Elizabeth glanced at her watch. Only a hour left to go. It was amazing how slowly a shift could drag on when you actually had plans after work. She had checked her voice mail on her last break. Robin hadn't burned down the loft and Morgan was excited to see her. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Typical. The only male excited to see her was six years old.
She did a quick scan through the playroom, looking for anything that seemed out of place. Any small children with no parents. Adults with no children. Teenagers with water guns. Nothing struck her as off so she trained her attention to the one area that always had drama potential: The Ball Pit.
Her mind wandered as she watched the children pelt each other with plastic spheres. Robin had said not to bring anything, but Elizabeth just didn't feel right about that. She could hear her grandmother's voice, "A good guest always brings a gift for the hostess." She could easily grab an extra prize for Morgan on her way out. She glanced at her watch quickly. If she got out on time, she could easily squeeze in a trip to the liquor store and pick up a decent bottle of wine. Surely something would pair well with Spaghettios.
Seeing another co-worker return from break and move closer to the ball pit, Elizabeth began to move towards the video games. A pack of teenagers came running towards her and she moved quickly to avoid them. Unfortunately, she lost her footing and began to fall backwards. Her arms flailed as she tried to steady herself, but it was no use. She was going down.
Until a pair of strong arms encircled her waist and steadied her. "Whoa. Steady." She recognized that powerful, masculine voice. Elizabeth glanced up at her rescuer. Her breath caught in her throat when she found herself looking into a pair of familiar green eyes. Lucky Spencer helped her to her feet and smiled at her. "Well Miss Elizabeth, fancy seeing you here."
Lucky had never been a big believer in fate. His mother talked about it all the time, but it always sounded a little too much like a fairytale to him. But this had worked out better than he could have ever planned it. He and Cameron had just walked into the large playroom, with spotting Elizabeth immediately. She was walking in their direction and then he had seen her start to fall.
He hadn't thought he would have been able to catch her in time, but he had. He hadn't really had time to think of a good opening the other night and now he had come up with the perfect opener. Maybe there was something to this fate thing after all.
"Miss Lizabeth!" Cameron was practically jumping up and down in excitement. "Miss Lizabeth!"
Elizabeth readjusted her uniform shirt and offered a shy smile in his direction. Damn, Lucky thought. He really was pathetic if he was finding that mundane maneuver cute. She turned her attention to his overly sugared three-year old and bent down on one knee. "Well hi Cameron. You seem excited to be here."
"Daddy catch you, Miss Elizabeth. Daddy catch you."
Elizabeth glanced up at Lucky. She had found him attractive in his business dress, but damn he was almost lethal in his jeans and that well fitted t-shirt. His pictures certainly didn't do him justice, she thought.
Pictures. Magazines. Serial dater. Flirts through a parent-teacher conference. Hound dog. The warning signs flashed through her brain. Still, she couldn't outright ignore him. It would be rude. She had to be polite.
"Yes he did." Elizabeth rose back to her full height. "Thank you, Mr. Spencer." She was proud of herself for using his formal name. It would keep things on a professional level.
"It was my pleasure, Miss Elizabeth." He had to get her to stop using his last name. But how? Lucky was stumped.
"Miss Lizabeth? You play?" Cameron pointed towards the water pistol racing game. "You play!"
"Oh no. You're here with your daddy, Cameron. You two go play."
"You play Miss Lizabeth. Please?" Oh his kid was good, Lucky proudly thought. His kid was damn good.
She was trapped. She didn't want to spend any more time with Lucky "Playboy" Spencer than was necessary. She was not going to become some girl he pursued between more famous conquests. Not her. But she couldn't very well turn down a three-year-old. And technically, she was supposed to play with the guests if they asked.
"Ok Cameron, I'll play." She smiled down at him as he pulled her hand and led her towards the game.
That was it. He didn't care if it was going to spoil him, Cameron was getting whatever he wanted for his birthday come January. Here he had been worrying over a perfect plan and Cameron had just given him a perfect opportunity.
Cameron had insisted on standing at the end right next to his dad, so Elizabeth had no choice but to stand next to him. If she didn't know better she would swear her former student was planning this.
Lucky bent down to pay for the game, pausing to look up at her. "This game is on me, Miss Elizabeth."
She smiled down on him. At last some control! "No need." She pulled a key card from her shorts pocket. "I play for free."
They stood side by side and waited for the bell to ring, signaling the start of the game. Once they began, Lucky found himself falling behind both her and Cameron. It was her fault. She was completely distracting.
"I win! I win!" Cameron threw his water pistol in the air. Lucky caught it, well practiced in the art of grabbing items from mid-air where Cameron was concerned.
Handing it back to him, he pulled up his best stern face. "Cameron. Do we throw things?"
"No Daddy."
"What do we do?" Cameron took the toy pistol and placed it in its sleeve. He looked at his father for approval. Lucky cracked a smile. "Good job. Now let's get those tickets."
Elizabeth did not want to find something to like in Lucky Spencer. It was too dangerous. But she couldn't help it. There were not many parents who would actually enforced rules like no throwing, no hitting and no running while in the restaurant. And here was this playboy record executive that no one even knew had a son doing this great job.
Lucky glanced up at her quickly and caught the slight smile on her face. This was good. This was very good. His phone vibrated against his leg. Sighing he answered it, "Spencer."
Elizabeth watched Cameron's face carefully. He was completely enthralled with trying to hold onto all his tickets. She fought the urge to giggle as he attempted to walk towards a new game, a trail of tickets following behind him. She was about to stop Cameron from wandering too far when Lucky reached out and redirected his son towards a game behind them. Impressive again, she thought. Then she heard it.
"Daphne. I promise I'll make tonight up to you."
Daphne? Well that was interesting.
"You know you're my only priority right now."
His only priority? What about his son?
Lucky laughed. "I told you I didn't mean that sweetie. We're good I promise."
It appeared he could very well be living up to his reputation, her brain mocked her. She fought the urge to roll her eyes when she heard him hanging up the phone.
"I'll be waiting for your call sugar." Lucky smiled as he finished his call. Daphne was always good for a laugh. A southern girl, her speech was peppered with "Sweeties", "Honeys," and "Sugars". He couldn't help himself and imitate her when they talked. It always amused her.
He caught a glance of Elizabeth out of the corner of his eye. She had a look which screamed get away from him at all costs. It was the same look she had on her face when he got hustled out of her classroom. Everything was fine just a second ago. What the hell had happened?
The clock caught Elizabeth's eye. In five minutes her shift was over. She could leave now and by the time she got to the break room it would actually be time to leave. She had an escape that wouldn't hurt Cameron's feelings.
She forced a smile on her face. "Well Cameron, I have to go. I'm meeting a friend for dinner, but I'm sure I'll see you later, okay?" Cameron paused from playing his game long enough to turn around and wave at her. She offered her hand to Lucky. "Thank you again for catching me, Mr. Spencer. I appreciate it. Have a good night."
He was still confused. "Sure. No problem. You too." Damn she had plans. Before whatever it was that so obviously pissed her off happened, he had been planning on inviting her to stay with them after her shift. Looks like that wasn't going to happen. But who was this friend he wondered? Male or female.
She turned on her heel and made her way to the break room. She had time to grab a toy for Morgan and she was going to make time to get the wine. After this run in with Lucky Spencer, she needed it.
Patrick wasn't all that surprised to find his friend in a wine shop picking up a bottle of the town's finest, because he was certain--despite Lucky's skepticism--that there was a woman and, if he was correct, she was pretty damn near important if Cruz was going through all this trouble to keep them from finding out who she was. He kept behind his friend by several feet, not wanting to tip off his location. He was no spy, but he had seen enough movies to know how to stay hidden. If he got caught now, then who knew when, or if, he'd get a second chance. No, this was too important an opportunity to pass up.
He rolled up the sleeves of his white-and-blue striped t-shirt and let the shadows shield him from Cruz's view. His friend had been in quite a hurry when he'd been at the restaurant ten minutes ago, and he was correct in his assessment about cold Italian being the kiss of the death. Cruz wasn't any less frantic as he searched the store up and down for that perfect wine. If Patrick knew his old roommate, he would pick a nice red wine with a smooth body. Cruz had a thing for redheads.
Something drew Patrick to the window. Just a flash of brown hair. Through closer inspection, his eyes completed the picture his mind had only begun to process. She wasn't very tall, but then, no one looked tall standing next to Cruz. Her hair ran lazily down her back, dripping down her shoulders and stopping mid-back. She was dressed in an emerald-green t-shirt and black Capri's. He couldn't tell what shoes she was wearing, but what did he care? He wasn't a chick. From this angle, her face was blocked from his view. What was especially interesting about the young twenty-something was that, when Cruz bumped into her, he gave her one of his award-winning smiles. Her smile came as a surprise, because she didn't look like the sort of woman who smiled as often as she should.
Cruz re-adjusted her, having nearly plowed the poor woman down in his hurry, but, unless Patrick was mistaken, his suave friend had paused in his evening activities to have a conversation with the woman. He must have read his friend wrong, because if Cruz would flirt like that with someone he'd just met…well that didn't say much for how he treated his newest plaything, did it? No one could hold Cruz Rodriguez's attention. Nights of interrupted sleep had caused Patrick to have delusions and they must have manifested. He turned away from the window, barely catching the woman's face. Her hair was wavier than he had originally thought and her eyes were stunning. He couldn't make out the color, but she must have broken a lot of hearts with those gemstones. How many men had she brought to their knees?
Drake, you're such a fool, Patrick muttered to himself. He wasn't having enough fun with his current ex-psychotic-girlfriend? He had to find someone new to play with? Disgusted with himself, he skulked back into the shadows and returned to the restaurant where he had left his car parked. If Emily had done anything to it, at least he would be on the news and someone would believe his story. He'd heard nothing from Lucky or the commissioner so maybe Emily had been locked up, or simply left town. He didn't care which as long as she kept her distance.
Elizabeth twirled the wine glass between her fingers, being careful not to spill a drop. "I have never had more delicious Spaghettios" she teased Robin.
"I promise the next dinner will be something a tad more grown-up." Robin lounged against her maroon love seat, taking a long, slow drink of her wine.
"I have found being grown-up highly overrated myself" Elizabeth rearranged herself on the maroon-and-green checkered couch.
"That might be true. I mean, I did attack a man twice my size and, if I'd been thinking like a grown-up, who knows?" She got a faraway look in her eye.
"Where'd you go?" Elizabeth waved her hand in front of her friend's face. "You completely left me here by myself."
"Hmm? Oh, just thinking about sponge cake."
Elizabeth tried to hold back her snort, but she couldn't. Sponge cake her ass! "And the sponge cake wouldn't happen to resemble a walking ego we both know you loathe, would it?"
"Of course not!" Robin was appalled, or at least she would be once she remembered how to spell that word. She hadn't been thinking about him...much.
Elizabeth cocked her eyebrow upwards. "That was the sixth time you've brought him up since I arrived."
"You're awfully peppy for someone who just got off of work."
"Changing the subject? I'll let it go this time." Elizabeth paused to sip the wine. It was really good. "Work was fine. The last hour was interesting, but other than that nothing to write home about."
"Interesting? How so?" Robin pried.
Elizabeth waved her hand. "Just ran into a former student. Always makes for a fun shift. His father on the other hand..." she laughed. "Now there's a whole other story."
"What about his father?"
Too late Elizabeth remembered how exactly she had met Robin. If Robin baby sat Cameron, she obviously knew Lucky somehow. She wasn't sure how close the two were, but Elizabeth wasn't about to jeopardize a potential friendship over something stupid like bad-mouthing her friend's friend.
"Oh, he's just a bit of a player. I could have sworn he was flirting with me tonight." It was true, but the least damaging of all that she could say.
"Were you flirting back?" Robin wondered, a smile playing across her lips.
Had she? Elizabeth had to wonder. "No, I don't think I did." She paused. "No definitely not with him. Now the guy who helped me pick this wine out on the other hand..."
"Two guys in one night? You little hussy!" Robin teased good-naturedly.
"I'm not a hussy if they are the only guys I have talked to in months that are actually my age, am I?"
"Tell me about this guy in the wine shop." Robin insisted, tossing a piece of non-fat, low-sodium, butter-free popcorn into her friend's hair. Of course, Elizabeth was turned away from her, so she didn't notice it.
"Good-looking and he knew it too. Had that air about him you know?" Elizabeth could feel something touching the back of her neck and reached her hand up to try to swat at it, whatever it was. "Good to flirt with. Not much good to keep around."
"Why not?" Robin wanted to know. Was there a new type of invisible sensor that single women her age had to weed out the good guys from the bad guys?
"How long have you been out of the dating game?"
"Why do you ask?" Robin hadn't meant to sound so defensive.
"Because I would think you would remember this type." There, she finally got it. Examining the popcorn kernel, she threw it back at Robin. "The full of themselves think- they-can-flirt-with-any-woman-they-want-and-get-whatever-they-want type. Have you ever met one that actually turned out to be good ?"
Robin chewed on her thumbnail. No. She couldn't say for certain that she had ever met anyone like that. At least, not one that stayed that way. An uninvited tear appeared on her cheek, but hopefully, in the darkness, Elizabeth hadn't seen it. "Yes, of course. This town is crawling with those types." She paused, took another sip of wine, and then muttered to herself, "Six months."
"What was that?" Elizabeth had heard the mumble and caught the change in tone in Robin's voice. "Robin?"
Robin cleared her throat. "You asked how long I'd been out of the dating game. Six months." She said again. "I was married for five years before that."
Elizabeth bit her lip and scrunched her eyes shut. "Oh, I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have said that. I completely forgot you were divorced."
"It's fine, Liz. Really." Robin replied, reaching across the space separating them and squeezing her friend's left hand. "Courtney is always trying to fix me up. I guess I'm not moving on as fast as I should be."
"Who says there's a time limit?" Elizabeth squeezed her hand back. "I'll have you know my brother was engaged to a girl who cheated on him and it took him two years to get over it and move on. He's still not really dated since then."
"Two years?" Robin shrieked, slapping her free hand over her mouth when she remembered the sleeping six-year-old upstairs.
"Okay, maybe that has more to do with the fact that he's never in town long enough to meet someone, but my point is still valid."
If she had to go without sex for two years, she was bound to go on a killing spree. Two years? Karaoke had been fun, she'd admit, but no one had been all that interested in her. Who could blame them when they had Courtney there? Robin let herself laugh. She had to get out of the manic-depressive state she had fallen into. There was only one thing to do. "Come on." She climbed off of the couch and dragged Elizabeth to her feet.
"What? What are you doing?"
"I need to cook something, and you're going to help." Robin explained, flipping on the kitchen light.
"I did tell you I suck in the kitchen, right? Anything beyond brownies and cookies I'll destroy." Elizabeth gulped down the last bit of wine as she followed Robin into the newly lit space.
"You can't mess up." Robin assured her, pulling out a number of cooking bowls, utensils, and a bunch of tools Elizabeth couldn't make heads-or-tails of.
"Yes I can. Watch me."
"How does Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake sound to you?" Robin asked innocently.
"Like I will never need a man for an orgasm again."
Robin smiled. This was just what they needed after the week they had each had. "Okay, I know I have all of the ingredients. Set the oven for three hundred fifty degrees, won't you?"
"Okay, that I can do." Elizabeth turned the knobs to the appropriate settings. "Alright, what's the next idiot-proof step?"
"Find the chocolate wafer crumbs. I know they're around here somewhere." Robin instructed, handing Elizabeth a spare white apron she kept for just this sort of occasion. While her friend went about searching the kitchen, Robin put a plate of butter in the microwave and set it for thirty seconds, watching the yellow stick melt into utter gooey-ness.
"Success!" Elizabeth held the bag of crumbs over her head triumphantly. "If we keep at this level, I really won't screw up!"
"Hmm?" Robin was lost in her favorite little world, one that smelled of chocolate and sugar. She chewed on her bottom lip as she signaled for Elizabeth to pour the broken wafers into the large blue mixing bowl she had set aside. "It's pretty simple. Just stir this up until it all looks one color." Robin told Elizabeth nodding toward the melted butter, wafer bits, and sugar.
"One color. One color." Elizabeth repeated the directions like a mantra under her breath. "One color. One color."
While Elizabeth mixed, Robin got to work on the cream cheese she had taken out of the refrigerator when her friend had scoped out the wafers. It had been out only long enough to soften, but not quite to the extreme the butter was now in. "What do you think?" Robin asked Elizabeth, peeking over her shoulder. "Do you think your mix is ready to go into the pan?"
"Unless I became colorblind, it looks one color to me."
"Okay, I want you to press it into this nine-inch pan and put it in the oven." Robin replied proudly.
"See this where it always goes wrong." Elizabeth approached the task carefully. "Somehow it all goes wrong once I get it in the oven."
Robin cracked three eggs into a separate bowl, dumped the cream cheese in as well, and then added the rest of the ingredients: vanilla, sugar, and cocoa. "Stir this and I'll put yours in the oven." Robin offered, switching places with her friend.
"Stirring is much safer."
Robin bent down, opened the "evil" oven door, and slid the pan inside. "Okay, now we wait ten minutes. See the bear? Spin him around to the ten and let's have another glass of wine." Robin suggested.
"Now you are speaking my language." They went to the living room coffee table to retrieve the bottle of wine and filled the other's glass to the rim. Elizabeth looked thoughtful for a minute. "We should really toast something. What should we toast to?"
"Freedom?" Robin considered, using the back of the couch to keep her standing. "Chocolate?"
Elizabeth raised her glass, "To freedom and chocolate! Two things no girl should live without!"
"Here, here!" Robin clinked her glass with Elizabeth's. "We should head back to the kitchen. Don't forget your apron."
"Never!" Elizabeth obediently followed behind Robin.
"Use the pot holders, and take the pan out." Robin went directly to the cream cheese mix. Yum, she could already taste the finished product.
"Oh my god. Robin if this tastes as good as it smells, I am so marrying you."
"Sorry, but I'm already taken." Robin smiled, adjusting the oven temperature to three hundred degrees.
Elizabeth made an elaborate show of looking around the loft. "I'm sorry, but I don't see my competition anywhere."
"He has an early bedtime during the week." Robin clarified.
"Ahhh well I definitely can't compete with Morgan."
"This is the best part. Watch and learn." She picked up the bowl and dumped it on top of the wafer crust ever so slowly. Elizabeth watched in fascination. "We're going to have to let this bake for fifty-five minutes. Don't give me that look. I have never gone by a recipe card in my life." Robin insisted playfully.
"In Robin I Trust." Elizabeth joked, a smile playing on her lips.
"I have something for you to do if you're interested." Robin offered Elizabeth a wooden spoon.
"Details please."
"Okay. While that is cooking, you're going to put together the cherry topping. It's quite simple." Robin promised.
"Famous last words."
"All you're going to do is combine this chocolate cherry lacquer with the pie filling. When the cheesecake is done, we'll take it out, you'll pour this on top, and then I'll tell you the last step." Robin informed her friend.
"Okay so far you haven't let me down. But if I end up poisoning you just remember, you told me what to do." Elizabeth shook a spoon in Robin's direction.
"I think I hear my--Morgan. I'll be right back." Robin excused herself from the kitchen.
"Okay." Elizabeth sat nervously in the kitchen, praying nothing would buzz or any smoke would pour out of any appliances.
Robin returned a few minutes later to find Elizabeth sitting on a white stool in the middle of the kitchen. "Were you afraid to leave it unattended?" Robin guessed.
Nodding sheepishly, Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders. "I'm telling you I have a bad history with cooking."
"It's okay, sweetie. I told you, you can't mess up. There is one thing I forgot to tell you."
"What's that?" Elizabeth eyed her suspiciously.
"This has at least forty minutes left to cook and then we have to freeze it for two hours. We have two options. We can watch one of my many Hollywood classics or I can bring this by your grandmother's house tomorrow. Do you work tomorrow? Am I keeping you up?"
"Actually tomorrow is my day off. I vote classics." She'd call her grandmother in a few minutes so she wouldn't worry. "You wouldn't happen to have Casablanca would you?"
"Only the best black and white love story to date. Of course I have it!" Robin squealed, steering Elizabeth out of the kitchen.