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Chapter Three: I Need A Favor


Nick

"I have the answer to our problem," Ashley announced later that night as she threw herself onto the mattress beside me. I was laying on the bed, my stocking feet crossed, basket ball highlights on the TV. I looked over at her. "Our sex on Valentine's Day problem," she elaborated.

I muted the TV and sat up.

"We celebrate a day early."

"Yeah?"

Ashley nodded. "Valentine's Day comes on February 13th this year. That way, we're not messing up anyone' s V-Day plans, but we still get to do it like horny, over caffeinated rabbits all night long if we so choose because Zoey will be at Uncle AJ's or Uncle Brian's or somebody's." She grinned, quite proud of herself for having come up with the idea.

I leaned over and pressed my mouth to hers.

"You're a fluffing genius, you know that?" I asked, pecking her lips softly with my own, our noses bumping a little, soft laughter between us.

We fell asleep whispering plans for all the filthy stuff we were going to do to each other on Valentine's Day.

The next morning, I got up bright and early. Ashley was still in bed as I planted myself on the back deck with a cup of coffee, the baby monitor, and my cell phone. I called AJ.

"You better be dying," he muttered into the phone by way of a greeting. AJ's never been much of a morning person, but I wanted to get everything squared away first thing because I was gonna be celebrating Valentine's Day with Ashley for the first time in the twenty-some-odd-almost-thirty-years that I knew her, and I needed all the damn time in the world to get it right. And who better to help plan a big romantic gesture than the king himself?

"I need a favor," I said.

"Fuck you."

"Don't hang up!" I said, laughing.

"Dude, you got a kid now, you know how rare and beautiful sleeping is."

"Trust me," I replied, looking at the baby monitor, "I know all about all the things that become rare when you gotta kid around. Which is kind of what I'm calling about. In a way."

AJ paused. "Go on?"

"I need sex."

"Is this a booty call?"

"No, AJ --"

"Cos you should talk to Ashley about that favor, not me."

"That's not the favor, dude."

"That's good." AJ paused. "So what's the favor, then?"

I took a deep breath, "I need your help."

"To bang Ashley?"

"Dude, stop it. I need you to baby sit Zoey on the 13th."

AJ was quiet a moment. Then, "You know Valentine's Day is the 14th, right?"

"Yes," I replied. "We're gonna celebrate it a day early so y'all will be available to baby-sit for us," I explained. "It's our ingenious idea to get what we want." I grinned, even though AJ couldn't see me.

"Okay. I was just checking 'cos - no offense or nothin' - but, you're not exactly the best at, you know, dates and shit," AJ pointed out.

"So will you do it?"

"I'm sure I can talk Ro into watching the lil squeaker for the day," AJ replied.

"Awesome," I said. I took a sip of my coffee, then a deep breath. "Okay, I have another favor."

"Always asking me for shit, I swear, man... one of these days..." I could picture AJ shaking his head on the other end of the line.

"Well, I'm not real good at the - you know - the romantic stuff."

AJ was quiet.

"Like I'm real good at the sex - and we're gonna have a lotta sex that day - but I wanna, like, amaze her at how romantical I am that day." I paused because romantical had sounded wrong. "Roman-a-tie-a-cal? Ro- ro--maa - nit-a-sysim? Romalositic?"

"Oh Jesus," AJ said. "We have a lot to do and so little time."




Ashley

"I need a favor."

Rochelle groaned.

"I know it's early, but --"

"Your husband is on the phone with my husband," Rochelle said. "Favor's already been asked. We'll watch your kid. Let me sleep."

"Don't hang up!" I said, laughing and stretching so my feet caught the very last of the warmth Nick had left behind whe he got up to go talk to AJ on the phone. "I have a different favor."

Rochelle groaned again.

"Look, I know it's early, I know, but how else am I gonna be sure Nick won't walk in while I ask you this? You'll know if he's about to hang up and you'll tell me." I grinned. Nick thought he was so stealth. I was so the stealth one.

"What's the favor?" Rochelle asked finally, after much humming, hawing, groaning, and silent complaining.

"I need help figuring out a great romantic gesture for Nick for our first Valentine's Day together as an official couple," I answered.

Rochelle snorted, "Please. You've been in love with the bloke since you were kids. You've probably got a million ideas about it. You don't need my help. Besides, I'm not the romantic one in this relationship." I heard her snuggle into AJ.

"Exactly. I need a guy perspective to bounce some ideas off of."

"Well shit then, you called the right girl," Rochelle replied. "Tell me what you got."

"Okay," I answered, "So. I was thinking. When we were kids, Nick gave me this Valentine. When we were like eight years old or something. And I still have it. And I was thinking about having it framed and giving it back to him."

"Yawn. Boring. Corny as hell." Rochelle's voice was commanding, "You should go to some lingerie store and get the sexiest leather strappy thing you can possibly find and wear it so your boobs all squish out and you look like Madame Buxom or something."

"He's already getting sex for Valentine's regardless of the present I give him," I answered. "I don't know about the Madame Buxom bit, but there will be boobs involved." Leave it to Rochelle to give me a completely boy-ish answer. She and AJ really had found the perfect partners for one another. I smirked to myself.

"Well then. As long as there's boobs..." she replied, "As a secondary gift, the Valentine thing is kinda cool." She laughed.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I can't believe you have a Valentine still from when you were a kid. That's insane."

"Yeah. It's like twenty-six years old. It has a Ninja Turtle on it."

"A Ninja Turtle?" Rochelle laughed, "You should've opened with that. Cool factor just hiked about a thousand percent."

"What was I thinking?" I joked.

"Hey - I love joking with you, but mayday, the boys are getting ready to hang up," Rochelle said, breaking into the laugh we'd been sharing.

"Thanks for the heads up."

"Anytime. See you when we baby sit."

"Bye."

I quickly hung up and put my phone back up on the charger on the night stand and rolled onto my back, withdrawing my feet back to my side of the bed, before he crawled under the blankets and wrapped his arms around me, completely unaware that I was even awake. I loved when he snuggled in like that.

At least until Zoey's cries came through the monitor speakers.