"You're wearing that?" Alan asked with disbelief when he opened the door for her. He didn't even know that one could get golf clothes in black.
"Yeah, why not?" she sat down at the table, where Alan had served scrambled eggs.
"You're going to roast in those clothes!" he told her.
"Hey Abby!" Charlie did a double take when he saw her outfit as he entered the dining room. "The forecast didn't say anything about rain" He noticed the parasol, which he mistook for an umbrella.
"It's to protect myself from the sun"
"Oh" Charlie said with a puzzled face.
99999
"Not bad"Abby told him as he tried for the first hole, and got the ball at a decent distance.
"Could you hold this?" Abby handed Alan her open parasol "Over my head."
Alan rolled his eyes subtly and complied. The ball didn't land even half as far as Alan's had.
At the third hole, Abby lost her ball.
"Let's just drop another one."
"It's like they magically disapear into some dimension" Abby sighed as she made one more effort to find it.
"Tell me about it" Alan assented.
Soon, she dropped another ball and Alan gave her some more tips on her swing.
Abby took a swing at the new ball and got it to go a good distance.
"That's better." he said.
On the seventh hole, they were delayed by a three men ahead of them, who quarreled.
"The one on the right looks kinda cute" Abby commented, as she held her parasol.
"They seem to be arguing about their scores" Alan noticed that one of them was waving a score card.
Suddenly, Abby got closer and yelled at them "Get a room!"
The three men glared at her.
"Abby!" Alan sighed.
"I wanted to yank their chains." she smiled wickedly.
Alan shook his head.
9999
After the game, they had lunch at Alan's favorite Mexican restaurant, 'Arco Iris'.
"The tortilla chips are delicious!" she said.
"They're freshly made!" Alan told her "It's none of that store bought stuff."
"Everything looks yummy" Abby read the menu.
"Can I start you with a drink?" a kindly waitress offered.
"I'll have a bohemia" Alan said.
"I'll have a margarita."
"You're gonna love the food" Alan said when the waitress left.
"I'm thinking of getting the green chilaquiles." she told him. Chilachiles basically consisted of the same ingrediants as enchiladas, but the fried tortillas, cheese,and meat were just mixed into the sauce.
"I just might get the same."
"Are you a regular here?"
"I come with my sons"
"Let me read your palm" she suggested suddenly.
You can't tell anything about a person based on the lines in their palms."Alan scoffed.
Just then, their drinks came. Alan thanked the waitress.
"You're no fun" She pouted.
Alan shrugged and drank some of his beer.
"Did I mention that I'm thinking about taking knife throwing lessons?" she decided to change the subject.
"You're serious?" Alan said with surprise.
"I rented this awesome French movie called Girl on a Bridge. See, this girl tries to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge, but a knife thrower saves her and asks her to be his assistant.. They like tour and stuff. There's this scene where she asks him to do the knife throwing in a train and it's so erotic..."
"Erotic?" Alan was puzzled and skeptical."I'd be scared to death if someone were throwing knives at me"
"I can see how it can be erotic, under the right circumstances..." Abby said.
"Abby, let's try to have a pleasant conversation" Alan didn't want the woman to have one of her TMI moments.
"What do you want to talk about?" she asked.
Before Alan could answer, the waitress returned and they gave her their orders.
"I'd like it extra spicy, with a side of sour cream" Abby added.
The waitress excused herself, and left.
"A friend of mine dated a guy with a sour cream fetish." she commented to him.
"Abby!"
"Don't you have any?" she asked with a smile.
"I've got a fetish for being ignorant about other people's fetishes." Alan told her dryly.
"Whatever works!" she joked.
Alan gave her a look, and Abby decided to ask "What was your wife like?"
"Very generous. ." he said. "And sharper than a tack. I could never get anything past her." Alan smiled.
"How did you guys meet?"
"At work. In the lunch line."
The waitress came by to serve them more chips and salsa.
"That's how I met an ex boyfriend of mine, at a job I had during college" Abby commented.
"She was a wonderful mother to the boys" Alan continued. "They adored her, especially Charlie"
Just then, the waitress returned with their food and served it to them.
"That's what I call spicy!" Abby's pupils widened, when she tasted her chilaquiles." So Charlie was close to his mother?"
"yeah"
"Alan?" Art called from across the room as he came in. Shorter than Alan, the two had been friends since college.
"Art!" Alan began to feel self conscious as his friend walked up to the booth. "This is Abby, my friend from the scrabble site."
"Hi!" Abby put out her hand. Art discretly raised an eyebrow at Alan. After all, he noticed that the goth had visited just when Edna was out of town.
"How long are you in L.A for?" Art asked.
"A few days" she told him.
"Alan, since you're here, I'd like discuss our mutual fund" He said. Alan knew that it was his way of wanting to talk about Abby.
Sighing inwardly, Alan said. "Okay. Please excuse us, Abby." So, both men went to the other side of the restaurant.
"What's going on?" Art asked. "I thought you had a great thing going with Edna."
"Abby's just a friend!" Alan groaned. "You know me better than that!"
"She comes to visit when Edna's outta town" Art pointed out.
Not wanting to admit that Art was right about the timing.Alan got defensive, "I didn't know she was coming!"
"Interesting" Art said. Most, if not all, of his suspicions were on Abby.
"Art, Abby is a very nice woman." Alan read his friend's tone. "You're starting to sound like Don"
"He's met Abby?"
"And she gave him a paper cup with her fingerprints" Alan hoped that this would alliaviate Art's distrust.
"It could just mean she hasn't been caught" Art snorted.
"Why don't you just join us?You can meet Abby for yourself." Alan suggested.
"Fine" Art agreed out of concern for his friend. He wondered if Edna knew about Abby's visit. He doubted it.
Soon, the two men went to the booth.
"You should order the chilaquiles. They are divine!" Abby pointed to her plate.
Alan took some more bites out of his food.
"Where did you come from?" Art asked.
" Maryland"
"Alan tells me that you work for NCIS" Art commented.
"In forensics"
"Oh" Art didn't believe it. She didn't seem the type to him. He got the attention of a waitress, and ordered a burrito.
"Alan and I went golfing today" she told him.
"Really?" Art saw this as a way for Abby to gain Alan's friendship. Goths, as far as he knew didn't go golfing
"Yeah." Abby added more sour cream to her dish.
"You like to golf?" The disbelief could be heard in Art's voice.
"It's a pretty good game."
"What else have you guys done, since you've been here?"
"We joined the cult of the Dark Temptress" Abby knew that Art did not trust her.
"I was made cantor" Alan decided to join in.
"And I'm the new high priestess"
"What?"
"We're just pulling your leg, Art" Alan smirked.
"Very funny" Art rolled his eyes.
At that moment, Art's burrito came, drowned in green sauce. Abby asked for the bill. Alan insisted on paying for her food, but she got her way and paid for her and Alan's meal.
"Let's go win converts for the Dark Temptress" she got up and motioned for Alan to follow her. Art had annoyed her, and she wanted to do something fun.
"Yeah let's" Alan smirked, then said goodbye to Art.
"I'm sorry about Art" Alan said at the parking lot. "He's usually a gentleman"
"No problem" she got into the car as soon as Alan unlocked it. "Let's watch a foreign film!"
"Okay..." Alan knew of a place and wanted to be a good host.
Being the gentleman that he was, Alan allowed Abby to choose the movie, and paid for the tickets, despite her protest.
"Alan! I wanna pay!"
"You paid for lunch, it's only fair!" he had argued.
They saw a French film, where two strangers met every week at a cafe to discuss their most intimate problems.
"God damn it! Have sex already!" Abby said a little too loudly, when the sextual tension, double entendres, and sexual innuendo became too much.
"Abby!" Alan shook his head and felt embarrassed at the laughter from those who had heard her.
"As if the sexual tension wasn't getting to you too!" Abby snorted.
After the movie, they went to the house, only to find that Larry and Charlie were working on something.
"You must be Abby" Larry said.
"Yeah"
"Abby, this is Larry, a friend of mine."
"You're the physicist" Abby put out her hand.
"That's me" Larry took it. While used to goths, hefound it odd that Alan would be friends with one. "Charles told me you two went golfing"
"Yeah. Then we had lunch and saw this movie with so much sexual tension that I wanted to scream!"
"Actually you kinda did" Alan sighed at the memory while Charlie laughed.
"Oh yeah" she shrugged with a smile. "What are you guys working on?"
"Multi dimensional theory" Charlie said.
Larry went into a long, detailed lecture about what it entailed. Before they knew it, it was time for Alan to make dinner. Abby went to the kitchen to keep him company.
"What's on the menu?" Abby asked.
"meatloaf " he told her, while starting to take out ingrediants.
"Sounds good"
"You know, Abby, today's movie should have taught you a lesson" Alan took out the meat and put it in a bowl.
"What lesson?"
"That less can be more" Alan remembered how the two protagonists didn't consumate their relationship in the movie, yet the screen was filled with sexual energy.
With a smirk, Abby got out two melons from the refridgerator.
"So, you'd be more turned on if a woman where to..."
"Abby! Stop right there!" Alan admonished her"Put those melons in the fridge"
"whatever rocks your boat!" Abby teased with a large smile.
Alan sighed. Abby had turned what he said into a double entendre.
"Where did you want the melons?"Abby asked the question with false innocence, as she made her own double entendre.
"I want the melons in the bottom drawer, where I keep the fruit" he told her.
Just then, Charlie came into the kitchen to get a bottle of water.
"What do you think of my melons Charlie?" she asked. Abby still had the fruit in her hands.
"I um don't eat fruit" he said uncomfortably. Then,Charlie quickly left the kitchen before he could put his foot in it.
"Very mature!" Alan said sarcastically.
"Would you rather I ask you about these?" she teased while holding up the melons.
"Let's just forget about the melons okay?" Alan's face betrayed his annoyance. He took her question as an example of Abby being Abby, yet it bothered him."Let's talk about something else"
"Like why you put so much pepper on the meat loaf? "Abby raised an eyebrow.A section of it looked black and grey.
"I'll um..scrape it off" Alan sheepishly got a knife.
Alan scrapped off the excess pepper, and finished preparing the meatloaf, before putting the dish in the oven. Then he started to make the sides. Abby peeled the potatos for him.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Larry continued their work.
"It's interesting" Larry mused.
"What?"
"Her arrival coincided with Edna's absence" He put a finger on his mouth.
"So?"
"I'm just saying..." Larry did a half shrug.
"Abby gave Don a paper cup with her fingerprints." Charlie reminded him, and tried to appeal to his friend's logical side."He would have come if something had come up"
"I'm not, necessarily, refering to criminal intentions."
Not liking where Larry was going with his line of thinking,Charlie quickly changed the subject."Let's focus on these equations"
Eventually, it was dinnertime.
"Charles tells me that you met Alan online" Larry commented as he made his usual twitchy gestures. "On a scrabble website"
"Yeah." Abby said. She found his voice to be a little high pitched for a man's. "Alan's a great player"
"So how did you..decide to come to Los Angeles?" Larry asked.
"I twisted my boss' arm for some time off and here I am"
"I see" Larry noticed how Abby sidestepped his question.
"Could you pass me me the peas, Charlie?" Abby requested.
"Sure"
"You know, Larry I was thinking about your idea of different dimensions and how awesome it would be to live in a dimension of pure chocolate!"
"That would be a delight" Larry loved chocolate as well.
"The river would be made from milk chocolate, while the grass would have a more bitter chocolate taste to them..." Abby got a dreamy look in her eye.
"Where would the chocolate ice cream be?" Alan teased.
"In functioning chocolate freezers" Abby said. " Little chocolate mousse cakes would grow on trees."
777
After dinner, Larry and Charlie continued their work, while Alan and Abby watched T.V.
"Could we watch House?" Abby asked. "It's one of my favorite shows" The show was about a doctor named House, who, with his team work with patients, whose medical conditions can not be figured out. Most of the episodes ended up with the patient having a rare illness.
"Sure."
Abby changed the channel.
"That House is really something." Alan sighed after a bit. "I'd hate to have him as a doctor."Having had a loved one die from a serious, long term illness, House's way with patients bothered him.
"Why does Foreman always assume that the patient has an STD?" Abby wondered aloud, then said to the television a few minutes later. "Come on Cameron! House doesn't want you! Get over it!" She found House to be sexy, but felt that Cameron, a member of his team, who had a crush on the man,to be ill suited for him.
"I can't believe he said that to the patient!" Alan exclaimed in disbelief.
"He's a bastard kinda like Gibbs" Abby shrugged.
TBC
Author's Chapter Notes:
Abby is in L.A, visiting Alan. How do a goth and a retired city planner hang out together?