"Can we not have this conversation and just move the furniture please? That would be great, thanks," Reed snapped.
Before anyone could respond, both Alice and Simon came over. When they were about a yard away, Alice gestured between the group and Simon.
“Simon has come to lend a helping hand, isn’t that great? I tried to tell him you guys have it handled. But he said an extra set wouldn’t do any harm, so, I figure why not," Alice said with a huge smile.
Reed wanted to find that her smile looked fake rather than implying genuine pleasure at seeing Simon, but he couldn't. He was trying to be a good friend to Alice first and foremost. Trying to cause problems between her and her maybe-boyfriend certainly wouldn't be doing that. He plastered on his own matching smile and made noises of agreement before shuffling his hands to get everyone moving back upstairs to Alice's apartment.
As they headed up the steps, Simon came in step with Reed.
"You didn't think I’d leave you alone with her to be her knight in shining armor, did you?" He gave Reed a pat on the back of the shoulder, harder than necessary before picking up the pace to be in line with Alice.
"What a jerk," Robert remarked from the step below Reed.
Not wanting to continue the conversation, Reed didn't respond but he couldn't help but wholeheartedly agree with his older cousin.
Over the course of the next two trips they managed to get everything fairly organized despite Simon’s repeated attempts to take control and his inefficient methods. Finally, Jared told him to knock it off and let the people that knew what they were doing take charge. Apparently, that was enough talking, thankfully, for the rest of the moving process.
They finally managed the last load and Alice turned in her keys before the group all headed back to Reed's place. He had ordered Mama's Pizzeria to deliver and had beers cooling in the fridge as a thank you to his cousins for helping out when they didn't have to. Much to his chagrin, Simon came along. A small part of him wanted to say they didn't have enough food for one more person and to not let Simon into his house but he heard his mother’s voice in the back of his head chastising him for not being a good host, so he kept a tightlipped smile and said nothing as Simon repeatedly went out of his way to corner Alice out of the conversations at large.
Around six most of his cousins made their way out, all except Kevin because Simon hadn't left yet, and Kevin made it very clear he was not going to leave Simon alone with Alice and Reed.
Honestly, Reed didn't want to be alone with Simon either. The last thing he wanted was to watch the two of them and feel sick as they did couple-y things. Though Max did point out before leaving that Alice tended to be touchy-feely and she wasn't being touchy-feely with Simon, at least not enough that Max was comfortable definitively saying they were a couple. It gave Reed hope, but he quickly squashed it. If they weren’t a couple, why on Earth would Simon go out of his way like this? He could understand if Alice suddenly started working with them and Simon was trying to call dibs. They’d all worked together for years so this wasn't Simon's first opportunity. If he was getting possessive now it was clearly because they were a thing. That thought made him ill. It wasn’t just that Alice could possibly be in a relationship, that had always been a possibility, but Simon was a jerk, and always had been.
Reed tried to be nice to him when he came back to work at Bunny Ridge Middle School, but Simon would have none of it. It was as if the other man had not grown up past high school. Reed couldn't imagine that would be what Alice was looking for in a companion, but it wasn't his place to question her taste.
Finally, mercifully, eight-thirty rolled around, and Alice drained her glass of cola.
"Well, I really ought to get unpacked enough that when I head to work, I'm not looking everywhere for things." She smiled at Simon. "Thank you for helping, Simon. I really appreciate you taking time out of your weekend to do this. I'll see you at work."
If Reed wasn't mistaken, Simon hesitated before he put his attention back on Alice and smiled. "Absolutely, I'll see you tomorrow." He gave the briskest of nods before pivoting and heading to the front of the house and out the front door.
"What the crap is that?" whispered Kevin loud enough for Reed to hear but not Alice on the other side of the kitchen island.
All Reed could think to do was shrug before Alice looked back to them and nodded to Kevin. "Thank you again, Kevin. I really appreciate you and your brothers coming out to help me get all of that moved. I certainly couldn't have done it on my own and I don't know if I would've been able to do it in only a few hours if you guys hadn’t help me."
For what had to be the third time, Kevin waved his hands in a dismissive gesture in Alice’s direction. "Don't worry about it, Alice. It's not that big of a deal and it's probably more of a workout than my brothers usually see anyway. But on that note, I am going to head out. I too have to be at work tomorrow bright and early, though not as early as you guys, so hopefully you sleep well in your new surroundings." With that, he clapped Reed lightly on the back as a way of saying goodbye and showed himself out.
Alice turned to Reed and began walking toward him smiling, her eyes glistening as she reached out and wrapped him in a hug. At first, he didn't know how to react and stood there stunned. But then his body moving on autopilot wrapped his own arms around her and squeezed lightly.
"Thank you, Reed. Really, I know we grew up together, but I can’t thank you enough for helping me move. You are being unbelievably accommodating and I can't express to you how much I appreciate it." Her voice sounded watery from where it sprang on his shoulder.
The tone made Reed's heart hurt; it wasn't a big deal and he was glad he could do it. But it clearly meant a lot to her, so he didn't want to push it off as nothing.
"You're welcome, Alice. I can get the moving crew rounded up again to move you next week into the new apartment. Or at least get the big furniture moved in." When Alice pulled back from the hug there were unshed tears glistening in her eyes as she smiled up at Reed. "That is so unbelievably sweet of you." She took a very deep breath. Clearly trying to refocus and center herself. When she reopened her eyes, her smile was more normal and there wasn't as much of a sheen on her eyes. "Have a good night, Reed; I'll see you tomorrow morning. Did you want to maybe carpool for work? Seeing as how we now are coming and going to the same places?"
It was easy for Reed to give her a matching smile as he nodded. "Absolutely. I'll see you tomorrow morning; have a good night." She started to turn as he spoke again, "And Alice, let me know if there's absolutely anything else you need."
She didn't turn around that time, just gave a nod and kept walking out of the kitchen. A few seconds later he heard her going up the stairs and Reed let out a deep breath.
He busied himself cleaning up the kitchen and all the empty bottles and glasses. Once he was done, he turned toward the makeshift office area that took up a corner of his living room. One of his classes had a paper due on Friday and though he had meant to do all his grading on Saturday so that the move could be all he concentrated on, he had not managed to get them all done. The last thing he'd wanted was for Alice to know he was staying up late working because he helped her move so he was grateful she had gone to bed early because it gave him the perfect chance to finish. Reed clicked off all the lights except for the living room and settled down for a late night of work.
Chapter 6
Alice had not had as much trouble sleeping as she expected. When all was said and done apparently her body was exhausted enough that she fell asleep and didn't wake again until her alarm went off. Tapping her phone to stop the noise, Alice groaned and began her morning routine. She didn't know when Reed left for work in the morning so she wanted to be sure she wouldn't hold him up. That meant setting her alarm an extra twenty minutes early because even though they were friends she would be mortified if she delayed him.
She had a decent sized crush on Reed when they were in high school, even though he was an upperclassman. Nothing
ever came of it and eventually she became fine with the fact that they were just friends. Now that she was staying in his house, and would be spending a lot of her waking time with him, the small little teenage part of her that lived deep down inside was excited. She couldn't help but wonder what he looked like first thing in the morning, or what it would be like to share breakfast. Even though Alice chastised herself several times, this thought kept popping up in her mind until she made her way downstairs into the kitchen and her imagination bubbled and popped as she saw or Reed in person.
His hair was still damp from being freshly showered and he was humming a song to himself that she couldn't identify as he moved across the kitchen putting food in a small insulated lunch bag. It wasn’t until he was making his second circle that he noticed her, and it jolted him from his song. There was a moment where he blinked before the smile grew on his face.
"Good morning, Alice. How did you sleep?"
Alice had to fight past the handsome image he made in order to make her brain focus on his actual question. "I slept well, thank you."
"Fantastic! There's food for you to make a lunch. I went grocery shopping on Saturday and bought a whole bunch of stuff. As for breakfast, there is nothing terribly creative; cereal, protein drinks, and bread if you want to make yourself toast. Oh, and coffee in the coffee machine." His smile widened a touch, then he went back to putting the banana he had in his hand in the lunch bag.
Alice stood and watched him another second before she blinked and forced herself to move. The last thing she wanted was to continue to stand there like an idiot. She forced herself to go to the coffee pot and make herself some coffee. Coffee was safe. She added milk and sugar then went to the small pantry and pulled out the Raisin Bran that was sitting on top before sitting at the table and eating quietly, and watching Reed go about finishing his lunch before he sat down mirroring her breakfast.
The two of them sat in a companionable silence for a few moments, and Alice felt herself relaxing.
"What does your day look like so far? I might stay after ten or fifteen minutes to check in with some of the newspaper kids but that'll be it today. Will that be okay for you or will it interrupt what you need to get done?" Reed asked calmly from across the table.
Alice was a little surprised by the question but then maybe he was merely being polite or it had something to do with the fact that Simon took her home from the parent-teacher night. As soon as she thought that second part, she felt silly. There was no reason for him to feel any particular way about her catching a ride with Simon. No, she thought he was clearly checking in to make sure his carpool buddy would be okay.
"That's fine. I usually have kids in my sixth period who stay and ask questions so it's not a big deal if I have to stick around."
"Great," Reed responded with a smile. After that there wasn't much talking. It wasn't quite as comfortable as the silence before, but it was not great either. It was almost as if the two of them weren't sure what to discuss as they had spent time together the day before. Alice considered herself lucky that ten minutes later they were heading out because it meant they weren't enduring the silence for too long. But she also made a mental note to try to figure out subject matter to discuss in the morning to prevent it from happening again. Especially since they would probably be having dinner together this week as well.
As they walked up to the school building together, Reed opened a door and Alice thanked him as she walked through ahead of him.
"I'll meet you out front here about fifteen minutes after the bell," Reed commented with a smile as he closed the door and came to stand beside her.
All she did was give him a nod. He waved and began heading toward his section of the building. She watched him go for a second before a voice came from over her shoulder.
"Hey, Alice. So, how goes it?" Trinity's singsong voice came closer as the sentence finished. Alice couldn't help but smile as she turned to face her longtime friend and the two of them began heading toward their classrooms, which happened to share a wall with one another. Something that had come in handy multiple times over the years.
"Not too bad. Everything got moved, although Simon unexpectedly showed up to help and he stayed late which was unexpected but still a nice surprise."
Her friend eyed her sideways for a second. "And this was after he drove you home the other day, right?" There was suspicion to her tone; Alice wasn't quite sure why, but she answered the question instead of the tone.
"Yeah."
Before either of them could say anything else, Simon walked in step beside them. This was weird since the gym was the other way. And although they had about an hour before school began it still was not a common thing.
"How was your first night, sleep okay?" Simon asked in a friendly tone.
"It was good, thank you, Simon. And thank you again for coming out and helping."
She glanced over and saw him grin, but it wasn't unassuming like Reed’s was; it was cocky instead. "Of course, no problem. Always happy to help out. I’ve been meaning to ask you … how would you feel about going to dinner. Just you and I?"
Alice was so put on the spot and caught off guard; she paused for a second before answering. Not enough of a pause to think about the question because if she had she might’ve answered differently. "Okay, yeah sure."
"Great, I'll pick you up from Reed's place tonight. Say six-thirty?" Simon didn't wait for her to respond before he began to walk backward so he could look her in the eyes. He smiled then turned away and started walking in the direction of the gym.
Before Alice could process what happened, Trinity started in on her, "What was that? Did you just agree to go on a date with our resident Mr. Full of Himself? Really?" The disbelief in her friend's voice should offend Alice but she was so surprised herself she couldn't really muster up any agitation.
"Apparently."
"What's going on here? You move in with Reed, Reed Denton. The guy you've had this crush on for more than a decade. But instead of taking that opportunity, and before you say anything yes, I know you’re friends and you can’t act upon the crush and blah blah blah. But now you're going out with Simon. Someone you've never shown any interest in ever. Come to think of it, he's never shown any interest in spending time with us, or you before. Does this strike you as a little odd?"
Initially, Alice felt offended; she’d never considered herself a raging beauty, but she wasn't unattractive. It wasn’t unheard of for guys to be interested in her and her best friend questioning it bothered her. But what Trinity said was true. They’d worked with Simon for years and they had been in high school together, though only for two years. Why was he showing so much interest now? It was not as if she would outright ask him. She didn't have that kind of guts.
"Honestly, I don't know." Alice unlocked the door to her classroom and Trinity followed her in. "It's weird, but there's nothing between Reed and me. If there was going to be it would've happened by now. If he was interested in me, he would've done something, so I need to move past it. And I might not be brimming with interest over Simon, but maybe he's just cocky on the outside and a nice guy deep down. There's no reason not to give him a chance. It's just dinner."
Trinity was eyeing her, hands on her hips and a frown on her face. Her disbelief at Alice's explanation clear. Then she gave an exasperated sigh and dropped her arms. "All right, if that's what you want to do. But you're telling me all about it after it happens. Have a good day, Alice. Don't make any kids cry." Ending on the usual greeting, Trinity waited a beat and headed out her own classroom.
Alone with her thoughts for the first time in over an hour, Alice plopped down in the chair behind her desk and took a deep breath leaning her head against the headrest. She had a dinner date with Simon. She was living with Reed. How her life had changed in such a short period of time she didn't know. Like she’d told Trinity it was just dinner. Maybe she would even enjoy herself? She was due a little outside of work enjoyment. Chastising herself for spending t
oo much time thinking about this, Alice opened her eyes and forced herself to set all of those thoughts aside and prep for her first period class.
~~
Much to Alice's relief, the day flew by without incident. A couple kids acted out, but nothing major. She was about five minutes late getting out front to meet Reed. It wasn't a big deal; there were several kids genuinely concerned about how they were going to up their grades from the last quarter.
Alice let out a deep breath when she saw Reed deep in conversation with Alan, one of the math instructors, the two of them standing in the main entryway right outside the school’s attendance office. As she got closer, she heard they were discussing something about Star Trek, and she couldn't help but smile. She had been surprised to find out Reed had a bunch of nerdy pursuits, even though she didn't share them. It somehow made him more approachable when she'd actually gotten to know him and not just seen him from afar.
Once the two men realized she was standing next to him they both stopped, looking a little sheepish to have not noticed her earlier and smiled at her.
"Hey, Alice, you ready to go?" Reed asked, a small smile on his face.
"Absolutely," she responded with a matching smile.
"Don't think we won’t continue this conversation later," Alan called out as he began walking back down the hall in the direction of his classroom.
As the two of them headed out of the building, Alice chuckled to herself but said out loud, "If I asked what that argument was about would I understand your explanation at all?"
Reed knew she didn't follow Star Trek, it wasn't something that appealed to her.
He chuckled. "Honestly, no. We’re comparing the merits of the latest show to the others. And discussing our hope for the upcoming series that's supposedly starting soon."
Alice nodded and they both got into the car. He asked her how her day was, and she did the same; the rest of the car ride was companionable small talk and anecdotes one of which involving a kid who tried to start a mutiny in Reed's fourth period class.
Lantern Lake Winter Collection: Books 1-3 Page 20