Sitting down for lunch, it was unusually quiet and Brennan struggled to form a conversation.
"So, Lex, buy anything good at the mall?" Brennan asked. Shalimar hid a grin, almost choking on her food. Brennan must be desperate if he's taking an interest on her clothing tastes.
Looking almost nervously to Jesse, she quickly said, "Yeah, I got a new top and some leather pants."
"You're gonna be letting me borrow those!" Shalimar joked.
"No!" Jesse and Lexa shouted in unison. Shalimar and Brennan looked at them, shocked. Once realising Shalimar was just joking, Lexa went bright red and Jesse lowered himself to his food.
"What I mean is, I haven't even worn them yet and I wanted to try them on first in case they are the wrong size." Lexa quickly explained.
Shalimar and Brennan looked at each other, both looking confused and non-excepting of Lexa's explanation.
"Well, I'm finished, I think I'll try out that game now." Jesse got up slightly rushed and went to put his plate in the dishwasher.
"I'll help." Lexa rushed off with Jesse, leaving Shalimar and Brennan alone once again.
"Well, they were acting weird." Brennan observed.
"No kidding." Shalimar finished off her food, and then they both stood up to leave.
Changing the subject, Brennan asked, "You wanna get together later?"
Taking her into his arms, she answered. "What about them?" She referred to Lexa and Jesse.
"I was kinda hoping we could do it without them." Brennan grinned. Shalimar laughed and gave him a small flick on the shoulder. "Actually, I was kinda thinking maybe we could go out."
"You were?" Shalimar smiled.
"Yeah. Dinner, champagne and afterwards…" Brennan trailed off suggestively.
"Don't push it mister." Shalimar smiled and kissed Brennan as he held her.
"Bren?" Jesse called, hearing him coming back into the kitchen.
Shalimar and Brennan quickly pulled apart, acting as if they were having the most interesting conversation.
"So that's how they get the stains out!" Brennan overacted.
Jesse looked at them, at their stance. Strange body language for talking about stains.
"Something you want Jess?" Shalimar enquired, looking as innocent as possible, batting her eyelashes and all.
"Yeah," Jesse paused to shrug off their weird behaviour as too much stain remover inhaling. Looking at Brennan, he smiled, "Is this yours?" He held up a red thong.
Quickly disappearing behind Brennan, Shalimar took a deep breath. I was looking for that! Crap!
"Um…" Brennan was searching his brain for anything, any possible reason why he would have a red thong. "Where did you find it?"
"It was in your room." Jesse answered suspiciously.
"What were you doing in my room?" Brennan asked, looking very pissed off.
"Chill dude, I was looking for the link-up lead you borrowed last week." Jesse said, defending himself.
"Next time, ask." Brennan replied, cooling off. "It's in my top drawer on the left."
"You still haven't explained about the thong." Jesse smiled. He could see that his friend was wriggling, but didn't know why.
"Um… it's my old girlfriend's." Brennan explained.
"Huh?" Jesse seemed confused. "You didn't give them back?"
"She wanted to give them to him as a souvenir." Shalimar explained and Jesse gave her a questioning look. "He told me the story a while ago."
"Right. Well, interesting girlfriend." Jesse replied, handing the thong back to Brennan.
"Right. Interesting." Brennan agreed. As two of the three of them looked shamelessly at the floor, avoiding eye contact, Jesse felt he had to go.
"I'm off. See you guys later."
When he had left, Brennan said. "That was odd, I thought for sure he would figure it out. He's the smart one." Brennan joked.
"Give me that." Shalimar grabbed the thong from his hand. "That was too close, this morning, I thought we were in for. I can't keep doing this Bren, I just can't keep lying." Shalimar rambled.
"Shhh." Brennan soothed her, taking her into his arms, comforting her. "If you want to tell them we can."
"I don't know. One part of me is telling me that we should, for all the reasons I just said. Jess and Lex are like family; it's not fair to lie to them. But another part of me likes us being a secret, I feel closer to you." Shalimar expressed.
"I know what you mean Shal, and I don't mind. Whatever you want to do." Brennan caressed her face with the soft touch of his fingers.
"Thanks Bren." Shalimar smiled, then laughed at herself. She was getting upset over nothing. She just had to trust that everything would work out, but lately with Emma and Adam, her faith in that quivered. "Now, you were saying something about tonight?"
Now Brennan smiled. "I was thinking dinner, then a moonlight walk on the beach."
"Sounds perfect." Shalimar purred.
"How about we 'individually' take off at 7pm? You can say you have a date and I'll say I'm going to get together with a couple of old friends at a pub." Brennan suggested.
"Ok, great. I'm gonna go and work out a bit now. I'll see you later." Shalimar gave Brennan a quick kiss on the lips and ran off to her room to get dressed.