The door to the server room clicked shut behind me. Frowning, I started to turn as an arm snaked around my waist. Without thinking, I grabbed a fistful of shirt and bent my knees to chuck my attacker over my shoulder.
“Woah, gorgeous. It’s me.”
“Warren?” I tried to turn around. He’d never know how close he’d come to being flipped on the ground.
His arms held me in place so he could nuzzle my neck. “I’ve missed you this week. Did you get my messages?”
“Um—“ I admit it, I’d been dodging his calls. “You called?”
“Yes. A few times. Let’s go out tonight.” His hand crept up.
I peeled it off me before he reached my boobs. “Warren! We’re at work.”
“I know.” He didn’t sound contrite. “Maybe one day we can have a quickie in here.”
Gross. Not even in his dreams. Of course, if he were Logan it’d be a different story.
I wedged myself out of his embrace and pushed him away. “You know how I feel about that.”
“I know.” He grinned. “This virginal stuff turns me on.”
Fantastic. “Warren---“
“Where do you want to go tonight?”
“Home.”
Wrong answer. I swear I saw his ears perk up like a cocker spaniel. “That sounds great.”
“No, I’m going home alone. All by myself. Just me,” I added, just in case he didn’t get my drift.
Watching the enthusiasm drain from him was painful. “Oh.”
I almost felt bad-- almost being the key word there. “Sorry.”
“No problem. I understand.”
His tone said the opposite, and I felt compelled to make an excuse to make him feel better. “It’s just that it’s been a long week and I’m really tired.”
“I can rub your feet,” he offered eagerly.
I was tempted for a slit second, maybe less than that. “Thanks, but I’ll take a rain check.”
As soon as it came out of my mouth I wanted to smack my forehead. Idiot. What was I thinking, encouraging him? But it did the trick.
He smiled brilliantly. “Great. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”
I hoped my smile didn’t look sickly. “Um. Right.”
“Rest well, Marie. I want you nice and fresh this weekend.” He wiggled his eyebrows and let himself out of the server room.
I banged my head against a machine. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What was I thinking? I’d never get rid of him this way.
“Hey, Marie. You okay?”
I looked up to see Lewis pop his head in, a concerned frown on his face. I sighed and tried to smile. “I’m fine. Just a headache.”
His frown deepened. “Hitting your head against the computers probably isn’t the best cure.” He threw his hands in the air. “But you’re the boss. You know best, of course.”
At least he had some intelligence.
“I could give you a shoulder massage,” he said eagerly. “And neck. Your muscles are probably tight.”
“No, thanks.” What was it with guys offering me massages today? Before he could deflate on me, I said, “But you could go buy me a bottle of Advil and a Coke.”
“Okay!” He raced off before I could give him my money.
Two seconds after I got back to my desk, the phone rang. I picked it up without thought. “Marie speaking.”
“Marie-Elizabeth, it’s your mother.”
Damn. What good is caller ID if you don’t check it? “Hey, Mom. What’s up?”
“I talked to your sister.”
Goody for you. “Oh, really?”
“We set the date for her birthday party.”
My lungs seized, and for a moment I thought I was going to hyperventilate. Please, please, please let it be postponed for a month. Or five.
But my mom dashed my hopes. “It’ll be on the twenty-first.”
Considering that was Jean’s actual birth date, I wasn’t especially shocked. But how was I going to find a viable temporary boyfriend, much less a soul mate, before then?
However, I was surprised on one count. “That’s in two weeks. Can Jean get the time off right away?”
“When I spoke with her last night she said it’d be no trouble. Have you talked to her?”
“Yes.” I didn’t tell her it’d been a week. I wasn’t in the mood to hear the lecture on keeping in touch with my only sister.
Actually, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of this. It’d been a tough week, starting with Mortimer, peaking with Johnny, and ending with Warren.
Warren. Shudder. I had to nip that in the bud.
All I wanted was a good workout and some time to myself. Searching for your soul mate—or even a temporary stand in—was tiring work.
“…number so maybe you could extend the invitation for me. In fact, how about if you two come to dinner this weekend?”
I shook my head. “What was that, Mom?”
She sighed. “Focus, Marie-Elizabeth.”
“One of my employees needed my signature,” I lied. I hated it when she got that disappointed tone in her voice. The only thing that’d distract her was reminding her how important I was.
“I was saying that I don’t know how to get in touch with Bobby.”
I stifled the instant panic in my chest and asked, “Why do you need to get in touch with Bobby?”
“Weren’t you listening at all?” She didn’t bother to wait for the answer. I guess she already knew. “I wanted to personally invite him to Jean’s party. And also to dinner this weekend.”
Yikes! “He can’t make it this weekend, Mom.”
Pause. “Why not?”
“Um, he’s out of town. On business.” Thank God she wasn’t here in person—I’d never have gotten away with the lie.
“Oh.” She sounded immediately appeased. “Well, maybe sometime next week.”
I’ve taken Kung Fu for over nine years. I’m trained to recognize openings and opportunities. This moment was one of them.
I knew if I was ever going to tell my mother that I’d broken up with Bobby, this was the moment. The path was open and clear—I just had to seize it. “Listen, Mom. About Bobby…”
“I can’t tell you how proud of I am that you’ve found someone like him.”
I grimaced. “Right. Um, Mom?”
“I was Jean were more like you in that regard. She never talks about her personal life. Does she tell you if she’s dating anyone?”
“Well, no.” Jean and I had never been open with each other. Besides, Jean wasn’t a dater. Her work defined who she was; nothing else was important. “But about Bobby---“
“I’m so happy about the balance you have in your life, Marie-Elizabeth. I hope on this trip Jean sees how well-adjusted you are and decides to take your example.”
Sigh or growl? It was a toss up; I could have gone either way. “Listen Mom. I have to go. The production environment for one of the Web sites went down and I need to check the error logs.”
“Okay, honey. I’ll talk to you later.”
Always worked. Talk tech and my mom was out of there. I said my goodbyes and hung up.
Then I growled.
The guys around me frowned at me from behind their monitors. I heard one of the mumble, “Someone get a leash.”
I opened my mouth to tell him what he could do with the leash when the phone rang again.
Never say I don’t learn from my mistakes. I checked the caller ID this time, but I didn’t recognize the number so I picked it up, figuring it had to be a vendor or something.
It wasn’t. “Hello, Marie. It’s me.”
Me, as in my archrival.
I was about to ream Jean for calling me at work but then I realized she never called me at this number. Ever.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I wanted to ask you a favor.” I could see her twisting a lock of her perfect hair around her finger like she did when she was unsure. Which wasn’t often.
“What?”
“I was wondering if I could stay with you while I’m visiting.”
“Excuse me?” I wiggled a finger in my ear. I thought for sure she had asked me if she could stay with me.
“Can I stay over at your place?”
I narrowed my eyes at the receiver. Suspicious. “Why?”
“Mom’s going to drive me crazy with this party thing. She hasn’t let up on me since she’s been back.” Jean’s voice took an accusatory tone. “She keeps saying how great this guy you’re dating is.”
“Really?” I couldn’t help grinning.
“You don’t need to sound so happy about it,” she grumbled. “I’ll lose my mind if I have to stay with her and Dad.”
I grinned harder.
“So can I stay with you or not?”
“Okay,” I agreed graciously. She was my sister, after all. Oh, I was going to enjoy this.
“Thanks.”
I chose to ignore the fact that she didn’t sound especially thankful. “When do you arrive?”
“Tonight.”
“What?”
“Tonight,” she repeated calmly. “I’m on the evening flight from Washington. I should be at your house by ten or so.”
“Tonight?” I squeaked. “Isn’t that awfully sudden?”
“No.”
What could I say to that? “What if I have plans? It’s a Friday night, after all.”
There was a shrug in her voice. “I’ll just use my key to get in.”
Oh, yeah. I forgot I gave her a key in a moment of weakness when I first moved in. floundering, I grasped the last straw I could. “How did you get the time off?”
She hesitated. “I’m on sabbatical.”
Sabbatical. There was more to this than she was letting on.
But before I could grill her, she said, “I have a few things to take care of. See you tonight,” and hung up.
I held the phone out and stared at it. I didn’t come clean with Mom about Bobby, and Jean was coming to stay with me. I groaned and let my head fall onto my desk with a thunk.
“You okay, Marie?”
I lifted my head to see Lewis standing in front of me, his forehead wrinkled with worry and a brown paper bag clutched against his chest.
I held my hand out. “Drugs. Now.”
He plunked the bag down on my desk. “I couldn’t remember if you wanted Advil or Excedrin, which has caffeine so it might help you more, so I got you both.”
I watched as he pulled everything out of the bag and set it in front of me. One box of Advil, one bottle of Coke, one box of Excedrin, and a fourth item. I picked it up. “What’s this?”
“Oh.” He flushed crimson. “I got you some Midol. Just in case.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He shrugged with an apologetic grin. “Just covering my bases.”
I grunted and reached for the Coke.
“Anything else I can do for you? File some papers? Get you some food? Wash your car?”
I pointed away from me. “Go.”
“Right.” He turned and fled. Twelve feet away, he turned around and called out. “Don’t forget to take the Midol.”
I felt my cheeks burn as the programmers who worked around me stared. Instead of trying to explain, I sighed and took a swig of Coke.
As optimistic as I was, I didn’t think I was going to find my soul mate, or even a workable temporary boyfriend, by next week. It was clear I needed to rethink my options.
But MacGyver had it right: Any problem can be solved with a little ingenuity. And that was one thing I had in spades.
-----------------------------------------
“Let me get this straight, Rogue. Jean’s on her way to Westchester and she’s going to stay with you.”
I frowned at Scott. “What could I say? ‘No, you can’t sleep here?’ I can’t say there’s no room. There’s an extra bed in my office.”
He wiped his hands on a crumpled paper napkin—I don’t know why, since he reached for another slice of pizza. “How is that going to go for you?”
“Grrr.”
He grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
I scowled. I would have said something rude, but I was at his apartment and that would have been impolite. Tempting, though.
Scott lives on the third floor of an old apartment building. It’s a little cave-like if you ask me—the ceilings aren’t especially high and it’s facing the wrong way to get much light, but it has lots of charm.
Kind of like me.
Anyway, one of the features I hold in morbid fascination is the wall of mirrors in his bedroom. It was there when he moved in and he hasn’t had the time to replace them with a solid, non-reflecting wall. If the mirrors were in anyone else’s room, I would have had a field day with them. Smirks abound.
Not so in Scott’s. Thinking of him and the mirrors was like thinking about my parents having sex. Gag. Not a visual I needed in my head. So I avoid going anywhere near his bedroom.
I nabbed another wedge of pizza before he ate the whole thing. “I didn’t know she was coming tonight. When she asked, I thought she meant she was going a day or two before the party, not for two weeks. Two weeks!”
Scott chuckled. “Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
I stared at him.
“Or maybe it will.” He sprinkled red pepper flakes from a to-go packet on his slice. “One good thing’s come out of Jean’s arriving early.”
“What?”
“You came over with pizza and beer.”
Trust Scott to think of his stomach. I handed him a fresh napkin and he wiped his already clean mouth. “How are things going on the man front?” He asked.
I snorted.
“That good, huh?”
“I’m running out of time and I have no prospects.” I picked off a green bell pepper and tossed it into the pizza box lid.
Scott swallowed his bit before he replied. “None? There’s got to be some fool out there who’ll go out with you. Aside from the fact that you’re horrible in bed.”
“Watch it or I’ll break a couple of your fingers the next time we work out.”
“You’re so violent. No wonder you can’ t get a man.” He studied me as he took a swig of beer.
I took three whole minutes of silent scrutiny to get to me. I threw down my napkin. “What already?”
He shook his head. “Just tell your mom you broke up with Drake. She’ll understand. He may have been a nice guy, but he wasn’t for you.”
“Why not?” I asked indignantly.
“You’re kidding, right?” He froze mid-bite. “You aren’t kidding. Don’t you remember why you broke up with him? The lack of spontaneity? The boring routine? The slug-like kisses?”
I lowered my eyes to the piece of pizza I was picking apart. “Maybe he can change.”
“I can’t believe it.” He tossed his napkin into the pizza box lid. “What are you saying?”
“That maybe Mom was right. Maybe Bobby was the best choice for me. I’ve been rethinking my plan.”
“Aw, hell.”
“I think maybe I should ask Bobby if he wants to get together again.”
Scott leaned back in his chair and gaped at me.
I took that look to mean he was amazed at my ability to forgive Bobby for saying I was boring in bed. “Like you said, Bobby’s a great guy. He makes an excellent living and he’s handsome. If I make Bobby more like MacGyver…”
“Stop with this MacGyver fetish already.” He gazed at me like I was an escapee from the state mental hospital. “A mullet-sporting loner is not the epitome of manhood.”
“But what he could do with a Swiss Army knife!” Shiver. Then I thought about Logan’s hands and shivered again.
“Rogue, you are seriously disturbed.”
I needed to get him to focus on the important issue here. “MacGyver aside, Bobby’s the only shot I have to be in the limelight.”
He pushed away from the table. “I need another beer.”
“Get me one too, okay?”
“Rogue, you’re forgetting one thing,” Scott said when he came back and set a beer bottle in front of me.
“What?”
“You broke up with Robert Drake. Badly.” He sat down and drank from his bottle. “He’s never going to want you back.”
Smiling like the siren I am, I shook my finger at him. “Don’t underestimate the power of my feminine wiles.”
“I’m telling you, no guy will go back to a woman who said she thought of other men while she had sex with him.”
“We’ll see.” I smiled enigmatically.
“You’re better off calling Johnny,” he muttered as he began to clean up our dinner mess. The look on my face must have given something away because he closed his eyes and groaned. “You called him, didn’t you?”
“What do you take me for? I’m not that desperate.” I rubbed the tip of my nose. “Alright, okay. I did. I am.”
He groaned again.
“But you were right. Johnny isn’t for me.”
“Turned you down, huh?”
I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him.
“I don’t know why you can’t find a man. You’re so charming.” He picked up our trash and headed for the kitchen.
I followed him, hopped onto the counter, and sipped beer while he rinsed out our empty bottles. If it were my place, I would have left the pizza debris on the table overnight. Maybe longer. But unlike me, Scott’s tidy. Anally immaculate to the point that he alphabetizes his kitchen utensils. It was freaky. His bed was always made, his office always orderly, and his bathroom always spic and span.
I waited for him to say something. And I waited. Then I waited some more.
But it became apparent by the care he was taking in wiping the sink down that he wasn’t going to volunteer anything. So I stepped into the fray. “You’ve got no comments?”
He glanced at me before resuming his scrubbing. “Would you listen to anything I said?”
I pursed my lips. “Depends on what you say.”
“You already know how I feel.”
I nodded. He’d made that abundantly clear, but I still thought making up with Bobby was the most logical course of action given my timeframe.
But Scott was my best friend, and I didn’t want him to be angry at me. I put my hand on his arm and squeezed. “I promise I’ll stop this scheming and actually look for my soul mate.”
He blinked in surprise.
“After the party.”
He shook his head. “You’re impossible, Rogue.”
“But you still love me.”
“Kind of like an old shoe I can’t bring myself to throw away because it’s so comfortable.” He tugged me off the counter and smacked my butt. “Get going. Your sister’s due to arrive at any time.”
I pretended to gag.
He grinned, put his arm around my shoulders, and propelled me toward the door. “You know what Dwight says?”
“To always wear a cup?”
“No. That you reap what you sew.” He stopped in front of the door and faced me. “Be careful what you do because it’ll come back and bite you in the ass.”
I smiled at him and patted his cheek. “That’s sweet, but you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to do anything crazy.”
He snorted as he opened the door and pushed me out.
I resisted as a token gesture of displeasure. “I’m not.”
“No. You crossed the line from crazy to downright insane a week ago.”
I stuck my tongue out at him as he closed the door in my face, his laughter seeping through the crack.
Five minutes later I sat in my car and grabbed a pen and a pad of paper out of the glove compartment.
How to Wiggle My Way Back into Bobby’s Heart
All lists should have titles. How successful the list is depends on the title. Tapping the pen against my lips, I considered the—fairly ugly—situation and pondered where to start. Tough decision. So I listed my choices randomly.
1) Invite him to Henry’s and profess my never-ending regret.
2) Call him pretending to be a psychic from Frost’s network and tell him he had to get back together with Marie, otherwise his life would go to shit.
3) Tell him I was briefly possessed, but the exorcism was a success.
4) Check his blog to see where he was going to be in the near future and make sure I ended up there too.
5) Tell him I had a month to live and my last wish was to get back together with him.
Hmm. The last one had merit.
Seriously though, the idea of showing up where he was going had potential. Bobby often publicized his social schedule on his blog. Once, I’d asked him why, he said: it was so his mom could find him if she needed. I wanted to ask why she couldn’t just harass him over the phone like my mom, but he distracted me with a fish kiss.
Enough said.
Tomorrow I’d find out what he was up to and then I’d make my move.
Bobby was as good as mine.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
Marie gets her second wind in the quest for her soulmate. And Jean comes to town. I wanted to jump straight into the Logan/Marie dynamics, but I felt it would be too soon. This chapter and the first half of the next needed to be written so that I could better set the pieces of the story. Ha! This fic actually has a planned plotline!!
All that said--- Logan comes into play during the next chapter. And then I'm not sure if I'll be able to leave him alone anymore. He's just too much fun to have around.
All that said--- Logan comes into play during the next chapter. And then I'm not sure if I'll be able to leave him alone anymore. He's just too much fun to have around.