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Alissa pulled into the driveway and found that her cousin had already beaten her home.

 

“Brooke, where are you?” she called heading into the kitchen.

 

“I’m here.” Brooke said standing by the stove stirring something that smelled great. “Lucas is working late tonight so it’s just you and I for dinner. How’d the rest of your afternoon go?”

 

“It was fine. Nothing big, just a walk.” Alissa sat down and winced as her arm hit the counter.

 

“If it was fine, what’s wrong with your arm?” Brooke said getting agitated.

 

“Nothing, it’s just bothering me today.” Alissa said, pulling her arm away from her cousin.

 

“Yeah right! Nothing my ass! What happened? And tell me the truth this time!” demanded Brooke.

 

Knowing that there was no way her cousin would let this go, Alissa told her what had happened that afternoon.

 

Brooke sat back in the chair, thought for a few minutes and then sighed. “Wow! I wanna kill Adam but I think I may have some respect for AJ now.”

 

Alissa nodded. “I was lucky that he was there.” After pausing for a minute, she continued. “You know, I don’t really want to talk about it anymore. Can we just eat dinner and watch a movie?”

 ---------------------------------------- 

A few hours later, Alissa was getting ready for bed and she heard Brooke’s land line start ringing. She heard her cousin pick up and figured it was just Lucas. As she started to crawl under the covers, her cousin knocked on her door and popped her head in holding the phone.

 

“Hey, it’s for you. I think it’s Prince Charming!” Brooke laughed and winked at her cousin.

 

Alissa grabbed the phone from her cousin trying to figure out who she was talking about.  It suddenly dawned on her that she had never called AJ to let him know that she had made it home. Shit!

 

“Hello?”

 

There was laughter on the other side and all he said was “Prince Charming huh? That’s something I’ve never been called before!”

 

Alissa was mortified that AJ had heard what her cousin said. “I, um, she, I, she didn’t…” and then AJ just heard silence as Alissa sat there completely tongue tied.

 

“Alissa, you there? I was just kidding. It’s no big deal. Are you still there?” AJ asked into the phone.

 

After a few more seconds of silence, Alissa sighed and said “I’m here unfortunately. Just contemplating the different ways I can kill my cousin.”

 

AJ laughed into the phone. “It’s nothing. She was just playing around. She could probably call me worse.”

 

Alissa quickly replied. “No she’s really grateful that you were there today.” Hoping to get off the subject of her cousin, she said “I’m sorry that I didn’t call or text you when I got home. My head was just spinning and I completely forgot.”

 

“No problem. I hope your cousin doesn’t mind me looking up her number. I realized when I got home that I didn’t get yours when I gave you mine. I just needed to make sure that you got home safe.”

 

“I did. Thank you again for today AJ. It was something that had nothing to do with you and I’m sorry you had to get involved.”

 

“No big deal. I’m Prince Charming remember?” AJ laughed and Alissa wanted to crawl under the bed and hide. She was glad they weren’t on video phone!

 

“Hey Alissa, it’s late and I’ll let you get some sleep. Just wanted to check on you and make sure you got home safely.” Then he paused. “Maybe you and I could grab some coffee or try that walk again?” he asked quickly before he chickened out.

 

Alissa smiled. “Definitely! The least I can do is buy you a coffee.” Alissa gave AJ her cell phone number.

 

“Great. I’ll call you tomorrow. Goodnight Alissa” AJ whispered into the phone and hung up. He lay back on his bed with a smile.

 

Goodnight to you too AJ thought Alissa. She lay back down and crawled under the covers thinking that she would probably be able to sleep like a baby tonight.