I realized while looking at my planning that I have some odd obsession with what they will eat. I planned out every meal... Anyway, enjoy!
(PS: This is the longest chapter I have ever written, and I make no guarantees the next one will be this long.)
Carlton rolled up to Juliet's house with two coffees and two teas, four coffee cakes, and four breakfast sandwiches. He somehow managed to not only exit his vehicle, but also to balance all of his offerings using just one hip and one hand. With the other, he used some clever movements to bring to his hand the house key Juliet had given him near the beginning of their partnership.
"Morning, Carlton," Juliet called, walking into the front room and grabbing the drink tray. She set the teas on the kitchen table, then took a big sip of the cup marked "J."
"Are your parents awake?" Carlton asked, as he began to set out the sandwiches and cakes.
She shrugged. "They may be. My mom likes to get up early and read, and Lloyd was planning to study up for his speech at the convention."
She switched his placement of the Reduced-Fat Turkey Bacon Breakfast Sandwich to be in front of her mom's Green Tea Latte, then filled it's previous spot with Lloyd's Ham and Swiss with Earl Grey Tea. She then walked over to the guest bedroom while Carlton set out their Egg and Cheddar sandwiches.
She knocked on the door, then slowly opened it.
"Good morning, Julie," Maryanne greeted as she set a bookmark in her book. "Lloyd?"
"Huh? Sorry, I was reviewing the potential changes to establishing expenditures for large amounts on items as according to section 179. Which reminds me, did I tell you about that client of mine who was struggling with-"
"Lloyd, it isn't really the time for one of your accounting anecdotes. Am I right in assuming by the wonderful smells assaulting my senses that Carlton has arrived with breakfast?"
Juliet nodded. "He went to Starbucks and got your favorites."
"Ooh, yay!" Maryanne quickly hopped out of the bed and headed for the kitchen.
"Good morning, Maryanne," Carlton greeted, pulling her chair out.
"Oh, thank you, Carlton! I can't help but tell you how excited I am to eat this."
He chuckled. "Well, I can make a pretty good breakfast sandwich, myself."
Juliet appeared at his elbow. "Don't be modest. Carlton makes the best egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches I have ever tasted ever. He is an amazing cook!"
Carlton blushed, pulling out Juliet's chair and pushing it back in with her in it before heading to his own seat.
Lloyd wandered out of the room and over to his seat quickly thereafter.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Maryanne asked.
"The zoo," Juliet answered. "I'm so excited! We're going on a behind-the-scenes tour."
"Isn't that sort of thing expensive?" Lloyd questioned.
Juliet shrugged. "Carlton arranged it."
"I did a favor for one of the zookeepers, Rodney, and he cleared it with his boss to come in on his day off to give us this tour."
"Wait a minute, Rodney Hammersmith? That guy who almost got thrown off a cliff by his crazy druggie ex-girlfriend?"
Carlton nodded.
Juliet looked at her parents. "He saved the guy's life. The crazy woman had him gagged and bound, and Carlton shot her in the hand when she reached to roll him off the cliff. It was an expert shot."
Carlton blushed. "I was just doing my job."
Juliet shook her head. "You were on a fishing and hunting trip in the Sierras with Henry Spencer. That's far from being on the job."
All Maryanne could say was, "Wow."
The zoo was much fuller than they expected for a Wednesday morning, but they still spotted Rodney pretty quickly.
"Howdy, folks!" He held out a hand for Lloyd to shake, then gave Carlton a slap on the back.
"And who's this pretty young lady?" he asked, grabbing Maryanne's hand and kissing it.
She laughed, then curtsied.
Juliet reached out and took Carlton's hand, and he tried not to jump at the unexpected contact.
Rodney regarded her curiously. "And you are?"
Juliet looked at Carlton for confirmation before saying anything. After all, this man was a sort-of friend of his.
He blushed, then coughed. "Uh, this is Juliet O'Hara. My girlfriend."
"Nice to meet you," Rodney told her with a wide smile. "Any friend of Carlton is a friend of mine. We're starting over by the anteaters. Follow me!"
They walked along train tracks until they reached the exhibit.
"So, this is the Giant Anteater exhibit. More than fifty have been born here since 1975. They are great swimmers, and have very little body fat. That's pure muscle you're seeing. An interesting fact many people don't know is that they actually eat more than ants. They love bananas! To keep them healthy, though, we feed them a special "insectivore mash" full of all the nutrients they need. It's kind of like the anteater version of instant oatmeal. They can eat up to 35,000 ants in a day, though, using their powerful stomach muscles and strong digestive juices to break down the food."
They saw many animals and learned quite a bit before lunch. Around 1:30, they stopped at The Ridley-Tree House Restaurant for sandwiches. They then went through the Rainforest Passage and saw all manner of beautiful birds. Maryanne especially enjoyed the Humboldt Penguins. "We have a little joke about these penguins. These penguins from the coast of South America like it "Chile," not chilly. In fact, their native climate is a lot like Santa Barbara's. That's why you don't see snow and ice slides. Many people think they all look alike, but each penguin actually has spots on its chest that look a lot like freckles, plus different feather markings, eye colors, and beak shapes. An interesting fact about keeping for these penguins is that we feed every one by hand. It's a two person job so that one person can record which penguins have eaten. We also keep track of how much they eat, and we feed them twice a day."
The next stop brought them to the big cats. "That there is Chadwick. He's my favorite of our lions, and has been here since 1998. He's actually considered small for a male lion, which I've always found funny since he's over 300 pounds. On hot days like today, we like to give him his own version of a popsicle. That's what you see him licking - frozen meat juice. Could you imagine finding that flavor in your popsicle box?"
For dinner, Carlton and Juliet printed out a recipe for mushroom pork chops. While the pork chops cooked, the family decided to play a game of Mad Gab - Juliet and Carlton against Maryanne and Lloyd. It turned out to be a hilarious idea, as Lloyd kept finding accounting terms in the nonsense words.
"I promise you, honey, the card has nothing to do with economic entities."
Juliet and Carlton were in the middle of figuring out "Noah's Cape Ferment" when the doorbell rang.
Juliet and Carlton both looked at each other and shook their heads.
"I have literally no clue who that could be," Juliet told her parents as she got up to get the door.
As soon as she opened it, she very nearly slammed it closed.
"Shawn, what are you doing here?" she asked through a tight-lipped smile.
"Jules, I came to meet your parents."
She shook her head. "Now's not a good time, Shawn."
"Don't be the undercooked middle of a microwavable burrito." He pushed his way in.
Luckily, Carlton had taken the momentary pause to go check on the pork chops.
"Hello," Shawn called to her parents. "I'm Shawn Spencer, Head Psychic for the SBPD and Juliet's boyfr-"
He was cut off as Juliet clapped a hand around his mouth. "Shawn's a little delusional," she answered her mother's odd look, "And believes I am dating him for some odd reason. As you know, I'm not. He thinks it's okay to just waltz into my house any time he likes. I don't know where he gets these silly ideas, but I do know that my real boyfriend has been getting more and more tempted to lock him up for trespassing." She grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out the door. "We need to talk, Shawn."
As soon as the door closed behind them, she punched him in the chest. "What part of 'I got it' doesn't make sense to you, Shawn?"
"The 'got it,' and maybe some of the 'I.'"
"You aren't funny, Shawn. I'm extremely mad at you! I tell you I can handle this, and you show up anyway. I tell you it's not a good time, and you barge in past me. I really could arrest you for trespassing, you know."
Shawn put his hands up. "Woah woah woah, let's take some deep breaths, here. I saw Lassie's car, and I assumed it's party time."
She put her hands on her hips. "Why were you here in the first place?"
He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Oh, you know, just driving by."
She gave him a look.
"But Lassie gets to meet them," he whined like a petulant child.
"Carlton Lassiter was invited. You were not. Please leave, Shawn. Don't make me ask him to help me get you out of here; you know he will."
"Wait a minute... Are you pretending Lassie is your boyfr-"
She clapped a hand over his mouth again.
"What's your problem with the word 'boyfriend,' Jules?"
She grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around, then pushed him toward his motorcycle. "Leave. Now."
"Okay, okay, but all I'm saying is..."
When he turned around, she was already inside and closing the door behind her.
"Fine," he grumbled, then hopped on his bike and rode away.
Meanwhile, inside...
"...but really, the indirect rates were all wrong!"
Carlton laughed. "That was a good one, Lloyd. Oh, you're back!" He hopped up and pulled out the chair beside him, glad she hadn't fallen for Shawn Spencer's mischievous charms.
"Of course I'm back!" she responded with a laugh. "Sorry about him. He can be a pain in the ass."
"Then why does he work with you?" Maryanne queried as she held out her plate for Carlton to put a pork chop on.
"He solves cases," Carlton replied simply.
When he sat back down, Juliet grabbed his hand and gave it a grateful squeeze.
He looked at her, and she sent him a large smile.
After dinner and a delicious dessert of vanilla ice cream and apple pie, they settled down to finish their game.
In the end, Carlton and Juliet won 10 to 8 and they called it quits.
Lloyd turned on the news, and Maryanne went to the guest room to retrieve her book. Carlton settled on the couch, and Juliet came to join him with a book of her own.
Maryanne settled into the overstuffed armchair, and Juliet laid her head in Carlton's lap.
She looked up expecting to see some sort of shock written on his face, but he just calmly began to stroke her hair and kept watching the news.
"My Friend Flicka?" Carlton asked, looking down at the cover of her book during a commercial break.
She shrugged. "It's a good book."
He nodded. "I've read it."
"What?"
He laughed. "My grandmother used to be a schoolteacher, and reading is very important to her. She used to make me do book reports, and this was one of the books she chose. It was actually a pretty good book."
Juliet laughed. "How old were you?"
He smiled down at her. "Far too old to be reading My Friend Flicka."
She laughed harder, and he was very tempted to kiss her. He quickly turned his eyes back to the television.
When the 9 o'clock news ended, Carlton started to get up. "It's ten. I should get going."
Juliet frowned slightly, but tried to cover it up.
Maryanne shook her head. "No, no, you stay. Don't leave on account of us being here. Juliet is a big girl, and we don't expect you to sleep elsewhere just because we're here. Besides, you obviously keep a good amount of your things here."
He looked down at Juliet still in his lap.
She was chewing her lip and looking anywhere but at him.
"Okay," he responded.
The smile Juliet gave him in return could have blinded the sun itself.
"I'm gonna go change into pajamas," Juliet told them, putting the book down on the coffee table.
"I'm actually getting pretty tired. Aren't you, Lloyd?"
Lloyd didn't move.
Maryanne got up and shook him, and he let out a snore.
She and Carlton laughed.
She finally got him up and led him to the guest room. "Goodnight, Carlton!"
"Sleep well, Maryanne!"
Carlton got up and turned off the TV, then walked in the direction of Juliet's room. He debated knocking, but she made the choice for him by opening the door.
"They went to bed," he told her, following her into the room.
He walked over to the walk-in closet and picked out a pair of his flannel pajama pants and one of his old academy t-shirts. I guess it's a good thing she had me bring some stuff over!
He closed the closet door and quickly changed, then put the day's clothes on her pile of suits to be dry cleaned.
He walked over to her bathroom where she had already begun to brush her teeth. He picked up the toothbrush they bought for him on Saturday, and mused that it actually did end up being good that she already had cinnamon toothpaste.
Upon emerging, Carlton looked nervously at the Queen sized bed, then debated offering to sleep on the floor.
"Just get in the bed, Carlton," she told him with a laugh. "You look like you're scared it will bite you."
He gave her a nervous half-smile, then climbed into the bed.
She turned on the TV to a marathon of SVU reruns, then climbed in on the other side.
By the time the first episode ended, Carlton found himself under the blankets with her head on his chest. He debated trying to move the arm she was also laying on, but decided whatever punishment he faced in the morning would be more than worth a night of this. He kissed the top of her head, then relaxed and closed his eyes for the best sleep of his life.
I hope you noticed my subtle shout-outs to some of my fellow Lassiet writers ;)