Good Guy

Epilogue

She was getting the hang of their monthly get together. Because they were now a foursome, as Shayla so often called it, the initial hangout routine they'd done before had become some sort of tradition. The routine itself was simple: arcade in the morning, followed by a movie and then lunch at Shayla's place. But despite its simplicity, Cleo always found herself having fun. It felt cool to be considered an honorary member of the same-class trio.

That is, except when Shayla was trying to wheedle out information from her.

"Sooooo?" Shayla stopped separating the spring roll wrappers altogether and instead leaned on the kitchen counter. Her face was perceptively closer to Cleo's than before, and the Cheshire grin which the latter often dreaded was very much in place again. It didn't take a genius to know what Shayla was asking about.

Cleo rolled her eyes.

It had been two weeks since their return from Scotch's, but this was their first meet-up since the trip. On the good side, Shayla probably hadn't gotten much out of Scotch during their classes, and this gave Cleo some measure of relief. On the bad side, it was now up to her to finally put an end to the questioning. "You're being really annoying right now, Shayla."

"Come on, Cleo. I want the deets." The older girl pouted and started fluttering her lashes. "Pleaaaaase. I really, really want to know."

Cleo groaned. She too stopped what she was working on. She set the cheese sticks down instead of continuing to roll them into the wrappers. "Nothing happened, okay?"

"Nothing at all?"

"Absolutely nothing at all," Cleo insisted. Well... there had been some making out, some of which his sister had almost caught, but that was it. And there was that three-hour nap they had while all cuddled up in his tree house, of course. "I went hiking with his parents, his older sister and her besties. We went into town and joined the local festival. I got to know what it's like working at a vineyard. That's all."

Clearly Shayla wasn't satisfied with what she had to say. She returned to fiddling with the wrappers until they had a decent amount for covering up the rest of the cheese sticks. "And here I thought something juicy went on down there," she said. "Somehow everything you've just told me sounds boring."

"It's not my fault your idea of fun is different from mine." Cleo finished the last of the rolls, placing them on a plate so Shayla could carry them to the portable stove burner outside.

The front door opened just as she handed the cheese rolls over to Shayla.

"Hell yeah! The boys are back!" Shayla cheered, making her way into the annex with plate still in hand.

Cleo smiled, just as happy to see the two get back on time. "I see that you got the roast chicken and soda."

"And some fish," Art said, holding up a plastic bag that contained what appeared to be raw big-eye. "Is the grill still out back, Babe?"

"Everything out there is pretty much set up," Shayla confirmed, already making her way back to the kitchen so they could pick up some salt and other seasonings for the fish.

Just the thought of tasting all that crunchy skin and soft, white meat was enough to make Cleo's mouth water. However, she was aware that it would be some time before all the food could be ready. They also still needed to let the soda chill in the fridge.

She opened her mouth, intending to tell Scotch what they could do to help out their friends, but the doorbell rang out before she could say anything. She immediately shut her mouth again, knowing that the last food item on their menu had just arrived. It had been some time since they'd ordered pizza, but Scotch insisted that he missed the greasy, saucy, cheesy goodness that it had.

And true enough, Scotch was the first of them to place his grocery items on the side table and head for the door. "I think that's our order."

"I'll come with you," Cleo said, catching up to him.

She trusted Scotch. He'd come such a long way from when they'd first met. She knew he wasn't going to go ballistic this time around, so there really was no need to be there with him while he got their pizza. However, there was no rush to go help Art and Shayla either. They could do fine on their own, and she really just wanted to spend time with Scotch. "Shayla's better at grilling than me anyway, even if it's just watching over some smoked fish."

Scotch couldn't stop the snicker that came from his lips. Suffice to say, they'd all agreed that she wouldn't be using the grill unless he or Shayla was there to supervise. But she was getting better at not burning whatever they had over the fire, so things were looking up.

Scotch opened the front door, and just as she'd predicted, the same delivery guy was standing at the entrance. They'd phoned the same pizza branch, after all. "Edmunds residence?" Hernan Parles said, obviously for mere formality, as he eyed the two of them warily. "One large pepperoni and one medium bacon delight pizza."

Cleo gulped, looking at Scotch to see how he would react and hoping that her hunch about all this was spot on.

"Sounds about right," Scotch finally said. A small smile appeared on his face, and Cleo breathed a sigh of relief. She almost jumped for joy when he pulled out the exact amount of cash from his jeans pocket and handed it to Hernan without any fuss. "Thanks, Man."

Hernan's eyes went absolutely wide at that point, but some color did return to his face. His shaky fingers received the bills, while the other set handed the pizza over to Scotch. "Yeah," he said, nearly speechless because of how differently things were going today. "Thanks."

Cleo suspected that, considering their history, there was more to his gratitude than just from having received his pay.

The two guys nodded at each other, as if in understanding, before Hernan finally turned and walked away. It even looked like his back was a little straighter and his gait remarkably lighter. Scotch closed the door before she could see the guy hopping back on his vehicle though.

Still, she was very much impressed by the show of maturity and good will they both carried out. She linked elbows with Scotch as they too headed to where they needed to be. She picked up the rest of their food along the way, but she kept her attention on him instead of their lunch. "Nicely done."

"I'm just glad my head's in the right place now," Scotch said as he looked at her, megawatt smile still in its rightful place. "It feels great to be able to breathe like this again."

Cleo leaned her cheek against his shoulder, just as happy that he was free of the burden that'd been hounding him for so long. "Think he'll be alright?"

"As long as he keeps his butt out of trouble for the rest of his life," Scotch said, moving the pizza boxes to his other side so he could hold hands with her.

They entered the kitchen, and through the window of the screen door they could see their two lovebird friends horsing around. Shayla had her hands behind her back, so she'd probably snatched another cooking utensil from her boyfriend again. Give it five minutes, and she would be screeching for Art to put her down.

"Come on," Cleo urged, shutting the fridge right after Scotch set the last soda bottle in. "Let's bring these chicken and pizza to the back patio before Art and Shayla start a food fight out there. You know it's bound to happen if we don't."

END