Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 19: Moving Forward

When Melanie gets back to her apartment after running some errands for Sal, she sits on her bed and reflects over the weekend. She can't figure out why she was so ready to make Brian jealous, to just start dancing with another guy waiting for him to see and get angry. Her thoughts from the weekend quickly turns into her reflecting over the last few weeks. Since her mother died, she's been a mess and questioning so much in her life. She has no answers to anything now and can't get them from the one person she thought would never lie to her.  She sits there for hours thinking about all the conversations she had with her mom about her dad and how he left her, left them. She eyes the letter still in her trash bin and decides to pull it out of the trash. She places it in her bag and goes back to her bed, trying to figure out what to do with it. She continues to mull it over before deciding to throw it away in her trash for good, putting it in her kitchen receptacle to make sure it gets tossed. When she gets to the IJ offices the next day, Lenny greets her at the office door with a large coffee and a bagel from the best bagel shop in the city, he smiles as he passes it over "thank you so much for taking care of everything in LA, I had the best weekend!"

"It was no problem Lenny, you didn't have to get me breakfast." She rolls her eyes back at him with a smile, accepting the treats.

He bounces behind her "oh, I did! Because I didn't have to work this weekend I got to spend the entire weekend with my boyfriend and ohh, it was just perfection." He begins to go into detail about his weekend as Melanie sits at her desk and listens, taking the bagel out and eating as he goes on and on. Eventually, he starts to slow down from his story and changes directions by asking "and how did it go? Q gave me this huge list of names to add to his books" He leans in as if to tell her a secret "I googled some of the names too. There are some big shots on the list."

His eyebrows raise, wanting all the details. She gives him the basics of it "it went really well. They are going to sign a deal on doing a movie."

"What!" Lenny squeals "that's huge!"

"What's huge?" Shelly comes over with her coffee in hand, an umbrella hanging from her arm "what's going on?"

Things between Melanie and Shelly never got to be good, but they were fine to work next to one another and see each other out at events they were working. Melanie tells her "the guys are going to be doing a movie."

She smiles "that's great! Wow! We have to celebrate."

I inform them "well, I think the guys celebrated enough in Los Angeles. Murray still might be hungover."

Shelly chuckles "tell me about it, I had to go to the store for him, like, almost a dozen times yesterday."

Lenny and Melanie laugh and nod, and Melanie gives them a few more details about the filming of the episode they did and everything she had to do to make it work. "Well, thank you again for being all of us. The weekend was fantastic." Lenny smiles and moves to get back to his desk.

"yeah, thank you. It was a good weekend!" Shelly echoes his words before leaving and heading to her desk.

Melanie and Brian don't manage to see each until Wednesday when she was bringing Sal his lunch on location. Brian is in the middle of filming a skit when he sees her but manages to throw a wink her way before returning his attention to the prank. She decides to hang around until he's done, wanting to make plans to see each other. Melanie still feels pretty bad about ruining his night out in LA and wants to make it up to him properly. When the director finally calls out a cut and a break, Brian almost skips over to her "hey gorgeous, I've been missing you." He kisses her softly on the lips.

"Eww" Murray mutters next to them "I know your all lovey dovey but can't you save it, we're at work."

"What's up his butt?" Melanie says, managing to pull away from Brian's soft lips to ask.

Brian pushes one more wet kiss to her lips before saying "he didn't finish the challenge, will probably be the loser for this episode." He smiles "anyway, want to get dinner tonight?"

"We could do that, or you can come over and I can make you dinner." She suggests, raising an eyebrow.

He bites his lower lip and whispers so the others cant hear "make me dinner, or dessert?"

She shakes her head "just come over after 6, bring something to sleep in." She reminds him, telling him he's staying the night.

Later that evening, Brian knocks on the door at 6:27. Melanie hollers at him to come in and he enters, dropping a duffel on the floor "how was the rest of your day?" He calls into the kitchen as he heads for the couch.

Melanie brings over a beer "it was good, got a lot done. And yourself? Did you lose the challenge? Heard you had to go again after I left."

He shakes his head proudly "nope, I did everything I was told to do."

"That's my boy" she plops down next to him, putting her feet up underneath her. She rests her head on his chest and says "dinner should be ready in about 15 minutes."

"Great" he hums, starting to run his hand through her hair "why don't you tell me about your day."

After dinner, Melanie makes a point to go to her bedroom, knowing Brian will follow. She lays down on the bed on her stomach and sighs "ugh, I'm so full."

"That was a great dinner, so lucky you're such a good cook." Brian compliments her, dropping down next to her on his back "I'm also stuffed."

She peaks over at him by lifting her head slightly and teases "too full for dessert?"

"Never too full for that" he sits up with excitement, his jeans already getting tighter.

She chuckles, and moves to stand back up, going to the drawer to grab a condom and something else she placed there earlier. "Here" she tosses the condom at him first, and he moves to take it.

He see's she has something else in her hand and he asks "what's that?"

"Dessert" she smiles back, moving it in her hand to show him the chocolate bottle "hope you don't mind, but I've been craving chocolate." She bites her lower lip but Brian quickly moves across the bed and tackles her to the mattress. They spend a few minutes making out, before Melanie pushes him slightly off of her, wanting to start the real fun "come on, lay down." She says as he moves. He smirks, but does as she says. As she moves to get the chocolate, he starts to undress, taking off his jeans and boxer briefs together "so, I do love chocolate and all, but I think I'm just going to start with just a taste." She snaps the lid open and turns it over, pouring a line of chocolate onto his stomach from the middle of his chest down to right above his belly button.

Brian hums with anticipation as she leans down to lick it "mmmm"

"oh, that's good!" She smiles, licking her lips when her head comes back up. "Where should I go next?" She looks up and down his body, very aware of his growing boner. "Mmm, I do love your legs" she moves down a little, dripping just a little on the side of his calf. She repeats this process, three more times on different spots on his body "there just seems to be something missing."

"Could it be nuts?" Brian jokes, being so turned on he's getting frustrated.

She catches his joke and whips back "maybe a banana split?" She puts her hand in between his legs, moving things forward.