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“Laura! Laura! Laura!”
Laura startles awake and stares in confusion at where Derek is standing in the door. He’s drunk, she can tell that right away by his glassy eyes and the way he can barely stand without using the wall for support.
She glances at the clock and sighs, “What is it?”
“Kali wants to know if you want to come hang out with her,” Derek says.
“What?”
“Kali wants you to come hang out with her,” Derek says again. “Like really bad. She wanted me to come wake you.”
Laura is nowhere near awake enough for this. All she can do is stare for a moment. “Uhh no? I’m sleeping.”
Derek nods slowly, “Okay. I told her you probably were. She just would not shut up about it.”
“Next time just let me sleep,” she mutters.
Derek gives an attempt at a salute before stumbling away. Laura can hear muffled voices down the hall but ignores them. She’s far too tired to care about whatever Derek’s ex wants.
She forgets all about it until the next morning, Derek comes to her to apologize. He looks like shit. Laura only feels a little sympathy for him considering he woke her up in the middle of the night, and then she had to wake up a few hours after that to help Cora with something.
“I’m sorry again,” Derek says. “Kali really wanted me to ask you. Next time I’ll just send her herself.”
“Or you could just let me sleep,” Laura says. “Unless you want me to throw someone through the window.”
Derek laughs it off and Laura rolls her eyes. She doesn’t understand why he’s wasting his time hanging out with his ex anyway. Well she does . But she’d rather not think about it. Not when she knows Derek is an amazing guy and can find someone far better for him than Kali.
Laura is in the middle of writing when a knock on her door draws her attention away from the screen. Derek is standing there, looking a variation of awkward and frustrated.
“What is it now?”
“Kali,” Derek says. “She won’t stop texting me. And…”
Laura isn’t going to ask. She’s not. She will not ask. Except her mouth apparently has different ideas than her brain. “What is it?”
“She said she really wants to hang out with you,” Derek says. “She saw you last night and would not shut up about you and just wanted to spend time with you, not me.”
Laura’s brow furrows, “Why? We’ve barely even said five words to each other.”
“Beats me,” Derek says. “But umm… she said to ask you if you wanted to hang out one last time, and if you say not she’ll drop it. But she…” Derek grimaces as he reads over the words on his phone. “She thinks you’re gorgeous and really wants to try some stuff with you. She said she went out and bought some things, and if you’re interested she wanted me to show you this.”
Now Derek looks even more uncomfortable as he holds out his phone for her to see what’s on screen. And oh . It’s that kind of hanging out.
Laura can only stare in shock at the assortment of sex toys shown in the picture before she makes herself look away. “What the fuck? What the actual fuck, Derek?”
“So I take it it’s a no?” Derek says.
“It’s a hell no,” Laura says. She just wants this conversation to be over. Or for the ground to swallow her up and take her away from here. She can’t remember the last time she felt this uncomfortable or weirded out. This is not the sort of thing she ever wanted to discuss with her little brother. It’s not even that she’s not interested in women. She is. She just wasn’t expecting to see that sort of thing from someone like Kali through Derek. It makes her cringe. “And frankly, I think you need to stay away from her too.”
“Yeah I’m getting that,” Derek says. “She’s crazy.”
“Uh huh.”
“She’s always been crazy, huh?”
“Oh yeah,” Laura says. She might have only talked to her a few times but she remembers Kali from school. While Laura may have been a little on the wild side, Kali always made her look tame in comparison. “You know what I need? A drink.”
“It’s barely after one,” Derek says.
“Derek, after what you just put us both through, I think we deserve it,” Laura tells him. She gets to her feet and puts a hand on his back, leading him out of the room. “Besides, Stiles always opens the bar early for us. Or well you .”
“He does not,” Derek mutters.
Laura sighs. Derek really can be hopeless sometimes. She knows he’s been pining after Stiles for years but can’t seem to see that Stiles has been pining just as hard. Maybe for all their sakes she’ll just give them a little nudge in the right direction.
“I need a drink,” Laura says, sitting down at her favorite seat in the bar. “And so does Derek. We’ve been traumatized, Stiles.”
Stiles rolls his eyes, but hands them both a beer. “What happened this time?”
Laura opens her mouth to tell him, only for Derek to cut in. “Nothing important, or as dramatic as she’s making it out to be.”
“To you maybe,” Laura mutters.
He’s not paying attention anymore though, neither of them are. They’re too busy smiling and making eyes at each other. Stiles leans across the bar, bringing himself closer to Derek. “I’m sure it’s a good story.”
“I have better ones if you really want a story, Stiles,” Derek says.
“I bet,” Stiles says. “Maybe you can tell me one tonight over dinner when I get off work? Say 9?”
“Isn’t that a little early for Friday?” Derek asks. Laura wants to smack him.
“It is,” Stiles says. “But one of the perks of owning a bar is I get off whenever I want. Or whenever you want.”
There is no way Derek can misinterpret that. Stiles is outright hitting on him. Derek really can’t be that blind. If he is, then there is no hope for him.
Laura watches them out of the corner of her eye, not wanting them to catch her staring. Derek’s face shifts to one of surprise, before he smiles, one of the shy ones she’s used to seeing around Stiles. “Tonight then,” Derek says. “For dinner! We can have dinner tonight!”
Stiles just grins, not the least bit deterred by Derek’s awkwardness. “It’s a date.”
“Yeah it is.” Stiles winks and walks away to talk to Lydia, who helps manage the place. Derek turns to Laura. “You were right, Stiles does like me.”
Laura grins and knocks his shoulder with hers, “I told you! You really should listen to me more often.”
“Sure Laura,” Derek says, his eyes drifting to where Stiles is still talking to Lydia. “You should ask her out.”
Laura almost spits out her drink, “What? Who?”
“Don’t who me. Lydia, of course. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
Laura shakes her head and takes a drink of her beer so she doesn’t have to say anything. He’s not wrong. Laura does like Lydia. She’s beautiful and smart and fiercely loyal. But Laura hasn’t dated in years. Not because she didn’t want to. She just had other priorities. Sometimes it feels like it’s been too long and she won’t have a clue what she’s doing. Not that she’s going to admit out loud to being scared.
But seeing Derek finally taking a chance with Stiles makes Laura want to be bold. She wants to take a chance. She finishes her beer and gets to her feet, barely paying attention to Derek’s questioning look as she steps around him and starts walking across the bar. She counts down each step in her head as they bring her closer to Lydia, who turns her head and smiles when she sees Laura approaching.
Five, four, three, two, one...