In honor of possibly the most disappointing Super bowl ever. I didn't root for either team, but they could have at least given us a show. Ugh. Since the last chapter and the chapter after this one are seriously long, I made this one a little shorter.
P.S. If Lauren was at that party...Emily had to meet her somewhere right? I promise, not all the characters in this story are going to work for the CIA. XD
Put chips and salsa in front of her and they'll be gone in a few minutes.
"Touchdown!" Stu yelled.
"Who?" I inquired as I walked into the room, two beers in hand.
"Seattle! My boys!"
"That's really weird, Stu..." Lauren laughed. Annie had invited her along as Lauren's sister wanted some bonding time with Abigail. That way Lauren could get out of the house by herself for the first time in a long time. She had been out with us before and it was at an outing at Allen's that we introduced her to Stu. They immediately hit it off. I also discovered that Lauren worked in the IT department of the seventh floor executives in our building, whom Annie had to refer to whenever she needed tech help and my team was out of the office.
"It's not weird," he chuckled as I heard the thump of him collapsing down onto the couch. "I'm weird. There's a difference."
I shook my head at them and retraced my steps out of Stu's living room to find Annie and Emily again. They weren't as interested in football as the rest of us, so they were sitting at the dining room table, just chatting away.
"And then he said – ah, your delivery boy is back."
"I thought you'd gotten lost." Annie laughed.
"You can't get rid of me that easily." I teased as I found her hand and placed one of the beers into it.
"Thank you," she said. "Now, where were we?"
"Nate and Shelly, on third floor."
"Oh yeah!"
Chuckling, I kissed Annie's cheek and left them to their ramblings, joining Barber on a small couch in the living room.
"Stu's in his happy place." Barber joked.
"Because Seattle's winning?"
"Worse. They're kicking the Bronco's asses."
"Great. We'll never hear the end of it."
"Touchdown!"
"Nope."
"You guys hungry? I'm going to go grab some snacks from the kitchen." Lauren stated.
"Some more pretzels might be nice..."
"Are there still hot dogs in the fridge?"
"I'll help you," Grinning, I stood and found Lauren's elbow.
"Thanks, Auggie. You can't pull those two away from the game for anything."
"Oh, I'm sure you could get Stu away by doing something..."
She swatted my arm. "Very funny, Anderson." I laughed with her as we crossed the dining room to get to the kitchen.
"Are you guys getting food?" Clara asked.
"We are. Care to join us?" I heard chairs scraping against the hard wood floor and soon I felt Annie next to me as we made our way into the kitchen.
"I always come for food." She muttered. I released Lauren's elbow as she and Emily started raiding the cabinets and fridge for something to eat. Finding Annie's shoulders, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close, speaking so only she could hear.
"Enjoying your time?"
"I am. How are you with the screaming banshees' in there?"
"That was so not a penalty!"
"Why do you think I'm now in here?" She laughed her beautiful laugh and leaned against me.
"You came in here for food, I thought. A man has to have his priorities."
"Food comes in second place."
"Really?" She questioned. "And what's first?"
"You."
"You're just trying to butter me up because you dragged me here."
"You wanted to see Emily and Lauren..."
"It's the Super bowl. I don't watch the Super bowl."
"Neither do I." She swatted my arm and laughed.
"Very funny."
"So...we have some goldfish, some cookies...Stu, you really need to restock your kitchen!" Emily yelled.
"I said we could order a pizza!" He called.
"I've got this." Emily stated, and I heard her rummaging in her pocket to grab her cell phone. "Favorites?"
"Anything and everything." I responded.
"Ditto." Annie and Lauren agreed.
"Be right back," Emily's steps faded away as she went into one of the nearby bedrooms to make the call. Lauren was still searching through Stu's kitchen, trying to find something to tide us over.
"Oh hey! There's a whole bunch of chips in this cabinet! Do we have salsa?"
"He has chips?" Annie asked hopefully. Oh boy...
I felt a slight gust of wind as she flew by me and opened the fridge. Her little squeal told me that there definitely was salsa in the fridge.
"Got some!" She said triumphantly.
"Great! We can have some chips and salsa before the pizza gets here." Laruen threw the bags of chips on the counter, the bags making a crinkling sound.
"I'm warning you now, Laruen...Annie has a weird love for chips and salsa."
"And you don't for hot dogs?" Annie threw back.
"They're hot dogs. What's not to love about them?"
"Many, many things."
"Don't put this on me." Lauren laughed at us and opened the bags.
"So I should get my fill before I let Annie loose on them?"
"Yep."
"I'm not that in love with them." Annie scoffed.
"We'll see," I muttered. We sat, ate and chatted after Emily came back with the news that the pizza was to be delivered within the hour.
"Are the boys still glued to the TV?" She asked as she pulled out a stool to the kitchen counter.
"Um, excuse me?" I asked, pointing to myself.
"Sorry, Aug." She giggled.
"It's their loss. I'm sitting in here with a bunch of attractive women and they're sitting in there watching grown men tackle each other to the ground." I proudly stated, bringing a chip to my lips.
"I thought you liked football?" Annie asked through a mouthful.
"I do. Just not as much as food or women."
Annie swallowed before answering. "You're such a pervert."
"Only for you darling."
I hadn't even noticed Emily and Lauren laughing at us. "You two are seriously the best thing to watch." Lauren explained.
"Glad we're entertaining." Annie laughed as she munched on another chip. I grinned as I discovered that Annie was eating faster than the rest of us and I slowly left the chips in front of her as I ran my little experiment. It didn't take long.
"Oh, we're out of chips. Here, I'll get the other bag." Lauren slipped off her stool to grab the other bag and I just sat there with a grin on my face.
"What are you grinning at?" Annie whispered.
"You?"
"What?"
"I told you that you were love..."
"...what?"
"Just admit it." I chuckled. I was being a little harsh, yes, but it was fun poking her buttons.
"...are you calling me fat?" Whoops.
"No! I'm just saying I found your favorite snack."
"Maybe you did...what's so bad about it?"
"Nothing...besides the fact that you denied it."
"You denied at first that your favorite food was hot dogs."
"Because I thought there was another possibility...but hamburgers just couldn't measure up."
She was silent for a moment but then burst out laughing.
"We're...we're arguing about favorite foods."
"Better than arguing about other things right?" I laughed with her.
The doorbell rang then, signaling that our pizza had arrived.
"Are either of you boys going to get that?" Emily yelled to the living room. Barber and Stu were closer to the door, but it didn't sound like they moved. "Useless. Useless boys..."
We all laughed as Emily made her way to the front door. I reached out, attempting to grab Annie's hand, but instead I found her forearm, as if she had been reaching for something...
"Really?"
"Don't judge."
It was certainly a Super bowl party we would never forget.
This one was a bit of a filler. It's not my favorite, but at least now I get to write the chapter I've been waiting to write forever! As always, please read, review, and enjoy!