Jack & Lucy

Lucy

Maggie decided to let her anger get the best of her, so both Jack and I were surprised when I got the text from Missy saying I wasn't needed for my evening shift tonight. I simply shrugged, tossed my phone onto the end of the couch and hit "play the next episode" of Married at First Sight. Jack and I were fine with being couch potatoes and I didn't have the energy for the drama today. We had been laying on opposite ends of his long navy sectional with our legs intertwined under a knit blanket since we finished my video three hours ago. 

I prop myself up onto my elbow as I reach for my iced coffee that we had delivered and Jack looks relaxed with his head on a throw pillow. I would have never paid the insane surcharges and delivery fees for two iced coffees, but I am learning Jack's favorite app is Postmates. He also didn't give me any slack for wanting to watch trashy reality TV and he seemed invested as I let the show play on. 

I bring my plastic Starbucks cup up to my lips as Jack lowers the volume to say, "Maggie acts all tough but is actually a chicken shit. She didn't reach out to me and had her little sister reach out to you." 

"Missy ain't little," I mutter as I use the green straw to scrape the gooey caramel off the inside of my cup. 

"You know what I mean. She's all talk. Don't act all tough if you're actually a non-confrontational chicken shit." 

"I hate confrontation, so I am actually fine with it," I tell him and he watches me lick the stickiness off the straw. 

"You're going to have so much anxiety about this Luce. I already know you. You're going to wonder if you still have a job. If Maggie hates you, if Missy hates you, if the Mag's crew hates you. You're only going to be able to think about Maggie and Mag's until you know if you still have a job." I flick my eyes to him and leave the straw on my lip as I reply, "I only have room in my brain for my mother and my sister right now. I can't think of anything else until we leave Tucson." 

"Are you that anxious to introduce me to your family?" Jack asks with a smirk as he slides his hand behind his head to prop him up. 

"Yes. My family is not like your family. We don't do loving and caring." 

"Your mom has a neurosurgeon and a Julliard trained ballerina for daughters. I'm guessing you didn't become those things with cuddles and coddling."

"Your mother has an architect, lawyer and...wait what does Bre do again?"

"Fuck if I know. Something with clothes."

"Oh yeah, she's a styleist, right? She does the window displays or something?"

"Like I said, fuck if I know."

"Alight well anyway, my point is, your mom has kids with fantastic careers even with all the love and coddling."

"I wasn't coddled."

"You pays for this house?" I ask him as I gesture around the fantastically decorated living room that he didn't pay a cent for. He gives me a loving eye roll and then drops his head back onto the pillow.

"Fine, I was a bit coddled."

"You are a lot coddled. Your mom pays for a house cleaner even though you live alone and you only had a job because she wouldn't buy you a boat."

"I did have to buy my own Jeep and jetski."

"You use your dad's company gas card."

"I'll fill up your tank with it too," he says with a wink and I just shake my head at him. He has no idea what he is in for with my parents. 

"I'm fine with the perks of dating a Dalton. I'll get to make my cookie cutters at his expense." I watch his eyebrows pinch together and he suddenly reaches behind him to swipe his phone off the side table.