Danielle noticed them the second they entered the bar. Auggie was laughing and Annie simultaneously looked at him and guided him through the crowd with practiced ease. Annie's hair was curly and clearly still damp, Auggie's was its usual barely controlled chaos but Danielle would bet if she ran her hands through it it was still damp too.
Annie spotted her quickly and plotted a course through the odd Wednesday night crowd. Once they were at the table she took Auggie's hand from her elbow and put it on the back of a chair to orient him before launching herself into Danielle's arms.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me you were coming," Annie said by way of greeting.
"I wanted to surprise you for once and I am here for a whole week so I figured at some point you would actually be here to surprise. Hi Auggie," Danielle moved from her sister and brushed her hand against Auggie's.
"Hello Danielle," he smiled and opened his arms to the woman.
Danielle wrapped her arms around him and inhaled a very strong whiff of shampoo, yep freshly showered, the both of them. Danielle had a fleeting moment of jealousy at the early days of romance.
"It's never this crowded in here on a Wednesday," Annie commented looking around at the mostly female crowd.
"I think there was a speed dating thing going on," Danielle replied.
Annie shrugged and looked for a waitress, the couple she could see looked harried.
"I'll just go to the bar," Annie surrendered, "what color beer would you like?" she squeezed Auggie's thigh under the table.
"Mmmmm it's spring now, we need to move on to the wheat based beers, so something the color of your hair please," he grinned and Annie kissed him quickly.
She pointed to Danielle's half empty glass of wine, "Chardonnay?" and Danielle nodded.
Auggie produced his wallet and just handed it over. Annie jogged around a group of young drunk women and was out of ear shot when Danielle turned to Auggie.
"How do you know what color her hair is?"
"Danielle, I have listened to men describe Annie to me for over 3 years now, but the funniest moment ever was the night a very drunk coworker of ours compared her hair to the beer he was drinking. I think she was flattered, but I like to tease her about it every time I have a wheat beer," he grinned.
"She looks good, happy and healthy," the last word was followed by the final swallow of her wine.
"She is healthy and I think she's happy, I hope she is, I'm happy. She's happy you're here," Auggie found Danielle's hands clasped on the table and patted them before he babbled further.
"I am so glad," Danielle sandwiched Auggie's hand between her two.
"Hitting on my boyfriend again?" Annie snarked as she maneuvered the 3 drinks onto the table without spilling.
"He is awfully cute," Danielle smiled and released Auggie's hand.
"Again?" Auggie asked with curiosity.
"I was in 7th grade and Kevin O'Malley asked me to the school dance and he and his dad showed up to pick me up and this one over here, with her additional 4 years of puberty and, you know, breasts, came flouncing into the room in half a shirt and derailed my whole evening," Annie sighed dramatically.
"Oh Annie, I wasn't hitting on Kevin, I was hitting on his father," Danielle smirked.
"I missed so much growing up with only brothers," Auggie sipped his beer.
"We had some wicked fights," Annie laughed.
"Do you still have that bald spot where I pulled out your hair?" Danielle reached over and combed through Annie's damp hair.
"It grew back thank you very much," she patted her hair defensively.
The three joked and laughed and drank for a couple hours until Danielle stifled a yawn.
"OK, even though it is 3 hours earlier in my body the flight did me in, I am done. If you are still here on Saturday can we do a girls' day, no offense Auggie," Danielle smiled.
"None taken, she's all yours."
"Trying to get rid of me?"
"Didn't you just tell me you desperately needed a pedicure?" he reasoned.
"It's settled, I'll make the appointments," Danielle stood and the other 2 followed.
Annie and Auggie waited as Danielle got a cab and then walked the few steps down the block to Auggie's apartment. Auggie slid the loft door open for the 2nd time that night and Annie flipped the light switch and laughed.
"What?" Auggie asked in midstride.
"I didn't do a very good job cleaning up, be careful there are apples all over the floor," she bent down to retrieve a few of them.
"Huh?"
"Earlier, we knocked over the bowl on the counter with the apples," she tried to jog his memory.
"Oh earlier when you couldn't make it 50 feet to the bed? Then?" he smirked and she wanted to admonish him, but he was right.
"Did you know?" she asked cryptically as she tried to wrangle all the apples.
"Know what?" he replied legitimately confused.
"Did you know that once we started this," she tugged him close and kissed him soundly, "we wouldn't be able to keep our hands off each other?" she proved her point by unbuttoning his shirt and walking him back towards the bed.
"Yes," his voice was already thick with desire.
She stumbled and hit the back of her heel on the steps leading up to the bedroom. She pulled Auggie down with her and he braced himself for the fall so as not to crush her, but the laws of physics resulted in enough contact for Annie to moan, "now" against his lips.
TBC…
