A/N: I was just looking at the other chapter and I can see that the website messed up some of the formatting. Oh well.
Unfortunately, I'll be without a computer for a while so I don't know when next I'll be updating. Thanks for reading.
8.8.8.8.8.8.8.
Marissa reluctantly opened her eyes when the loud and persistent beeping sound of her alarm clock interrupted her sleep. She'd decided that she was going to ignore jet-lag and live like she was still in Hawaii- after all, she'd had no plans to stay in Newport for long… till she looked around the house. If she'd realized how much work needed to be done, she might not have made the trip at all. Other than going through all the junk in the basement and the attic, she had to figure out what furniture she could rightfully claim as hers or her fathers and what to do with the said items. Discouraged, she reluctantly crawled out of bed and went into the bathroom for a shower.
She was towel-drying her hair when she heard a voice calling her from downstairs. "What?" she screamed.
"Breakfast," Seth called back.
Suddenly realizing how hungry she was, she threw the towel on her bed and joined him.
"I couldn't remember if you were a carnivore or not so I brought donuts and coffee."
"Thanks," she said, picking out a jelly donut.
"By the way," he said, looking back at the door, "you might want to consider locking the doors at night."
Marissa shrugged as she walked over to the couch. She hadn't intentionally left the doors unlocked but at that moment, she was almost open to having burglars come in and help lighten her workload.
Seth sat beside her and they sat in silence as they both sipped their coffee. Marissa put her coffee down, cleared her throat, then turned to him. "No work for you today?"
Seth mock-frowned. "Already trying to get rid of me?"
"Of course not, but it's 10 o'clock on a Tuesday morning. Shouldn't you be at work?"
"Well, I am at work. Have you heard of Mrs. Loretta Von Huff?"
Marissa shook her head – it had been a while since she'd kept up with Newport socialites.
"Well, she's a Texan lady who married rich and is trying to make a name for herself in the community, so she's been setting up a whole bunch of charities and pretty much uses every opportunity to get her name in the papers."
Marissa squeezed the jelly out of her donut then put it in her mouth. "Cool," she said between bites.
"Anyway, I am supposed to be going around interviewing people about the impact she's had and all that shit. So, what do you think of the new community center she's building?"
Marissa looked at him suspiciously. "A community center in Newport? Or you mean country club?"
"No, community center."
Marissa burst into laughter.
"Exactly. Now that I've got that out of the way, I guess I can help you out a little." He put his hands on his waist and looked around the room.
"No," Marissa said, getting up and coloring slightly, "I don't want to keep you from your work – besides, it's very boring and tedious."
"Which is exactly why I should help – you can't get any more boring or tedious than me."
8.8.8.8.8.8.8.
"Hey you," Marissa said, picking up the flat box and pulling it out to make it up. "If I knew this was your idea of helping, I would have insisted you left."
"You kinda did insist- I just refused to listen." He made himself more comfortable on her bed and reached for the hard-covered book. He ran his finger across the school logo then flipped it open. "I can't believe you kept all our yearbooks."
She shrugged. "Well, I'm organized that like. Could you hand them over to me?"
Seth gave her all but the one he was already looking at. "Oh… high school- where you ignored me for years. I'm still not sure if I should forgive you for that."
"Whatever. You're the one who thought you were better than us – always looking down on us for not 'getting it' or whatever."
"Not true. Till the summer of '03, if our parents weren'tfriends, you wouldn't even have known I existed."
"Again, whatever. But how come you're still deciding if you should forgive me, when you obviously forgave Summer? She treated you worse than I did, not that I am admitting to treating you bad or anything. In fact, Imaintain that I was always nice to you."
"Yeah, right. Besides, it was different with Summer."
"How so?"
"I was in love with her."
"That should make it hurt more, shouldn't it?"
"Of course not. When you're in love with someone, you can forgive anything. Back then, if she's taken a knife and stabbed me in the chest, I would have smiled at her then asked her to do it again." He bobbed his head slowly, "Yeah, that's how pathetic I was."
"No you weren't – you were in love."
"Exactly."
They both smiled at one another then got back to what they were doing.
After a few minutes, Marissa said, "Speaking of Summer, how's she?"
"Well, I haven't heard from her in a while but I think she's fine."
She walked over to the bookshelf and picked up some books. "Damn, you were the one couple I thought would make it."
"You and me both. But when she moved east to stay with her mother… I guess that was the beginning of the end."
Marissa nodded. "Yeah, long distance relationships don't work."
"Speaking of which, when are you leaving?"
"Hopefully tomorrow evening. I have a pharmaceutical meeting on Friday and a wedding on Saturday, so I have to get back soon. Why?"
He shrugged. "Oh, it's Caleb's 75th birthday on Friday and we're having a little thing at the house."
"Oh." She was sure Julie had left a message about it on her voicemail but she pretty much always deleted her mother's messages anyway – for some reason, her father's death had only helped to heighten her dislike for her. "Well, I won't be able to attend."
"I guess not." Seth got on his feet and clapped his hands. "What do you have downstairs? I feel like doing some really manly work."
"But, we haven't finished up here!" she protested. When Seth didn't react, she shook her head, gestured for him to follow her, then went down the stairs.
