Her eyes fluttered open, and she shot him a dirty look. “You are so lucky I got up this morning for you.”
“I’m very grateful. Now get out of the car,” he said flatly, trying not to smile.
She picked up a crumpled up paper from the floor of the car and threw it at him, hitting him in the head. “You don’t sound very grateful.”
After getting out, he went around to the other side and opened her door. Then he calmly flung her over his shoulder.
“Hey! Put me down!” she shrieked. “Help me!”
He laughed. “That’s what you get for being grumpy.”
Kicking and flailing, she was carried all the way to the living room, not able to see anything because her face was buried in his back. Finally, a female voice she didn’t recognize yelled at him. “Nickolas Gene, what are you doing to that poor girl? Put her down!”
He didn’t pay any attention to her order. “Oh, hey, Leigh! This is my girlfriend, Beth. Beth, this is Leighanne, Brian’s girlfriend.”
“Nick, I’m sorry. I’ll never throw paper at you again, and I’ll never be grumpy again,” Beth pleaded. “Please put me down!”
“Fine,” he groaned, dropping her on the couch. She looked up to find four guys and two girls staring at them, and she blushed. Even though she had been so popular in Minnesota, she wasn’t used to being the center of attention. One of the girls had to be Leighanne, and she knew Brian already, but she could only guess who the others were.
“Everyone, this is Beth. Beth, this is everyone,” Nick stated. A chorus of hellos came from the group.
“That was an interesting entrance, guys,” a guy with a bunch of tattoos said.
“Yeah, it was. Nice to see you again, Beth. And again, sorry about that basketball,” Brian said.
The girl sitting to his left smacked him in the shoulder. “What did you do to her, Brian?” she scolded.
“No biggie. He and Nick were playing basketball and I wasn’t paying attention and it almost hit me,” Beth stated. “That’s how we met.”
“Uh, Nick, you didn’t tell her any of our names,” Kevin stated.
“Oh, yeah, that might help.” He went around the living room, starting with tattoo boy, who was directly to her left. “AJ, Howie, Kevin, his girlfriend, Kristin, Brian, his girlfriend, Leighanne.” He pointed to himself. “Oh, and I’m Nick, and you’re Beth.”
AJ groaned. “Thanks for clearing that up, smartass.”
“You’re welcome. So when do meetings start?”
“Management should be here any minute.”
“Hey, Beth, you wanna go shopping with us this morning?” Kristin asked. “It’s really boring to just sit around with the guys during their meetings.”
Beth smiled. “Sure, sounds great.”