One Summer Night
Part 2
By Lisa
ERDrLewis@aol.com

"Hey, Lucy! C'mon, get dressed, we're all taking you out to IHOP for breakfast to celebrate your new apartment!" Bernard said, walking in with the rest of her friends.

"Oh, guys, not today, I was going to sleep in today . . ." Lucy said. Realizing that they weren't really listening she casually walked over to the door to her bedroom. She looked in, saw Carter still fast asleep, and shut the door.

"Oh, Lucy, not today, we want to take you out!" Bernard said, mimicking her.

Lucy scanned the small crowd of students in her room. It was the normal group of guys she hung out with when she had the time, plus her old roommate, Jane. Lucy sighed. They had all come in now. How was she going to get them to leave? All she wanted to do is jump back under the warm sheets of her bed. Where Carter was, she might add.

"So, Lucy, give us the tour!" Jane said.

"There's not much to see. You can see everything from where you're standing," Lucy replied, trying to conjure up a way to get them out.

"How about your bedroom? To dirty for us to see already?" Bernard said.

"Uh, yeah. Don't go in there," Lucy said, praying they'd listen.

"Oh, c'mon Lucy, it can't be that bad," Bernard said, walking over to the door.

"Don't go in there!" Lucy said exasperated. But it was too late. Bernard had already opened the door.

There was a chorus of 'ooh's' as they saw the brown head of hair in Lucy's bed. Luckily, Carter was lying face down.

"So, up a little late partying last night?" Bernard joked.

Lucy quickly ran over and shut the door. "Okay, you all have five seconds to get out before I physically kick you out," she said, opening the front door.

They all walked out. "So, Lucy, who is it?" Bernard asked.

"None of your business. Take me out to IHOP tomorrow," she replied, slamming the door and locking it. Lucy sighed once more. She sure was glad that they hadn't seen that Carter was, well, Carter. She walked back into her room to find Carter awake.

"Good morning," she said, sitting down at the foot of the bed.

"Morning. Where were you?" Carter asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"We had some, uh, unexpected visitors I had to get out of here, fast."

"Ut-oh," Carter said, his face worried.

"Don't worry, we're okay. I'm just happy your head was buried in a pillow when Bernard and the crew walked in."

"That was a close one."

"Yep. Also, I suggest we don't go out for breakfast."

"Yeah, we don't want to run into them. I'd much rather stay in anyway," Carter said, a devilish grin on his face.

"Oh, really?" Lucy said, in mock-surprise. "Why would that be?"

"If you come over to my side of the bed, I could explain a little bit better."

"Oh, really . . ."

Lucy and Carter got out of bed a little bit later than expected, and found it closer to lunch time than breakfast. Since Carter had no culinary talent whatsoever, Lucy made the sandwiches again. She was getting lunch ready when she said, "So, when are we going to have the awkward talk?"

"The talk about what last night meant? Oh, do we really have to?" Carter whined, sitting down at the table.

"Well . . . I just wanted to know what we're going to do about it," Lucy said, setting lunch down on the table.

"Oh. Well," Carter said, running a hand through his hair. "Well, I'm willing to try and make some sort of relationship out of this if you are."

Lucy's face brightened. "Good," she said, smiling. "I couldn't have put it better myself."

When they were through, Lucy said, "I'd better call Bernard and apologize. Don't worry," she said, reacting to Carter's face, "I won't do anything stupid."

She picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Bernard? Yeah, it's Lucy. Yeah, I'm sorry about this morning. No, I'm not sorry enough to tell you who it was!" Lucy exclaimed. Carter gave her an amused look. She swatted his foot with one of the napkins she picked up off the table. "Carter? As in *John* Carter? What are you, crazy?"

"Hey, you don't have to get so into it, a simple 'no' would have sufficed," Carter whispered.

"Yeah, well, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. Yeah, sure, IHOP tomorrow, ten thirty. Yeah, calling first is a good idea. Uh-huh. Okay. Bye," Lucy said, hanging up the phone. "So," she said, sitting down next to Carter on the couch. "What should we do on your day off?"

"Hmm, I don't know . . ." Lucy said sensually. All of the sudden, they head a loud beep.

"Damn. That's my beeper. Now where is it?" Carter said. He only remembered throwing it down last night in the heat of the moment. He finally saw some of it sticking out from under the chair. He grabbed it and read the numbers. Not the hospital. The numbers looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. "Can I use your phone a sec?"

"Sure. Who is it?"

"Not sure," Carter said, punching in the numbers on the phone. "Hi, Mom? Why are you calling? *No,* I won't come over for dinner tonight. I don't care if Barb will be there, if she wants to see me that bad, she knows where to find me. Mom, please-" Carter said, before his mother cut him off again. He rolled his eyes at Lucy. "Who will be there? Grandfather too? Then I will definitely not come. Why? Because they both hate me, if you need to refresh your memory. Yes, they do, they don't approve in anything I-" Carter sighed. Mom could always talk him into anything. "No, Mom, I broke up with her. About two months ago. Fine, *fine,* I will try to find someone to go with me. Tell Barb she owes me. See you at six."

Carter let out a huge sigh. "Arrgh! I hate my family!" he exclaimed.

"Why would that be?" Lucy asked inquisitively.

"I have to go over there for dinner and--hey, Lucy . . ."

Lucy laughed. "I'll be there at six?"

Carter rushed over to Lucy and gave her a kiss. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I *really* owe you."

"Oh, I'm sure they're not that bad," Lucy said. From the look on Carter's face, she could see he felt otherwise.

"My mom really wants me to go, but she said to bring someone so I could get out early. I can always make us some excuse that I have to take you home."

"Why can't you just tell them you're on early tomorrow?"

"I've been on early so many times, I think that they think that's the only time I work. Even though I am on early tomorrow, it wouldn't fly as an excuse for them."

Lucy's look suddenly turned to one of mock-saddness. "Oh, you really *are* on early tomorrow? Well, that's bad."

"Yeah, five AM. Why is that bad?" Carter asked, pretending to be naive.

"That just means that we can't do what we did last night, staying up late and all."

"Well, that *is* bad," Carter said, sitting back down next to her on the couch.

"Well, what are we going to do until we have to leave? It's only one, we have a few hours to kill."

"I'm sure we can find something to do," Carter teased.

"Oh, I'm positive we can."

It was four thirty and Carter had just left. He wanted to catch Kerry before she left for work so he could apologize. Carter was going to come back to her place at five thirty, so she had an hour to get ready. Her had instructed her to wear something nice, but not too fancy. They had decided to tell his family that she was a friend who worked at the hospital. There would be no mention of Lucy as his former med. student or, of course, of their pending relationship. They already had Bernard somewhat suspicious, they didn't need Carter's family.

Lucy assumed that they weren't as bad as Carter said that they were. He was just still mad over last night. According to Carter, the only ones there would be his parents, grandparents, and his sister, Barbara. She had heard Carol speak about his grandmother, she contributed money to the clinic. She also knew that they were very rich and something had happened for Carter not to be associated with it anymore. That's why he had taken the RA job. Lucy wasn't sure what had happened there.

Lucy had finally found the skirt she had been looking for. It was long and a deep purple with navy blue and black flowers swirling around it. Nice, but not too fancy. She looked up at the clock and saw she only had forty-five minutes until Carter got there. She put the skirt on her bed and hopped in the shower, wondering what surprises the night would bring.

To be continued . . . :)