Hang Your Halo

Twenty Three

Like a devil on my shoulder, she's the drug I can't say no to. Know it ain't good for me, but man I'm lovin' how she's keepin' me up, up, up, up to no good, up all night 'til the day comes.
She's hell on heels, one look and I'm hooked
Up To No Good x Warren Zeiders

Jake

Prior to basically being eye raped by Karrie at the bbq the other night, Beckham and I spent a good bit of time talking to Kate and Jensen. Jensen is a tough one to get to know and is extremely closed off. I can definitely tell Kate is the extrovert between the two and it makes me wonder if she actually knows about his business dealings. She's super personable and is friends with everyone and just doesn't fit the "my husband is selling military grade weapons to a bunch of bad dudes in shady countries and I'm totally cool with it" profile.  She and Beck get along well and she's really not a fan of Karrie, so that might have my opinion a little skewed. 

Speaking of Karrie (just thinking her name makes my skin crawl), I smile in amusement at the memory of how Beckham was ready to rip her throat out.  I can't reconcile the fact that a) she blatantly flirted with me in front of our respective spouses and b) Todd literally gave zero fucks about it.  Beck and I might be "pretend" married, but I would lose my absolute shit if she even jokingly did the same.  Not only was it completely unwanted, but it was so disrespectful.  It makes me wonder what kind of shit she gets up to when nobody else is around.  The thought makes me shudder in disgust, man do I hope to never find myself in that position.  Hard pass.

Anyway, while we were actually enjoying the night, we made plans to go bowling with the Coles and Rooster and Phoenix.  Beck and Kate unofficially dubbed us as the free agents since we're the only ones without kids, pulling a laugh from the elusive Jensen.  The four of us spent a good bit of time in the office trying to find ways to word questions without being interrogating or obvious about our true intentions. We don't really have a lot of knowledge about what they do, other than them both being employed by the same pharmaceutical company. What we do know is that Jensen is the director of the North American division of Sytren Inc. and Kate is a sales rep.  Based on our research, Sytren's biggest moneymaker is their vaccines, which are manufactured in, drumroll please...South America!  Which is coincidentally where the majority of our weapons have been finding themselves. 

"Dinner's ready, cowboy!" Beckham hollers from the kitchen.  We've been alternating who cooks on the nights we don't go out or order in, and Beck made my favorite tonight.  I don't care how hot it gets, there will never be anything I love more than her homemade chicken & dumplins.  She makes the dough from scratch and I swear I can hear the hallelujah chorus with the first bite every time.  I quickly hop up from my spot on the couch where I'd been watching Criminal Minds reruns.  I move so fast that I almost trip over my own feet in my hurry to get to my highly anticipated comfort food, making Beck laugh at my eagerness. 

"Easy, tiger!  If you're not careful, you'll end up bruising more than your ego," she tells me, placing my bowl in front of me and a kiss on my cheek as she slides into the seat next to me at the bar in the kitchen. 

"The idea of you being being my own personal naughty nurse is not a bad one, sweetheart."   I pin her with a flirty stare and shove a giant spoonful in my mouth, groaning at the taste of pure happiness.  Beckham just shakes her head with a smirk and takes her own bite. 

"What time are we supposed to meet everyone for bowling?" I ask her.  She's the keeper upper of all things involving us, it's been that way since we first started working together. 

Flashback, about 2 years ago

I wake up to an incessant pounding on my door, rousing me from a very interesting dream involving a certain copilot of mine.  I stumble to the door half conscious and almost wonder if I'm still asleep when Beckham's angry face greets me as the door swings open. 

"What the fuck are you still doing here, Hangnail?!  I've been calling you, we were due at the hangar over an hour ago for our annual physicals, and you know we can't fly without them!"  The tiny tyrant yells at me, startling me into being wide awake.

"What are you talking about?  Those aren't due until the end of the year!"

"It IS the end of the year, you dipshit!  There's literally two weeks till Christmas and we're not putting it off until the last minute.  I reminded about this a week ago!"  She claps a frustrated hand across her face and it suddenly dawned on me that today is 12/10. 

"Fuck!  My bad, let's go!"  I move to run to her car before she stops me.

"You need to put some clothes on, ya moron.  You know I don't mind seeing your fine ass half naked, but I feel like good ol Dr. Jameson would have the same appreciation I do," Halo jokes. 

I suddenly remember I only have on boxers and run back into my room to throw on some sweatpants, a tshirt, and socks before slipping into my Nikes. 

"I officially nominate you to keep up with literally any and everything you can, like my own personal calendar," I say as I toss my arm across her shoulders and guide her back to her car.  Maverick only made me run 10 miles to make up for it Monday...I only puked once.

Present

"Plan is to meet there at 6:30, it's just now 5 so we've got plenty of time to eat and get there," my own personal calendar tells me. 

We eat, get ready, then load into the truck to head towards the bowling alley.  What Kate and Jensen don't know, is that the four of us have a mean competitive streak and have the tendency to get a little heated.  I'm halfway worried we're gonna scare them off, but I have a feeling they'll be able to handle it.  Besides, we did warn them we can get little crazy and they still wanted to meet up. 

Let the shit talking commence.