Sweet and Simple

Chapter One: Waiting For This Feeling
I know you’re wild
I know you’re dangerous
I know you’re bad for the both of us

“Who is it that you’re picking up?” Dom asked, pushing open the doors to the airport; Elijah floated in ahead of him, giving him a little bow as he went. He was either very drunk, very high, or just in very good spirits. (Or all three.)

“That girl whose going to help me with my script,” Elijah responded, thoughtfully looking at the board to show if the flight had landed already.

“Oh, right. And why am I here?”

“To distract her,” Elijah answered, obviously; he took off towards the right, with Dom at his heels. “I don’t want her to pay more attention to me than the script, so if she pays more attention to you…” He paused, stopping in his tracks in the middle of a group of Hawaiian shirted tourists, who clicked their cameras at him, and clucked their tongues.

“You didn’t really think this through, did you?” Dom shooed the last tourist away, because she had been giving them the evil eye for their disruption of their group.

Elijah made a face. “Not so much, no.”

Dom gave him a little push in the right direction. “I’ll try and keep my charms to a minimum. I won’t be TOO flirty, but just flirty enough so that she fancies me rather than you, and devotes all her non-Dom time to your script.”

He scowled. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

They approached her gate, and watched as a flow of people exited the tunnel. “Dom, seriously---”

“I won’t distract her, Elijah. I promise you that.”

“For the love of God, please don’t sing any boy band rubbish.” Before Dom could open his mouth and retort in anger that he would NEVER do such a thing, Elijah announced the arrival of his new co-writer.

A nervous looking girl, who was the same height as Elijah, came up to them; she wore loose fitted blue jeans and a subdued t-shirt in white that had black, block letters portraying her profession: WRITER. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, that had a pencil sticking out of it, and sunglasses were on top of her head.

“Hey, you must be Ariel?” Elijah thrust his hand out to her; she took it, nodding, and smiled a little in relief that she’d approached the right guy. “I’m Elijah. And this is my…er…friend and colleague, Dominic.”

He put his hand out for her puffing his chest out importantly. “Lovely to meet you.”

“You, too.” Her voice was not what Dom had expected; she was a little sprig of a thing, but her voice commanded attention, and respect. He immediately liked her.

Elijah cleared his throat, and her green eyes traveled to give him her attention. “Shall we get your bags?”

“Absolutely,” she smiled and followed him off, down the corridor towards baggage claim.

Once they were in the car, on the way to Elijah’s, they spoke again.

“So, um, I hope it’s okay, but Dom’s staying with me for a couple weeks while his new house gets built.”

Ariel had been admiring the view from outside her window, but turned her attention to the front seat; Elijah was looking anxiously at her in the rearview mirror, and Dom was turned around in his seat, smiling at her. They were stuck in traffic, again, something Elijah assured her was a daily thing.

“I won’t get in the way,” Dom said, winking. “I can be a good boy.”

Elijah snorted, but didn’t speak.

“I could stay at a hotel,” Ariel said, after a moment. “That wouldn’t be a problem. My company gave me an allowance, and it would cover hotel stay for the two weeks I’m here. Assuming I didn’t eat.”

Dom chuckled. “It’d be a dead grotty hotel, though. Wouldn’t you rather stay in Elijah’s posh house, which, by the way, has a swimming pool?”

“And extra bedrooms,” Elijah chirped up. “Dom’s right. A hotel would suck. Plus, you’d have to pay taxi fair to and from the house everyday; or I could come and get you, but it’d take time out of the already little time we have.”

Ariel nodded. “Okay, then.”

“Good,” Dom turned around in his seat, since traffic was moving again. “That means you and I can go out for lovely dinners, and I can show you the town.”

Elijah rolled his eyes; Ariel frowned. “I don’t think I’ll have much time for lovely dinners, and towns.”

“You’re a bit of a no-nonsense bird, aren’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question, and didn’t require a response, but she gave one anyway.

“Yes, I am. And I don’t mix business with pleasure. Or do anything that could get in the way of my work.”

“That rules out the pub crawling, then?” Dom asked cheerfully, turning back around to face her.

She cocked an eyebrow, looking less than pleased. “It does, yes.”

“Hmmm. Tough crowd.”

Ariel looked back out the window, but all she could see now were cars and buildings off in the distance. Quietly, she said, “You have no idea.”

When they arrived at Elijah’s, it was nearly seven, and the sky was darkening; it was now mildly cool out, a nice ocean breeze flying in through the open windows of the moderately sized house. It was homey inside, and out, and made Ariel feel comfortable right away; something she didn’t think she’d feel, being surrounded by these two guys who caused her immediate panic just by smiling at her.

“I’m starved,” Dom said, turning on the living room light. “I think I’ll order a pizza. We could watch a movie, too.”

Ariel looked around the room curiously, but didn’t say anything. “She might be tired,” Elijah said, looking to her for answers.

“I’m hungry, actually.” She paused. “You’ve got an awesome house.”

Elijah thanked her politely; Dom took her bag from her and headed off up the stairs. “I’ll put your bags in your room. Elijah, get out the menu for California Pizza Kitchen. Fantastic pies, there.”

“He means pizza pies?” Ariel asked, watching as Elijah came back from the kitchen with a menu.

“He does, yes.” He noticed she was looking a bit weird. “Are you okay? Do you want anything?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” She set her purse down and opened the menu. “Starved, but fine.”

“Tired, probably, as well.”

She shrugged. “I’m use to traveling, so I’m not really. I slept some on the plane.”

“Um…” Elijah trailed off, not sure what to say. “If Dom’s making you weirded out, I can have a talk with him. He’s a big flirt, so…”

“It’s alright,” she assured him, smiling a little. “I can take it.”

Relieved, Elijah responded, “Okay,” and watched as Dom hopped back down the stairs.

“Did you decide, love?”

She frowned at the menu. “Anything is fine by me. I’ll eat pretty much everything. Except anchovies.”

“You and me both,” Dom grinned. “Mr. Wood, you do the honors.”

Elijah picked up the phone, holding onto the menu, and watching Dom nervously. He picked up Ariel’s purse and held it out to her. “Want me to give you the tour? Really, Elijah should, but he hasn’t got a sexy English accent, and any charm at all, so I’m sure it’d be more interesting if I showed you round.”

Ariel’s face remained stoic. “Okay.”

“Yes, I’d like to place an order.” A pause; Dom showed Ariel where she could stow her purse (on the phone table until they were finished) and then led her through the foyer and into the kitchen. “Take out. I‘ll pick it up, yeah.”

“ELIJAH! You haven’t been grocery shopping since 1990!”

Elijah smiled into the phone receiver. “Thanks.” He set the phone down and went into the kitchen, where Dom was showing Ariel the insides of the fridge.

“He’s only got beer. I told him to buy some Pepsi, at least.”

“I did; it’s in the pantry.” Dom went into the pantry, and came out with a case of Pepsis to add to the very little food in the fridge. “I’m going to go get the pizza. Do you want to come, or---?”

Ariel spoke up, “I’d like to change, if that’s okay. I feel gross from the plane.”

“Absolutely; you could shower if you like.”

“Not that Elijah’s implying you smell bad, because you don’t. You smell lovely; like flowers or something.” Dom said from within the fridge.

Ariel laughed. “Just point me to the bathroom, and my room, and I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll show you!” Dom jumped out of the fridge, shoved the sodas at Elijah, took Ariel’s hand, and tugged her out of the room.

Well, she thought as she climbed the stairs, it would be an interesting two weeks.