This is part sixteen of the ongoing Friends series. Each story can be read independently, but the characters and plot line make much more sense if you have read the earlier parts. The series tracks the growth, personally, professionally, and sexually, of a group of friends, all in their mid-twenties. Alan and Lisa are a young married couple. Audrey and Tim were just engaged and are Alan and Lisa's best friends. This chapter also includes a friend from out of town, Mary, who had a three-some with Alan and Lisa during her last weekend visit.
This chapter starts the day after Alan and Lisa returned from a short vacation in St John. This chapter is told from Lisa's perspective.
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Alan is gone before I even wake up. We got back from St John late yesterday afternoon. As soon as we were in the door, Alan rushed to a zoom with Peter. They had expected the issue of Wired with Alan on the cover would come out next week, but it came out yesterday. Peter, the person organizing the company's PR blitz for the release of Alan's new project, had planned everything to follow on the immediate tails of the Wired article. Now everything has to be rescheduled on the fly.
This morning, Alan is meeting with Peter again, before doing a phone interview with NPR around 8AM. The interview will air just after lunch. This afternoon, Graham, the president of the company, will join him for a live on-air interview on CNBC. Alan has to go down to the local ABC affiliate tomorrow morning to do a live piece on Good Morning America. He says next week will be almost as bad. And this doesn't count the half dozen or so print media interviews he will be doing. All while trying to catch up with both technology groups he leads, but has been away from for almost a week. In other words, he is about to go through almost two weeks of hell.
Audrey and I had arranged to car pool this morning. She will be over around 8:30 and I will drive us both in. She shows up a bit early -- before our trip I was tending to oversleep and she had become my human alarm clock on many days. I am still in the shower when she walks in. Never shy around me, she sticks her head in the shower to say hi.
"Nice tan! Ooh and not much by way of tan lines. Looks like it was a fun trip!"
"Good morning Audrey. Yes, we had lots of naked sun tanning time. You would have loved it. Let me finish up in here then I will be in to talk to you and you can ogle me getting dressed."
Audrey goes back to sit on the bed and, true to form, ogles me as I get dressed. I am not sure whether Alan or Audrey looks at me more lustfully.
As I am dressing, I ask, "How was the O'Rourke family get together? And did Tim survive it?"
"It was better than either Tim or I feared," she says. "We went out to lunch with my older sister Mary when we got there. She saw the gentle side of him and immediately fell for him. She was so happy for me. And relieved.
"We then had dinner Saturday night with Dad. He did ask Tim about the job search, but in a supportive way. And he was impressed by how hard he is working at getting a new job. He is used to his kids being laid off. I think Mary and I are the only ones never laid off. Oh and I guess Sean. And none of them were as dedicated in their search as Tim is being.
"For the big cookout, it turned out that Tim liked all the same stupid action adventure movies as Mike and Harrison, so the three of them spent most of the time talking about some car crash or a big explosion or a fight scene. So he fit in very nicely.
"I was really glad to see Mary again. And it's the first time I have seen Mike's new baby and Sean's two kids are getting big and running around everywhere. So it was a nice break for me.
"But did you like the story about Alan? And they did use your picture!" Audrey says, changing the subject.
"Let's go see if Alan left me anything to eat. I am not sure if there is anything in the house and I don't think he had anytime to make me anything."
I find a note on the kitchen table.
Sorry for not making you breakfast. No time. Damned apple!
Love you
"What apple?" Audrey asks, reading the note with me.
"We both took a bite of an apple as we were leaving St John to symbolically get kicked out of paradise. And Alan definitely came back to hell for a while."
"Why is it so bad?"
"First, there is the normal catch up after being away on vacation, but he is running two different groups, so that is doubled. And he has to do his dancing bear impression for media almost non-stop for the next week and a half. He is doing spots on NPR and CNBC today. Good Morning America tomorrow morning. Who knows what else after that. He has lunch today with a Wall Street Journal reporter.
"A flight attendant yesterday asked Alan for his autograph yesterday. She actually asked for mine too. He is worrying about people trying to become friendly with us for money. Oh, remind me to tell you about the pirates we met. But if Mary the model had handed me her phone number a month or two from now, I would have to be suspicious. And that kind of sucks.
"Do you mind stopping somewhere on the way in so I can grab a bite? We can keep talking on the way and there."
"I don't mind stopping. I don't think I will be too busy today. I have a trip next Wednesday, so mostly I am prepping for that."
We head out to the car, as I ask "So no fun day with Tim next week?"
"No, and I didn't do one this week because of the short week. He seems to be holding up pretty well so far. He has our shopping list app working. I am happy with that."
"We need to talk about schedules a little bit," I say. "Are you and Tim still interested in my game this Saturday?"
"I sure hope it happens. Is there a problem?" Audrey asks.
"Not really. Mary the first is coming up Saturday morning to stay with us for a few days. She has a job interview Monday up here. Alan suggested she could play too and I am fine with that. I am guessing both you and Tim would be as well."
"She would be fun. I already had her stroking Tim's cock, so I don't think he will object. I will double check with him. Is there an issue with beds Saturday night? It really is nice for us to spend the night. It might be fun, but I am not sure she is ready to share a bed with us."
"I hadn't thought about that," I reply, "I will ask her if she minds sleeping on the couch for one night. And I wouldn't rule out her sharing the bed if you were serious."
"I would have to have a long talk with Tim about that one."
"So I was thinking the two of us could go pick her up Saturday and then go out for a lunch somewhere. I am pretty sure dinner that night will be at Rick's -- there is no way Alan is cooking."