Paul parked up on the street in front of the neat two-storey house that his best friend, Adam, and his wife, Juliette, had just moved into. They had been married just over a year now, he thought to himself. It was a pretty nice house, set back from the street behind a gravel driveway, which was flanked by trees on either side. He was running late; he had offered to take Adam to the airport on the first leg of his mountaineering trip to the Rockies as their car was in the shop, but a long phonecall about shit going down at work - nothing new - and Paul's failed attempt at a shortcut had left him lagging. He rang the doorbell and didn't have to wait long before Adam answered.
"Yo!" The two friends embraced briefly in that stiff, masculine way. "You're late, bro. Even by your standards."
"Not guilty!" Paul threw up his hands. "My boss was gonna keep me on the phone as long he wanted, my plans be damned. Beside, you know I never
can
find your house."
"Ah well, next time I'll paint a giant 'X' on the road. Luckily we're still on schedule. Let's get the bags loaded. Oh yeah, Paul, by the way this is Lydia."
Adam gestured to a tomboyish woman with short hair who had appeared next to him. "Pleasure." she said, shaking Paul's hand firmly. She had large eyes and the hint of a cheeky grin on her face.
"Likewise. How d'you know Jules?"
"Oh, I volunteer with her at the pet sanctuary, and we just started hangin' out. She invited me for dinner and I couldn't say no....turns out she's almost as good as she says she is."
Paul chuckled. "That's pretty high praise. Although she mighta been saying she's awesome compared to Adam here, which is a bit different."
"Charming," replied Adam. "Y'see, this is why I don't invite him round often." he deadpanned eliciting a chuckle from Lydia.
"Where's the lady of the house?" asked Paul.
"Just clearing up in the kitchen," Adam said.
Paul entered the kitchen. Juliette was there, washing up some cutlery. She was a tall, beautiful girl, with light freckles, narrow eyes adorning a slightly pale, oval face, brown hair that cascaded in light curls over her shoulders, and a gorgeous body whose curves her jeans and long-sleeve top were doing little to conceal. Dear God, thought Paul, he wasn't the envious type, especially concerning Adam, but Juliette brought that side right out of him. It had been no suprrise when Adam told him that she had been on track to become a model in Los Angeles, before she had abruptly curtailed that career path and moved out to Wisconsin for reasons she had always been kind of evasive about. "Hey," said Paul, as always with a bit more seductiveness than he intended.
"Hey." she replied in her euphonic, slightly deep voice. "I see the chauffeur's arrived...."
"Hey, I do other things too y'know."
Uh....I could've phrased that better
, thought Paul to himself. Lydia then broke the awkwardness by entering and giving Juliette a friendly squeeze on the shoulder. "Adam's ready to go. I can finish doing those later if you want." Juliette smiled at her. "Okay, wifey." she joked. "You'll have to learn to talk to girls another time, Paul. Time to get my mountain-obsessed husband to the airport."
They went into the hallway and Paul flicked out his wallet. "Oh yeah, Adam, here's that $5 I owe you. At least I'm not late paying debts."
Juliette chuckled. "I'd hope not, not to Mr. Businessman here." Paul knew she was referencing Adam's advertising business which he part-owned, and the recent successes of which had paid for the house. "Anyway, let's go. I've been aching to get him out of the house." she said with a wink in Lydia's direction. Adam and Paul grabbed a bag each and loaded up the car.....
******
The trip to the airport was uneventful enough, and they made it in plenty of time. Once the baggage had been loaded into a trolley and Adam had his passort and check-in slip ready, it was time for goodbyes. Adam pulled Juliette into his arms and planted a long, lingering kiss on her lips. "Take care while I'm gone. That means no toast fires, okay?"
"Actually, I believe it was me that heroically saved the house from burning down. That fire coulda got a whole got bigger." Before Juliette could cut him off, he called out, "Lydia, I'm putting you in charge of firefighting."