Chapter 11: Nottogether

JANUARY 1, 2002, WINTER BREAK

After a pleasant day shopping and then making the two-and-a-half hour drive back to the real world, Adrienne dropped me off from our impromptu Big Bear trip. She kissed me goodbye and told me to wish "Happy New Year's" from her to my family, then she drove the next few hundred feet to her house. I watched her garage door rising and turned to walk in through my front door.

I promptly entered into what sounded like a war zone.

"Sonovabitch! I'll kill him! I'll kill him!" Brooke thumped by me on her way up the stairs, screaming blood murder.

"Ben!" My mom came around the corner. "Thank goodness you're here. You HAVE to talk to Brooke."

"Wha-?"

"Obviously ... she's upset," Mom gestured.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know," Mom moaned mournfully. "She won't talk to me. She just came home all upset and morose and when I tried to talk to her, she just exploded!"

I looked up the stairs as if my execution was waiting for me at the top. "Uh, okay..." I took a deep breath. "I'll see what I can do."

A minute later I dropped my bag off in my room and then went back to Brooke's door, which was shut closed.

Knocking softly, I got the expected, "Go away!"

"It's me, Brooke," I said gently.

Twenty seconds later, the door cracked open, "Is anyone else out there?"

I turned to look both ways down the hall. "Just me."

Brooke opened the door and let me in, then slammed it closed as hard as she possibly could, rattling the doorframe and tilting some of her wall hangings.

"Angry a bit?" I ventured.

Brooke rolled her eyes with a 'die now, bitch' kind of look. I just arched an eyebrow at her and moved to sit on her bed, scooting back until I could lean against the wall. And in a calm voice I began, "Talk to me."

"It's Kenta."

"I figured. What happened? Did you guys break up?"

"YES," Brooke thundered. Then she screwed up her face and turned around. "Well no ... Well ... fuck! I don't know. We didn't actually get far enough to talk about whether we were broken up or not."

I nodded, thinking of the time I'd gotten Adrienne so angry at me she'd ordered me out of her house, but we'd never actually spoken about whether we were still together at the time. "But you had a fight," I reasoned.

"YES." It was amazing how much emotional emphasis my little sister could put on a single syllable. "Because Kenta's a FUCKING ASSHOLE!" She screamed the last two words at the doorway, no doubt hoping my parents heard.

I reached up and grabbed her, yanking her down onto the bed with me and wrapping my arms around to prevent her from moving. One of my hands went up to her mouth to clamp it shut. "Jeez! Calm down, Brooke," I hissed. "Mom and Dad won't let you get away with that kind of language while the twins are home!"

Brooke wiggled and thrashed until I released her mouth, but she didn't curse again. "Who cares," she whined. "My boyfriend CHEATED on me!"

Both my eyebrows popped up and I loosened my grip on Brooke in surprise. "What?"

Despite no longer being restrained, my little sister didn't move to extract herself from my arms. Instead she actually sagged deeper against my chest. "He cheated. I know he did."

"You know he did?" I asked in confusion. "So you didn't actually catch him."

"Not in the act. But I found evidence," Brooke humphed.

I shook my head. "Maybe you should start from the beginning."

Brooke exhaled loudly and for a long time. It felt like every bone in her body turned to liquid as she melted against my chest and pressed me back against the wall while she pillowed her head on my shoulder. And after taking another deep breath, my little sister explained, "Kenta turned sixteen while we were at Big Bear. His parents bought him a car. Used, but still his first car, you know?"

"I know," I nodded, thinking of how thrilled I was when I got my beater Corolla.

"Anyways, he had other stuff going on with his family for New Year's Eve but wanted to meet up today, right? And I was thinking, it's the new year and he's got a new car and all. I wanted to ... well ... christen Kenta's car with him, right?"

I blushed and smiled, simultaneously embarrassed and amused by the idea of my little sister getting frisky with her boyfriend. "Okay, got it."

"So we get in the backseat and we're making out and all. I'm starting to pull my clothes off and then kneel down to give my boyfriend his first backseat blowjob and-" Brooke interrupted herself by shaking and wincing painfully.

I instantly closed my grip around her, hugging my sister tightly and rocking myself slowly from side-to-side. "Hey, hey, it's okay ... I'm here for you. I'm here for you," I soothed.

Brooke wailed, tears rolling down her cheek as she grimaced and then spat. "I found panties in the car, Ben! PANTIES! And they sure as hell weren't MINE!"

Ouch. I frowned and offered, "Maybe they were left there by the previous owner?"

"Not just sitting on the floor in the backseat, Ben!" Brooke growled and picked her head up, slapping my chest.

I winced and nodded. "What happened?"

"What happened? What HAPPENED? I threw them in his face and demanded to know whose they were!"

"And?"

"And he wouldn't tell me! He wouldn't fucking tell me!" Brooke was shaking again, this time out of sheer anger as she looked ready to punch something. My little sister always did have a bit of a temper.

"Brooke..." I tried to start soothingly.

"He wouldn't tell me! He KNEW! He even tried to say that it had nothing to do with me and that he loved me! Bullshit! How could he love me and have some other girl's panties in his car? How fucked up is that? Men! ARRGGGHHH!" Brooke yelled. "They're all just FUCKING ASSHOLES!"

"Okay, okay," I patted her back, rubbing firmly. "Kenta's an asshole," I said agreeably. One thing I'd learned hanging out with lots of girls: they didn't want you to come up with solutions. They just wanted sympathy and to feel like you were on their side. AFTER they calmed down, maybe, they'd want you to help find a solution. But not until they'd gotten their emotions under control.

"Fucking asshole," Brooke sobbed, burying her face against me.

"Shh..." I rubbed a little harder, holding Brooke against me and rocking her like a baby.

"Men are assholes..."

"I know, I know..."

Brooke sniffled and then picked her head up, looking at me through bleary eyes. "Except you, Ben. You're my big brother."

"I am," I answered warmly, still rubbing her back. "I'm here for you."

"You're not an asshole."

I grinned. "Not usually, I'd like to think."

And then Brooke kissed me. Her lips were soft and yet urgent, moving quickly to part my lips and press her tongue inside my mouth.

I kissed her back instinctively for a second before grabbing her shoulders and pulling her away. "Whoa, whoa. You're pretty upset Brooke. Maybe you should calm down a bit before you do anything rash."

"Shut up, Ben." Brooke said quietly and then kissed me again, moving her hand down between us, questing around the clasp of my jeans.

"Brooke," I broke away and gasped.

"Don't be an asshole, Ben. Just let me, okay?"

I groaned as Brooke unbuttoned and then unzipped me, pulling my cock through the open fly. After the New Year's Eve sex marathon with the four cheerleaders, even waking up with Adrienne in my arms hadn't been enough to give me an erection. It hadn't mattered since all Adrienne wanted to do was kiss me and feel happy that I was her friend, even without the sex.

But now, after hours and hours of time to recover, my little sister's stroking hand was quickly reviving me. "Ohhh, Brooke," I groaned.

She slid down the bed and bent over, taking me into her mouth and sucking me with the expert skills I'd taught her. And my shaft quickly grew and elongated while my little sister worked her oral magic.

"This isn't a good idea, Brooke. Mom and Dad and the twins are just downstairs."

"We can be quiet. We've done it before," Brooke reasoned. "Please, Ben. I just need to feel you inside me. Hold me, okay?"

I sighed. Brooke already knew she could get me to do ANYTHING if she had my dick in her mouth. She could get me to buy her a CAR at this point if she had my dick in her mouth. So I nodded. "If it's what you really want."

Not bothering to answer verbally, Brooke got to her knees and then pulled off her own jeans and panties. And then still fully clothed above the waist, she moved to straddle me, taking my cock in hand and rubbing the mushroom head back and forth along her slit, smearing my pre-cum along her labia and picking up additional lubrication. And then holding me upright, my 15-year-old little sister slowly sank herself down onto my shaft.

She was incredibly tight and not that wet inside, so it took a while to get me fully inside her. But once she hit bottom Brooke simply laid her chest against mine, raising her hands up to my shoulders and hugging herself to me while I wrapped my arms around her.

And then we just held each other.

Yeah, eventually Brooke started silently humping me and we brought ourselves to relief-filled climaxes. But the important thing was that for the longest time, we just held each other. Brooke cried softly against my shoulder while I rubbed her back. And I reminded my little sister that I would always be there for her.

JANUARY 2002, SENIOR YEAR

"Hey there, Ben!" Megan called as she came up to me and gave me a warm, chaste hug.

"Hey, Megan. Happy New Year."

"Hey, Megan! Hey, Ben!" Cassidy remarked as she moved alongside us, her ubiquitous headphones wrapped around her neck.

"Hey, Cass," Megan smiled.

"Hey, Freckles," I replied.

Then the perky redhead turned to me. "How was your ski trip, Ben?"

I blushed and looked sidelong towards the lockers where Heather and Lynne were chatting with some of their other cheerleader friends perhaps fifty feet away. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Megan followed my gaze and punched me in the shoulder. "Actually, I'll bet we would. Have you been naughty, Ben?"

I coughed and looked at my feet. "No, no. I've been on my best behavior."

"I'll bet," Cassidy smirked. "How many cheerleaders did you bang over the break? Four?" The redhead turned and laughed with Megan as if she'd made a really funny joke.

I blushed and didn't answer.

"Hey guys," came a sweet voice from my left. Adrienne sidled up to our group, holding her books over her prodigious chest but low enough that they didn't block one's view of her cleavage. "Hey, Tiger," she said a little more sweetly.

"Hey, A.D.," I nodded.

"How was your break?" Megan asked Adrienne.

"Wonderful. My dad was actually home for a bit," Adrienne smiled warmly. "And then Candy, you guys remember Candy, don't you? Anyways, her parents had to back out of a condo rental at Big Bear so she invited me, Heather, Lynne, and Bennn..." Adrienne paused to elbow me in the ribs, "up for a few days to use it."

Adrienne then flashed her hazel eyes and leaned in conspiratorially, getting Megan and Cassidy to also lean forward. "Can I tell you a secret?" Adrienne whispered. "Ben spent the entire time fucking our brains out! All four of us!"

I gulped and stared at my feet. The three girls stood up straight, Megan and Cassidy with surprised looks on their faces. But they didn't seem angry. Cassidy rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Can't believe I was right."

Megan chuckled and patted my arm, "You, my friend, are quite a piece of work." And then laughing, she took Cassidy by the arm and the two of them headed off to meet up with our other friends.

I sighed as Adrienne slid beside me and looped her arm through mine. "Was that really necessary?"

"What?" Adrienne looked surprised. "You're embarrassed about it or something?"

"No, but-"

"ReLAX. They're your friends. Better I tell them like this than letting them find out on the rumor mill. I know Lynne can keep our parties under wraps, but I've got a feeling everyone's gonna notice how Heather's acting differently around you." Adrienne looked up. "Speaking of which..."

"Heyyy, Ben," Heather grinned as she approached and then promptly leaped into my arms, forcing me to drop my books in order to catch her legs around my waist. Then the pretty 17-year-old seized my head and planted a juicy kiss on my lips. "Thanks for the weekend. It was FANTASTIC! Everything I'd dreamed!"

"Uh ... You're welcome?" I managed to stammer.

"See ya later!" the raven-haired cheerleader chirped as she spun and headed off to her first class, two other Senior cheerleaders in tow behind her, both of them giving me appraising looks.

Just another day at school.

On a random Thursday, I hooked my thumbs through the straps of my backpack, nodding while listening to Adrienne spin the latest web off the rumor mill. Such and such girl was seen flirting with such and such guy at In-N-Out while his girlfriend was home sick with the flu.

The two of us were heading for the parking lot after the end of classes when Drew Walker cruised by with some of his basketball teammates. I looked up and just nodded my head in greeting but the tall, well-built young man stopped in front of us with a friendly smile on his face.

I watched Drew's eyes do their yo-yo thing to Adrienne's tits before she said, "Hey, Drew. What's up?"

"Hey, Adrienne," he answered to her breasts before looking her in the eye. "Hey, Ben. I just wanted to let you guys know I'm throwing a party tomorrow night. My parents are gonna be out of town for the weekend. It's a last-minute thing."

"Oh, okay," she smiled. "You inviting most of my girls?" Everyone knew Adrienne was referring to the cheerleading squads.

Drew grinned. "Yeah. Wouldn't be a party without some of them. And Kenley insisted I had to get your permission."

The gorgeous Cheer Captain chuckled at the mention of Drew's cheerleader girlfriend, who clearly idolized Adrienne. "Sure thing."

Then the stunning blonde bombshell hooked her arm through mine. "Whaddaya say, Tiger? Got anything better to do on a Friday night?"

I shook my head and turned to Drew. "Looks like we'll see you there."

On Friday afternoon, I informed my parents I was going to a party at Drew Walker's place. Mom gave me the usual "limit your drinking and no drugs" speech. I nodded and then went to go dress.

Just after dinner, Kady Jacobsen came by to pick up Brooke with Jennifer Vo in tow. The girls were going to a slumber party somewhere and I helped Brooke load a sleeping bag and her little roller suitcase into Kady's trunk while the sultry redhead wriggled her ass at me, the way she always did.

About an hour later, Adrienne pulled up to our driveway. I met her by her car with a quick peck on the lips, and then she handed me her keys. Grinning wryly, I waved the keys causing them to clink together and remarked, "Y'know, if you're gonna claim that we're not dating then kissing me and driving to parties together isn't exactly going to help public perception."

"I don't care if people think we're together or not," Adrienne shrugged. "I know and you know. That's all that matters."

"Well what if I want to pick up a girl at one of these parties?"

Adrienne grinned. "You're free to do so. Screw whomever you want, Ben. But in tonight's case, I think you'd better hope she's got a car."

"That's not the point." I smiled wryly. "No girl is gonna come near me if you're by my side all night."

"Then I guess you're going to have to choose, Ben. You can leave me when we get there, flirt, and hope you might get lucky." The gorgeous blonde then flashed me a brilliant smile. "OR, you can stay by my side and be absolutely guaranteed that tonight I'm going to let you shove your big dick repeatedly into my supple body until I'm leaking your sperm from all three of my holes."

Okay. I could do things her way.

I shook my head with a chuckle and hopped in the driver's seat. Adrienne circled around and let herself in on the passenger side. And then we were off.

Twenty minutes later we pulled up outside of Drew's house. The driveway was already packed and I parallel-parked the Mustang three houses down. Adrienne and I walked up together and we were promptly greeted by the animated chatter of a forty high-schoolers spread throughout the house and into the backyard, despite the winter cold. And if rumors were to be believed, we'd soon have over a hundred.

"Adrienne! Ben!" Heather hugged the both of us as we entered. Heather held a red Solo cup in her hand, appearing to be already buzzed even though it was still early. In fact, I didn't even hear any music, although I saw several guys huddled around the media center, complete with big screen plasma TV, stereo unit and a pack of speakers. The guys were arguing with each other, two of them even appearing to start a shoving match.

"Hang on," I waved to Adrienne and started over.

"There he goes," Adrienne said with a hint of pride in her voice. "Watch this," she told Heather.

"Got a problem with the sound?" I asked as I entered into the group.

"We got it handled," Marco Canelli, a burly guy from the basketball team answered, brushing me aside. But Drew looked up at me and arched an eyebrow. "Wait, let him look."

I crouched down while Drew pointed to the stereo and an abundance of cables running to the receiver and on to all the speakers. He gestured, "We moved this all down from my room and I swear everything is plugged in right. But for some reason nothing's working."

I hunted around, first looking for anything that might be shorting the lines and double checking that indeed, all the proper plugs had the proper cables in them. Frowning, I even made sure the guys weren't so stupid as to have the receiver tuned to the wrong channel. And then somehow the mess of cables clicked in my mind.

Reaching around, I unplugged two sets of tri-color RCA A/V cables from the back of the receiver, switching them and plugging them back into the opposite spots. I flicked my finger over and hit play on the CD player and [boom], thundering rock music started blaring over the loudspeakers.

"What'd you do?" Marco jumped in my face.

I shrugged. "Somehow when you guys were plugging everything back in, you ended up sending the CD output into the television input on your receiver, and vice versa. The cables look the same. Just got 'em backwards."

"Thanks, man," Drew stood up and clapped my hand in both of his.

"No problem."

He grinned. "Go have a beer."

I nodded and then returned to my girl. Adrienne was just smirking at me, already holding a red cup of her own while handing a second to me. "Always gotta be the hero."

"Nothing serious," I shrugged.

Adrienne just leaned in and kissed me softly. When she backed away, she patted my chest proudly. "You did good."

It was about an hour later while I was dancing in a small circle with Adrienne, Heather, and a few others when a familiar face flashed in my peripheral vision, followed by another.

Jerking my head around suddenly, I half-heartedly kept dancing while looking over to see a dark auburn redhead slowly walking away from me. And without further thought I snaked my way across the room after her.

A few seconds later I caught up and reached out for her elbow. She felt my touch and spun around, looking surprised while I cocked my head and exclaimed, "Kady!"

The pretty Junior cheerleader smiled mischievously. "Ben! Staring at my ass again, I see."

"What are you doing here?"

Her deep blue eyes sparkled as she snorted, "Why, I'm here to mingle with the commoners."

I arched my eyebrow.

Kady rolled her eyes. "I'm a cheerleader. Look around. Almost everyone from both squads is here."

"I thought you were at a slumber party with Brooke!"

"I AM. We're just, ah, stopping by here first," Kady shrugged. "Although I must admit, there's a little too much gruntage for my taste."

"Gruntage?"

Kady smiled and started pointing at various heavyset guys dancing like oversized gorillas and doing their best to mack on various girls. "Grunt ... grunt ... grunt..."

I chuckled. "Then why ARE you here?"

She nodded back in the direction from which she was originally headed. "Brooke insisted."

"Brooke!" My eyes flew open as I realized the implications.

Kady then turned and hollered. "Brooke!" A few familiar girls turned from their spot by the kitchen, including my little sister.

"Beer me!" Kady yelled while holding up her empty red cup.

Ah, hell. Brooke's curfew was 10pm on a Friday night. I quickly brushed past Kady and headed straight for my 15-year-old sister, who just grinned and took another sip from her beer cup as I approached. Erin Roberts went to get Kady's refill. "Brooke, what the HELL are you doing here?" I exclaimed.

"What does it look like? I'm here to party!" My little sister whooped and raised her cup in the air. For some reason, twelve people around her similarly yelled and raised their cups.

"It's past your curfew!"

"What curfew? I'm at a slumber party, remember?"

"You're too young for this!"

"I'm fifteen!" my sister frowned and growled at me, her cheeks already permanently red. "And I'm a cheerleader! I was invited."

"Ah, hell," I groaned.

"ReLAX, Ben. I can take care of myself. And Kady will kick the ass of anyone who gets too close to me."

I rolled my eyes. "I could tell Mom on you."

Brooke put a fist against her hip, frowning. "You won't."

I wouldn't. It wasn't in my nature to rat her out. Shaking my head, I sighed. "I'll be keeping an eye on you, okay?"

She smiled, "I know. That's why I'm not too worried, big bro!"

I huffed. "Don't drink too much. If you go home with puke on your clothes, I won't be able to save you."

"Fine. Fine."

Kady had arrived by now, along with Erin who handed over a fresh beer for Kady. I looked at the redhead and at Jennifer Vo and jerked my thumb towards my little sister. "Keep her out of trouble for me. Please?"

"No problem, mon," Kady grinned with an overdone Jamaican accent. Jennifer nodded.

"And Ben..." Kady called as I started to walk away. I turned just in time for Kady to shake her ass at me. "Try not to stare TOO hard."

I didn't really enjoy the party that much after that. Adrienne tried to keep my spirits up but I kept glancing across the room, looking for Brooke to make sure she wasn't getting into any mischief.

More than once, some group of guys would approach Brooke's pack of friends, flirting with them and trying to get them to dance. Sometimes one or a couple of them would say yes. More often they were shot down. Brooke took a couple of twirls with a few random guys, during which I stayed against a wall and attempted to glare daggers into the back of the guy's head. I noticed that Kady never once danced with one of her potential suitors, although she did enthusiastically boogie down with her friends.

Brooke even got some attention from Drew Walker. He cruised over with two of his buddies and managed to get Brooke, Jennifer, and Erin all to dance with the three of them. I had to admit, the guy was smooth and charming; and Brooke seemed pleasantly attracted to him, which twitched some mild alarm in the back of my head.

But then Kenley Kirchner, Drew's girlfriend, cut in and whisked her boyfriend away. The two headed for the stairs and I didn't see either one of them for the next hour.

All in all, the party was kind of a dud for me. I passed up most of my chances to flirt with any girls besides Adrienne and Heather. I also saw Chelsie Lennis, Maddie Chung, and Nadine Butler. But the three of them went out of their way to avoid me while Adrienne was around. In the end, I stayed just long enough to see my sister get into Erin Roberts' car and verify that Erin had a maximum of one beer, which she didn't even finish. And after they left to complete their actual 'slumber party', I motioned to Adrienne and told her I wanted to go.

"You're kind of out of it, Tiger," Adrienne remarked as we hopped into her car. "You spent more time worrying about Brooke than enjoying yourself. If I didn't know she was your sister, I might have thought you were jealous."

I rolled my eyes. "Just protective, that's all."

"I know," she giggled and let her head loll back as I shifted the car into gear and pulled out onto the street.

"I suppose it's just as well that we left early," Adrienne then mused.

"Why?"

"Because," her voice dropped to a sultry husk as she leaned across the center console and slid her hand to start opening the clasp of my jeans. "I'm drunk ... I'm horny ... And now we have more time to fuck."

Adrienne could be SUCH a great mood-lifter.

FEBRUARY 2002, SENIOR YEAR

"Brooke! It's Kenta again!" My mom hollered up the stairs, the cordless phone trapped against her shoulder.

"I told you!" Brooke yelled back. "I don't want to talk to that fucking asshole!"

"Brooke! Language!" My mother snapped.

"SORRY," came the reply, sounding anything but apologetic.

Mom just shook her head and headed back into the kitchen, picking up the phone to apologize to Kenta and explain that Brooke still wouldn't take his calls. Feeling big brotherly, I turned off my video game and headed for the stairs.

I at least had to give Kenta credit. Most guys would have given up by now, but the kid seemed to truly love my little sister. Yeah, he cheated on her, but coming from my own background, I thought the guy might deserve a second chance.

I was leaving my fourth period and heading for the lunch line when a voice called out, "Heyyy, Ben." I glanced over to my left to see Lynne Arian gliding along the hallway towards me, curving her walking path to intercept me ten feet ahead.

"Hey, Lynne," I replied brightly. "Going to lunch?"

"Yep." The petite brunette slid alongside me and then bumped her hip into mine, a teasing smile on her face.

I grinned and then couldn't help but picture her cute naked body the way it had looked beneath me.

"Get your head out of the gutter, Ben," Lynne rebuked without any heat, noticing my look.

I blushed. "Can't help it."

"I know." The cute brunette smiled. "Speaking of sex, what are your plans for Valentine's Day?"

I stopped in my tracks and furrowed my brow. "Lynne, uh, I thought we talked about-"

"Not me, dumbo," she interrupted. "What are you doing for Adrienne?"

My jaw flapped up and down a few times as I gaped in confusion. "Adrienne? I, uh, well, I wasn't really planning-"

Unexpectedly, Lynne stepped forward and bopped me on the forehead, having to reach up to do so.

"Oww," I stepped back. It didn't really hurt, but it WAS surprising.

Lynne then held up her left hand and start raising fingers one at a time while touching them with her right index finger. "One, she doesn't like roses. Too cliché. Try lilies or tulips. Preferably in a pastel color. Two, for some reason she likes Chinese food on a day like this. Says it makes her horny. Three, dress up. You'd really impress her if you wore a jacket and tie. Makes her feel grown up. And four, maybe you should talk Candy into giving you another Viagra pill."

"Huh?"

"It's Valentine's Day." Lynne grinned. "She'll want to give you extra-special sex and you're gonna need all the help you can get."

"But we're not even dating!"

"Pssht." Lynne waved her hand dismissively. "That's just an excuse Adrienne's using because she doesn't want to get hurt when you leave her. But the girl is in love with you and let's face it, Ben, since the Big Bear trip, who else have you had sex with besides Adrienne?"

My mind flashed to Brooke. Now that she was single, every now and again my little sister wanted to jump my bones. But I smartly replied, "Uh, nobody."

"Exactly. She keeps reminding you that you can screw whomever you want, but you don't. It's just you ... and her ... The whole school thinks you're together, Ben, despite that stupid tape recorder gimmick you keep using that got old last November."

"Hey!"

Lynne grinned. "Dating or not, you'll make Adrienne very happy if you do this, got it?"

"Uh, okay."

"Oh, and don't let her know I said anything," Lynne started to turn away before snapping back to me. "And DON'T call it a Valentine's date. She won't want to go on a 'date' with you. Come up with something else ... like ... uh, she's single and you're single and you both have nothing better to do on a Thursday night. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good!" Lynne stepped forward and pecked my cheek. "I'll see you at the lunch table."

"Urrrp!"