Mack carried out two bags of ice and continued to fill up one of the coolers while Tiffy answered the door. He hoped they had enough to drink, but he planned on sending someone out for a last minute beer and soda run just in case. Tiffy invited some of the teachers from her school and the backyard was already filled with people hanging out and enjoying the summer day. Molly and Jonas walked around the side of the house, waving hellos and carrying dishes of food. "Hey Mack, Tiffy inside?" Molly asked, balancing the 2 bowls of freshly made potato salad in her arms and heading towards the kitchen. Mack tossed his team leader a cold brew and nodded at Molly, 'yeah, she's just finishing up some things. Oh, remind her I'm starting the grill right now, thanks Molly."
Jonas took a long sip from his bottle and turned to face Mack. "You and Hector finished up that Cardenos job to the boss's satisfaction?" Mack nodded, thinking back to the short mission that took the two of them out of town for a few weeks, "Yep, good to be home. Just got back last night Top." Jonas noticed Hector and Charlie across the yard, both men relaxing and keeping a watchful eye on Lissy and Serena as they ran around the backyard. Bob walked out of the house holding a platter of hot dogs and hamburgers and headed towards the grill, "I'm the cook today, you burned my burgers last time and I'm hungry. So just step back and let me take care of this, ok?" Mack trailed behind Bob arguing over who was the better chef and insisting he was going to cook the food for party. Jonas laughed and walked over to join Kim who was wrestling with putting a clean shirt on Teddy on a lounge chair on the patio.
Charlie and Hector sat in the backyard, watching the girls play and trying to one up another with bad PPD stories, until Hector's cell phone rang. Charlie saw Lisa walk into the backyard and went to meet her with a smile on his face. "Hey, I was wondering what was keeping you Lis." She waved to Kim, who was beckoning her over with a serious look on her face and turned to Charlie. "I know, but I had to stop in at the office real quick." She saw the apprehension in his eyes, and hastily reassured him; "I had to evaluate some intel for Golf Team. No dramas, though." She smiled; delighted that he had worried about her. She thought back to last night, she had met Charlie downtown for dinner before they caught a movie and he hadn't mentioned that woman Rhonda even once. She hadn't dared ask if he was still seeing her, but she was hopeful that they had broken things off by now.
Charlie loved how she acted so non-chalantly. The colonel wouldn't have called her into the TOC on a Saturday afternoon if he didn't need her expertise and she knew it. One of the many things he admired about Lisa, and there were many he thought to himself sheepishly, was her intelligence. He and the boys had done a little background investigation when she was assigned to the base, and they were surprised to find out that the FBI had recruited her directly out of high school, after she was 'detained' for hacking into the Internal Revenue Service's database. She had told Charlie about it a few months after they met, and he wasn't surprised to find out that the FBI didn't press charges once she accepted a position at Quantico. Since then, her career and reputation had shot up as she worked with all the various agencies in the intelligence community.
Kim walked quickly over to the pair, and politely interrupted their conversation, "Charlie! I just need to borrow Lisa for a few minutes, okay?" She dragged Lisa after her before Charlie even had a chance to respond, and quickly outlined her plan. "Okay, I called you last night several times, but you weren't home. I have to tell you who I ran into the other day. Pete Reilly. From the motor pool, he's over there, look, tall, good looking blonde with blue eyes." She turned Lisa slightly to the left and tried not to point so obviously at the ruggedly handsome, athletic young man talking with some friends. "He asked about you! I took the opportunity to invite him here today, you have got to go talk to him – he's such a sweet guy – what?" Kim paused, lost in thought momentarily, as Lisa cracked up with laughter. "What? Why are you laughing?" Lisa then explained to a perplexed Kim that her very own husband, Bob, had warned Lisa just last week that she was about to be set up on a few blind dates by his well meaning yet meddling wife.
Charlie had wandered back to Hector, who stood in the yard with a discerning frown on his face. "What's up?" Charlie nodded to his friend, sensing something was bothering him. Hector looked at his friend and shook his head slightly, "Dude, this is not my fault. Ok?" Charlie drank his beer and wondered what he was talking about. "Annette's here, she just called from the main gate. She'll be here in a few." Charlie knew Annette was meeting Hector here so he just shrugged and said, "so?" Hector hesitated briefly, "Rhonda's with her."
Charlie quickly looked towards the house to see Lisa and Kim laughing together over something funny, and then back to Hector with a sour look on his face. "What the hell is she doing coming here? I didn't invite her." "I don't know, Annette said she stopped by to pick up some boxes and she mentioned the BBQ. Rhonda wormed her way in to an invite I suppose. I thought you two had hit it off, what happened?"
Charlie was trying to think of a way out of this, but just that moment, Annette walked around the side of the house, closely trailed by Rhonda, a striking redhead with a great figure barely covered by tight clothing. "We went out a couple times, she's okay I guess." Charlie shook his head as he eyed Lisa and said softly, "Just not my type." Hector's eyes narrowed significantly, Rhonda was definitely Charlie's type, well, at least she had been before Lisa Anderson came to Ft. Griffith. "I'm sorry man." Hector wanted to add more to that statement but he knew it was a sore spot with Charlie. The whole team knew Charlie had the hots for Lisa and it seemed she felt the same way, but the rumor had it she was engaged to some hot shot lawyer back home.
Annette walked up to Hector and kissed him hello, while quietly whispering in his ear, "honey, I'm so sorry. She wouldn't take no for an answer when she heard that Charlie was going to be here too. What could I do?"
Lisa and Kim turned suddenly as a high pitched voice erupted in a loud squeal, "Charlie!! I'm so glad to see you again!!" Rhonda wrapped her arms around him and attempted to kiss him repeatedly until Charlie was able to extract himself from her grip.
Lisa felt her heart skip a beat as a tall, skinny redhead in a barely there miniskirt, midriff baring shirt and stiletto heels hugged and kissed Charlie not more than 15 feet from her. She tried not to stare, but couldn't seem to tear her eyes away. So, she thought to herself that has got to be Rhonda. "Oh my god, she's um, really something isn't she?" Kim asked, and then wanted to crawl into a rock when she saw Lisa cringe at the thought of the two of them together. "Come on honey, you don't need to see this." And the two women walked to the other side of the yard to sit down.
Charlie saw Lisa staring at him for just a brief minute before Rhonda dragged him over to the double swing to sit down. When he looked up again, it took him a few minutes to find her in the crowded yard. He noticed her sitting with Tiffy, slowly drinking a beer, and glancing over to where he was occasionally. He wondered what she was thinking, and also how the hell he was going to get rid of Rhonda. He would much rather hang out with Lisa, even if just as friends, then be with Rhonda even though she was a sure thing.
Twenty minutes later, he was still trying to extricate himself from the conversation that had arisen when a few guys from Echo Team came over with their wives. Rhonda was hanging all over him and he was getting incredibly annoyed. Giving Hector a deathly glare, he finally managed to sneak away on the pretext of bringing back another round of beers. He quickly went in search of Lisa, but was sidetracked by Bob carrying a plate of food. "Hey, want a burger? They are cooked perfectly." He took a big bite of the burger in his hand and offered the plate to Charlie. He spied Lisa talking with a tall blonde man by the grill in the corner. She was laughing and smiling, they both seemed to be having a good time together, he thought morosely to himself.
Charlie bit into a burger and sat with Bob for a few minutes. "So, who's that guy?" he gestured to the unidentified man while he tried to contain his sudden anger as he saw the man put his hand on the small of her back as they walked over to get plates of food. Bob chewed thoughtfully, noticing how Charlie's eyes had hardened the minute that Pete touched Lisa. "Oh, that's Reilly, over in motor pool." He measured his words carefully, "Kim's setting him up with Lisa." Charlie swallowed hard, and turned to look at his friend. "Why? She's engaged – Kim knows that." He stood up suddenly, pacing back and forth, feeling unnerved at Bob's comment. Bob kept his eyes on Charlie, quickly realizing that Charlie didn't know. "She broke it off…didn't she tell you man? A couple months back. How could you not know?" Charlie turned to look at Bob, his face set in stone, and quickly walked away to throw his half eaten burger in the trash. He picked up a few bottles of beer and glanced one more time in Lisa's direction to see her sitting next to Reilly, and balancing her plate on her lap. He turned away moments before she looked up, and as he walked back to Rhonda he didn't know that her eyes followed him across the lawn, as she bit her lip nervously.
Almost an hour later, Lisa had eaten her fill of hot dogs, hamburgers, and various delicious side dishes. She was trying to relax with Tiffy and several of the wives, listening to their easy going conversations about kids, household chores and husbands. She was trying not to stare at Charlie and Rhonda, but she couldn't help herself. She had finally deterred Pete Reilly from following her around by enlisting the help of several single operators who promised to keep him out of her hair in exchange for a future favor. Kim wasn't happy about that, but oh well. Lisa had no desire to date him just to make Kim happy, she kept her promise and sat with him for one hour, and now her time was her own. And she was spending it observing Charlie make an ass of himself with Rhonda.
She watched as he chugged beer after beer, he was drinking a bit fast and heavy today, she thought to herself. Not like him at all actually. He was constantly touching that woman, her hair, her arms and shoulders, grabbing at her hand. Hector even seemed surprised at something, she noticed. On the other hand, Rhonda was obviously not minding his eagerness and she gave it back just as good. Caressing his back, letting her fingers linger on his thigh when she leaned in close to talk to him. Lisa found herself getting more and more irate watching this show, she was taken aback at his actions but she had to admit to herself that she must have been wrong about his feelings after all. Her thoughts were running wild, she knew she was getting too worked up and felt herself on the verge of tears. She stood up quickly and was about to make some random excuse, when suddenly she saw Rhonda jump onto Charlie's lap, throw her arms around him and kiss him seductively. Lisa's ears began to ring in her head and suddenly the bottle she was holding exploded in her hand, shards of glass flying in every direction.
"Oh, my goodness. Honey, what happened?" Tiffy jumped up and ran to Lisa's side as the remains of the bottle slipped from her hand. "I don't know, it just…I…" she was interrupted as Tiffy called out for Mack to come help her. "I'm fine, its nothing." Lisa tried to wipe her shaking hands but tiny silvers of glass were stuck in her palm, causing her to grimace in pain. "What happened?" Mack came jostling over, took one look at Lisa's bleeding hand and gently led her into the kitchen. Tiffy remained behind to clean up the debris.
Mack turned on the cold water and grabbing a dishtowel, he applied pressure to her hand under the running stream. Lisa felt her fingers growing numb and watched fascinated as the tiny droplets of blood fell off her hand and swirled around the sink before finally sliding down the drain. Mack's voice startled her from her thoughts, "The bottle must have been cracked, I'm going to say something to the clerk next time I stop in there, you can count on that." He removed the towel and noticed a few small shards of glass still in her hand. "Ok, hang on, I need the tweezers. Keep your hand under the water." Lisa stood there, not really listening to his last sentence, watching Charlie and Rhonda through the kitchen window.
He looked like he was enjoying himself, she thought. Rhonda definitely was, she was playfully dancing around him, touching him constantly and pressing herself up against him. Lisa felt her face getting flushed, and she fought to keep the tears at bay as Mack came back to help her. "This may hurt just a bit honey, ok?" He noticed the tears filling her eyes and followed her line of vision, shaking his head at what he was seeing, putting two and two together. Mack started to remove the tiny pieces of broken glass, slowly and carefully when suddenly Charlie burst in through the back door, slightly out of breath.
"Kim said you got hurt, are you alright?" He asked Lisa before he even reached the counter. Mack felt her stiffen and she turned her head slightly away from Charlie without answering. "She's fine!" Mack announced lightly, "just got a few cuts on her palm, I'm tending to it right now bro. We're good." Charlie leaned over and reached for Lisa's arm, "what happened? Are you sure you're okay Lis?"
It broke her heart to hear the concern in his voice yet she felt like smacking him right across the face at the same time. She tried to clear her throat, and in a hoarse unfamiliar voice she told him she was fine. At once, in the backyard, she heard the shrill tones of Rhonda's voice call out for Charlie. Without thinking about what she was doing, she snapped her head to the right, looked directly into his eyes and told him, "Your girlfriend's looking for you."
Mack heard Charlie draw in a sharp breath at that comment, and he busied himself with applying a few bandages to Lisa's injured hand. Charlie stared at her without speaking, seeing her beautiful brown eyes overflow with tears. He wanted to reach out, dry her face and take her in his arms but instead he attempted to defend himself, "She's not my girlfriend." Rhonda's cries became louder as she neared the house and made Lisa furiously snap back at Charlie, "Well, she's certainly acting like it today." She blinked repeatedly in an effort to stem the onslaught of tears she knew were about to start. Holding back the urge to continue arguing with her, and feeling that he himself was about to lose control, he turned and walked out of the kitchen without saying another word.
Mack quietly finished his work and smiled at Lisa, "alright, you are good to go back to the BBQ. Just take it easy for a day or two, and you should be fine." He looked at her with fatherly concern, even though he wasn't much older. Why was it so difficult for two people to acknowledge they were in love, he didn't remember things being this hard for him and Tiffy. She smiled sweetly at him, yet shook her head. "I think I've had enough for the day, thanks so much for fixing me up Mack. Please tell Tiffy I'll call her during the week." And with that, she turned and walked out of the Gerhardt residence, barely making it to the front door before the tears came in waves.