6 hours after walking in her door from her photo shoot Laney was on a midnight flight to London.
She exited the terminal her eyes scanning the crowd for Tommy. She had to laugh when she saw the ridiculous sign he was holding up over his head that was almost as big as him. In large letters it said LANEY-LOU. Walking up to him she was still laughing and then thrilled to see Harrison was with him as well. They both ganged up on her pulling in her for a group hug.
"You 2 are way too much." She laughed. "I am so glad to be here. Take me to Tessa." She demanded.
They took Tom's car to his apartment and Laney happily plopped down on the couch with Tessa.
"So tell me everything that you and Zoey talk about." Laney said as Tom walked back into the living room from the kitchen 3 beers in his hand. Handing one to Harrison, one to Laney and keeping one for himself he sat down in the chair opposite her.
"After you tell me everything you and Chris talk about." He winked at her.
"You already know everything we talk about." Laney said with a bored sigh. "You might as well be on 3 way with us during phone calls. I literally give you the exact play by play."
Tom shrugged bringing his beer bottle to his lips he took a sip. "Same." He swallowed.
"Ok I have something new and juicy for you." She took a long sip of her beer. "Tom went to my photo shoot with me, took me to lunch, and kissed me."
Toms jaw dropped open and Harrison raised his eyebrows with a low whistle.
"Then I came inside and talked to Chris on the phone for 3 hours. A good majority of the call was FaceTime." She took another long sip of beer.
"DELANEY RAE!" Tom finally spat out. "You're supposed to call me for all decisions!"
"Well it happened so fast. I was leaving for the shoot and he pulled up, begged to go so I said yes. He actually had some fantastic ideas for the shoot. Here...let me show you." She grabbed her phone and pulled up some of the rough edits the photographer had shared with her.
Harrison whistled again. "Laney you are smoking hot. I can't believe you're in a love triangle and I'm not one of the members."
Laney howled with laughter. "Oh Haz you definitely make me reconsider the whole younger man thing."
"What?! Excuse me. Not happening." Tom shook his head. "Me. I'm the boyfriend in every scenario."
"There's the love triangle." Laney laughed. "I love you guys. But seriously. I'm the worst."
"And I'm guessing Chris doesn't know Tom was with you."
Laney shook her head no.
"We're gonna need more alcohol. Let's go to the pub."
"It's trivia night." Harrison jumped up.
"Ok but I just flew across the world. I'm tired and jet lagged. Y'all are responsible for me."
They went to the pub that was no more than a 10-minute walk from Toms apartment. After 2 rounds of trivia and a few beers Laney couldn't keep her eyes open another minute. They headed back to Toms where she promptly fell asleep within 5 minutes of laying down on the couch Tessa curled up next to her.
Waking up a few hours later Laney was completely thrown off. It was 6:30 am London time but 10:30 pm LA time. She had slept for a little while but now was unable to fall back to sleep and internally confused at the time change.
Tom and Harrison were both still asleep. Harrison was asleep in the recliner chair in the living room and Tom was in his room.
Laney quietly got up and started rummaging through the kitchen looking for food. 20 minutes later she was making pancakes and bacon.
"What in the hell are you doing?" Tom asked groggily as he walked in the kitchen rubbing his eyes.
"I'm hungry?" She shrugged.
"What time is it?"
"7 am your time. 11 pm my time. So I'm pretty screwed." She laughed.
Tom tilted his head back and forth in agreement. "Mmmmm bacon." He reached across her and stole a piece from the plate it was cooling on.
"Hey." She slapped his hand down.
"It's Tess's favorite." He whistled and Tessa lazily made her way to the kitchen. "Hey darling. You want bacon?" He asked the dog.
Tessa perked up and sat patiently waiting for Tom to drop her a piece.
"Here." Laney pulled plates out and put bacon and pancakes on each of them. She set the plates down at the table and sat down. With her foot she kicked the chair next to her out for Tom to sit.
"Oh marry me already." Tom moaned as he took a bite of pancake.
Laney laughed. "You'll need a better proposal."
"Speaking of marrying." He popped a piece of bacon in his mouth. "What are you going to do about Tom and Chris?"
"Ignore both of them since I'm in London."
"Not sure that's an option."
"Tom doesn't even know I'm here." Laney took a bite of pancake. "You're right these are amazing."
Tom nodded vigorously. "No but seriously. I think you're playing with fire. I don't want you to get hurt Laney."
"Well since you're asking.....I want to see what happens with Chris. However, I seem to lose the function to think when Tom is around and I make out with him every time I see him pretty much." She sighed, "That's another reason I came here. I need to be away from both of them. Just give myself some time to figure out what I want. Get a little distance. But like I said I really want to see what happens with Chris. I like him a LOT."
Tom shoved another bite of pancake and piece of bacon in his mouth before standing up. "I'm going back to bed. This was delicious love. Please try to get some more sleep so we can go out and do something fun today, yeah?"
Laney nodded. "Sir, yes sir."