches at. I straighten up the kitchen, before taking a quick shower and getting ready. At exactly 5:30 the doorbell rings, I pull it open.
"I see you've gotten more punctual." I tease. Pony chuckles,
"Kind of have to being a doctor." We get in the car, I'm surprised Darry only lives a few blocks over from me, I knew he had moved out of their old neighborhood not to long after Pony graduated high school. It hadn't come as a surprise to anyone, it had gradually gotten worse and by the time he left it was a high crime and drug area.
"How long has Darry lived here?" I ask after Pony comes around and opens my door.
"Uh about three years, give or take. He bought it when him and Amelia got engaged." He pauses at the door, "Amelia can be hard to get a long with, she's very, well you'll see. Just try not to get offended by the things she may say." I look at him,
"Now I'm worried." He slides his hand through mine which takes me by surprise, but neither of us pull away,
"Don't be. I just wanted to warn you." He rings the bell, a few seconds later Darry opens it,
"Liv hey it's so good to see you again." Darry greets giving me a big hug,
"It's good to see you too." I reply. He holds the door open for the two of us, ushering us inside,
"Dinner will be ready in a few." He tells us, "Make yourselves comfortable." He says before going down the hall, a few seconds later he calls us to dinner. The only word I can use to describe dinner is awkward, when Darry introduced me to Amelia I barely got a hello, all she did was talk about her younger sister who was coming to visit.
"So Liv was it?" I nod, "Has he told you about the sugar shack?" She asks rather innocently halfway through dinner,
"The what?" I question, even though I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the answer to this question.
"The apartment the three of them live in, it's crawling with women and God only knows what else." I don't even know how to respond to this luckily Darry saves me from having to by changing the conversation to something totally different. It's pretty obvious we can't get out of there soon enough for Pony who basically drags me out as soon as dessert is over and the dishes have been cleared. I wait until we get in the car before saying anything,
"The sugar shack? Seriously?" Pony glances at me sideways,
"It's not as bad as she made it out to be. I mean yeah there are girls in and out, but it's not like we are running a whore house or something."
"Well thank God for that." I reply. Pony sighs,
"That sounded bad," I nod, "Three single guys living together Liv come on there are going to be girls. Would you feel better if I told you I was sitting here waiting for you?"
"No you lying to me wouldn't make me feel better." I tell him, "I just thought that maybe now that I was home there was a chance we could give things a try. I didn't realize you were living in the midst of a harem." It's out of my mouth before I can stop myself, it would be a lie to say I hadn't been thinking about it since I knew I was coming home. And the fact that he may or may not have a string of women makes me a little more than jealous.
"Liv, I've wanted to give it a chance since you called and said you were coming home." Pony replies, "I just didn't know if you did." I nod,
"I do. I definitely do." I sigh looking at the clock on the dashboard, "I need to go though, I have an early morning everyone will be back in the office. Lunch?" Pony nods,
"Lunch." he repeats, he leans in brushing his lips against mine softly. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yup. Tomorrow." I tell him, getting out of the car and going into the house feeling more at home then I had since I got back to Tulsa.