Spark in the Dark

Chapter 15

Shawn tried to decline Lyla's offer to help, having more people involved would just make things messier than they needed to be, but a few nights later it became apparent that Lyla hadn't listened. Shawn was alone at Cara Cara working late when Juice walked in. He took a look around and couldn't see anyone around the studio. Walking back to Luanne's office, he looked in and saw Shawn at the desk. Her back was to him as she worked on her laptop and she had headphones in. Juice could hear the music coming from them, so it was loud enough she hadn't heard him come in. He reached over and gently pulled out one of her headphones, causing her to jump.

"Hey," he said as she turned to him, her face alarmed.

"Hey," Shawn repeated him, a little unsure.

"You got it working then?"

"Got what working?"

"Your laptop? You texted me? Wanted help with it."

"No, I didn't."

Juice looked puzzled. He reached a hand into the pocket of his cargo pants and pulled out his phone. He pulled up the text and showed it to her. Shawn then grabbed her phone to look at her own messages and saw the text exchange. It took her only a second to figure out what had happened.

"Lyla," Shawn said to herself, slightly disgusted with her friend.

"What?" Juice asked.

"She asked to borrow my phone earlier. Said her's was dead. She must have texted you."

"Why would she do that?" Juice asked, but then it dawned on him. "Does she... know?"

"She kinda figured it out. She was with me a couple days ago at lunch when you guys rode by and..."

"Saw us looking at each other?"

"Yea. She won't tell anyone."

Juice nodded. "Well, her plan worked. I'm here. It would be a shame to let her effort go to waste. So, what should we do?" Shawn raised an eyebrow at him and he smiled. "I didn't mean like that. We could... order pizza?"

"Pizza?"

"Yea, like, a date? Or is that lame?"

"I think a date in a porn studio is the least lame you can get."

"Then I'll order the pizza."

"I'll get us a drink." Shawn walked into the break room and opened the fridge. "Water or soda?"

"Soda," Juice called to her.

Shawn pulled out his drink and grabbed at bottle of water for herself. When she walked back into the office, Juice was ordering their pizza.

"About 20 minutes," he told her when he hung up.

"We don't have to sit in here. There's a couch out there."

"Has anyone ever had sex on it?"

"Not this week," Shawn joked. Juice narrowed his eyes. "I'm kidding. It is strictly for sitting."

Shawn turned to leave the office and Juice followed.

"So, you have a sister, right?"

"Two actually. Fawn and Dawn."

Juice turned his head to look at her. "Shawn, Fawn and Dawn?"

"Yup. My mom was absolutely convinced I was going to be a boy. She picked out the name Shawn and liked it so much then when I ended up being a girl she kept it. After she died, my dad hooked up with Colleen and they had my sisters. Colleen was obsessed with names that rhymed and Tig pretty much let her do whatever she wanted, so..." They reached the sitting area and sat on the couch. "What about you? Any siblings?"

"I have an older sister. Our names don't rhyme, though."

Shawn laughed. "It would be a little hard to rhyme anything with Juan Carlos."

"But, if you think about it, Juan and Shawn also rhyme," Juice pointed out.

"Aw, how cute," Shawn rolled her eyes, but smiled. Juice leaned in to kiss her, but Shawn pulled away. "Sorry, I don't kiss on the first date."

Juice narrowed his eyes. "Really?"

"No. I'm kidding," Shawn admitted. Juice smiled and kissed her. They pulled away after a moment and Juice rested his forehead against hers.

"I wanted to call you," he told her.

"But you didn't."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I get it. We're kind of in uncharted territory here."

"Yea, I wasn't too sure what to say." They heard someone knocking on the studio door and Juice stood to answer it. "Pizza's here."