A/N: If you follow me on twitter, you already know that I screwed up the upcoming chapters' timeline. I am in the process of fixing it and hopefully I'll have it figured out by next weekend.
Because I had to rearrange the order of the events of this and the next 5-6 chapters, this chapter might feel a little all over the place. I apologize. For two days, I tried my best to fix it and this is the best I could do. Please be gentle when you review. Thank you to everyone for being so supportive.
Seattle | January 2020
The doorbell rang and Elena slid out of Damon's arms, giving him a regretful smile. "They're here. I guess the holidays are officially over now." She checked the intercom. "Top floor, guys," she said and pressed the buzzer to let her friends in.
"I'll go make a fresh pot of coffee for you and your study buddies before I leave," Damon said. He accepted Elena's kiss that lingered for a few seconds before disappearing into the kitchen.
Elena opened the door as she heard footsteps clambering up the stairs.
"Wow, you live here?" Amber said, walking past Elena into the room proper and taking a look around. "You loaded or something?"
Daisy followed. "Hey Elena," Daisy greeted as she stepped inside. "How cool is that; you live right above the bar I sometimes hang out at."
"By sometimes she means at least every other day. And she's not hanging out, she's stalking the waiter."
"He's not a waiter."
"How would you know? Have you talked to him?"
"I'm working up to it."
The doorbell rang again and Elena pushed the buzzer, not bothering with the intercom. "All the way up," she called out into the stairwell and turned back to the girls. "You can spread out over there," Elena said, motioning to the dining table off to one side of the large room.
"Christ, it's cold out there," Luis exclaimed as he stepped inside.
Elena ushered them all inside. "Who wants some coffee to warm up?"
"Yes, please. Coffee. Lots of it," Deja almost moaned, already nibbling on a biscuit Elena had set out on the table.
Elena laughed. "Damon just put on a fresh pot." As if on cue, Damon came into the room carrying a large thermos and mugs which Elena took from him and set down next to the plate of cookies. "Guys," she said, leaning into Damon's side, "this is Damon, my husband. And these are Deja, Amber, Luis, Daisy, and Ryan," Elena finished introductions, pointing to each of them.
Damon waved back at the chorus of 'hi' and 'hellos' and a serious sounding bout of choked coughing.
"Oh my god, Daisy, are you okay?" Elena exclaimed, hurrying to her friend's side when she noticed her choking on the cookie.
"Uh-huh, peachy," Daisy croaked between coughs and Deja reached over, calmly patting her back while Damon filled a glass of water and passed it to her. "Thanks," Daisy replied when she'd calmed down.
"Hey," Damon said, eyes narrowing, "I know you. You're one of our regulars at Bar None."
Daisy turned red, well, redder. "Uh-huh," she replied to the curious stares of her study buddies who had never seen her so tightlipped before.
Deja grabbed the coffee thermos and poured herself a cupful before leaning back smugly, having put two and two together. She smirked. "You're really not a waiter, then, I'm guessing?" she asked Damon.
Damon frowned at the strangely phrased question but before he could answer, Elena cut in, "Damon owns the bar downstairs. And he works the counter some of the evenings, mostly when they're short-staffed. You know each other?"
"No," Deja said while Damon shook his head.
"Okaaay," Elena drawled, missing something but not knowing what.
"I have to go get ready," Damon spoke quietly to Elena and she nodded, squeezing his hand as he walked away. Everybody busied themselves with pulling out books and notes or warming their frozen fingers on a hot drink.
Damon came back down a few minutes later, dressed all in black for his shift at the bar. He set down a large bowl of snacks. "Almost forgot," he gestured towards the bowl filled with all kinds of chocolates, sweets, and gummy bears. "Brain food."
Deja's eyes rolled back in ecstasy. "Oh god, marry me," she almost moaned, reaching for a chocolate bar immediately.
"Too late," Elena answered. "He's already taken." She wound her arms around Damon's waist, holding tight.
"I was talking to the chocolate," Deja replied and everyone chuckled.
"Gotta go, babe," Damon whispered, pressing his lips to the side of Elena's head.
"Okay." Elena walked a few steps with him towards the door, not really out of sight of her new friends but enough to pretend they weren't being watched. She lifted her head for a kiss and Damon obliged, keeping it short and sweet. He was out the door the next second and Elena returned to the dining table and her friends all staring at her. "What?" she asked defensively.
"Oh, nothing," Deja answered, "It's just that… if you weren't so damn nice, I'd very much enjoy to hate you."
"Yep," Amber replied cheerily while rummaging through Damon's brain food bowl for more peanut butter cups. The guys shared a look and nodded their agreement.
Elena's mouth opened and closed again. She wanted to point out that she had nothing to do with acquiring and then redesigning the place they were standing in, but thought it wouldn't make much difference to her friends.
Amber's eyes slid from one member of the group to the next and settled on Elena again. Around a mouthful of chocolate, she said, "It's okay. We still like you. But like, you live here, in a loft straight out of Architectural Digest, in the middle of the city, right next to the campus. You call a guy with the bluest blue eyes I've ever seen your husband. And that's on top of yourself looking like a frikkin' supermodel. Seriously, who are you? And can you adopt me? Or at least teach me your secrets?"
Elena chuckled, half embarrassed, half charmed. She tried to hide behind her hair as she pulled out a chair and opened her textbook and notepad. "Seriously guys, I'm nothing special. Just a normal girl from Virginia." She hoped she sounded sincere.
"Right," the others scoffed, but they sounded amused rather than suspicious.
Daisy saved Elena from further embarrassment as she pointed to their books and suggested a topic to start from. Everyone agreed and started shuffling the pages. Into the busy work silence, Luis loudly whispered, "Seriously, I'd do him. And I'm not even gay."
"Too bad," Ryan immediately shot back. "You'd make beautiful babies."
Everyone snorted with laughter and it took a while for the giggles and cackles to die down. It was so rare that Ryan spoke up, that somehow even the flattest jokes sounded funny when they came out of his mouth.
Elena rolled her eyes at their antics, but enjoyed the relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Until she noticed Daisy not laughing with the rest of them. She was being uncharacteristically quiet. Elena stretched out an arm across the table and touched her hand, gathering her attention. "You okay?" she asked.
"I didn't know he was married. I'm sorry, Elena," she replied, keeping her eyes down to avoid Elena's gaze.
Elena frowned but then the penny dropped and she felt foolish for not connecting the dots sooner. "Because you've a crush on Damon? Pfft," she scoffed. "It's his fault as much as anyone else's. He flirts for business. Actually, not just for business. Flirting is kind of his default setting," Elena mused aloud. "He does this eye thing…" she trailed off when she noticed Daisy turn red again. "Anyway, don't worry about it."
"But please, for the love of god, learn to look for the clues, yeah?" Deja added. At Daisy's perplexed look, she explained, "The man wears a wedding ring. And not an inconspicuous one either."
"I haven't exactly been checking out his hands," Daisy muttered, then froze, slamming both hands to her mouth. Panicked and mortified, she lifted her eyes slowly to Elena's. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that."
Elena just laughed while the others tried hard to suppress their snickers. "Don't worry about it. I've been where you are."
"Oh?" Amber joined in, leaning in with both elbows on the table, smelling a juicy story. "Do tell." She waggled both her eyebrows.
"No," Elena emphatically declined. "Nuh-uh. We're not here for storytelling. You came here to study, so let's study."
Everybody grumbled, threatening to get the story out of her sooner or later, but eventually they all dove into their books and Elena released a small but relieved breath.
Elena stuck her head through the doorway that led to the back office. Her eyes immediately landed on Dot, but no Damon. For a moment, Elena admired Dot's outfit. They had gone shopping together earlier in the month and Elena recognized a few of the items Dot was wearing. Except, they now had a few more holes in them that, strangely enough made the clothes look more high-end than before. Elena had no idea how Dot managed to make metal studded leather and torn fishnet tights look runway-chic, but guessed it had probably a lot to do with attitude. In any case, Elena was, as usual, impressed.
She waited until Dot was done and watched as Dot professionally poured several drinks at once, made eye contact with a waitress directing her to a table where service was needed, and managed to take a few orders yelled over the din in the bar, while at the same time making cute small talk with some patrons seated at the counter. Elena felt dizzy simply from watching but Dot was a natural, completely in her element. Elena wondered if Damon was paying her enough.
"What's up?" Dot seamlessly turned from her conversation with a customer to Elena, giving her a smile.
"Have you seen my husband? He said he'd be here, but the office is empty."
Dot nodded towards the back of the room and Elena followed her gaze to where a row of small tables lined the back wall. Damon sat at the corner table, his back to the bar and hair sticking out in every direction like he'd been running his hands through it a lot.
"Is he still—?"
"Yep," Dot replied and chugged back a drink that looked like a rum and coke but was minus the rum, Elena knew. The patrons preferred a bartender who threw back an occasional drink or two, so Dot pretended to do just that.
"You want one?" she asked Elena, motioning to her own now empty glass.
"No," Elena replied with a sigh. "I'm going to go pull him away from his books." Damon had been balancing the books for weeks now, preparing the year-end accounts. Needless to say, it wasn't his favorite activity.
"Good luck to that," Dot offered and grinned. She didn't sound very optimistic about the success of the undertaking.
Elena smiled mysteriously. "I've my ways."
Dot laughed and turned her attention back to the customers.
Damon jerked in surprise when two arms slid over his chest from behind but a fraction of a second later, his body recognized Elena's. Her head to came to rest next to his, her lips touching his cheek as she spoke.
"Now look who's disappearing into his work."
Damon huffed a laugh and took the opportunity to stretch his back. He'd been hunched over this small table for ages. "Trust me," he replied, "I much prefer it the other way around. Where you have to study and it falls to me to distract you away from it."
"Oh, I'm not trying to distract you away."
"No?"
"No," Elena confirmed. "I came prepared."
She smiled and straightened. Pulling out a chair, she sat down and pulled a folded paper from her sleeve. Damon recognized it as one of the small envelopes from the box she had given them a few months ago for their anniversary.
He smiled and took it from her, unfolding the note. Long, hot soak in the tub followed by an equally long and hot massage, it read. Elena didn't really think she'd be the one to resort to using The Box for the first time, but she was happy it existed.
Damon glanced up at Elena, eyes glazing over and almost rolling back at how heavenly it sounded right now. She smiled and stood up. "I'll wait at the bar while you finish up here," she said with a nod at his work. The tabletop was covered by sheets of paper, receipts, ledgers, even napkins. Damon's computer sat on top, open to some sort of spreadsheet. "Don't take too long," she whispered before turning away.
Damon grabbed her wrist and pulled her back and down until her mouth was level with his. They kissed, the gentle touch lingering, and shared a private smile before he finally let Elena go and began gathering the paper together.
Elena met Dot at the bar who wordlessly placed a drink in front of her.
"Thank you," Elena said and took a sip.
Dot watched for a second as her boss quickly crammed sheets into a binder. Turning back to Elena, she said, "You two are so married."
"Uhm," Elena said, blinking in confusion, not knowing how to respond to that.
"I mean," Dot clarified, "you two have history."
"Doesn't every couple?" Elena returned carefully. It wasn't the first time Dot made a comment like that about her or Damon or her and Damon. It wasn't even that Dot was nosy, Elena didn't think. She and Damon were very careful about their past and Dot was a very perceptive person and picked up on it.
"Hmm."
"What?"
"You're also being evasive about it. Which makes me even more suspicious."
"Even more? What made you suspicious in the first place?" Elena asked, partly because she really wondered and partly because she was playing for time.
"Well, there's love and then there's… this," she motioned towards Elena, the gesture encompassing her whole being.
"This?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Normal couples – they act drunk or childish when they're in love, maybe overly PDA-y or disgustingly touchy-feely. But you… you act almost like… like you're ready to go to war for the other. One moment you're, like, ready to step in front of a bullet for each other, the next you act like time is precious and you're intent on getting the most out of it."
"Time is precious."
"I know that. My point is, most people are not hyper-aware of that fact."
Elena glanced over her shoulder at Damon who had just finished clearing the table. Their eyes met briefly before Elena turned back to her drink. Dot watched the exchange with attentive eyes.
"I've never seen two people so acutely aware of each other's presence," she commented.
"We're newlyweds," Elena tried to dispel Dot's overly accurate impression.
"Exactly. But if I didn't know that, I'd believe you'd been married forever. You've got this whole almost devotion-like thing going. At first I thought it's because you both know what it's like to live without the other."
"We do."
"But lots of couples do. And they don't have the intensity around them that you do. It's like you two know something the rest of us mere mortals do not."
"I am a mere mortal," Elena chuckled.
Dot narrowed her eyes. "Sometimes it feels like you're more than that."
"I don't know what you mean. We're just regular people."
"See, regular people don't have to reiterate that they're regular people."
"I pay you to pour drinks, not to drink them," Damon cut in, joining them at the bar.
Dot narrowed her eyes even more, suspicion and irritation marring her features. "Methinks, the gentleman doth protest too much," she muttered.
"Get back to work and stop harassing my wife."
"You're hiding something and I'm gonna find out what, Damon Salvatore," Dot threatened, voice rising as she moved to the other end of the counter and away from Damon and Elena. But she watered her threat down with a smile in their direction.
"Your name is Salvatore?" a female customer on the other side of the room asked, eyes glued to Damon.
"Yeah," Damon returned, appearing unconcerned as he reached under the counter for his bag. But from her vantage point Dot could see him quickly making eye contact with Elena, an indefinable look passing between the two. "Why?" Damon asked, in the same unconcerned, bordering on disinterested voice as he stuffed his computer inside. Elena, following a silent communication between the two of them, quietly slipped out the back entrance.
"Etymology is a hobby of mine. You could say I've a bit of a fable for names and yours sounds interesting," the woman explained and Dot surreptitiously cataloged her features. She was dressed in a way that made it hard to tell her age – it could have been anything between twenty and forty, really. But her eyes had a weird intensity to them that Dot found disconcerting.
"Where are you from? You don't sound like you're from around here."
Dot didn't know what this was all about but the woman sure did seem persistent. Usually, when female bar patrons sank their figurative nails into Damon like that, it was because they were flirting and wanted his phone number or waited for an opening to slip him theirs. But this one didn't seem like she was interested in Damon's body.
"I'm not," Damon admitted. "New York City, born and raised," he answered, in a frighteningly convincing East Coast accent. And if Dot hadn't known him, hadn't known that he was in fact, not from New York City, she would have believed him – no doubt about it.
Grabbing a small notepad and the serving tray from one of the waitresses who was on break right now, Dot stepped up to the woman's table. "Would you like another," she motioned towards her empty glass, successfully interrupting the weird interrogation and giving Damon the opportunity to slip out.
"Sure… Dot," the woman replied with a glance at Dot's name tag on her lapel. From up close Dot could see that she was young, probably not even yet in her thirties. But she had the look of someone who looked older than they actually were, like people sometimes did when tragedy made them age before their time.
Dot left to fill the order and returned a moment later with a fresh drink that she slowly sat down on the table, using the opportunity to study the woman more.
"Your boss is an interesting man," the woman said, openly studying Dot back.
"Is he?" Dot returned, trying for the same kind of levity that Damon had before. "I barely notice anymore. I guess that's what happens when you know someone for so long."
"How long is long?" she fished.
"Let's see…" Dot pretended to think hard. "We met during orientation week, decided college wasn't for us, and quit together a few semesters down the road. And that was… Gosh, has it really been six years already?" Dot didn't know why she was lying for Damon. She just knew that it was the right thing to do.
"Huh," the woman returned. Dot thought the woman's eyes lingered too long on her neck but maybe she was imagining it. "And his wife?"
"Oh," Dot laughed, hoping it didn't sound too strained. "Highschool sweethearts. What a cliché, right?" Damon owed her a raise after that, seriously!