A soft thud entered Maria’s dreams and she opened her eyes with a groan. A pillow hit her in the face and she rolled over to grab it. A sleeping AJ wrest it from her and threw it across the room with a grunt. Maria sighed and lay back on the bed, staring across at the open windows, which showed an ocean view. She wasn’t quite sure what to do now. She had had a great night with AJ but was too afraid to even THINK it might mean anything more than what it was. A little no-strings sex. Lots of fun but no future. She made up her mind to leave quietly and sat up just as AJ opened his eyes. He stretched out his hand to curl around her arm and smiled sleepily.
“Mornin’ Ria.”
“Hey sleepy,” she replied with a smile.
“I hope you’re not leavin?”
“Well, I was gonna…”
“Why?” he sat up as well, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“I just figured…”
“Oh. Is that what you want?”
“Uh, no, I guess not,” Maria looked at him. “I’d kinda like to get to know you Alex.”
“Ditto for you,” he smiled. “Let’s go get breakfast someplace.”
“Sounds good,” she grinned and climbed out of bed to get dressed.
Around half an hour later they were sat in the window of an ocean-side café munching on bacon and eggs.
“NOTHING beats bacon and eggs first thing,” AJ declared and Maria laughed wickedly.
“Not even…?” she let her voice trail off and he caught her eyes, pulling her closer to kiss her.
“THAT beats it.”
“Oh, well I’m glad to hear that,” she grinned, biting off a piece of toast.
“Do you have the day off work?”
“Yup, sure do.”
“What DO ya do anyways?” he queried with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m a writer for the Sentinel.”
“Oh, cool. I get that most mornings.”
“Most people do,” Maria admitted. “How about you?”
“You’re gonna ask what I do?!” he said incredulously and she laughed.
“No, I know you’re in this crappy boy band… Chill,” she added as his eyes widened indignantly. “You’re too easy to wind up, ya know that? I meant, do you have the day off?”
“Ah, yeah I do,” he said. “Wanna go shopping?”
“Uh, sure. Why not. I’m not a big shopper though.”
“I am!” he grinned.
“Jeez,” Maria muttered looking at the bags at her feet, “You sure weren’t kidding when you said you could shop.”
“Nup!” AJ said proudly. “And for somebody who said she wasn’t a big shopper, you’ve done pretty well yourself.”
“I blame your bad influence,” she laughed sitting down at a table. “I need food Alex!”
“There’s a McDonalds just there,” he noticed happily. “C’mon… Just four big steps…” He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her up and walked her over into McDonalds. They sat down in a corner and studied the menu. “What ya havin’?”
“The nuggets meal with Dr Pepper…”
“I’ll go fetch my dear,” he said in an English accent. She giggled as he headed off to the counter, returning a few minutes later with their food.
“Thanks,” she smiled and started eating. “Where’d you learn the accent by the way?”
“Ah, just picked it up in England. I do this solo gig as Johnny No Name and he has an English accent.”
“Cool,” she laughed. “So you think it’s a sexy accent?”
“Of course!” he chuckled. “It kept me hangin’ on the phone to you.”
“I am honoured,” she giggled.
“Ya should be,” he lapsed back into his usual accent. “So, did ya meet up with Howie yet?”
“Yeah, I saw him a couple of nights back. We swopped phones back.”
“Ya just swopped phones? Nothin’ else?” he asked curiously. Maria gave him a long look and decided to be tight with the truth.
“Just talked and then went our separate ways. He seemed ok.”
“He’s a good guy.” AJ smiled in relief, “ya know, I figured he’d try to arrange somethin’ with ya…”
“Why?” Maria tried to sound as uninterested as she could.
“You’re kinda his type.”
“Oh,” Maria said.
“But you’re my type more” AJ grinned, leaning into kiss her. “Ya wanna go see a movie later?”
“Sure,” she smiled brightly at him, pushing away her thoughts of Howie.