Pieces

Chapter 12

I chose a Vietnamese restaurant close to Bri's job for lunch the next day. We both ordered Pho and sat down to chat. "How was your Sunday?" Bri asked, starting up the conversation.

"Meghan came over yesterday and spent the night. She's like you in the morning and I practically had to drag her off the couch." I chuckled.

"Ha ha. Not all of us can just hop out of bed in the morning and run a marathon, asshole. Besides, you have no skills when it comes to waking us out of our beauty sleep. If we don't get up right away, it's your fault." She joked, taking a bite of her noodles.

"Fuck off, lazy ass," I joked back, "I have years of experience, dragging Becc out of bed practically every morning for fourteen years. I'm a goddamn pro."

She choked on her soup, "Fourteen years? Didn't you just turn 24?"

I laughed, "Yeah, we were childhood friends, we met when we I was seven, started seeing each other seven years later, then broke up after being together seven years. Kinda weird, huh? Seven seemed to be a pivotal number for us."

"It's pretty weird," she said, "But, I like things like that. Life has a funny way of making the important things stick out."

This made me smile, she's right and I never thought about it like that.
"You know, this is the first time I've spoken about Becc and haven't felt uncomfortable," I told her.

"Must be the company," She winked.

"Must be," I smiled back.

We finished our lunch and I drove her back to work. I hung out for a while, since I didn't have any students until four and chatted with her dad. He was a pretty nice guy and always welcoming. He had a weird habit of showing me what the different tools were and what they did, before he used them on vehicles. I guess that's what dad's did.

My mum had boyfriends now and then, but never really got serious with one until I was a teenager. They got married five years ago, but I never saw him as a father figure, because he came into my mum's life shortly before I moved in with Becc. He seemed to be crazy about her, so I liked him a lot. She deserves all the good things.

I hung out with Bri's dad a little longer, then found her in the office to tell her goodbye. I stood in the doorway and knocked lightly on the open door, she looked up and smiled, "Are you headed out?"

"Yeah, I have a class soon and need to set up," I told her.

She nodded and got up to hug me, "Thanks for lunch," she breathed into my ear, then kissed me on the cheek.

That seemed different. I hugged her back and said, "You're welcome, thanks for the invite," then went back to my studio. I could still feel her lips on my cheek, the whole way there.

It's been a month since Bri and I slept together and I was really enjoying her friendship. I'm glad we took a step back, but I can't help but think like things were backwards. We had sex, then became friends. Eh, it seemed to work for us.

I got back to work and set up for my violin class. I only have five students on that particular day. I guess it's not the cool instrument to take a class on, unlike Julian's packed percussion class. He's a god on the drums and I like to sit in and watch him pound away on his instrument of choice. He's tried to show me a few things and I learned it well, but I prefer my stringed instruments. Sometimes, if we lock up together; Julian, Nina and I will jam together until Nina absolutely has to get home or she'll get in trouble. I loved night's like that and couldn't wait until Nina was old enough to join our band of friends. If this were the U.K., it wouldn't be a problem, but America keeps their kids young a little longer and I don't think that's such a bad thing.