{Part 2}

Alex sighed as she walked into her apartment. She kicked off her heels, balancing the bag of groceries in her arms.

She tried walking further into the apartment when a substantial amount of white and black fur darted around the corner and skidded to a stop in front of her.

“Friday!” Alex cried, stumbling backward a little.

Once she recovered, she crouched down, put the bag on the ground, and scratched behind the excited Dalmatian’s ears. “How are you, huh?” Alex asked, grinning because of the jump in happiness Friday seemed to get from Alex’s attention.

“How long are you going to play with the dog and leave me hanging?” A voice asked as they walked around the corner to where Alex and Friday were.

Alex looked up to see her boyfriend, John, standing over her, a grin on his face.

“Hey,” Alex said in response, standing back up. She gave John a quick kiss on the cheek and picked the grocery bag up off the floor before Friday could start going through it. “Why didn’t you answer your phone today?” Alex asked lightly, following John into the kitchen.

“Oh yeah, I’m so sorry about that,” John said, his back to her as he stirred something in a pot on the stove. “I was in a meeting. And then by the time I saw you had called, I figured you were busy, and I didn’t want to bother you.”

Jane nodded slowly. She understood John was busy, but there was a small part of her that was still annoyed that he hadn’t called or answered all those times she had called him. John had always been busy. Even in high school; if he wasn’t in class, he was taking part in one extracurricular activity or another. He was the only football player in their school that was also an active part of the student council, the school choir, and a library worker. Or, at least he had been the only one ready to admit to all of that.

As for Alex, her life in high school was a little different. She never missed a class unless there was a good reason, but she didn’t do much else. She was a library worker the second semester of junior year, and for her entire senior year. Before her senior year, and then during the second semester of her junior year, she hated John. He wouldn’t really talk to her, either in class before she started working in the library, but when she joined him in the library, he would watch her when she was doing something, just to bother her when she made the tiniest little mistake, whether they were in class or working in the library.

Her senior year, however, she saw a different side of John. The elementary school a few blocks away was redecorating their library, so they moved their stuff into the high school’s library. The addition of a children’s section meant that the library was soon visited by young children, who all seemed to want attention all the time. At first, Alex had been afraid of how John would react to having the typical way of doing things disrupted, but, to her surprise and pleasure, she saw how John warmed to the kids. And soon, Alex had to admit that she had developed a crush on him.

And that crush remained, despite the times when John was too busy to give her any of his time, much like how it was today.

“What was it you wanted to tell me?” John continued, continuing to stir what Alex now saw was pasta sauce. “Oh, right!” John suddenly exclaimed, turning around to face Alex, who had slid into one of the bar stools at the counter across from him. “You had a job interview today, right? How’d it go?”

Trying to keep a smile from creeping up on her, Alex sighed. “I got the job.”

John had already been smiling, as though he already knew what Alex was going to say, but when she confirmed it, his smile got even wider. “That’s fantastic!” John cried, coming around to her side of the counter to wrap her into a hug. “I’m so proud of you!” Pulling away, he sighed. “now I wish I had answered the phone. I would have planned a celebration.”

Alex chuckled. “It’s alright. You know I like your pasta,” she teased.

John sighed again and placed a quick kiss on Alex’s forehead. “I know you’re just amusing me by allowing me to cook pasta as much as I do, but that’s not special. Tomorrow’s Friday, why don’t we grab some friends and go out?”

“Really, John, It’s alright. I don’t need a party,” Alex insisted.

“Well, what about dinner?” John asked, a slight smirk on his face. “Just you and me.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

Alex sighed, as though she had had tons of other offers about what she should do with her Friday evening. “I guess that’s alright.”

“And don’t worry about anything,” John told her, pointing the sauce covered spoon at her. “I’m taking care of everything. Just be here at five thirty tomorrow evening looking pretty.”

Alex laughed, but nodded her consent.

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Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm dealing with school, and I only have ten more days of classes left in the semester, so things are getting busy.

Hope all those that celebrated Thanksgiving had a good one~!