That Blue Gibson: Another Round

thirty-three

"Hi, T," she said smoothly, then turned her attention back to Dave. "Ready for the steaks?"

"Ready when you are," he closed the lid on the grill while building up the courage to ask, "Hey, kitten?"

Her hold around him instantly dropped and he watched the sparkle of understanding in her eyes as she slowly dipped to her knees beside him. She kept her gaze on the patch of grass between them and serenely folded her hands in her lap, but from that angle Dave could see she was biting her cheek to keep from laughing.

"Could you get me another beer, please?"

"Yes, sir."

Casually, as if this were perfectly normal behavior, he reached down to drag his fingers through her hair in a rhythmic petting motion while Taylor squirmed uncomfortably beside them. "You want anything, dude?"

"Uh...," he stammered, his eyes wide as he stared at Liz sitting perfectly obedient in front of them.

"We've got beer, soda, water...," Dave coaxed. "She's not gonna leave until I tell her to so pick one."

"B... beer's fine, Liz, thanks."

Instead of addressing Taylor directly, she gazed up at Dave through her lashes with just the slightest hint of a pout, "Sir?"

"Okay, kitten. You can go." 

He held his hand out to help her up and gave her ass a loud swat as she turned to leave, biting the inside of his own cheek now to keep from killing the whole prank with a laugh. He'd almost forgotten how much fun she could be.

"Holy fucking shit," Taylor hissed, then lunged forward to grab Dave's arm, "Dude, what the fuck?"

"What? I just told you she was into it," he said casually. 

"Yeah, but...," his pause made Dave frown knowing he was envisioning all the submissive things Liz was possibly doing. "Do you braid her hair and everything?"

"What?" Out of all the questions he expected Taylor to ask, that wasn't even close to one of them. "Why would I-?"

"Isn't that part of it? Braiding her hair?"

He craned his neck back to look at Taylor's face, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about when something Liz had mentioned while reading the books clicked in his brain. "Holy shit, Hawkins. Have you read those books?"

Taylor's jaw dropped and his blonde hair fanned out as he shook his head. "No! I just... I might have skimmed them..."

Dave's loud laugh echoed across the back garden indicating the start of the relentless teasing that would make up the rest of their evening.

*

"So..." 

The next morning, Taylor fidgeted with the spoon in his tea as Liz walked back into the kitchen from saying goodbye to Dave. "We've got all day. What should we do?"

"I don't have any plans," she replied, picking up her coffee. Really, she'd been looking forward to lazing about all day while Dave was stuck in interviews and meetings. The past several days felt like she had been constantly on the move, never staying in one spot long enough to feel grounded and she just wanted to relax.

"Well, then we should be tourists!" Taylor announced excitedly. "Stand outside Buckingham Palace, hassle a couple of those guards in the big furry hats, stare at some old ass dusty paintings and shit!"

She didn't even take a full second to consider her answer before chirping a resounding, "Yes!" and darting upstairs to get dressed. Screw relaxing, doing all those cheesy touristy things seemed somehow necessary for London. It felt odd to be able to say that she had seen the inner depths of Abbey Road and even recorded there, but never laid eyes on Big Ben or Westminster Abbey. They were all things that she could never get away with if Dave were with her, it was even pushing it with Taylor, but it wasn't borderline dangerous with him. Still, she threw on some jean shorts and one of Dave's black hoodies, grabbed her favorite surf shop hat, slipped on her oversized aviators and left her hair down to cover as much of her face as possible.