love came calling, twice // olly murs

20.

What seemed like hours later, Amelia and Adam stumbled into the front door.

"Adam! Be careful with that!" Amelia snapped as Adam dropped a few bags and a can of paint by the door with a thud.

He rolled his eyes unceremoniously and she was surprised by his immature response. "Really, Mils, it's not like any of it is going to break so you can just relax."

She placed her hands on her hips, not impressed with his attitude. "Okay, I understand that you're upset that I took charge of the radio in the car, but it's really not that big of a deal."

Adam glared. "You don't mess with a man's radio, Millie. You don't mess with a man's car period."

"You wanted to listen to rap," she said, glaring back. "I had to do something!"

"You didn't mess with his car, did you, Amelia?" a voice said and she glanced up at the stairs to see Jeff walking down them. He smiled. "Welcome home!"

She waved, still slightly aggravated at Adam's behavior. "Hi. Everything still normal while we were gone?"

Jeff nodded. "Mils, can you make me something to eat?" He said, patting his pot-belly stomach. "One of those diet meal things?"

Adam let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. "Why can't you just make it yourself?"

"Because!" Jeff yelled hotly, "I am on a diet and Amelia is my nutritionist and I have to lose ten pounds in order to get Annabel to notice me!"

"Annabel isn't going to notice you if you are acting like a sissy and making Amelia behave like your mother!" Adam said. With this, he dramatically threw his hands up before stomping up the stairs, muttering something about children who couldn't cook or respect others radio station preferences.

Ignoring Adam's dramatics, Amelia sighed and smiled weakly at Jeff. The man was in a constant quest to lose the ten pounds that sat on top of lanky frame, making him pudgy in the smallest way possible. He had somehow decided that this amount of weight caused him to never be able to cement a date with the red-head he worked with.

Of course the fact that he had never actually spoken about anything other than work to her hadn't really been taken into consideration.

"Did you do what I said?" Amelia asked sweetly, taking the cans of paint into the kitchen as Jeff followed. "Did you try talking to her about your common interests?" Jeff had mentioned that Annabel was an avid film goer and considering he himself owned over three-hundred DVDs, he could equate himself as one, too. She had kindly suggested that maybe he bring his up the next time they worked the same shift at the ink cartridge kiosk.

"No!" Jeff yelped, covering his face. "You don't get it, Mils, I really, really can't! She's really, really into film; she majors in it! She's getting her masters in it! Anything I say or attempt to say will just come off as stupid."

"Hey," Amelia said softly, placing her hand on his shoulder. "You have nothing to lose, only things to gain." She thought back briefly to a couple of hours previously, when she had asked Olly to let her help with the renovations and vaguely wondered if the situations were at all similar.

"I guess you're right," Jeff said glumly, and Amelia wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leading him over to the table.

"You sit down and I'll make you a late lunch, okay? Are Olly and Jason home?" she asked, walking over to the fridge and opening it. "I can make them something, too. I'd ask Adam, but he'll probably accuse me of poisoning it."

Jeff laid his head down on the table. "Olly's up in his studio and Jason is out drinking."

Amelia stilled her movements, poking her head out of the fridge to stare at him. "It's only a little after noon," she said, glancing at the clock.