"It's been an hour and fifteen minutes and the thing in the oven is bubblin'." Reno said laying back on the couch.
"Where the hell are they?" Rude said sitting in the chair across from Reno.
"Call Elena's phone." Reno said throwing his phone toward Rude.
"It's your phone stupid, you call her." Rude said throwing Reno's phone back at him. Reno dialed her number only to hear her phone ringing on the table in the nearby room. "Damn it, she left her phone here." Reno said ending the call.
"Call Tseng." Rude said.
"We can't, his phone went dead on the way here remember?" Reno reminded him. "I swear, I'm eatin' the bubbly thing without him I don't care if it is his birthday."
"It's dark now! What the hell could they be doin' in the dark?" Rude asked.
"You know they're going to ask what the hell we've been doing." Elena said as she and Tseng followed the paved out path that lined the lake back to the lodge. Tseng would have had his hands all over her had it not been for the box he was carrying.
"You're right. It's dark and clearly we've been gone longer than expected. I think we should tell them what we've been doing and then savor the looks on their faces. Tseng suggested. Elena laughed.
"Seriously? You think we should?" She asked.
"Think about it. The worst that could happen is Rude will take off those glasses of his, look me dead in the eye and say what the hell man, you got laid? Then Reno will have that look on his face like he got hit by a bus and say something like so what position did ya do it in?" Tseng said. That made her laugh even more.
"Okay, yeah…the looks on their faces would definitely be worth it." Elena said. "I'm sorry I've never told earlier…you know…how much I was…unbelievably attracted to you."
"It's okay. It's not like I've told how much I love being around you or…how I've thought how you carry yourself is just impeccable. There just…aren't women like you." Tseng paused. "You have an appreciation for the finer things in life, Elena. Do you realize Rude wanted me and this girl to meet him and some other girl at a club? A club Elena, a club! He said clearly upset with Rude over this.
"How did you get out of it?" Elena asked completely captivated by this story.
"I told her and Rude I was working overtime and then I never called her back which was terrible of me and very unlike me but…I blame Rude." He explained.
"Are you saying you'd call me back?" she asked even though she already knew the answer.
"Elena…I would do anything you asked me to do. But yeah I would call you back in a minute." Tseng confessed to her. Elena laughed.
"That's it! I'm tasting the stuffed shells. They just came out of the oven and they look too good to just let 'em sit there all steamin' and hot." Reno said discovering that the bubbling thing in the oven had turned in to stuffed pasta shells. Just when he and Rude had given up on Tseng and Elena the door to the lodge opened.
"Oh my god! Where the hell have you..." Elena cut Rude off.
"Hey, sorry you two have been waiting. We were havin' sex." Elena said calmly but loudly as she held the door open for Tseng. She knew if she didn't emphasize what they had been doing it would fly over both Reno and Rude's head. At that moment Reno had just tasted the stuffed shells but now he was over the sink choking to death because of what he had just heard. Rude had a completely unexplainable look on his face that bordered between 'no you were not' and 'maybe they did'. He thought that perhaps Elena had been kidding and so he looked to Tseng for further affirmation.
"What? You wouldn't hit that? I've been dying to hit that." Tseng told him as he sat the box down near the door. It would go in Elena's car the next day.
"Good God Reno get it together! It's not like we told you who came first." Elena said pounding him on the back. "Oh my god the stuffed shells are done! It's a good thing 'cause we're starving. Did you get the fococcia out too?" Elena asked turning around and facing Reno.
"You...wait just a minute! You...and him...so what position d'ya do it in?" Reno asked regaining his composure a little.
"A good one. Now give me a big spoon!" Elena ordered Reno as Tseng searched a drawer beside Elena for a wine corker.
"What the hell, man? You got laid!" Rude said taking his dark glasses off and laying them on the nearby table.
"Yes, Rude, yes I did. Oh my god! There are twelve bottles of wine in here!" Tseng said opening the fridge.
"Well, after that little piece of information I'll be drinkin' one bottle by myself! Besides do you realize how many different kinds of that crap there is! I was also being indecisive and since it's your birthday and all I went all out." Reno said.
"Elena, how does starting with the Xavier Flouret Sauvignon Blanc sound to you?" Tseng asked her examining all the bottles Reno had jammed into this refrigerator.
"Oooh my god, yes!" Elena said obviously delighted in the selection.
"Bet that's what ya' said with your legs spread too." Reno said.
"You either make yourself useful and get the salad out or get out of this kitchen!" Elena said laughing at Reno.
"So, you're not denying it, huh? You may have said that with your legs spread? So he's pretty good? Hear that Tseng? You got it man, you got it!" Reno said grabbing Tseng's shoulders hard. "And Rude you still ain't doin' shit!"
"Yes I am! I'm sitting here wondering what question I should ask next! And still trying to wrap my poor mind around the fact that these two walk in the door and are all oh we've been having sex! They've never walked in a room and said that before!" Rude said a bit on the frustrated side.
"Technically, Elena said it. I just confirmed that it happened. For you." Tseng said shoving a glass towards Elena. She put her spoon down and swirled the pale liquid around, sniffing it as she did so.
"Nice crisp and slightly fruited scent." she said as she tried it. "Superb." she concluded pouring another glass for Tseng. "Okay, here's the salad. Shells are ready, there's the focaccia...alright you go first." Elena insisted trading Tseng places.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait...prove to me that you two had sex!" Rude said still feeling very frustrated.
"You just get anything you want. I'm taking the wine in there and I'll handle Rude." Elena said with her arms around Tseng.
"Shit, I believe you fucked her so I'm stayin' right here behind you because I'm hungry." Reno said. Elena carefully took her glass, Tseng's glass and the bottle of Sauvignon around the counter and sat all three items on the low table in the middle of the room. She sat on Rude's lap and put one arm around him. She leaned in close to him as Rude and he noticed she smelled like Tseng all over and it wasn't just because she was wearing his shirt either. She whispered everything to him...everything.
"Holy…shit you clearly…clearly did not make that up. Oh my god…Tseng, you totally got laid. Okay, now that we have that taken care of I guess it's time to eat and I'm gonna get so drunk Reno will have to carry me upstairs." Rude said as Elena crawled off his lap. "Oh and uh, Tseng? Boss? Bet you never thought thirty-six would feel so good."
At last dinner was served and the first 'official' bottle of wine of the evening had been poured. The reaction from Reno and Rude is exactly what both Tseng and Elena had hoped for. Tseng had completely forgotten that all of this stuff was strung out in the room Elena had put her luggage in earlier. She was in for quite the surprise when she eventually went in there only to find his laptop on the table where her car keys and phone still laid as well as his opened luggage and suit strewn around on the couch. Guess it wouldn't matter that he hadn't put his stuff in a room earlier at all.
"Tseng, does Elena fuck as well as she cooks?" Reno asked.
"Oh my god, Reno! Do you seriously think he would answer…" Rude was cut off by Tseng's answer.
"Yes." He answered pulling her closer to him.
"Aww, thank you." Elena said.
"I need more of this wine, I don't care what the hell you call it I need more now." Rude said completely mortified by the fact that Reno not only asked such a question but then Tseng actually answered it.
"When we're done with dinner we need to take this party in the back room. It's so much cooler in there." Reno said.
"It's already freezing in here! How can you possibly want to go back there where it's even colder?" Elena asked him.
"Hey, hey, hey…he'll keep you warm but for him to do that you gotta be wearin' a whole lot less. Shit, I'm not even a little drunk. Do you realize how bad this is gonna get when I am drunk?" Reno said.
"I can only imagine. Okay, so when we finish this bottle which Noir do you want to open?" Elena asked of Tseng.
"You pick. I'll take anything you give me." Tseng told her.
"Ooh, I'm sure you would boss, I'm sure you would." Reno said finishing the rest of his glass quickly. Elena poured the rest of the bottle into Tseng's glass and returned to the kitchen to choose the next bottle. She gasped in excitement at one of the crimson treasures Reno had purchased.
"Ooooh yeah…this is good." Elena said sitting a bottle on the counter and corking it.
"Another thing Elena could have possibly said while underneath Tseng." Reno said. Elena reached over her head and pulled four more wine glasses out and returned to the table.
"Hey Rude boy? You're cleaning these dishes up." Elena said carefully sitting the glasses on the table.
"Why you got four more glasses?" Reno asked.
"Those glasses are for white wine…these are for red. You don't mix red wine and white wine in the same glass my god that's like…wrecking a fine car." Elena said.
"Elena, you're amazing." Tseng said. Rude had never heard the boss swoon like that.
"We don't give a shit! We're drinkin' to get fuckin' wasted. We don't care if this mixes 'Lena." Reno insisted.
"You two don't understand the beauty of a good wine. You never put a white and a red in the same glass." Tseng said examining the bottle that Elena had in her hand.
"You know what else I've learned, Tseng? You never put a blonde and her superior in the same boat and leave them unattended for longer than thirty seconds!" Reno insisted.
Once again my apologies for typos, I wanted to post this and didn't have time to proof. Better attention to detail in the next chapter, promise!