Ready or Not

Chapter 16

Thursday schedule is rather light for you. You have two classes that start in the morning and end in early afternoon. Then, you have a big break before you have your two students for tutoring. You promised Eric that you'd meet with him and have lunch at 1:00 today, so after your second class finishes, you head home to drop off your school things and get ready to meet Eric for lunch. You are quite anxious about what is going to be discussed during lunch and can't stop thinking about Namjoon's appearance at your door last night. You wonder if the men talk to each other about these kinds of things, like you and your girlfriends do. The clock on the wall above your TV reads 12:45. You think, "Should I bring the stuff I'm going to need for tutoring?" But then you figure the lunch with Eric will not take 4 hours and decide to leave things here and plan to return before heading out for work. Eric said he would swing by your apartment to pick you up before heading over to O'Shaughnessy's, so you make your way down to your lobby.

You decide to stand in your vestibule to wait for Eric. As soon as you walk into it you see his car pulling up to the entrance of your building. When you see Eric you wave at him as you trot down your stoop steps. He gets out of his car to open the car door for you. You say, "My goodness. Thank you Eric, you didn't have to do that."

He replies, "Please, don't mention it."

"Well, I sure appreciate it. Thanks for driving me too. I know it's only a handful of blocks, but the temperature is dropping rapidly, and I would have been cold."

"You're welcome again." Then he closes your car door and runs around to his side and gets into the driver's seat. He asks, "Are you ready Honeysuckle?"

You chuckle at him calling you by his own nickname for you and say, "I sure am."

The drive to O'Shaughnessy's Bar and Grille takes about ten minutes. Eric finds parking and comes around to your side to get the door for you again. Thanking him one more time, the two of you make your way to the pub. Eric asks, "Want to sit at the bar or get a table?"

"Whatever you prefer works for me."

Eric walks up to the hostess and says, "Table for two please."

The hostess grabs a couple of menus and says, "Right this way."

Eric puts his hand on the small of your back briefly to push you in front of him and you follow the hostess. She brings the two of you to a booth and you take your seats. The hostess says, "Your server will be right with you," as she hands the two of you the menu. You can't help but catch her making eyes at Eric and you watch him notice her. You chortle softly to yourself thinking, "These men never take a day off, do they?"

When the hostess is finally out of earshot, Eric says, "Okay, I need you to tell me what the hell happened last Friday. I've never seen Joonie so distressed before."

You take a deep breath and say, "Joonie did something that he wasn't supposed to and got caught."

Eric replies, "Okay.... That is so vague that I think I have less information now than I did before you started talking."

"Did you think about asking your friends instead of me?"

"I did and he won't say."

You sigh and reply, "I wonder why," and shake your head.

"Also, Warren hasn't been himself in the past couple of weeks either. And I can't help but think that you have something to do with that too."

"Hey, now.... I didn't do anything to cause any of this if that's what you are getting at."

Eric replies, "No, no. I didn't mean it like that. I was just saying, I had a hunch that there was something going on between you and Joonie, as well as between you and Warren. I only made that jump to conclusion because Warren had spoken to me about some things before all this, whatever this is, happened. Anyway, when I asked both, neither wanted to talk."