~~
"Ready, honey?" Clarise asked Will as he turned off the car engine.
"Ready, baby," Will replied with a big grin. "I can't wait to see Rick's and Megan's expressions when they see me."
Clarise giggled. "Me neither." She grabbed the handle to open the car door when Will reached out and stopped her.
"Come here and give me a kiss before we go in there," he said gruffly. He missed her so much in the last couple days. He'd been so busy he only had time for a five-minute phone call before she went to bed. When he picked her up from her place earlier, they didn't have time to properly kiss and cuddle, much less make love.
Clarise smiled lovingly as she leaned over to him. They kissed softly but passionately and reluctantly pulled apart after a long moment.
~~
They were just about to ring the doorbell when Clarise spotted Steve and Faye arrive. They waited for the two to get to the door.
"Hi guys!" Clarise greeted them as they approached. After giving them a peck on the cheek and a one-armed hug, she introduced Will to them.
"Well, I'm very glad to have finally met you, Will," Faye declared. "You do know I already know everything about you, right? Clarise and I don't keep secrets," she joked.
"Faye! Not everything! You know I'm not as good as you at disclosing juicy details," Clarise teased her friend back.
Faye scrunched her face cutely. "That's true, I'm afraid."
"Baby, you tell Clarise all the juicy things we do?" Steve asked with mock alarm.
Faye grinned and just patted Steve's arm.
"Well, I'm assuming that whatever you already know about me is reasonably okay since you're still very glad to meet me," Will joked back.
"Smart, Matthews. Smart. There's still some details I want to know and your girlfriend's holding out on me. I'll dig it out of her eventually."
Steve looked at Will with a this-is-what-I-have-to-put-up-with expression then chuckled.
Will liked Faye and Steve instantly. He could see he'd get along well with them.
~~
"I'll get it," Megan announced when she heard the doorbell ring. She felt sure it would be Clarise and her date. She couldn't wait to meet this guy to check him out.
She opened the door to find Faye standing next to Clarise, and behind them were two guys. One she hadn't met before and the other was... "Will?!" she exclaimed with incredulity.
Faye, obviously in a teasing mood and knowing how Megan didn't know about Clarise and Will yet, said, "Hi, Meg. Yes, this is Will, my new friend. He did say he already knows you and Rick." She yanked Will to her side as she spoke.
"Hi, Megan," Will said with a grin as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh, hi, Will." Megan's confusion showed in her face. Whoa! Is Will here with Faye? Then the other guy must be Clarise's date. "Hi," she said tentatively to the other man.
Clarise picked up the teasing from where Faye left off. She took Steve's left arm and dragged him to her side. "This is Steve, Meg. Steve, this is my sister, Megan."
"Good to meet you, Steve," Megan said, looking at him appraisingly. Clarise held on to Steve as he shook hands with her sister. Megan's glance moved again to Will when she noticed him exchange a knowing look with Faye. Will and Faye?
Rick appeared at that moment and saw Megan shaking hands with a guy who must be with Clarise as she was hanging on to him. Then he saw Faye and... "Will?!" he said with the same disbelief expressed by Megan.
All four new arrivals grinned broadly.
"Hey, Rick. How's it going?" Will exchanged a high-five-height hand clasp with his friend - their usual greeting.
"Um, Steve, this is my fiance, Rick. Darling, this is Steve. He came with Clarise. And Will came with Faye." Megan's voice showed she still hadn't recovered from her surprise.
"Oh, we all arrived together," Clarise said lightly.
"Well, come on in, everyone. We're having lunch in the backyard. You can bring your dishes out there."
Megan held Rick back to let the others go ahead without them. She whispered to him. "I can't believe Will is Faye's new boyfriend! How did that happen?"
Rick shrugged and looked as astounded as his fiancee. "Maybe they met through Clarise. Isn't Clarise working on an article for Will?"
"Hmm. You're right. Maybe Clarise introduced them to each other."
"What do you think of Steve?"
"He looks alright."
They exchanged a few more comments alone in the living room, their surprise still not wearing off.
~~
"Hi, mum, dad," Clarise greeted her parents with a kiss and a hug. Her dad, of course, looked at her from head to toe before releasing her.
"Hi, darling, how are you?" Clara responded, her eyes already going to Will who was right behind Clarise.
"Good, thanks, mum. This is Will, mum and dad," Clarise said, turning to Will. "Will, these are my parents, Clara and Martin."
"It's great to meet you both," Will said with a bright, sincere smile. He gave Clarise's mum a kiss on the cheek and shook her dad's hand.
"These flowers are from Will for you, mum," Clarise said, handing her mum the bouquet she was holding. When Will arrived at her place to pick her up, he had two gorgeous bouquets with him. One for her and one for her mum.
"Oh, thank you, Will. They're absolutely beautiful."
"It's my pleasure, Mrs. Carson. And these are Clarise's tiramisu," Will said, indicating to the covered dishes he was carrying. "She made two of them. I'll put them on the table." He hoped to have more than one serving of them. Clarise's tiramisu was now his favourite dessert.
"Thank you, Will. And please call me Clara and call him Martin," pointing to her husband who smiled and nodded his head in assent. Then she turned to Faye.
"Hello, Faye. It's been a very, very long time since we last saw you!"
"I know, Aunt Clara. Life has been busy." Faye took Steve's arm and introduced him to Clarise's parents.
"What can we do to help?" Clarise asked.
"Oh, everything's pretty much done. I just have some pies baking in the oven. They should be ready in a few minutes. Why don't you kids just relax and have a drink while we wait for the others to arrive? The drinks cooler is over there. As you can see, we were just sitting here having drinks when you guys arrived."
Will was closest to the cooler. "What would you like, baby?" he asked Clarise. Clarise walked over to the cooler to check what was there.
Clara and Martin exchanged a knowing look at Will's term of endearment. He was obviously their daughter's boyfriend. They hoped he wasn't a 'pretend' one, though. He seemed nice.
"Guys?" Will asked Faye and Steve who also crowded around the cooler.
Just then, Megan and Rick came out with Victor and Jessa. Victor had offered to give Jessa a lift as they lived only five minutes from each other.
"Hey, guys," Clarise ran delightedly to her friends.
"Everyone, Mary Jane and Joseph are running late. They're having car problems so they said to start lunch without them," Megan announced. She searched for Steve and Clarise. She wanted to see how they interacted with each other.
Clarise was chatting with Will, Jessa and Rick. Steve was with Faye, Victor and her parents who were laughing about something. Megan went to Rick and put her arm around his waist. Rick did likewise as he continued to listen to Jessa talking about the article she was completing for Will. They're talking about work. Boring. She extricated herself from Rick and went to the other group. They were talking about Victor being gay and his relationship with Evan. Now, this was more interesting and she joined in. Clara and Martin were intrigued to learn that Will was at the engagement party and that he played tennis regularly with Rick.
Suddenly, Clara remembered her pies in the oven. Martin followed her inside to help carry them out.
~~
"Lunch is ready!" Clara announced as she put the pies on the table.
Everyone settled on a seat. Megan was surprised that Clarise ended
up sitting in between Will and Jessa. Steve sat next to Faye with Will on his other side. She leaned over to Rick and whispered to him. "I think Will and Steve should switch seats. They're sitting next to the wrong girls."
Rick chuckled and whispered back. "Babe, I'm sure they know what they're doing. You're not going to tell them to switch. Maybe they're wanting to make sure they network with other people, or something."
Megan had a suspicious look on her face. "Maybe Clarise meant for that to happen so we wouldn't notice that Steve is another 'pretend' boyfriend."
Rick laughed out loud. "What are you going to do about it?"
Megan was thinking when her mum spoke.
"So, Will, what do you do?"
"I ran a travel agency business, Clara."
"Oh, how is that going?"
"It's going alright, thanks. Keeps me very busy."
"Will's opening up a Melbourne branch soon, mum," Rick advised. Then to Will he said, "You've been so busy the last few months I'm surprised you were able to make time to come here. I'm very pleased, of course, but surprised."
"Well, it's good he's here with us today then, isn't it, Clarise?" Clara said with a beaming smile at her daughter.
Clarise, having just taken a mouthful of bread, nodded her head and smiled as she chewed.
Megan gave her mum a wide-eyed look of warning. Did she get confused about who was with whom? She glanced at Rick who obviously had the same thought.
Clarise smiled broadly when she noticed Megan's and Rick's expressions. Faye noticed too and started to giggle which made Clarise also start to giggle. Everyone looked at them with amusement and the two best friends looked at each other. That only triggered their mirth even more.
Faye's giggle turned to full-on howls of laughter and she leaned over to Steve as she tried to contain herself.
Clarise tried as hard as she could to swallow her food which was a hard task to do when laughing. Fortunately, she was able to gulp everything but ended up coughing a little bit and reached for a glass of water.
Will rubbed her back tenderly as she drank the liquid.
Megan was thoroughly disconcerted. She stared at Faye clutching on to Steve and Will rubbing Clarise's back. "What's wrong with this picture?" she said out loud without meaning to.
She was bemused when Clarise and Faye laughed even harder and Will and Steve both grinned like monkeys.
Finally, the two women managed to compose themselves.
"Sorry," Clarise said to her sister as she wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.
"What was that all about? What was so funny?" Megan demanded.
"You! And Rick. You should have seen your faces." Clarise said. "Oh, Meg, I'm sorry. We were just teasing you. It's all Faye's fault. She started it."
"And you gladly went along with it," Faye retorted good-naturedly at her friend.
"What do you mean?" Megan asked impatiently.
Clarise took deep breaths, holding her stomach which was a little sore from all that laughing. "Well..."
"Well?" Megan prompted.
"Just give me a minute. My tummy still hurts from laughing."
"Serves you right."
Will decided to give Clarise a hand with the explanation. He put his arm around Clarise's shoulder and kissed her temple. He continued to hold her as he looked at Megan, then Rick, with an impish smile on his face.
Megan's eyes and mouth opened wide. Rick looked just as stunned.
Megan recovered first and narrowed her eyes at both Will and Clarise. "You two?" she asked as she pointed her forefinger at Clarise then Will.
"What do you mean, Megan?" Will said teasingly.
"You're with Clarise and Faye is with Steve."
"Yes," Will confirmed.
It was Clara's turn to look confused. "But didn't you know that, Meg?"
"No, that's not what they said when they arrived."
Faye butted in with a big smile. "That's what you assumed. We actually didn't say it."
Megan narrowed her eyes at Faye then her lips tugged up into a smile as she got the true picture. She looked at Jessa and Victor who were also grinning. "So you guys already know about them as well?"
Jessa and Victor nodded.
"How come I'm the last to know?" she complained.
"And me?" Rick interjected. "You're supposed to be my friend," he accused Will.
"Sorry, guys. The timing just wasn't right until now," Clarise said apologetically. "If it makes you feel any better, we did meet during your engagement party."
"You two," Megan pointed to Clarise and Will, "will need to tell me how it all happened." Then she smiled fondly at her sister. "Actually, I don't care how you ended up together, I'm just glad you did." She looked at her fiance and said, "Aren't we great matchmakers, darling?"
"We certainly are, babe," Rick agreed and gave his fiancee a swift kiss on the lips.
Jessa looked at the couples around her. Everyone around the table had someone to love, even Victor who, even though he came alone, had Evan in his life. She felt happy for all of them but she couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness for herself. At twenty-eight, she was still waiting for a man to capture her heart. It wasn't for want of trying. She didn't have any hang-ups about dating. She just hadn't met that special someone who made her heart beat faster and made her feel warm and gooey all over even if he annoyed the hell out of her sometimes, like Faye had described to her. She crossed her fingers under the table and prayed she would meet The One for her soon.
Megan calling out pulled her out of her reverie. "Okay, everyone. Is it okay if we start discussing the fund-raising event?"
The afternoon proceeded with everyone contributing to the planning, even Mary Jane and Joseph who made it eventually. When they finished, Megan was very grateful that everything was in order for her first charity event. All that was needed was the execution of the plans and the event should go smoothly.
~~
It was 4:30 in the afternoon when Clarise and Will left her parents' place. Their friends have left earlier but the sisters wanted to stay behind to help clean up.
"My parents like you," Clarise said as Will started the car and drove.
"That's good. Maybe it was the flowers," he grinned, remembering how Clarise mentioned her tiramisu as the reason for his parents liking her.
Clarise laughed. "No, I'm sure it was you."
Will grabbed Clarise's hand and put it on his lips. "I had a great time today with your family and friends. Thank you."
Clarise sighed with contentment as she kissed his hand that was clasping hers. It had been a wonderful day and it wasn't over yet. The best part was yet to come. Will was spending the night with her.
"Baby," Will said. "Would you like to stay at my place tonight? You haven't been there yet."
"Oh, I'd love to, honey." Clarise was super delighted. "Can we pass by my place so I can pack an overnight bag?"
"Sure."
Clarise found out that making love with Will in his bed was just as hot and wonderful as making love with him in her bed.
~~
Will was saying goodbye and all Clarise wanted to do was put her arms around his neck and weep. But she resolved to remain strong. She'd try not to cry. He had warned her of this, but now that the time has come, it hit her how difficult it was going to be.
She wouldn't see him at all for three whole weeks, and because of the time difference between Australia and Europe and his heavy workload, she wouldn't even be able to talk to him much at all for those three weeks.
She felt silly feeling this way. It wasn't as if he would be gone for months. But she couldn't help it. She misses him like crazy when they don't see each other for two days so she knew three weeks would be sheer torture, especially with very limited communication.
He showed her his schedule earlier today. For the next two days, he'd be in Melbourne to personally attend to some important matters over there. Then on Wednesday, he would be flying from Melbourne to Europe to attend
tourism expos and meet with important business partners in London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Budapest and Prague for two and a half weeks.
He'd also miss Megan's charity fund-raising event but had given a trip for two to Tasmania as a gift that Megan can auction off. He also said he'd pass an invitation to the event along to his friend Rob and his girlfriend Andrea who'd be in Sydney that weekend.
"I really have to go, baby. I still have to pack," Will said as he held Clarise tightly while she sat on his lap on the couch. He continued to rain kisses on her hair, forehead and temple.
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