Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 13:Work Trip

"Hey, I bought us lunch!" Brian walks in with a bag of takeout.

"Thanks babe, but I'm kind of busy answering some voicemails." Melanie gives him a small smile but continues working without stopping to say anything else.

Brian huffs, wanting to talk to Melanie somewhere more private about going to LA this weekend. He stands next to her desk, pretending to be on his cell phone waiting for her to hang up the phone from whatever call she is making. When she finally does, clearly annoyed Brian is hovering, he says "can you spare 10 minutes to have a quick lunch together?"

She growls but agrees "fine" pushing herself out of her chair. She follows behind him to small lunch room type area and spits "but if Sal gets mad I'm blaming it on you!"

"deal!" He agrees. Once they are seated and the food is split between them, he starts "so, by now you probably know all about LA."

"Yes, that's amazing! I'm so proud of you and the guys." She smiles, appearing to be genuinely happy for them "is Lenny taking care of your ticket? If not, I can do it after I book Sal's."

"Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to come with us?" He asks her.

"To LA?" She asks.

He chuckles "yea, to LA."

She squints "I uhh, I'm not sure nows a good time for me to head off on a trip and—"

He stops her from going on "well don't think of it as a trip. We will be working most of this time and if you come then Lenny and Shelly can have some time off. They've been helping Sal the past week and an extra 2 days off would probably go a long way for them." He makes sure to add on "and since you want to come to work and throw yourself back into it then this is a good way." She stays quiet for a moment and he adds on "and I also want you to come. It would mean a lot having you there."

She takes a minute to think about it but ultimately agrees to his proposition "yeah, let's do that. I'll come to LA."

Brian smiles "yea? good! I think it'll be good for us." He leans in to kiss her and she accepts, kissing him back for a moment "and why don't we splurge a little and get first class seats." He suggests when he pulls back.

"Really? You think we should do that? We have a wedding to plan for, we shouldn't be spending it willy nilly." She replies.

He shrugs "I think it'll be fun."

"Alright, sure. If you're sure about it." She takes a bite of the food in front of her. They sit together for another 5 minutes before she excuses herself and heads back to work.

On Thursday afternoon, Brian and Melanie meet the guys at JFK and after they get through security they all go to a restaurant while waiting to board. All but Joe order a drink and decide to share some appetizers. Once the waitress walks away, Joe comments "I'm really glad you decided to come with us Mel, it's going to be so fun!"

"Yeah, I'm glad too. It should be great. I can't believe you guys are meeting with funny or die on actually making a movie!" She replies.

Murray adds "its incredible! I knew we'd get a callback!"

Sal jokes "cause you pushed it on every tv, movie and online network around."

"And look what came of that?!" Murray reminds, not getting that Sal was joking.

Sal grabs Murray around the shoulder and encourages "you done good, Murr!"

The waitress returns with the drinks and everyone puts their glasses in the middle for a toast. Brian says "We've come a long ass way and I'm so glad to be on this journey with all of you. Let's kill it this weekend fellas!"

"Let's kill it!" Two of em cheers and Joe says "Cheers!"

"Congrats guys!" I cheers my glass as well and sip the drink.

After the flight takes off, Melanie pushes her seat back and closes her eyes. She's not the least bit tired but she's hoping she can kill some of the flight time by snoozing. After a few minutes of trying, she quickly gives up and puts her chair back up to the full sitting position. Brian asks "everything okay?"

She sighs, leaning in to rest her head on his arm "no, I just want to sleep so I don't have to think about anything but I can't. And I can't do any work while on the plane so I just keep going back to the letter. Maybe I should've opened it?"

"Well, if you wanna take your mind off of it" he looks around to make sure no one is eavesdropping. He leans in and whispers "we can go on over there and make it into the mile high club."

"Bri—" she slowly starts to say back to him.

He quickly chuckles a "I'm just kidding, just kidding. Sorry, I didn't mean to be gross."

"No, it's not that" she responds, this time looking around herself at the 6 other people in first class. She whispers to him "it's just that I'm already a member." His mouth drops down quickly and far and Melanie laughs "close your mouth, you can catch a fly in that thing."

"What?!" He says. It wasn't necessarily loud but considering they were in a small space on a plane, they got some looks.

She quickly "shhhh's" him.

"Oh, come on. You're actually a member of the mile high club?" He asks, his eyes wide with wonder.

She pushes him "don't he so shocked, you know I'm not a prude."

He shakes his head "oh, I know. But I wouldn't have pegged you to be part of that club. I'm not even part of it."

She fakes being offended and quickly retorts back "Well, looks like you're just more prude then me."

She sticks her tongue of but he quickly throws her off guard by tossing her his hoodie and leaning close into her ear "whatdaya say I prove just how not prude I am?"

"What do you have in mind?" She playfully asks back, feeling a sense of excitement she hasn't felt in awhile. He adjusts the hoodie on her lap and works at the button on her jeans "you're serious?" She laughs as he slowly starts to lower the zipper.

He pauses "unless you wanna admit I'm no prude."

She bites her lips and whisper "not a chance, you said you'd prove it, so prove it." He squints and smirks and his hand slowly slides down her jeans and his fingers gently touch her core.