Rory and Lane sat on Lane's couch, watching Steve and Kwan play video games.
Nodding her head in the boys' direction, Rory laughed as she said, "Like father, like sons."
Lane shook her head. "You have no idea. The three of them—they'd eat us out of house and home if I didn't hide snacks."
Rory was shocked. "Still with the floor boards?"
"Not so much floor boards as—", Lane began whispering while keeping her eyes on her sons, "—empty oatmeal containers, tofu packages in the freezer, anything that can camouflage the goods."
"Some things will never change." Rory thought back to their early years when Lane would hide CD's and make up beneath the wooden floor boards in her bedroom to keep her mother from finding them.
Lane changed topics. "So have you talked to Logan yet?"
"Funny you should ask...." Rory filled Lane in on all that had happened. It was evident that her friend could hardly contain her excitement as it became apparent that Logan wanted to be with Rory.
"Smart man! I always knew he was a smart man!" Lane was giddy as she shared her friend's joy.
Rory leaned back on the couch, crossing her arms. "Yes, he is."
The two girls chitchatted back and forth for nearly an hour when Rory's phone rang. It was a text from Logan.
Odette wanted to meet her.
*****
Jess and Natalie found their way to a small café to get a cup of coffee. Both wanted to extend their date as long as possible.
For Natalie, she felt like she had finally been introduced to a guy who wasn't either living in his mother's basement or who probably had warrants out for his arrest. Over the years, her well-meaning friends had tried to fix her up but none of the matches ended up being worth a second date. Heck, most weren't even worth finishing the first.
Then Linda told her about Jess. At the beginning, she was hesitant because no matter how many upbeat adjectives had been thrown into his description, she was afraid to be set up for failure yet again.
All of those fears were cast aside at her first sight of Jess.
Right off the bat, Natalie noticed that he was clean. She knew all too well you couldn't always count on that. He also appeared interested by telling her about himself while also asking questions about her. At no point did Natalie get the impression that Jess was full of himself or felt he was entitled to anything more than she was willing to give.
One of the biggest pluses in her books, though, was that Jess was in no way pressuring her to go back to his place. No matter that most of the dates went badly, the audacity that the men had with trying to get more than a hand shake at the door never ceased to amaze her.
Jess, though, was like none of the other men she'd ever met. He seemed content just being in her company. Linda told her that Jess had been nursing a broken heart so it was possible that didn't want to jump too quickly. He appeared to be a rare breed that understood the bedroom wasn't a proper place for two people to really get to know one another.
The waitress dropped off two cups of coffee. Jess lifted one, holding to out to her, nodding. "Cheers."
Cheers indeed.