Situationship
Author's Note: So, when you're in a situationship, you discover things about the other person…and others discover things about the both of you…
Let me know what you think!
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Donald Ressler walked toward the independent bookshop he saw Nina go inside. He had stayed a little longer then she had at a cooking store and needed to catch up. He opened the door, stepped inside, and was just looking around trying to spot her when he spotted someone else completely different and she spotted him.
"Liz?" He asked. It was out of his mouth before he saw the group of women sitting around in a makeshift circle with books on their laps and in their hands.
"Ressler," Liz exhaled and smiled before she realized that the six women in her book club were looking between her and her partner/lover.
"What are you…?" Ressler started and then paused. "Sorry, am I interrupt…"
"Her FBI partner Ressler?" One woman asked and he noted that Liz's face went a slight shade of pink and several other women smiled.
"Uh, yeah," Liz said as she started to stand and walk between chairs to get to him.
"So nice to meet you," another woman said to him. "We're a book club."
"Oh, wow, I didn't know you were in a book club," Ressler said as he looked at Liz walking toward him.
"Uh, yeah, for a few months," Liz said.
Just then Nina came up next to Ressler and hip checked him. "Found something. Oh, hi."
"Hi," Liz said as she looked at the beautiful blonde woman in her late twenties smiling next to Ressler. She was definitely with him.
"I'm Nina," Nina said as she stretched out her hand to shake Liz's.
Liz felt a lump in her throat but managed to reach out and shake her hand, speechless. He was dating; he was dating beautiful and smiley women.
"Liz, this is my cousin Nina," Ressler said as he cleared his throat. "She's in town for a conference. She works for Johnson & Johnson."
"Liz? Partner Liz?" Nina asked as she turned to look at Ressler surprised.
"Yeah," Ressler shifted.
"Wow, he didn't say how beautiful you are," Nina said with a smile. "I swear, men don't notice their co-workers."
Ressler cleared his throat and Liz chuckled nervously.
"Oh my god, are you reading that book?" Nina asked pointing to the book Liz was holding.
"Yeah, we just finished it for book club," Liz said, her heart starting to slow now that she knew Nina was his cousin and not the woman she totally pictured him marrying and having three kids with just 30 seconds ago.
"Oh my god, I just finished it on Monday, and I've been dying to talk with someone about it," Nina said excitedly. "Can I crash your club?"
"Nina…" Ressler hedged.
"Uh, yeah, of…of course," Liz smiled at her and turned to look at the other women in her group who all seemed to be intently watching this exchange. They all nodded.
"Thank you, ladies!" Nina smiled at them and then handed Ressler the book in her hand. "Can you pay for this? I want to know what everyone thinks of the moose…."
"The freaking moose!" One woman laughed and the group of them started to talk animatedly.
"Sorry about this," Ressler said. "She's very…extroverted."
"It's good," Liz said as she reached out and clasped his upper arm. "You didn't tell me your cousin was in town."
"I didn't expect to see her until tomorrow night," Ressler said. "But she wanted to get away from the conference, so I picked her up after work and we've been shopping."
He held up the bags in his hand. "And she needed a book because she just finished the one she brought, which is, apparently, the one all of you have been reading as well."
Liz chuckled.
"Uh, we usually do this for an hour and then head out for something to eat and drink, so…"
"Want me to pick her up in an hour so she doesn't intrude on your night?" Ressler asked, aware his cousin had just inserted herself into a group.
"No, let's see how it goes," Liz said as she turned to look at Nina and the other women laughing. "I'll text you. You heading home?"
"If this is going to take an hour, then yeah," he said with a smile.
"Okay, let me keep you in the loop," Liz smiled at him and squeezed his arm before she dropped her hand.
"Hopefully she behaves," Ressler said, looking over Liz's shoulder.
"Behave? It's a book club, Ressler," Liz chuckled.
Four hours later, he was walking into a bar that was a couple of blocks down from the bookshop where they had bumped into Liz. He heard Nina before he saw her.
"Come on!" Nina was yelling as she was dancing on a stage and singing with the band that was playing.
"Oh shit," Ressler huffed as he watched his cousin take a cowboy hat off one of the singers and place it on her head.
"Body like a back road, driven with my eyes closed, I know every curve like the back of my hand…" Nina sang with the band.
He felt a hand smack his jean-covered ass. He turned around to see Liz smiling at him before she came up beside him, snaked an arm around the back of his waist and dropped her hand into his back pocket.
"I see everyone has been drinking?" Ressler chuckled, turning his head to look at her.
She was holding a drink in her other hand and leaned down and chewed on a straw as she sipped her drink.
"Nina is amazing," Liz smiled at him and rubbed her hand in his pocket. "And although she's been drinking like a college kid on spring break, this is only my second cocktail."
He could feel his lower body responding to her attention and her body leaning into his.
"You're book club went well?" Ressler asked.
"Yeah, everyone but Nina, me, and Trish have gone home," Liz said as she looked toward Nina dancing on stage and singing with the band. "Trish's husband should be here any minute, but you need to get me and Nina home."
He nodded and one of the book club women stood while texting and grabbed her coat. She waved to Liz and Nina and then headed for the door.
"Okay, let's get Nina off the stage and get her to her hotel," Liz said as she removed her hand from his back pocket, gave his ass one more smack, and then walked toward the stage.
Nina pulled Liz up, reluctantly, on stage, and Liz ended up singing a Kenny Rogers song with Nina and the band while Ressler ordered himself a small beer and sat down to watch them have fun on stage. When the Kenny Rogers tribute was done, Liz pulled Nina off the stage, and they approached him.
"Donnie!" Nina yelled before she launched herself at him and hugged him. "This is my kind of book club."
"It is, is it?" Ressler chuckled as he released her.
"Liz is amazing," Nina said, thinking she was being quiet but definitely not being quiet. "You need to ask her out."
"I do, do I?" Ressler smirked. "There are rules at the FBI, Nina, that…"
"Rules, shmools," Nina laughed as she wrapped one arm around his back and one around Liz's shoulders. "Liz would loosen you up!"
The two of them laughed and Liz's face went a deeper shade of red. Ressler was already a tomato and grateful for the darkness of the bar.
"Maybe Ressler is the wild card and I'm the priss," Liz said with a chuckle.
"Oh, I don't doubt Donnie is a wild one," Nina chuckled as she reached for her leather jacket. "It's always the ones that look like boy scouts that aren't. He was a wild card as a kid. Now, he just hides it better."
Ressler laughed.
"How about we get you two home?" He smiled at them before he gestured for them to exit. Ten minutes later they were walking Nina up to her room in the Delta and saying a much longer goodbye than was necessary, considering she was going out to dinner with Ressler tomorrow and now it seemed Liz was joining them.
They got into the elevator and Liz pounced on Ressler, pushing him up against the elevator wall and thoroughly kissing him.
"Let's get a room," Liz whispered when her lips pulled back from his.
"A room?" Ressler asked, disbelieving.
"I want you," Liz said as she reached down and cupped him. "And you want me."
"And your apartment is twenty minutes…"
"And a room is less than that," Liz said before she kissed him again and started to change his mind.
"We have work…"
"Ressler," Liz moaned as she gyrated her hips into his.
"Jesus Christ," he huffed as he tried to think clearly.
"A room?" Liz asked as the bell dinged, indicating they were in the lobby.
"Yeah, okay," he nodded, out of breath from the kissing and her body pressing into him.
The doors opened and they made a beeline for the desk, booking a room, and getting back on the elevator in record time. They were in room 316 and peeling each other's clothes off much sooner then the drive to her apartment.
Hours later, they both took turns calling in; he citing a stomach bug and she citing an appointment she forgot about. They slept a little, made love a lot more, and at checkout time at noon, were walking across the lobby tired, satisfied, holding hands, and wearing the same clothes as the night prior when Nina spotted them.
Instinctually, Nina almost called out to them both but then stopped herself when she saw them holding hands. Then, Nina realized their clothes were the same. Finally, Nina clued into the fact that they were in a hotel, her hotel, after supposedly dropping her off last night at checkout time the next morning.
"Holy shit," Nina said as she watched Ressler hand in the key card at the front desk and Liz casually swipe a hand across his back. That was not the swipe of a friend. That was the swipe of someone who had possession of your body.
Donnie laughed at something the clerk said and turned to smile at Liz and Nina saw it. Love. They weren't just knocking boots, he was in love with her. It was plain as day on his face.
They walked away from the desk and Nina scooted behind a couple of colleagues who were talking about a new time release technology. She watched them walk out the front doors and Don start them toward where the car was parked but Liz pulled on his arm to stop. He turned and looked at her, obviously confused. She pointed at something across the street, and he seemed to need some convincing because she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.
"She loves him too," Nina said quietly.
"What?" Evan asked her.
"Nothing, ignore me," Nina said, annoyed.
Nina walked out from behind them and toward one of the front windows of the hotel. Nina had trouble seeing where they went, but after some serious eyeballing of every place within sight, she saw them in a café across the street ordering something. Even from this distance she could tell they were a new couple because they couldn't stop touching each other. Nina was sure they didn't even know they were doing it. Donnie pushed some hair out of Liz's face, touched the back of her waist, and leaned in close when he spoke to her. Liz touched his chest while she laughed, reached down and grasped his hand briefly, and kept leaning her entire body into his as they stood there.
"Get a room," Nina chuckled absently to herself, knowing they had done just that last night.
"Nina, we need to get ready for our presenta…" Evan said as he walked up next to her.
"Go get it ready then," Nina said annoyed. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
He huffed at his dismissal and walked away.
She watched Donnie and Liz take their coffees and baked goods to a table at the back, probably because they were playing hookie, and she lost sight of them.
Nina stepped back from the window; she could have been an FBI agent like her cousin Donnie. She reached into the pocket of her blazer and took out the new headache medication they had just released in the EU and popped another one. She drank too much last night. With one last futile glance to the café across the street, she walked back toward the ballroom for her presentation, knowing she was going to have a lot of fun observing them trying to act like they were just partners and friends at dinner tonight.
To be continued…