Same Time Next Year

Chapter 25 - Year 6

Noah

After waking up at the crack of dawn and working my ass off all day, trying to make a good impression on everyone involved in our meetings, I practically ran back to my hotel room when we were finally done for the day so I could call Elle. I had been worried all afternoon that we would be working late into the night when a couple of the attorneys started arguing about a whole new idea.  I didn't want to miss my chance to talk to Elle tonight.  Luckily they decided to break at a decent time tonight with the thought that we would pick things up again early in the morning before our flight had to leave for Boston. By the end of the day, I was mentally exhausted from trying to take everything in, but knowing I was going to be talking with Elle soon had energized me. As I listened to the phone start to ring, I hoped she hadn't changed her mind about talking to me and about staying at the beach house.

I started dialing her as I was setting down my laptop bag from the day.  She answered as I was taking off my tie and rolling up my sleeves. I wanted to get a little more comfortable for what I hoped was going to be a long phone call.

"Hi Noah. You're done earlier than I thought you would be." Elle answered with a smile and as soon as I saw her, sitting on the outdoor lounge chair beside the pool at the beach house with the ocean as her backdrop, suddenly all was right with my world.

I wished more than anything that I was sitting outside with her at that moment. I closed my eyes for a second, imagining running my hands through her hair as it blows in the breeze. I let my eyes wander over here, feeling my hands start to itch with the want to have my hands follow my gaze.  This was so reminiscent of our long distance relationship when we had countless calls where, as great as it was to see her while we talked, I felt an almost physical pain for not being able to touch her.  I blamed that a little in why we were so bad when we were physically apart.  As strong as our love has always been, we aren't built to be separated. We need to be together.

"Hey Shelly! I came back to the hotel room as soon as we were done today so I could talk to you. Everyone else went out for dinner and drinks when we got done."

"You're sure you're not missing out on any networking?"

"No, it's all good. They all got a chance to see what I could do while we worked together during the day. The two partners are old buddies and I think they wanted to hang out without having the new guy around anyway." I didn't tell Elle that I didn't really need to network with either of these partners, since they were both from the Boston office and the plan was that I wouldn't be working there much longer.  The partner from the LA office had already taken off. "Do you have plans for supper?"

Elle scrunched up her nose as she answered. "Not really.  I brought some groceries here for the weekend. I thought I might make myself something, although the thought of cooking for myself doesn't really sound great."

"Good. I just put in an order for you from that Chinese place you and Lee always used to love to order from every summer.  I assume you still only order cashew chicken, right?"

"Of course, you know me so well!  Noah, that's so sweet!" Elle paused for a second before asking, "Did you happen to order me anything else?"

"What else would I have gotten for you?"  I tried to keep the smirk from my face and out of my voice.  I knew exactly what she was asking about.

"Umm, I was just wondering . . . hoping that maybe you also ordered crab rangoon?"   Elle has the cutest hopeful look on her face.  Sometimes I felt bad  messing with her but she made it too easy and it was hard to resist if she was going to look that adorable when I did it.

"Oh, sides? Of course, I ordered you an egg roll . . ." I watched Elle in silence for a beat. I can see that hopeful expression on Elle's face start to drop, so of course I had to stop. "And crab rangoon, I wouldn't forget your crab rangoon."