This is kind of a combination chapter- a lot of fluffy Eric and Angela to counter the drama of Cory and Topanga. Jack and Rachel (and the kids) will make their way to town in the next chapter. Yay! I hate that I made them live in Texas, lol. And I promise, Aunt Trish's visit is coming very soon. Also, if it seemed like Cory and Topanga's conversation went a little too well, remember it's just their first one. It's not over by a long shot.
And thank you for the good thoughts. They seem to be doing something. :-) And as always, the reviews are awesome. :-)
Cory had no idea how long he had been standing in the hallway outside his apartment, trying to work up the nerve to go inside. He tried to rationalize his hesitation by telling himself he was afraid of waking Topanga at almost five o'clock in the morning, but he knew that was a lie. He had almost taken his parents up on their offer to sleep at the house and come home later in the day, or even tomorrow after Easter dinner, but this conversation was too important to put off any longer. He had taken the almost two hour train ride directly from the airport. Cory did his best to quietly unlock the door and let himself in, thankful Topanga remembered not to put the chain on the door.
He had expected his wife to be sound asleep in bed. He was half right. Topanga was asleep, but she was on the couch with files and legal documents all around her. This wasn't uncommon for her either. Cory shook his head and walked over to the couch. After a moment's hesitation he carefully removed Topanga's reading glasses. The last time she fell asleep with them on she ended up breaking them.
"Cory?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."
She sat up and stretched, sore from sleeping on the couch all night. "What time is it? Are you just getting home?"
"About four thirty, and yes, I just got home. We were stuck in Nashville longer than we anticipated because of weather delays."
"You should've called me when you got in. I would've picked you up from the train station. Though, I'm surprised you didn't just stay in Philadelphia overnight."
Cory sat at the other end of the couch, careful not to upset her papers. "I thought about it, but I wanted to get home. We need to talk."
She sighed knowing he was probably going to bring up moving or counseling again. "I know, I know...we do need to talk, but could we possibly do it when I've had more than three hours of sleep and you've had...did you sleep at all?"
"No." There were too many annoyed people at the airport and an annoying kid kicking his seat on the plane. Then on the train he was too busy thinking about how to explain what happened to Topanga to sleep. "No, I haven't slept since yesterday morning when we checked out of the hotel."
"Is this a big conversation?" She already knew the answer. All of their conversations, even the innocent ones, were tinged with seriousness lately.
"Pretty big," Cory admitted, nodding his head.
"So we should probably get some sleep before we talk, right?" She began to gather the legal documents that were all around her, making sure they remained in their proper order. "Because when we talk on no sleep it can get ugly."
He wanted to talk now, but knew his wife had a point. They both got pretty testy with each other when they were exhausted and right now Cory felt like he could fall asleep standing up. "That actually sounds like a good idea." Who knew the next time he would get to sleep in bed with Topanga without her completely hating him? Right now it seemed like she was indifferent to him and that might be preferable to hate.
"Okay." Topanga was surprised. Usually when Cory wanted to talk, he wanted to talk then and there. No delays. She couldn't decide if him wanting to wait was a good thing or not. She set her papers on the table and stood up. "Let's go."
He turned off the lamp she had left on. "Okay."
"So, how was Florida? Catch any home runs?"
"No, Eric did, though."
"Eric? Wait, did he actually catch it or did it hit him and he's just telling everyone he caught it? Because that's what he did at one of the Yankees' game we all went to."
/
/
"Hey, no, you're not supposed to be awake yet." Angela closed the bedroom door with her foot while trying not to spill the two mugs in her hands. Eric happened to be exiting the en suite bathroom as she was coming back into his room. "It was going to be a surprise."
"What was going to be a..." Eric trailed off as he noticed what Angela was wearing, or not wearing. He had never seen that lingerie before. Was the color orange? Pink?
"It's peach," she smiled as she walked around him to set the mugs on the nightstand.
"Huh?"
"The color, it's peach."
"I said that out loud?"
"Yeah."
"So, um what's...what's the surprise?" He was having trouble focusing. "You weren't wearing that last night were you?"
"No."
"Oh, good."
"Why is that good?"
"Because then I would be the biggest idiot in the world for just going to sleep last night if you were wearing this." He grabbed Angela's hand, pulling her close for a kiss. "So, what is this surprise you're working on?"
"I was going to make you breakfast. I had a whole dinner planned last night, but..." Now she was the one with difficulty focusing as Eric was kissing his way down her jaw, to her neck, and when he moved aside the spaghetti strap on her chemise, Angela knew she had to regain control of the situation. "Eric, wait. Eric!"
He raised his head from her shoulder and looked at her, an annoyed expression on his face. "What?"
"Did you hear a word I said?"
"Yeah, yeah, breakfast and something about dinner. Why are you worrying about dinner now? It's too early."
"It's so nice to know you pay attention when I talk."
"You're wearing that and expect me to think?" He tried to pick up where he left off kissing her neck, but was stopped when Angela lifted his face in her hands and moved him away. "You are being very difficult this morning."
"Well, I'm trying to be romantic for once." She pulled Eric closer for a gentle kiss. "I know you said you loved how spontaneous our 'I love you' was and that any effort into planning it wouldn't have been us, but does that mean we can't do a little to celebrate now?"
He wrapped his arms around her waist, just now realizing how much her stomach was starting to get in the way of a simple hug. "So, you're trying to be romantic and I'm..."
"We both know what you are," she smirked.
"It's been almost week." He tried to defend himself. "And I was stuck in Florida sharing a hotel room with Cory."
"That is true." Angela stroked the side of his face. "I guess you have suffered enough."
"Great." Eric picked her up and carried her a few steps to the bed.
"Eric," she giggled as he laid her down.
"What?"
"Breakfast..."
"Breakfast can wait."
"But…"
"Is there anything on the stove, anything that will burn or send my apartment up in flames?"
"Well...no." She ran her hands up his arms. "I hadn't actually started cooking yet."
"Again, great."
"Your tea is going to get cold," Angela noted as she wrapped one of her legs around his waist, "so is my coffee."
"That's what microwaves are for."
"Good point," she conceded. She closed her eyes, expecting Eric to kiss her or do...something. Instead he did nothing. When Angela opened her eyes again she found him staring down at her, smiling. "What are you doing? I believe you left off somewhere near my neck, remember?"
He chuckled softly and gently kissed the side of her neck. "I know, believe me, I remember."
"Then why are you just staring at me?"
"You won't laugh at me?"
"What are you talking about? Since we've been together when have I ever laughed at you? With you, sure, but at you?"
"Well, I was just thinking about how beautiful you are and how lucky I am to have you to come home to."
"What's so funny about that? That's sweet," she smiled.
"Then I felt kind of stupid."
"Why would you feel stupid?"
"Because I realized I haven't told you I love you."
Angela stared up at him in confusion. "Eric what are you talking about? Of course you've told me you love me. We said it a bunch of times already, just in the past few days."
"Yes, over the phone. We haven't actually said it in person yet."
"We haven't?" Angela thought back to when he got home last night and since they've been awake and talking this morning. Eric was right. She briefly mentioned it in her effort to be romantic, but they hadn't said it since he came home. "Oh, I guess you're right."
"I guess I want to make sure it's not just something we say when we're apart and missing each other." Eric knew he was babbling, but he wanted Angela to know that there was no pressure if she was having second thoughts about saying I love you. It had meant everything to him to hear it, but if she wasn't ready, then he could wait again until she was. "Or you know...if you changed your mind and feel like we jumped the gun saying it that's okay. I can wait until you're more sure."
"Wait, do you think I regret saying I love you?"
He was unable to look her in the eye, so he focused on the dark green pillowcase. "I don't know."
She took his face in her hands and made him look at her. "Hey, what you said that night is true for me, too."
"What did I say?"
"I'm paraphrasing, but basically you wouldn't say something that you didn't mean. I feel the same. I said I love you and I meant it. I love you." Angela wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, hoping it conveyed all of the emotion she felt at that moment and gave him whatever reassurance he seemed to need.
Eric broke the kiss only when the need for air was overwhelming. "I love you, too." He rested his forehead against hers'.
"Not just for my amazing kissing skills, right?" They both laughed.
"No, well, not just that. Though, those are pretty great, too."
"So, what was that just now?" Even though Angela knew Eric wasn't confident 100% of the time, he put on a great facade and she wasn't used to him going from fine to totally vulnerable in the blink of an eye. That was her department, especially lately.
"I don't know, "he shook his head, "momentary weakness, lapse in judgement."
"It's not a weakness if it's what you were really feeling," she pointed out. "And just so you know, I was going to tell you today. I mean, I had planned a breakfast and everything. You just have this remarkable talent for distracting me," Angela smiled. "You are the one who said breakfast can wait, correct?"
He grinned. "That sounds like me."
"So, what are you waiting for? Finish properly distracting me." She leaned her head to the side to give him better access to her neck. "I believe you left off somewhere around here."
/
/
"Did you sleep at all?" Topanga came out of the bedroom and found Cory at the table, eating a sandwich and reading the sports section.
"Some," he shrugged. "I guess I got used to the sounds of the beach. It'll take a few days to get used to the city noise again." He looked up as she sat across from him. "You don't have to work today?"
"No, believe it or not I don't have to go in at all this weekend."
That was hard to believe. That almost never happened. "Wow."
"I know. Look, Cory, let me get some coffee in me and then we can talk about the bigger apartment again."
"The bigger apartment?"
"Isn't that you wanted to talk about?" Topanga walked over to the tiny kitchen area. "I talked to Angela and she mentioned that she and Eric are going to be moving in together and getting a new place because they need more space for the baby. I figured Eric probably brought it up and that's why you wanted to talk."
"No, well I mean he did tell me about it, but that's not what I wanted to talk about."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. You see..." He sighed. "Can you sit down?"
"Okay." The second Topanga was seated at the table Cory got up and started pacing the length of their apartment. "Cory, you're making me very nervous."
"Eric packed a duck."
She wasn't expecting that to be his opening sentence. "Huh? What duck? What are you talking about?"
"A duck, this stuffed toy that he bought for the baby, he packed it and brought it with him to Florida. And the brought books so he could read it a bedtime story every night when he called to talk to Angela."
"That's sweet," she smiled, "and sounds like something Eric would do." She also knew it was something Cory would do if she were pregnant, but Topanga pushed that thought out of her head.
"Right, well, he would sit out there on the balcony every night with the duck and Dr. Seuss, talking to Angela and then to her stomach. How much could I take? I couldn't sleep. I couldn't do anything." He rubbed his forehead.
"Is this your way of saying Eric didn't make it back from Florida and you need a lawyer?" He was being so serious it was starting to scare her. Maybe making a joke would help.
Cory just continued on with his tale. "I went to my dad's room. I asked to stay with him and Josh. He said no, to work out any issues with Eric. I just couldn't go back in there right then and listen to my brother rehearse for his father of the year award before the kid is even born."
Topanga pushed her mug away, not liking the way this was going. The kids argument never ended well. She just wasn't ready yet and doing anything to cause a slight delay to her career could be damaging at this point. "What did you do?"
"I went to the hotel bar."
"The bar? Cory, you hate bars. You don't like the people bars attract, at least late at night."
"I know, but there was nowhere else to go."
"So, you went to a bar, so what? What happened, did you get drunk and act stupid in front of people you'll never see again? Cory, we've all been there. Remember the first time I tried tequila? You had to carry me out of the sports bar."
"There was a woman in the bar," he said quietly.
"Excuse me?"
"I ordered my drink and when I tried to pay the bartender said it was already taken care of. She was part of a bachelorette party, the maid of honor. After the rest of the bridal party left to find a more active party, Marissa came to talk to me."
"Marissa?" Topanga spat out the name.
"Yeah." He sank down into the couch. "Her name was Marissa." For the longest time neither one of them spoke. It felt like an eternity. "Topanga, say something."
"Was she pretty?"
"What?"
"You're putting our marriage in jeopardy here, so she'd better be like Miss America gorgeous or something. Was she pretty?"
"Yeah."
"So, then what happened after that?"
"We...we talked."
"That's it?" She looked at him in disbelief. "You talked."
"For three hours."
"Three hours? What on earth could you have talked about for three hours?"
"I don't know, our lives, everything...nothing. It was just nice to have a conversation with a woman that didn't instantly dissolve into an argument or have our words get twisted around."
Topanga, who had been rather unemotional until this point, felt tears burning her eyes. It wasn't because of what Cory was saying, not just because that anyway, but because she knew exactly what he meant. She'd lost count of the times she would talk something over with Shawn or a male coworker if she needed a guy's perspective instead of Cory simply because it had become so easy for something innocent to dissolve into an argument.
"And then she asked me to her room."
"What?"
"She asked me..."
"Cory, the next part of your story better be that you ran screaming from the bar and went back to your room." He remained silent. "What did you do, Cory," she whispered.
He got up from the couch and went over to his wife, kneeling down in front of her. "Nothing happened. I swear to you, Topanga, nothing happened."
"Did you go to her room?"
"It was like an out of body experience," he began. "One minute I'm at the bar and the next minute she's leading me by the hand to the elevators. I don't even remember agreeing to go."
"Cory..." Her eyes darted around the room, unable to look at him.
"I just couldn't believe I was standing there, that things had gotten so bad between us where I had actually spent the past few hours in a hotel bar talking to another woman and was now on my way up to her room. I never in a million years thought that could happen to me, to us." Cory took a deep breath to keep himself in check. "That happens to other people, Topanga, not to us."
She finally looked at him when she heard the emotion in his voice. "Go on...what happened then."
"We got to her door and I froze. It was like I woke the hell up and realized what I was about to do. Then I realized if I went into that room, any chance of things getting better for us would go out the window."
"Really?"
"I told her nothing was going to happen and went back to my room. Eric was waiting up for me, if you can believe that." He shook his head.
"Actually, I can." Topanga got up from the chair and walked over to the window in the living room. She looked at the people down below going about their lives- strangers, the guy at the newsstand where she buys the paper every day, the couple who own the fruit cart on the corner that sell the best oranges she's ever eaten. Did they do what she did? Bury their heads in the sand and put on a happy facade to face the outside world or were they really that happy?
"You believe me, right Topanga?"
"What?" She didn't turn to face him.
"You believe that nothing happened, right"
"Yes, I believe you." And she did. Topanga knew Cory wouldn't go through the trouble of telling her only to mix in the truth with some lies.
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know." She turned away from the window and walked toward the bedroom. She pulled a suitcase out from under the bed and started throwing various things inside.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to go to my mom's for a few days."
"You're going to Pittsburgh? I thought you said you believed me."
"I do, Cory, I do believe you, but you still almost went into her room. I need some time to wrap my mind around this whole situation." She sat down on their bed. "We really are in trouble, aren't we?"
"Why do you think I've been asking you to go to marriage counseling?"
/
/
"I've made a decision," Eric declared, kissing Angela's shoulder.
"You're shaving?"
"You don't like it?"
She laughed when he rubbed his face down her arm. "Stop." She turned in his arms so they were facing each other. "It's not that I don't like it," Angela lightly touched his face, "but it's scratchy and it tickles."
"Don't worry, I'll have to shave by the time I have to go back to work on Monday."
"So this is what, 'Vacation Eric'?"
"Exactly. Speaking of vacations, that brings me back to what I was going to say about the decision I made."
"Okay, what is this decision?"
"No more separate trips." He leaned down to kiss her. "At least not for a long time."
"That sounds good to me. But what if another work thing comes along?"
"I will simply follow along like a hopeless little puppy. If it's okay with you, that is."
Angela laid her head on his chest and held his hand, lacing their fingers together. "Work stuff we'll talk about, but definitely no more separate vacations for a while." They laid together quietly for a while. When she finally tried to get up, Eric held her in place. "What are you doing?"
"I've made another decision- spending all day in bed would be fun."
"Yes, it would be, but I need to eat and what was supposed to be breakfast will be a late lunch at this point. Tadpole is letting its displeasure be known," she laughed, moving his hand down to her stomach.
"This is still not old." He grinned as the baby pushed against his hand. "Hey, you don't think..."
"No, Eric, the baby has no idea what is going on during sex."
"But..."
"No. Come on, you've read more pregnancy books than I have. You know this. It has no idea. All it knows is that mommy is happy so baby is happy. And right now, this mommy wants food or she will no longer be happy."
"Then let's get you food."
/
"What's with all this brownie stuff," Eric asked as he grabbed a second helping of scrambled eggs.
"I'm making brownies later."
"Oh, duh, that does make sense. More coffee," he asked.
She nodded. "Your mom asked me to make a dessert for tomorrow so I'm bringing cheesecake brownies."
"Cheesecake brownies, that's a thing?"
"Yes, and they are delicious."
"Why haven't you made them for me yet?"
"I don't know, it's not like I've had a ton of time to just hang around and bake. But don't worry, I'm making two batches, one to keep here and one to take with us."
"Aw, you really do love me. Nothing says it better than brownies."
"Well, great," she smiled, "that really takes the pressure off your birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, anniversaries, upcoming Father's Days, and any other day I just feel like doing something special for you. I won't have to come up with gifts. I'll just make you brownies."
"Wait a minute, I want gifts," he pouted.
Angela pretended to think about it for a minute. "Okay, I guess I'll get you gifts from time to time."
"And brownies?"
"And brownies," she conceding, laughing at him.
"And you'll wear that?"
She looked down at the peach gown Eric had talked her into putting back on. "Now you're just being greedy, don't you think?"
"Maybe a little." He heard the muffled sounds of his phone coming from his duffle bag. "Ugh, perfect day interrupted. I don't want to talk to anyone else today."
"There's no law saying you have to answer."
"You know you're right. I forget I have that option. So, what did you do to kill time while I was gone?"
"Nothing much. Worked, hung out with your mom and Morgan, played with Thor..."
"You rearranged my kitchen." Eric gestured to his cabinets.
"Things make more sense this way. Besides, now our kitchens match. I got tired of waking up in the middle of the night and going for water and grabbing a can of corn instead of a glass."
"Did you have any more dreams?"
Angela got up and put her plate in the sink. "You know, if you really don't like it, I can put everything back the way it was."
He followed her to the sink and wrapped his arms around her. "Angela?"
"Two dreams."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I wanted to call, but it was the middle of the night and I knew Cory was already driving you nuts and I didn't want him to give you more a hard time. Plus I also didn't want to think I was calling so late because something was wrong."
"That's very sweet, but me and Cory could've dealt with it. Anything new in the dream or do you still not remember anything?"
"Something new," she admitted, hugging him tight. "An airport."
"What about an airport?"
"That's it, that's all I could remember, looking around and I can tell I'm in an airport."
"Is it where you last saw Joyce?"
"No," she shook her head, "it's a different airport."
"Okay, so what else happened?"
"I told you, all I remember is that I'm in an airport. I don't remember anything else."
"Maybe you'll remember more soon."
"I don't know if that's good or bad."
"It's got to be better than not knowing."
"I suppose."
"You know nothing bad can happen now, right?"
"How do you figure that?"
"Well, it's time for good stuff. We've both had enough crap happen in the past and it's over with. I'm not going to allow any more of it. In fact, I forbid it."
"You forbid it?" She smiled up at him.
"Yep, anything bad has to go through me."
"I love you for saying that but, I don't want anything bad happening to you either."
"Fine, then from this point on there is an invisible force field around us, protecting us from all the bad crap."
"You really believe that?"
"Of course I do. Isn't that my job as the designated optimist and glass half full...person in this relationship?"
"I believe we've agreed that is your role, yes." Angela stood on her toes to kiss him, but was distracted by a noise from the living room. "What was that?" She and Eric walked into the living room and found Thor pouncing Eric's duffle bag and biting the handles. "What is he doing?"
"Oh, yeah, he gets angry when I go away for more than a day or two and takes it out on my luggage. Closing him out of the bedroom this morning probably didn't help."
"Well, he always tries to watch us make out. It's creepy."
"He seems pretty distracted now."
"So?"
"We have a clean getaway. You want to go back to bed?"
Angela hit his arm. "Eric!"
"What? Don't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing."
"I was not."
"Liar," he laughed. "You were going to kiss me before the cat distracted you. At least I'm honest. You said all you had to do today was make brownies for tomorrow. Hmm, although those brownies do sound pretty good. I wouldn't be opposed to brownies right now."
"So sex and brownies, that's pretty much all you're going to think about today?"
"Once again, at least I'm honest." He smiled, waiting to see what she was going to do.
Angela shook her head and laughed. "I'd offer to race you to the bedroom, but given this," she gestured to her bump, "you'd have an unfair advantage."
"How about I give you a head start and enjoy the view?"
/
/
Cory set his phone on the counter and walked over to the couch and laid down. Eric wasn't answering his phone. Then again, why should Eric answer his phone? He was happy with his girlfriend and they were having a baby and moving in together and probably enjoying making up for lost time. Why the hell would he expect his brother to answer the phone? He wouldn't in Eric's situation.
He didn't want to bother Shawn. This was his last day in Texas with Jack and Rachel before everyone flew out to visit and Cory wanted to give his best friend more time with his family. He couldn't call him. Talking to Naomi would be the same as calling Shawn.
Cory didn't want to involve his parents or Mr. Feeny. Not today anyway. They would find out tomorrow when he showed up for dinner and he had to explain that his wife was over three hundred miles away in Pittsburgh.
Walking Topanga to the car was very odd, very surreal. She still hadn't gotten truly mad at him like he was expecting, like he felt he deserved. Instead she had stayed remarkably calm. Maybe she was in a state of shock, Cory suspected he still was. He was going over every problem with their marriage in his head. He's done a lot over the years to try and fix his marriage and almost did one very big thing that could've ended it all the while it seems like Topanga just gone to work. Instead of feeling the outrage he would usually feel, Cory just felt tired and numb.
