Bar Geek, Part 2

“What's on your mind, love?” Ellie asked, rolling on to her side. She wrapped an arm around his waste and cuddled up. Jeremy's head was propped up on a few pillows as he stared at the ceiling.

“Just thinking about five years ago,” Jeremy replied. “It felt so surreal back then. It's just funny, now.”

Ellie giggled. “Yeah, neither of us knew what we were doing. How many times did we apologize to each other that night?”

“I'm sure I lost count,” Jeremy replied. He reached over and grabbed Ellie's hand to give it a squeeze. “The funniest part was the next night, though, when Roger and Oscar were there. They refused to believe it until you showed up. And even then...”

Ellie squeezes his hand back then pulled in closer. “I thought they were looking at me kind of funny. What all did they think? That you were just making it up?”

“Roger was convinced that you were after me for some ulterior motive,” Jeremy replied. “That you were so out of my league that you obviously had to be scheming. After my money, or to lure me into some crime, or whatever.”

“Oh, dang, I should have thought of that,” Ellie said. “I totally could have gotten you to do anything those first couple of weeks.”

“Hey, you weren't thinking so clearly yourself, silly,” Jeremy said. “I'm not sure if there was more than one rational thought between us on any given night.”

“Fair point,” Ellie said. “Especially once we fell into bed after that first game session.”

“Is that when that was?” Jeremy asked. “I could barely remember. Those weeks were really a blur. A happy blur, but...”

“You don't remember your slick line? 'Want to come up and see the miniatures I painted this weekend?' Classic.”

Jeremy barked a laugh. “God, did I really say that?”

“That you did, lover,” Ellie said. She pulled her hand loose to tousle his hair. “It pretty much worked, though, so neither of us should be complaining.”