Chapter 63: What's The Occasion?

The next morning around 11 o'clock, Meredith got into her car and headed for the Monaco for her appointment with Laura. She was exhausted and ended up leaving earlier than she had originally planned because Izzie and George were following her around the house, complaining that she and Derek had kept them both up all night. When Meredith got to the hotel, she let the people at the front desk know that she was there, and then went and sat down on a sofa in the lobby to wait. Just as she was about to fall asleep, Laura came up to her.

"Hi Meredith. Sorry I'm a little late."

"Oh, no problem," she said, trying to wake up.

"Where's Dr. Shepherd?" Laura asked looking around the lobby, expecting to see him walk in.

"He's at work. He might be here later," Meredith lied, knowing exactly when he was going to get there.

"Okay. Then, I guess we should get started," Laura said, sounding kind of disappointed.

Meredith followed Laura to her office back near the cocktail and ballrooms. She sat down across from Laura, who was behind a desk. Meredith was filling out a contract when Derek came in. She remembered what he had said the night before about messing with Laura and decided to play along.

"Hi. Sorry I'm late," Derek said coming into the office and closing the door.

"Derek! It's so nice to see you again. You have perfect timing. We were just finishing up all of the boring stuff," Laura said, enthusiastically, standing up to greet Derek.

"Yeah. It's nice to see you too," he said, pretty much ignoring her and walking over to Meredith.

"Hi Der," she said, as he came over to her.

Derek leaned over the chair to give Meredith a kiss. She put her arms around his neck and he moved to deepen their kiss. After about 15 seconds, they pulled apart.

"Hello to you too," Derek said, licking his lips as they separated.

They could both tell that Laura was not only jealous, but extremely uncomfortable.

"Let me get you a chair Derek," she said quickly.

"It's okay. Meredith will just sit on my lap," he answered, half-joking half-serious.

Laura let out a nervous laugh, "It's no problem at all. I'll just grab one from the office next door."

Laura rushed out of the office and they could hear her moving chairs around in the room next door. Both Derek and Meredith were trying to keep from bursting out laughing. A few minutes later, Laura returned out of breath but with another chair. They little bit of commotion ended and they continued with the meeting. Laura told them about all of the different wedding packages offered by the hotel and they set a date for a meeting about a week later so they could let her know their decision.

Meredith and Derek walked out into the parking lot together and were about to get into their separate cars and head back to Meredith's house.

"Derek?"

"Yeah?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist and pulling her close to him.

Meredith looked up at him and smiled, "I want to cook dinner for you tonight."

"What's the occasion?"

"No occasion. I just thought we could have a nice dinner and talk about wedding stuff."

"Sounds good to me. Need any help?"

"Nope. You go back to your apartment and do manly Derek things and I'll go home and cook and then at 6:30 you come over for dinner."

"Okay. Should I bring my own Pepto-Bismol?" he said teasingly.

"Derek!" she said, playfully slapping his arm, "My cooking isn't that bad."

"I know. I'm just kidding. I'll see you tonight."

Derek gave Meredith a kiss and they walked to their respective cars. Meredith was about to get into her car and Derek was still walking she yelled across the parking lot.

"Hey Derek?"

"Yeah?" he replied, turning back around.

"I love you."

A huge grin broke out on his face, "I love you too Mer."

Meredith went home and found the item in the cabinet that was the easiest to make – Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Izzie had to work and George, despite all of his complaints and unwillingness, was out with his family for the night.

At 6:15, Derek drove up to the house and let himself in with the key that Meredith had made for him. He walked into the kitchen and saw the table set for two, along with two bowls of cheesy pasta, but no Meredith.

"Mer? I'm here," he yelled standing at the base of the stairs.

She came downstairs, hair wet, wearing a black spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of Derek's NYU sweatpants, rolled up several times around the waist and having cut the elastics out of the cuffs of the legs.

"Hi," Meredith said, walking up to him and putting her arms around his neck.

"What did you do to my pants?" he asked, looking down.

"Nothing," she replied with a guilty smile.

Derek just laughed at the look on her face and she took his hand and led him into the kitchen.

"You made us a gourmet meal," he said.

"Shut up. I made what required the least preparation but was also really tasty."

They sat down and enjoyed their dinner together, putting off the wedding talk until after they were done eating.

A/N: So, I realized they didn't play much of a "game" with Laura, but I really couldn't think of anything. Also, not sure that Derek went to NYU, but whatever. In this story, he did. READ AND REVIEW!!!