"Seriously man? I loved that car!" Ed's friend David was more upset over the loss of the vehicle than he had been.
Ed shrugged. "I was thinking about getting a new one anyway, so it just gave me an excuse."
"But you hate adjusting to new cars," commented Steve. It was a well know quirk of his. No one could even borrow his. God forbid they rearrange something.
"Exactly. I never would have gotten rid of the thing. If it weren't for her nothing would ever change around here." He liked the new car. It had a lot more fun features. He knew they'd never believe him that Cha-Cha was allowed-legally as well as by him- to drive this one if she wanted to. She could, but she swore she was done. Ed was glad she hadn't given up before she could get a license, but still felt bad that after she had she'd gone back to being too nervous to go anywhere.
The apartment had also been another thing he'd surrendered to her. His once perfectly cleaned home was no more. It didn't look like a tornado swept through it or anything, but it would never reach his desired degree of cleanliness again. Together they had too much stuff, and both of them were getting too lazy to put it away. Plus when he wasn't working, he had more important things to do at home than clean.
"You hate change." How the man survived the seasons was beyond them.
Ed took a sip of his beer and frowned. "I do not 'hate change'."
"Come on man," David insisted, "it scares the shit outta you."
"Last time I checked my career didn't allow cowards." Detectives couldn't be afraid of something as simple as change. He took another drink for something to do in the silence.
"Yeah okay." The group was not convinced. "Why do you let her walk all over you?" Mark asked from the sofa chair. "And she gets away with everything." He pointed to the various items left around the room. Heels kicked to the side of the table, more by the door, lipstick on each counter top, skirts that never got put away last week hanging over the back of the chair... Mark was currently examining one close to him. It was incredibly short. "You would have never let this slide before. I can't even leave my keys on the table without you eying them maliciously." An exaggeration, but still. "And I'm one of your closest friends."
Vaughn laughed. "If you wore that skirt in your hand you could leave stuff wherever you wanted to, too." The other man scoffed. Best friend status should trump short skirts. "Probably wouldn't hurt if sex was involved in your relationship too." Shudders all around. Leaving stuff around Ed's apartment wasn't that important to him. Both of them were very attractive, but…that wasn't meant for these friends.
"I have to admit I got the impression you all liked her." The men nodded their heads.
"She's great. She's hot. Got the right kind of humor and she's never boring. We just don't know where the tough Ed went. Pushover Ed is nice too, but-"
"Hey," Ed laughed. He didn't give in to everything Cha-Cha wanted.
"She wrecks your car so you buy her a new one?" David hadn't moved on from the car topic.
Ed sighed. "It's not hers, its mine. She can just use it if she wants to. But that incident has permanently discouraged her, so she never does." The loss of her confidence bothered him more than the loss of his car. And that baffled them too.
"Aren't you relieved you don't have to worry about losing this one? And what about the fire trucks showing up for your birthday?" Firemen had almost found Ed and Cha-Cha up close and personal in the bathroom. Luckily they had heard the sirens in time to get dressed and run down laughing, telling them it had just been a baking accident. Laughing. They'd found it fun, not bothersome.
How did talking about how things were going with Cha-Cha end up feeling more like they were trying to convince him she was a trouble maker? He supposed they just weren't accepting of the fact he was spending less and less time with them. "I know she's not perfect, but…she tries so hard for me. I didn't see any of you over for my birthday."
"We figured you'd be mourning your youth and stayed away."
"Oh ha ha." So that was true. Big deal. He'd ended up having a great night. "But seriously, thank god she isn't perfect, because how boring would that be?" No burning the apartment building down? Getting chased out of mattress stores for jumping on beds? "It's the little imperfections that I love about her. Like the time we tried going to Niagra Falls for some holiday." The day escaped him now. But they'd had a sudden change of plans. "She misread the directions and we ended up lost in Canada. We had more fun trying to find our way home than we could have just watching water fall down." Oooh. A big cliff with water. Yay. They may have had no idea where they were or what they were doing, but they were together holding hands the whole time and had a blast. That was the kind of little moment he lived for.
"Seems like you almost have to babysit her," commented David.
Vaughn rolled his eyes. "Shut up." He was a big fan of Cha-Cha, and believed she was more mature than the stories portrayed. If someone had to judge any one of them in the room by stories alone, none would have any credibility. They'd all done worse things than misreading directions.
"Yeah, sorry, your boyfriend is where?" Ed asked the single David. His friend made a face but stayed silent. "That's what I thought."
"Honey, you home?" called a high voice from the other room, the sound of the door closing floating in after.
"We're in here," Ed called back.
"We?" she asked, sounding excited. She loved company. Rounding the corner she beamed. "Hi boys." She walked into the room and Ed couldn't help but smirk at his friends. She was dressed to kill, like always, and suddenly all complaints were out the window, replaced with wide eyes following her as she sauntered over to her man. 'Hi Cha-Cha', 'Hey Cha-Cha,' 'Cha-Cha, how's it going?' and the like were said to avoid jaws obviously dropping. The skirt Mark had found suddenly seemed long in comparison to this one, and her heels couldn't be higher. The shoes encouraged her hips to swing more than they naturally would, and it was obvious the walk from the door to Ed's lap was not long enough for the gawkers. She gave her love a quick kiss as she settled down. "If I'd known we were having a party I would have been home earlier."
Happened every time. A few 'She's a little young and immature for you, don't you think?'s, then she comes home and oh la la what was their complaint again? Every time. She may have been a kid at heart, but she had the body of an exceptionally desirable adult. Of course it had been her personality that Ed fell in love with, but it didn't hurt to have a gorgeous appearance to go with it.
"What's the occasion?" she asked. While finding a friend of Ed's here was hardly unusual, she didn't normally come home to four plus him.
Ed wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Oh you know, just sitting around talking about you." The men panicked. He told her? Seriously? But Cha-Cha just assumed he was joking and giggled and asked who was staying for dinner. Everyone raised their hands.