Starting Over / Shourtney

Chapter Thirteen: Little Black Book

November 25th, 2018

<Shayne's POV>

I was feeling slightly jetlagged from the three-hour time difference between Florida and California when Damien and Courtney showed up at my apartment the day I got home. Thanksgiving with my family had been awesome. Hanging out with my brothers and their kids was a great distraction with everything that was going on with Smosh back in LA. They were worried for me of course but they all had a very positive outlook on it. They didn't seem to doubt that Ian would be able to find someone to buy Smosh back from the bank.

"Sometimes it just takes time," My oldest brother assured me, patting me encouragingly on the back. "And in the mean time you have school and the Goldbergs right? And at least you don't have to stress over scheduling for the next little while."

Although they were angry at defy on my behalf, they took the shutdown in stride, assuring me to just keep my head up and hopefully everything will work out. Honestly I got the feeling they were much more concerned about the fact that I was 27 and still very, very single. Or my grandmother was anyways. In the middle of dinner one night, she handed me a little black book.

"For keeping track of all those girls' numbers." She said, as if it was 1975 and I didn't have an IPhone. But it was my grandma, so of course I took it from her with a thank you, as though there was an actual chance that I would ever use it.

I had been unpacking my bags when Damien and Courtney showed up, and my apartment was uncharacteristically in disarray. The contents of my backpack were spilling onto my coffee table and my second load of laundry was patiently waiting in a large pile on the floor in front of my washer. It served me right for being too lazy to do it all before I left for the holiday weekend.

"Good to see you man," Damien said, walking through my front door and giving me a hug before making himself comfortable on my couch. "How was Florida?"

"It was great. Nice to get away, you know?"

"Yeah, I should have come with you." He joked.

Courtney laughed and gave me a friendly hug as well, pulling away a little too quickly. "Good to have you back Shayne."

Ignoring the flutter in my chest, I asked. "So how was your holiday?"

"Yeah it was good." She smiled. "I hung out with Boze, and did dinner at my dad's. Packed in some Miller family time. It was fun."

"I saw that your brothers took Jango on your dad's Copter. Lucky dog."

"Yeah Court, when do we get to do a ride along?" Damien complained.

"When you either pass the fire fighters exam or spontaneously transform into a Vietnamese Ridgeback." She smirked.

"If I had scoliosis, would that count?"

"No, you idiot." Courtney groaned, rolling her eyes at my attempt at humor. "Also don't make fun of my back problems." She added, but she was smiling goofily. God, she looked adorable.

Unfortunately, because I was distracted by my conversation with Courtney, I didn't notice that Damien had pick something up off of my coffee table until it was too late.

"Um, dude what is this?" Damien laughed flipping through the small black book that I had stupidly left out. Ordinarily I wouldn't have cared at all. I would have probably made a joke about being endlessly single, I had actually been planning to do a bit about it on my Instagram story later, but irrationally, my heart pounded loudly at the thought of talking about it with Courtney there.

"Hey give me that!" I hollered, climbing over the back of the couch to grab it back from him.

Damien stood up and turned around quickly, holding the book above our heads and just out of my reach. "Come get it shorty."