Fic: It's Always Open Season On Princesses Part 14
Title: It’s Always Open Season On Princesses Part 14
Spoilers: Through S2
Word Count: 5572
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Dan Harmon owns it.
AN: This chapter got long, but Annie’s stream of consciousness and confusion is hard to settle down. There is a lot of J/A interaction here. And the return of Camilla! Read on everybody!
Annie glared at her own reflection, bleary-eyed and only partly awake. Her face cracked as a yawn grabbed hold of her, stretching and marring her features. Lifting her hairbrush even seemed like too much work this morning. Her body was physically protesting to being rousted from bed without any amount of rest.
Her body could suck it.
Lying in bed longer wouldn’t mean rest, it would just mean more thinking. And Annie had decided around three in the morning that more thinking was decidedly not what she needed. Her eyes landed glassily on her exposed shoulder. At least Rich had been right about the previous day’s sunburn. Her skin now had a golden hue to it, which contrasted with the sallow color of her overly-tired face. There was only so much that make-up could do really.
What the heck was he doing in Italy?
He’d implied that Pierce had sent him, the same as he’d sent she and then Rich. However, Annie knew Pierce well enough to know that he wouldn’t have been able to send Jeff without calling and taking credit for that superb twist on her idyllic vacation. Maybe he’d done it just to make her uncomfortable? Well, she knew why she wanted Jeff to have shown up, but there was every reason to believe that actually thinking in that general direction would end up hurting her more than she already admittedly was. There was no way he was there for her.
So why wouldn’t that idea disappear?
Annie reached for her toothbrush and turned the faucet on, running the brush under the cold water. She would just have to talk to Pierce today. He would have an answer for her. Annie resented the idea that Pierce somehow had this much control over her psyche from half a world away. She was giving him power that he didn’t actually have. Of course, she could always just march across the hallway and demand an answer from Jeff. But, what would that really accomplish? Wasn’t every third word out of his mouth a lie anyway?
She didn’t realize that he was in the doorway until he knocked on the door jamb and she jumped about seventeen feet into the air, toothpaste foam dribbling down her chin in the process. “Sorry,” Jeff said sheepishly. His voice was still raspy with sleep and Annie barely acknowledged him before going back to her tooth brushing. “Have you been up long?” he asked as he stepped into the room without invitation, resting his butt against edge of the vanity. One of his large hands came up to rub tiredly at the back of his neck before scratching through his genuinely mussed hair. He clearly still hadn’t bathed at all and was still in the same wrinkled clothes he’d shown up in the night before. The overall effect probably should not have been as appealing as it was. Annie shook herself and tried to focus on her oral hygiene. Was it the Star Spangled Banner that you were supposed to hum while brushing?
Jeff had completely thrown her routine off, in almost every possible way.
How irritating.
“How did you sleep?” Jeff asked, trying again to garner a response from her. Annie narrowed her eyes in determination before leaning over the sink and spitting with gusto.
“Great,” she stated with more force than she needed to, judging by Jeff’s reaction. His sleepy eyes widened slightly before narrowing. He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it quickly. Annie turned her eyes on him warily, daring him to question her.
“So I need to go buy clothes,” he finally said haltingly. “Because I cannot spend any more time than I have to in clothes that belong to Pierce.” Annie let a tiny chuckle escape her lips despite her best effort. “There are leisure suits in the closet,” Jeff added, pointing in the direction of his room.
“So, what happened to your suitcase?” Annie asked mostly curiously and only partly suspiciously.
Jeff furrowed his brow. “The…the airline lost it,” he replied after a moment’s hesitation.
“And…you’re not freaking out?” she questioned skeptically, raising one eyebrow up at him. She saw a change in Jeff’s expression, somehow softening, and felt a tug at her stomach. Disappointed in herself at being so easily moved by something from him that probably- definitely didn’t mean anything, Annie cleared her throat and turned away from him to busy herself with collecting the bathing suit she’d left out to dry the prior afternoon.
“I’ve already had a glass of wine this morning,” Jeff cracked lightly before clearing his throat. “I was um…I was hoping that you would…” He exhaled and Annie watched him work his jaw for a moment in silence before he spoke again. “If you would come with me?”
What?
“You just probably know your way around better than I would,” Jeff rushed on to explain, lest Annie actually think it was him wanting to spend time with her. No, there was no threat of that.
Awesome.
She exhaled slowly, attempting to gauge her id before making that decision. He was asking her to spend the day with him in Rome, days after he had completely… refused her in a totally heinous fashion. Annie had said they would be friends no matter what, but she hadn‘t really expected him to cash in on that promise so quickly, so heedlessly. “Sure,” she finally answered with a nod, and wasn’t surprised to realize that she didn’t know if the nod was to convince him or herself. Jeff reared his head back, eyes widening, clearly taken aback by her giving in so quickly. Annie pursed her lips and waited for him to respond in some way. She had actually managed to render him speechless. “I mean, I don’t have-”
“No no no,” he cut her off, standing from his leaning position to approach her. Annie shrank back from him and he froze. “I was just…” He shook his head before pausing to look at her. She felt that same strangling sensation she’d had the night before and bit her lip, averting her eyes from his. “No, yeah. Okay. Great.” She hazarded a glance back to him to find him smiling at her almost enigmatically. Annie gave him a tight smile. “Okay, so I am going to go and embrace personal hygiene and then we can go?” Jeff raised an eyebrow toward her, waiting for confirmation. She nodded. “Right,” he said before giving her a once over that made her stomach squirm rather startlingly. “New dress?”
She froze before looking down at herself.
Annie had pulled the new cerulean halter dress from the closet that morning and put it on without much thought beyond ‘Camilla says this looks good on me’. It dipped lower in the back than Annie really felt comfortable with, but she had every intention of putting a light cardigan over it anyway. “Yes,” she murmured, meeting his gaze unsurely.
Jeff cleared his throat. “It looks….” He trailed off, trying to find a word. Annie dipped her head slightly, waiting for him to finish his thought. “…really good,” Jeff finally decided on and she blinked at him in confusion as he retreated from the bathroom.
What was happening?
He had said no, hadn’t he?
No, worse than that. He’d said not a thing and had just assumed she would know that it meant no. She had asked and he had ignored her and now he was showering across the hall. In Italy. There were some serious steps missing from the picture. She knew Jeff had wanted to speak to her last night, had come looking for her to make himself feel better for whatever messed up reasoning he had figured out in his own giant head. And eventually, at some point down the road, she might actually be okay with hearing why he had done , but she was pretty sure today was not that day. If Jeff was fine with continuing to keep her just close enough to him to make her unsteady, then Annie was fine with him feeling uncomfortable with his own conscience.
When she could think of no other reasons to loiter in the bathroom, Annie stalked down the stairs, her heels clicking lightly against the marble as she went. She made her way to the kitchen and was not surprised at all to find Rich at the counter in an apron. It did throw her slightly however, to find Camilla and Kevin sitting at the counter, chatting over cups of coffee. Did they seriously just let themselves in? Readying herself as well as she could, Annie straightened her shoulders and stepped into the kitchen.
“Annie!” Rich greeted her, being the first to notice her as always. “Good morning.” He gestured with a spatula toward the neighbors. “Camilla and Kevin just stopped over to say ‘hi’ and I decided that we needed some caramel rolls.” She gave him a small smile before turning her attention to Camilla, who had risen from her seat to approach Annie.
“And she’s wearing one of the new outfits,” Camilla noticed, circling the younger woman like a vulture. Annie felt her back straighten even more, lifting her head as gracefully as she could manage. “Lovely,” Camilla finally decided. “Doesn’t she look good, Kevin?”
Annie waited for her husband’s creepy gaze to wash over her before she allowed the full body shudder. “You look amazing,” he agreed with a slow nod. “Turn around.”
“Kevin, shut up.” Camilla came back around to Annie’s front and grasped her arms gently. “Except you look slightly…dead in the face.” She tilted her head to the side. “What happened to you?”
“Long night,” Annie answered, stifling a yawn.
“I have coffee,” Rich offered, holding the carafe up to her. Annie nodded mutely and moved toward him, feeling every inch of Kevin’s eyes on her ass as she did so.
“So, what are you kids planning for today?” Kevin asked, giving Annie a grin over the top of his coffee mug. Annie glanced toward Rich regretfully. She would now have to explain to the neighbors exactly how much had changed in the last twelve hours.
“Annie, I was wondering if I could use your…” Jeff entered the kitchen in clean clothes that obviously had belonged to Pierce at some point, hair wet and sticking straight up. “…hair dryer?” His eyes darted around the room quickly before landing on Annie questioningly. She nodded, helplessly, unable to convey how much of a lion’s den he’d just walked into. Maybe he could make it back out before-
“And who is this handsome man?” the blonde asked as she moved toward him with an unmistakable prowess that made Annie feel queasy.
Kevin cleared his throat from next to Annie. “I am still sitting here, honey.”
Camilla brushed him off easily, her eyes never leaving Jeff’s form. But instead of enjoying it, the way he did every time a female noticed him, Jeff simply straightened, giving the woman a wary look. “Jeff,” he finally answered her slowly, his eyebrows rising when her hand came up to wrap around his bicep. “And you are?”
“Annie,” Camilla said in an accusatory fashion as she turned away from Jeff entirely. “How is it that handsome men keep finding you all the way across the ocean?” Annie struggled with an answer to that, too confused about how that was happening herself. Thankfully, it had apparently been a rhetorical question, because the next instant, the blonde was spinning back to face Jeff. “You are from…Greendale is it?” she asked and Annie frowned at the back of the older woman’s head.
“Yeah?” Jeff replied, matching Annie’s frown. “So, hair dryer?” She nodded again silently and Jeff exited the kitchen, leaving behind a metric ton of awkwardness.
“So…” Annie inwardly groaned at the questioning she was going to have to endure now. “He’s new.” She took of sip of her too hot coffee and nodded demurely.
“Yeah, he showed up last night.”
“And we sure were surprised, weren’t we Annie?” Rich spoke up from behind her. Annie turned to see him flipping the pan of caramel rolls onto a plate, the rich brown sauce dripping down the sides of the pastries. “I tell you guys, Jeff is a great guy.” Annie studiously ignored the blatant stare she was getting from Camilla. “And he actually came to me earlier this year in order to help make him a better guy.” At that, he chuckled. “What a cut up.”
Wait, what?
Annie had known there was something strange about Jeff and Rich, that there were clearly things about their relationship that she didn’t know or understand, but Jeff had what with the what? “Rich,” Annie furrowed her brow, worried about the answer to the question she was about to ask. “What do you mean he…he came to you?”
“More importantly,” Kevin added. “Is this house just magically producing men for you to have vacation sex with or what?”
“You’re not one of them, so it doesn’t matter.” Camilla gave her husband a stern look before turning her attention to Annie. “Is this Jeff someone you’ve mentioned before?” Trying to think quickly, Annie shook her head. She didn’t think she had mentioned a word about him. Hopefully she hadn’t mentioned a word about him. It would be too humiliating for Camilla to confront Jeff with some insane diatribe, naturally following that with running her hands along his abs. “So, two different men have showed up now from back home and neither are the man you are apparently here to get over?” she asked. “Interesting.”
Crap.
Okay, so she had mentioned him apparently.
“Oh, no.” Rich had come around the counter now, a cup of coffee in his own hand. “It isn’t like that Camilla. Trust me, Annie and I being here at the same time is just a coincidence. And last night Jeff basically said the same thing.” He took a drink. “I tell you, I think it’s great that Pierce is so generous with his money and his home.”
“Yeah,” Annie chimed in dully. Was it generosity that was responsible for everything that had happened?
Camilla hummed to herself, taking another sip of coffee as Kevin helped himself to a roll, licking his lips in anticipation. Or at least Annie hoped so. Even Rich looked slightly put off by the action though, which made Annie swallow down a chuckle. It was at that point that Jeff re-entered the kitchen, dry hair perfectly mussed. Despite the fact that he was clearly wearing clothes that Pierce had been wearing during the Reagan administration, he still managed to look good, which annoyed Annie for some reason. “Hey,” he greeted when he found everyone staring at him blankly.
“Caramel roll?” Kevin asked, holding his up to Jeff. Jeff shook his head slowly before approaching Annie.
“Are you ready?” he asked in a low voice.
“What are you kids doing today?” Camilla asked, her eyes glinting in a way that made Annie uncomfortable.
“The airline lost my luggage,” Jeff replied in a tone that told Annie he was uncomfortable too. “So Annie and I are going to go shopping.” His gaze shifted to Annie questioningly and she gave a short nod.
“That sounds like fun,” Rich piped up from Annie’s other side. Her head whipped up to his face and in the next moment, his expression had slackened, his eyes focused on something over Annie’s head. “But,” he demurred quickly. “But Camilla, you were talking about taking me to the Vatican, weren’t you?”
Annie’s eyes bounced confusedly from Rich to Jeff to Camilla, who was now grinning widely. “I did say that, yes.”
“I wanted to go to the Vatican,” Annie heard herself mutter.
Jeff chuckled next to her and Annie scowled up at him. “You’re Jewish,” he explained slowly, as if she didn’t already know that.
“Yes, thank you Jeff.” She huffed when she heard Rich titter behind her. “But it’s not necessarily about religion, you know? Would you go all the way to Jerusalem and not see the Wailing Wall?”
Jeff blinked in response. “Um, what?
Annie rolled her eyes.
“Why don’t we all go shopping with Jeff,” Kevin spoke up with a full mouth. “And then we can all go to the Vatican?”
“You weren’t invited anywhere,” Camilla placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “No, I think we already have a plan in place.” She pointed a perfectly manicured finger toward Rich. “I will take the handsome doctor to see the Vatican, and Jeff and Annie can go shopping for clothes. For him.” She smiled. “Alone. Together.” Annie cleared her throat loudly, running a hand over her hair.
“Okay,” Jeff said after a moment of silence in which the only noise was of Kevin chewing. “So, we need to call for a cab or something? How does this work?” He was glancing between the two women and Annie found Camilla shooting her a meaningful look.
Oh, right.
“Actually,” Annie said slowly, drawing Jeff’s full attention. “You… don’t need to do that at all.”
She stepped forward, jerking her head for him to follow her. They trooped silently out to the garage, and when Annie slid the door open, Jeff whimpered loudly before exhaling in worship. “Holy crap.” She watched as he stepped forward slowly, reverently and placed one palm onto the hood of a red Lamborghini. “And we get to drive these?” he asked and Annie rolled her eyes at how much this seemed to affect him. What was it with guys and cars?
“Yes, Jeff.” She sighed. “They’re just cars, you drive them.”
“Have you driven one?” Jeff inquired, looking over the entire stock.
“Yeah,” Annie replied. “The yellow…um, is it a Ferrari?” she asked, pointing toward the car she had driven only the previous day. Had that only been yesterday?
His eyes landed on her sharply, imploringly and Annie felt a heat whip through her stomach. “How was it? Was it like having really good sex?”
“I don’t know,” Annie shrugged and watched as Jeff stilled completely.
Had she seriously just said that?
“I… have to go grab my sweater,” Annie managed to get out quietly. “All the keys are on the wall,” she instructed, pointing toward the box they were kept in. “I’ll…be right back.”
Jeff gave her a slight nod, eyes still glassy. Annie cringed the second her back was to him. What the hell? That was the most pathetic thing she could have possibly said. Well, no she could have asked what sex was. That would have been a tiny bit more embarrassing, she guessed. She swept back into the kitchen to find Camilla and Kevin still at the island.
“He’s the one, isn’t he?” Camilla asked, wasting no time at all. Annie sighed.
“He is a tall drink of water,” Kevin offered, raising his coffee mug toward her. Annie moved on as quickly as she could, taking the stairs two at a time to get to the second landing. Her cardigan was slung across the foot of her bed where she’d forgotten it that morning. Grabbing that and her purse from the dresser, Annie took a deep breath and exited the room again.
Where she literally ran into Rich.
“Whoa,” he said, grabbing her bare arms gently. “I thought you guys already left.”
“Just now,” Annie smiled, pointing down the stairs. She licked her lips, worrying one between her teeth. “Rich, earlier you were saying that you were giving Jeff lessons on…being a better…” she swallowed, “man.”
Rich nodded. “Yeah, well they didn’t last all that long though.”
Annie furrowed her brows in confusion. “When did all this happen?”
The doctor frowned in concentration. “I think…yeah, it was. It was right after I got outvoted for your study group.” He nodded his head. “The same night I think.” With a thoughtful scratch of his chin, Rich continued. “Yeah, it was definitely that night. Because you had just asked…” He trailed off, his face coloring. Annie was floored. Jeff had gone to Rich the same night she’d confronted him in the bathroom at school. Had gone to Rich for help with…what? Being a better man? What did that mean?
Remembering herself, Annie shook her head, giving Rich a halfway smile. “I have to get back down there,” she explained with a point of her finger before rushing back down the stairs, roughly six hundred and thirty-seven thoughts running through her head at once.
Why, if he hated Rich did he go to him for advice on anything?
Why had he kept it from everyone?
Why did Rich remember so clearly that it had been the same night he’d turned her down?
Annie stepped out into the sunlight and remembered belatedly that she hadn’t grabbed her sunglasses. Jeff was waiting in the circular drive that all immense houses seemed to have. His eyes were closed as he apparently focused on the vibrations the car was making. “Would you two like to be alone?” she asked sardonically when she reached the driver’s side door. Jeff’s eyes slid open to peer at her.
“Not right now,” he answered with a smirk. “But I might be overcome later.” Annie rolled her eyes and hurried around the front of the car as gracefully as she could before settling next to him in the passenger seat. “No head scarf?” he asked as he put the car into drive.
“It didn’t work for Bridget Jones,” Annie responded with a shake of her head and let her lips quirk up slightly when Jeff chuckled.
The drive into Rome was spent in silence as the scenery whipped past them quickly. Jeff alternately stroked the steering wheel lovingly and rested a hand gently on the dashboard. Annie only let her eyes linger on his strong capable-looking fingers for one long moment before turning her head away and keeping her focus on the Italian countryside.
Well, at least her outward focus.
Her head was too full of ideas, all vying for attention at the forefront of her brain. Things just got more and more confusing for her, though. Jeff was in Italy, but she didn’t know why, didn’t dare ask. He didn’t have anything with him. Was he really the victim of crappy baggage handling? If that was what had happened, he was really extremely calm about it. And now there was this whole thing with Rich. She had told Jeff she was going to ask Rich on a date, to which he had refused to respond. Then, the same night, the very same night Rich had turned her down, Jeff had…what? Gone to Rich’s house to ask him how to be a better man?
Did that mean he thought Rich was a great guy for… telling her no?
That’s what it seemed like.
By the time Jeff slowed down at the outskirts of the city, Annie finally acknowledged him again. She gave directions as well as she could from the little memory she had and Jeff jockeyed the small sports car into a parking space at the metro station. He bought tickets and they boarded, still without really talking to each other. Several times, Annie thought she felt his eyes on her, but every time she glanced up, she would see she’d been wrong, that he’d been looking at strangers, scenery, and one time, his own reflection in the window. It actually wasn’t until there were fully immersed in the heart of Rome, elbow-deep in Armani, that Annie really even spoke to Jeff again.
He was standing in front of a three-way mirror, checking out his own ass in a pair of jeans.
Who did that other than in the privacy of their own bathroom?
“Do these look okay?” he asked without even glancing up from his reflection. It was at this point that Annie snapped.
“Jeff,” she muttered angrily. “You’re an Adonis. Everything looks good on you.” His eyes met hers, and she wanted to step toward him and wring his neck for the expression on his face. He almost looked… was that happy? He was happy that he was irritating her with his unique combination of egotism and crippling insecurity. Annie crossed her arms over her chest, shifting all of her weight to one foot and cocking out the opposite hip to give the appearance of as much attitude as she could muster. “I’m going to the bookstore across the street,” she announced and spun to leave.
“Be careful,” Jeff called to her and Annie glanced back at him to find that he was actually being serious.
She sighed. “I promise to look both ways before crossing the street, dad.” Not waiting to enjoy the aftermath of that comment, Annie made her exit out of the high-end store and out to the streets. All around her, people swept past her, intent on their day to day business in the Eternal City. She slipped into the book store down the block from where she’d left Jeff, perusing the shelves. The selection was unlike anything Annie had ever seen. No ’Far Side’ books, no ’Rachael Ray’ cookbooks, no copy of Paris Hilton’s autobiography. She picked up a copy of ’Divina Commedia’ and opened it up without really seeing the words at all.
Did he have to be so self-involved? He could give his Jeff-related charm a rest for a while, couldn’t he? Maybe it was all connected to why he was there? She might just have to suck it up and ask him. She could do that.
Probably.
“Are the books all in Italian?” he asked, sidling up to her with several shopping bags in his hands.
She rolled her eyes up at him, still feeling irritated by the sight of him, now decked out in several hundred dollars worth of designer brand names. “Yes, Jeff. We’re in Italy.”
He narrowed his eyes, studying her curiously for a moment before reaching into the pocket of his jacket. “I got you something.” With that, he handed her a pair of sunglasses.
They were beautiful, and Annie didn’t know much about labels, but she new these were probably expensive. Big lenses, very modern-looking, in a dark brown color rather than black. “Thank you,” she offered him with sincerity. He shrugged in return.
“I just noticed that you didn’t have any,” he replied.
Her fingers slid along the band before glancing down at them. “Jeff,” she murmured. “These are Gucci sunglasses.”
“I know,” he answered slowly, as if she was learning impaired. “I just came from the Gucci store.” He turned and pointed in the general direction of the store.
“Jeff, these cost a ton.” Annie was already folding them closed again and attempting to hand them back to the tall man. He frowned down at her, shuffling away as if she was a stranger trying to frisk him on the subway.
“Annie, no. Keep them.” He opened them easily and then slid them onto her face carefully. “There.” Annie looked up at him through the glasses, making his visage very dim in the light of the store. “They look really good,” he stated. She gave him a tight smile before returning the book to the shelf and slipping quickly past him and back into the Roman sunlight.
“You hungry?” Jeff asked, catching up to her effortlessly.
Annie shrugged, looking at him sideways. “What did you have in mind?”
“Food, Annie.”
They found a charming restaurant not far away, and were seated at an outdoor table immediately. After some shaky Italian (from her) and some American attitude (from him), Annie found herself sitting across from Jeff and cursed the gentle flap of butterfly wings against her rib cage.
She could do this.
“Jeff.” She licked her lips nervously and almost let her nerves get the best of her when he looked at her. Why was he looking at her like that? Crap, what was she going to ask again? “What’s the deal with you and Rich?” Annie finally settled on when she realized that she’d said his name and then proceeded to stare at him blankly for the better part of a minute.
“What?” he asked, clearly confused judging by the way his face scrunched up.
“I mean, I was just…” She trailed off, shaking her head to try and clear it. “Rich was saying something this morning about him training you to…” Annie watched him, waiting for some sort of realization to set in on his face.
Yep, there it was. It was equal parts embarrassment and annoyance. It took exactly 1.2 seconds for him to grab hold of his genuine emotion and beat it back into submission, leaving his face deliberately blank and quizzical. “Oh,” he answered in a breezy manner that made Annie’s teeth ache from clamping her mouth shut so tight. “That was just…” He raised his eyebrows. “A joke.”
“A joke,” Annie repeated, her eyes narrowing.
“Yeah,” he replied, latching onto the idea. “We were doing a kind of Mr. Myagi thing.” The next moment, Jeff rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Sorry, that was a reference to-”
“I saw the remake,” she responded flatly. “With Jackie Chan.”
“Awesome,” he shot out, meaning anything but.
“So,” Annie continued before taking a deep breath. “This isn’t…” She bit her lip. “Are you here because of Rich?”
Say no!
Please?
Jeff’s eyes widened before swallowing slowly. Annie almost heard the ‘gulp’ noise. “Um, could you be more specific?” he asked with hesitation.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. Their food arrived and they ate in awkward silence. She didn’t even bother to try to make eye contact with him. He was there because of Rich, for one reason or another. He couldn’t even give her a real answer to that question. Seriously, how backwards was he anyway? It wasn’t as if he had flown across the ocean just because he’d found out that the doctor was there with her. Things were never that easy.
Were they?
Annie looked up at him stridently and Jeff froze, caught in the act of watching her. His head tipped to the side in question and Annie felt a tumbling sensation in her stomach. It was slightly exhilarating. “Did you come because you were jealous of Rich being here?” she asked quietly and Jeff inhaled sharply. “Was that specific enough for you?”
He nodded slowly. “That was….pretty specific, yeah.” He glanced down at his plate, eyebrows furrowing in what seemed like distress. “Annie…”
But it wasn’t an exhilarating tumbling sensation. It was falling. And it was terrifying. They had to friends because Jeff didn't care about being anything more. Remember? Annie couldn’t stop the strange noise that emitted from the back of her throat. Jeff paused in his thought, giving her a look of aggravation tinged with concern. Before he could speak again, his phone chimed from his pocket and he pulled it out to read a text. “Shit,” he muttered before dialing a number, now ignoring her entirely. Annie watched as he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the call to connect. “Hey,” he greeted in a brittle tone. “Listen, don’t…don’t come over.” Jeff’s eyes darted up to look at her for an instant and Annie frowned at him, confused. “Because I’m not there?” He paused and then rolled his eyes. “No, Troy. I didn’t get luck- no. I’m just not there.”
Annie felt her breath freeze in her lungs.
Did nobody know he was in Italy?
“No,” Jeff spoke up sharply. “Because I don’t want Chang going through my stuff.” He sighed deeply. “Troy, you have to know someone else who owns a set of dumbells.” Annie was completely transfixed by what was happening across the table from her. “What kind of movie are you two making anyway?” She watched his jaw tighten. “Yeah, my toe is fine. “ Beat. “Yeah, go ahead.” Beat. “I…don’t know when I’ll be home, okay? Bye,” he grumbled out before ending the call. Did she dare comment on it? His eyes landed on her cautiously, as if waiting for her to start peppering him with questions.
Questions he had no actual interest in really answering.
“I…“ Annie watched as Jeff sucked in a breath. “…might want some tiramasu,” she finished lamely.
Jeff’s expression hardened and then disappeared. He was back to Jeff Face Number One: Apathy.
“Okay,” he said quietly after a moment. She watched him return to his food, feeling knots multiply in her stomach by the second.
“Thank you for the sunglasses,” she murmured and tried to ignore the flicker of something in his eye when he glanced up at her again.
“No problem.”