Page 100 of A Country Kind Of Love

“Okay, Sasha, I need you to leave.” Jesse guides her towards the door. Charlie yells out, “I’ll call you.” He won’t call her. Another woman emerges from Peyton’s bedroom followed closely by Christian. Peyton doesn’t even want to know.

“Are there any other women in this apartment that shouldn’t be here?” Jesse yells. Christian and said girl say their goodbyes.

“Can we... y’know... hurry this up,”Peyton says.

“Sorry, right. I’ll call a cab; there is no way any of us are in a fit state to drive. You two need to get a shower and freshen yourselves up. I’ll call Shonda and say...” The cogs turn. Jesse is good under pressure. “We got stopped bythe police.”

“Oh yeah, make us look like criminals as well as unreliable.” Peyton rolls her eyes, even that hurts her head.

“You’re right, terrible idea.” There’s a football on the kitchen counter; it might explain the smashed vase, but that’s not important right now. Jesse launches it at Drew, who has barely twitched amidst all the commotion. “Drew, help, we need a good excuse.”

“For what?”he grumbles.

“Never mind, Charlie?”

“I think my fingers stuck in the bottle.” He laughs hysterically.

Jesse paces back and forth, Googles traffic jams in Nashville, but of course everything is running smoothly today.

“Our pet ran away!”Jesse yells.

“Don’t associate me with that spider.” Peyton grabs some towels from the cupboard in her bedroom and re-appearsin the hall.

“We could have a dog; Shonda doesn’t know.”

“I don’t like lying. What if she’s a dog person? And she wants to see a picture, know his name, and how old he is. Before we know it, she’ll want to go on play dates with the dogs, and we’ll have no choice but to buy one to keep up our cyclopean lie.”

“Nice choice of word.” Jesse is impressed.

“Thanks.”

“I can’t see Shonda wanting a play date with anyone, so I thinkwe’re safe.”

“You don’t know that. I’m a likeable person. A lot of people want to date me... play date me... oh you know what I mean.” Peyton turns on the shower and returns to the sofa where Cleo sits like alost puppy.

“Come on, babe.” Peyton pulls her up by the hand and leads her, feet dragging, towards the bathroom.

“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Cleo rubs at her eyes with her free hand.

“We missed our meeting with Shonda,” Peyton says urgently.

“Oh.”

“Yep, and now we have about ten minutes to make ourselves look presentable whilst Jesse thinks ofan excuse.”

Peyton unbuttons her shirt in the doorway. Cleo raises her eyebrow suggestively. “Don’t do that.”

“What?”Cleo smirks.

“We don’t have time for that.”

Cleo removes her bra. “Are you sure?”

“Nobody is taking this seriously.” Peyton exhales.

Jesse appears in the doorway to the bathroom. Cleo spins around and slaps her arm across her chest. “Jesse!”

“Sorry, but hey, maybe that can be your excuse.”