Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 15: Work in LA

When Melanie's alarm goes off in the morning, she quickly turns it off and moves to the bathroom. She hops in the shower and when she comes out, Brian is sitting up in bed looking at his phone "I'm sorry, I'll be out of here soon." She whispers, moving to her suitcase to get some clothes.

"It's fine, I wanna get up with you." He replies groggily, dropping his phone on the bed.

Melanie crawls on to the bed to kiss him "you have a long day today. Sleep a few more hours. I love you."

"I love you, too. My phones on. Call if you need me." He accepts.

"I will." She kisses him once more on the lips before taking her clothes back to the bathroom.

Luckily the social media handler for the jokers Instagram is as dedicated to her job as Melanie is and she has a text 20 minutes after she got up saying what challenges won the survey.

Layla: Hey! Laugh Man Standing and Fly me to Balloon won. Very close race! You think I should post the winners or just let everyone wait for the episode?"

Melanie: let em wait, anticipation is always great!

Layla: true! good luck today.

Melanie: thanks! Luckily most items for laugh man challenge are easy to acquire. I was really nervous for now you see me. Anyway, gotta go! Later!

Melanie rips out the pages of her book for the challenge that lost and tucks her notebook into her purse. She throws on a sweater and heads downstairs to get a cab to get to the first store.

Melanie spends the next 3 and a half hours getting what each guy needed. Brian wakes up at 7:30, heading downstairs to meet Joe for Breakfast "I love when we stay places with continental breakfast." He says when Brian sits down.

"It is your favorite meal. What do we got today?" Brian looks at his friends plate to see what's appealing.

"Eggs. Bagels. Pancakes. Bacon. The usual BUT the eggs are friggen awesome. Second helping already." He takes a big fork full of eggs and shoves them into his mouth.

"Let me see here." Brian snags a piece of bacon off his plate and bites into it "alright, we got a meal." He gets up, gets his plate of food and rejoins Joe "So, hows Bessy this morning?"

Joe answers happily "good, here." He pushes his phone over after unlocking it, showing him a new photo she sent of her with the kids.

Brian smiles as he looks at it, pushing it back when he's done and biting into the sandwich he made "so, it really wasn't hard for you guys to get pregnant?"

Joe's head snaps up and he raises his eyebrows "are you, Brian Michael Quinn, trying to have a baby?"

Joe is doing his best to not smile widely as Brian answers "what? No! No, no, no. I'm just curious. Did you have to like get your shit tested at all or did it just happen?"

"I can't believe what I'm hearing right now." Joe sits up "you're seriously considering having kids with Melanie? Does she know this?"

Brian shrugs "I mean, we both want to have kids. I just hope I can when it comes time. I'm not getting any younger."

"I'm sure you'll be just fine, Q. I was." But he adds on "But like you said, you probably shouldn't wait too long after getting married."

"Thanks" Q sarcastically adds before returning to eat. Murray joins next and Sal is the last to get there, as usual. They chat while Sal eats and wait for Pete and Char to come downstairs and give them a rundown on the day. After they are filled in they split to get ready and meet at the front of the hotel at 9:25 to head to the first location. They will be filming the balloon challenge first at a local 24 hour grocery store around the corner from where they are setting up for the other challenge. Melanie didn't have to pick up the balloons for that challenge so she was told to go directly to the 2nd location to help prep the guys' bags. This shoot will be a night one, giving the crew a few hours to eat and prep and prepare further after the first skit. When Melanie is done getting all the guys' bags together she is off to pick up and drop off the guys' lunches just in time to watch Brian go against Murray in the balloon challenge. She watches as they attempt to attach balloons on an unsuspecting costumer and chuckles when they both almost get caught on their first turn. Before they could get another shot, a women comes around the corner and squeals when she sees Murray. The women they were attaching balloons to turns to see what the commotion was about and then the run was ruined. Murray happily meets the women who squealed and Char comes out to talk to the unsuspecting patron and get a signature. Brian and Murray come to the back room, needing to wait for the store to clear out of people who witnessed things and get a new crowd. "Hey babe" Brian comes over and kisses her "thanks for bringing us all lunch."

"No problem. I only have another 15 minutes before I gotta head out. I promised Dawn I'd help her with lighting at the office." She informs him, taking a seat in his chair "this is fancy" she comments about it.

"Very LA. A little much, don't you think?" Brian asks, lifting the bag of food to take out his lunch.

Murray comments "I think it's great! We need this back in New York."

"Why, so we can get stared at and noticed even more?" Sal retorts back "I'm with Q, it's a bit much."

Melanie says to them "well I'll make sure to relay the message to Shelly that Murray would like his own chair." She laughs. Everyone starts talking to one another and Melanie engages in the occasional conversation before saying goodbye to Brian and heading back to the office.