Reconsider Me

Part 18

"Thanks." Lindsey smiled, accepting what he had asked Stevie to bring. "Come on in." He opened the door wider to let her through. 

"Why did you ask me to get that?" She asked, giving him a hug. 

"Because I didn't know if your preference had changed. I didn't want to buy the wrong kind." He explained, taking a closer look at the label on the tequila bottle. 

"That's not what I was really asking." Stevie gave him a look before he turned to lead the way to the living room. "Oh?" She noticed the small coffee table, covered with all sorts of her favorite snacks. She wondered if that was merely a coincidence. "What's this?"

"We can't drink on an empty stomach. We're not young anymore." Lindsey shrugged. "Are these pillows okay or would you like to move to the couch?"

"No, no." She shook her head, smiling at his effort. "This is perfect." 

"We're going to play a game." Lindsey said as they sat down in front of each other.

"What are we, 14?" She looked at him skeptically.

"That's where the tequila comes into play." He opened the bottle and poured two shots. "There are clearly things that we need to get off our chests, so..." She wore a slightly amused expression on her face and he took it as a good sign. "I'm going to ask you a question. If you choose to answer, then answer if you don't want to answer, you take shot."

"Oh, God!" Stevie burst out laughing. "We're going to get shit-faced."

"We'll see." Lindsey smiled, trying to encourage her. "Okay, do you want to start or should I?"

"Ask away." She shrugged and shifted in her position to sit cross-legged.  

"How are you doing?" Before she could open her mouth, he added. "And no bullshit."

Breathing in deeply, she then slowly exhaled and nodded her head. "I'm okay. I'm still adjusting to the recent changes. It's quite difficult living with someone again, especially, when you're still not a hundred percent sure that you've made the right decision. All in all, I'm doing okay." 

"Your turn." Lindsey said, noting, how she didn't say, she was happy.

"Why aren't you in a relationship?" If the point of the game was to be honest with each other, there was no reason to dance around any subject.

It took him a minute to respond. "Mainly, because I'm afraid. None of my relationship have worked out. I either end up with someone, who's not right for me, or I act like a total jerk and push them away. It's also tough, I'm not the most romantic person. I keep to myself, I work, I tend to put my music first before anything or anyone else. No one I've been with understood that. Well, except you. I've failed so many times, I don't see the point in putting myself through another heartbreak again."

"But you haven't given up completely, have you?" Stevie hoped to sneak in another question, but Lindsey shook his finger at her.

"One at a time." Putting a piece of cheese on a cracker, he swallowed it whole and received a look from Stevie. "What? I chewed it twice. Maybe." 

"Some things never change, I guess." She looked at him in a somewhat nostalgic way. 

"Right. Do you love Kyle? Are you in love with him?" Without giving her a chance to call him out on the rules, he said. "It's technically one question."

He saw her reaching for the shot glass, but she stopped. She shifted her gaze, thinking. "I'm not in love with him, but I do love him. Our relationship was great, when we first started seeing each other. There were a lot of things that made me love him. I love him for being an amazing dad and I love him for caring about me enough still to want to work things out."

Somehow, her response didn't surprise him all that much. "Okay, I'm listening."

"Do you have feelings for me?" She could tell, he wasn't expecting that question so soon. "Romantic feelings to this day?"

Lindsey thought that they both knew the answer, but admitting it out loud, he believed, would only make things too real. So, he chose to take a shot instead. 

"Do you want for Fleetwood Mac to reunite, go on tour?" He had to steer the conversation into a completely different direction. He didn't have nearly enough alcohol in his system yet. 

"You know, I'm beginning to think that I do." Stevie nodded. "At first it was just an idea, but spending time with you all again made me realize, how much I've missed it. I don't know if I want to commit to something as big as a new record, but a tour? Sure." She spent a moment, wondering what to ask him. "Were you jealous, seeing me with Kyle the other night?"

"More than I thought I would be." Lindsey shrugged, it wasn't a worthy question to skip. "I guess, it's just never going to go away. I will manage to find faults in every man you choose to be with."

"Yourself included?" She raised an eyebrow and he sighed. 

"Yes." He said. "I get two now." He smirked and Stevie didn't disagree. It was obvious that they weren't going to drift too far away from the topic he wasn't completely ready to discuss yet, but... "Do you still have feelings for me?"

It was only fair. She reached for the glass and knocked it back without making a face. "What's your other question?"

"Do you want to move over to the couch?" Lindsey laughed lightly. "This isn't as comfortable as I thought it would be."

They continued on with the game for quite a while, until they started drifting closer to each other without even realizing it. They were emptying the bottle and it showed. Stevie became gigglier and Lindsey's hands somehow managed to land on her more often than not. They knew, they could land themselves in a lot of trouble, but that did not seem all that important right now.

"Okay." Stevie clapped her hands together and pulled her feet up, she turned towards him. "Did you propose to Carol Ann or did she make that story up?"

"Uh, well..." Lindsey scratched his chin, shrugging his shoulders. "Yes and no. We had talked about it, but I never got down on one knee or anything like that. I guess, she just assumed."

"You were never going to marry her." She stated, she knew, everybody knew. 

"Do you want to marry Kyle?" The thought alone made him a little sick.

"I doubt it. I don't know if I want to marry anyone." Stevie replied, stretching her arm out along the back of the couch. She didn't realize, when she began to play with his curls at the back of his head. "Do you still find me attractive?"

Lindsey gulped. Attractive was an understatement. "Yes, I do." He saw a tiny smirk on her lips, which was exactly what his eyes were currently fixed on. Tilting them up, he asked. "Would you push me away if I kissed you?"