~I am terribly sorry for making you wait! I had finals, work every day, my birthday/ Memorial Day weekend, I redecorated and painted my room, and started my internship all within the month of May. To put it plainly, I was hella busy. Now that things have calmed down I hope to be updating more regularly.
Thank you so much for the follows, favs., and PM's. You all left awesome reviews! I love reading your opinions (and you do have some opinions!)
This chapter focuses on Bo, you'll see Lo very briefly.
As always, enjoy.~
Second Chances
Chapter 3: Next.
"So did you want to stay at the bar or go find a table?" The blonde asked me nervously.
"I already put my name in, we'll hear when they have a table open." I said pointing to the speakers in the ceiling. She gave a small smile and sat down on the stool next to me.
"Did you want anything to drink?" She gave me an odd look
"I haven't had a drink in months." I cringed internally, she had told me she was off getting "clean" it may not have been hard drugs but I should have remembered.
"I'm sorry, I forgot. Is it okay for me to have one?" I said while lifting my gin and tonic up a bit. She laughed
"It's fine Bo. I'll just get water." She said more to the bar tender who stood awkwardly by us. They smiled at Lauren and quickly handed her a drink.
"So, this is weird right?" I said after a minute of silence. Lauren shrugged her shoulders
"Only if we make it weird. A lot of shit happened between us, it's bound to be a little awkward." I looked down at my glass and took a small sip.
"Bo, your table is ready." A voice called out over the speakers. We were seated in a small booth in the back; we had both been here many times and quickly placed our orders.
"Lauren?" I said softly
"Ask me anything you want Bo." She straightened her posture and took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever I was going to say.
"Why did you come back?" She looked a little relieved
"Because of you, I already told you that." I tightened the grip I had on my glass
"I guess what I should have asked was, why didn't you come back sooner?" the look of relief immediately left her face
"I, I couldn't… I wanted to but I just couldn't do it."
"I can kind of understand that but, you couldn't have called? Texted? Even written a letter? You just left Lauren; you dropped a bomb on me and then disappeared for months." I kept my voice even not wanting to let my anger get the best of me.
"I don't have an answer for you Bo, not one that will make you or I feel better about what happened." I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, I could feel my anger rising.
"Okay." I replied
"That's a terrible answer, but it's all I have right now. I know what I was feeling, and what was going through my mind at that time but I don't know how to explain that to you." She ran a hand through her hair, a nervous tick of hers.
"Its fine Lauren, I mean it's not fine but I can understand why it would be difficult for you to explain it to me." She gave me a silent thank you for letting it go.
"When I do figure out how to verbalize it, you will be the first one I talk to."
"Sounds like a plan." She nodded her head in agreement.
"Is Lauren your real name?" She choked on her water but pulled herself together a second later
"What?" I placed my glass down on the table and looked into her eyes. Her gaze was stronger now, her eyes used to shift back and forth when she was nervous. I could tell she was fighting the urge to that very thing right now, but she held strong and kept my gaze.
"No, it's not." I entwined my fingers together and breathed in hard.
"Do you want to know my real name?" She asked. I shook my head no
"I'll just get the urge to look you up online. I want to hear it all from you not my computer screen." In her defense she looked like she had a lot regret, her eyes just kept screaming "I'm so sorry" at me. It was hard to not give into that look.
Our waitress came over with our meals and brought a glass of water for each of us. We thanked her and ate in silence for a few minutes. I could feel her look up at me every so often; she wanted to ask me something but was building up the courage to ask it.
"Bo…" I looked up and took a sip of water
"What is it?" She smirked at me, out of habit I think.
"I'm almost afraid to ask It." she said sheepishly
"It's alright; I think I know what you want to ask."
"LMN. Are, how are, I feel awful." She said.
"Max seems to have gotten over it, but if I were you I'd steer clear of Nik and Logan. You hurt them Lauren, they still carry that betrayal around with them. When you disappeared they had to do some serious recon." She nodded her head slowly in response
"And Kenzi?" I noticed how tense she became when she mentioned my bestie. I don't know why but I felt bad for her, after everything she did my heart still hurt to see her looking so sad.
"She's Kenzi. She's more than pissed, she's more than hurt. She doesn't let people in and she let you in." I wanted to comfort her but she needed to know that mine wasn't the only heart she broke.
"She's never going to speak to me again is she?" She asked putting her fork down.
"She might… Are, are you staying?" I stumble over my words, my nerves getting the best of me. She didn't seem to notice, or she just chose to ignore it
"Only if you want me to." I bit the inside of my lip
"If I asked you to leave and never come back, would you?" She scrunched her eyebrows together as she thought
"If that's what you really wanted, then yes. Do you want me to leave?" You had to chuckle at our circle of never ending questions
"I want you to stay." I said quickly, surprising the both of us.
"Okay, then I'll stay." We smiled at each other and went on eating. We talked without talking about anything, songs we were into, movies we'd seen, nothing of real substance. I wasn't ready to hear her side of things, and I don't think she was ready to say it out loud yet. We shared a dessert and ended the night with lingering hug.
I think we both realized how difficult this was going to be.
. . .
"How'd it go last night? You snuck right by me when you got home." Kenzi whispered to me.
"It went fine, a little awkward." It was Monday morning; we were in our weekly meeting. All department heads were here, Logan and Max were standing up front going over a new app our techs were developing. Kenzi and I sat at the far end of the table.
"I bet it was...are you going to see her again?" I looked over at the dark haired girl
"Yeah, we didn't even graze the surface on the list of shit we need to talk about." Kenzi gave me an apologetic look
"You don't have to do this Bo, no one is making you see her." her voice had that motherly tone to it when she spoke
"I know that Kenz, I'm doing this because I want to, well I need to." I caught Logan's eye and turned away from Kenzi
"You didn't tell anyone I was going to see her did you?" I said turning back to her suddenly worried that Logan or Niki found out.
"Whoa, calm down there BoBo, I didn't say a word. I'm not mentioning 'she who must not be named' to the golden trio."
"Kenzi." We both looked up to see the rest of the room looking at us
"Yeah?" She said with the usual amount of sass
"Paul Zachary, he wants to know if you'll take him on." Max said
"I can meet with him later today but no promises." she replied
"He'll be here in at 2pm." Max took a step back and let Logan finish up
"Alright, that's it guys. One of us will be coming by at some point today to talk about some changes were making to each of your departments." Slowly we all began to trickle out of the conference room; unenthusiastic chatter about the upcoming changes could be heard.
"Why do I feel like we just got in trouble with the teacher?" I said to Kenzi as we headed to the coffee cart
"Because those meetings make it feel like we're in school again." We both laughed and waited for the elevator to open.
"Paul Zachary is the news anchor for channel 4 right?" I asked as we stepped inside
"Yeah he allegedly slept with a junior analyst, which is awkward because he's married to the weather girl."
"Have Fun with that one." I joked
"Hey, he could be a good guy, and if that's all he did then that's easy to fix." The doors began to close but were stopped by an arm
"Hey guys, coffee run?" Logan said stepping into the elevator
"Of course, those meetings are boring when Niki's not here; we need a pick me up." Kenzi said, I shrugged my shoulders at Logan when he looked at me
"She's not wrong." I said to him as he pretended to be offended.
"Let me make it up to you guys and buy you a cup? To be honest I get bored when Nik isn't here too." We all laughed at the admission, and accepted his offer, because free coffee is a beautiful thing.
"Where is Nik anyways?" Kenzi asked as the doors dinged open and we head towards the delicious smell.
"Seattle, Josh Peters passed away five days ago." I knew that Josh was the Head Manager at the Seattle office and he was very close to Niki. I made a mental note to call her later and see how she was doing.
"Aw man that sucks." Kenzi said, I nodded in agreement
"Good morning Sir, Ms. Malikov, Ms. Dennis." We were greeted by the bubbly coffee cart barista
"Ben, first names please." I said as he blushed slightly at me
"Sorry, Bo." I smiled at him; you couldn't help but be happy around this kid.
"It's ok Ben, our usual please?" I pointed at Kenzi and myself; he smiled and began making our usual. Kenzi had some sort of cupcake, chocolate flavored upside down latte with something fancy, I'm not sure if it was coffee or candy. I just got a hazelnut black with sugar.
"I'll have what Bo's having Ben." Logan said as he took out his wallet.
"Yes Sir." The 20- something replied
"Logan is good with me Ben, call my brother Sir." We all laughed when Ben blushed again.
"When are you going to get this kid a real job LG?" Kenzi said as she stuck a mixer in between her teeth.
"As soon as I can Kenz. Our marketing department is filled to the brim right now, when the new quarter starts I'll put him to work right away. Ben knows that, that's why I gave him the coffee cart, kid still needed a job and I didn't want anyone to steal him away from us." Ben blushed again; I think he had a crush on Logan which is beyond adorable because Logan was 10 years older than him and clearly in love with Kenzi.
"Marketing, really? I would have pegged you as an engineer." I said to the young man who handed me and Logan our coffees and started on Kenzi's drink.
"I get that a lot, I'm kind of nerdy." he blew his sandy blonde hair out of his eyes and grinned at me
"Nerdy is a good thing, I can't wait to see what you can do Ben." He finished Kenzi's cup and Logan payed him, we all dropped a few bucks in the tip jar which made him blush again.
"Later Benjie, work to do." Kenzi lead us back to the silver doors
"He's a cutie pie L, makes me wish I was in marketing." I rolled my eyes at her
"Yeah, yeah. He's really smart. I really did get him that coffee cart just to keep in sight; I thought for sure JAX & CO. would steal him from us." JAX & CO. was LMN's top competitor in public relations, and marketing/ advertising.
"Alright Ladies, this is where we part ways, speaking of marketing I have to go talk with them. Thanks for letting me buy your coffee." He stepped out of the elevator and the doors closed leaving me with a grinning Kenzi.
"Kenz, what's wrong with your face?" She rolled her eyes at me
"Sometimes I smile, get over It." she used her lips together in an attempt to control her face
"Yeah but you're grinning, like a fool. Did I miss something?" she bumped me with her shoulder and I laughed
"Oh, damn I gotta go Bo." I shook my head as she ran away towards her office and headed in the opposite direction to my own office.
I continued on with my day as I usually would but I have to admit that Lauren occupied 80% of my thoughts. I was glad she didn't tell me her name; I would be spending my time stalking her. I forced myself to look over my new clients financial records and began the process of creating a file for them. Usually I wouldn't get involved this early on in the process but this was an important client and I liked to handle the big ones on my own.
. . .
"Bo, call for you on line 7." My assistant's voice coming from my phone speaker brought me out of my concentration
"Thanks Ashley." I picked up the phone and was surprised to hear a familiar voice on the line
"Hey, you have a minute to talk?"
"Of course, I was gunna call you but I got distracted." I hear her "mhm" me and smiled.
"I take it you got your hands on the Nealson account?" Niki said
"Sure did, I opened it, wow three hours ago." I heard her hum and a door shut in the background
"Are you still in Seattle? I'm sorry about Peters." I rubbed my eyes and stretched out my sore muscles
"I just left the funeral, it was a nice service." I waited for her to tell the driver where to go before replying
"Are you okay Niki? I mean seriously." She sighed heavy
"I'll be fine." I saved my progress and put her on speaker phone so I could walk around a bit.
"You're calling me; you don't usually do that when you're out of town unless something's wrong." The good thing about our relationship was that there were never any games if we were thinking something we told each other. It was easy, and nice to not have to filter yourself.
"I don't know Bo; I guess I wanted to hear a familiar voice." That wasn't it
"Niki, what is it?" I stood behind my desk and stared at the phone waiting for her to tell me what was going on
"I just saw something that made me think of you." Nik was never this vague, it made me worry.
"I'm getting nervous over here."
"I'll be home in 4 hours, meet me at my place for dinner?"
"Sure, I'll text you when I'm on my way." I hung up the phone and sat back down in my chair. I was certainly intrigued.
... Later that night…
Unlike her brothers Niki lived in a house outside of Dallas and not a city apartment. It was far, but not too far from the city. I always liked it here; I liked the peacefulness it brought. I walked into her house without knocking knowing that she left it unlocked for me. I walked through the foyer, past the kitchen and living room and out onto the patio.
"Hey stranger." I said interrupting her singing. She turned around and dropped what she was holding onto the lounge chair that was a few feet from her.
"You look like you've had a long day." She held her hand out to me and I took it with a smile.
"I have, you however look wonderful as always, despite being on a place for almost 4 hours. Explain that to me." We took a seat at the long glass table she had and she handed me a glass of wine.
"It's because I don't stress out like you do." I thanked her for the wine and relaxed into the comfy chair.
"Someday you'll have to teach me how to do that."
"Someday you'll wake up and it'll click for you, I won't have to teach you." She took sip of her wine and crossed her legs
"I'm sorry you had to go to the funeral alone, you should have told me." She shook her head and placed her glass on the table
"It's not your job to make those kinds of appearances, it is however mine." I rolled my eyes at her; she always said things like that
"I know that, but I like to make sure you're okay. And it's nice to have someone by your side for things like that. "
"That's not your job either Bo." the amount of times we've had this conversation is too many to count
"I consider you family, it is my job so stop arguing." she rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the smile from her face.
"I ordered pizza, it should be here soon."
"Okay." I wanted to ask about our conversation but I knew she would bring it up when she felt like it. We finished our wine and headed inside when the doorbell rang. We ate inside at the granite top island in her kitchen. When we were finished I saw a familiar look in her eyes.
"What is it?" I asked closing the dishwasher and turning to face her
"Nothing, it's nothing." I gave her a look that said I knew that was crap
"That's your bad new face, what's going on with you today?" She stood from her seat and came to stand in front of me.
"I have something to tell you and I don't know how to say it. I don't even know if I should tell you." I rested against the counter top and took a deep breath; something in my gut told me this was serious, really serious.
"You kinda have to tell me now." She tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and nodded her head
"I've been in Seattle for the past 4 days and well…" This was new for us. I had never seen her so afraid to tell me something.
"Just tell me."
"I saw Lauren, my first day there."
"That's it?" She gave me a confused look
"I didn't think you'd take it this well." she said
"So you saw her a few days ago so what, I saw her last ni-" Shit.
"Excuse me?" Nice going Bo.
"I said I don't care that you saw her." She crossed her arms in front of her
"Cut the shit Bo, you saw her last night? Why, how, where, why?"
"I did."
"And?" She said, clearly annoyed with me
"And what, there's nothing to tell." I really hated myself for letting that one slip
"So she just appeared after a year and said lets meet for dinner and you were cool with that?" I shook my head at her; I didn't want to talk about this with her.
"Next." she was biting her tongue, fighting the urge to keep pushing
"You know I hate when you do that." She said after a long silence
"I'm calling it, let's move on. Next." She shook her head began walking toward the front door
"Not this time Hun. I have to prepare for a presentation tomorrow morning." She held the door open and sighed
"C'mon Nik, I don't have to talk to you about her." I grabbed my phone off the counter and walked over to her
"I just don't understand why you'd even talk to her after what she did to you, to all of us."
"I don't really understand it either; it's just something I need to do. Please respect that." I said to her
"Fine, I still have work to do, and I'm kind of pissed off at you so I'll see you tomorrow okay?" I smiled and placed a kiss on her cheek
"I'll talk about her when I'm ready to, promise." With that I turned and left, the door closing behind me.
The good thing about Niki and I was that we gave each other space when we were mad at each other, if we felt like we might say something we didn't mean we distanced ourselves. During our friends- with- benefits time we realized that sometimes we got too protective, a little too jealous, and a little too honest around each other. We wanted to keep messing around but we didn't want to make things complicated (because having casual sex with your ex-boyfriend's sister isn't complicated enough). We developed this friendly, casual lovers, protective relationship, whatever it was it was one of the more honest relationship in my life.
I wasn't worried that she would tell her brothers, she knew when to keep something between us. She would find out the Kenzi knew, and vice versa. When that happened, when the two of them sat me down and asked questions, that's when I would need to figure out if giving Lauren a second chance was the right thing to do.
~Let me know what you think guys! I apologize for any mistakes; I may go back and do some editing. I'm thinking flashback next update, and maybe a few clues as to who Lauren really is. Maybe... Until next time.~