The hugs and kisses were given and Josh stayed patiently where he was in the entryway. There wasn’t any real hurry, but as Lee had said, travel was tiring in a whole other way than anything else.

Kevin wasn’t going to be gone for a terribly long time, but Josh could understand the way Lee was feeling. Josh was also pleased and a little proud when Kevin made the move for one more hug.

As Kevin released his Mom, Josh moved forward and clapped a hand on his nephew’s shoulder and maneuvered them towards the door.

Soon enough, they were in the hallway and heading towards the elevator.

Lee smiled and waved as Kevin and Josh made their way out of the apartment, wishing them a safe trip and reminding Kevin to let her know when they had landed and once he had gotten settled in.

Then Lee closed the door and stood there until she felt their energy fade away to nothing as they moved too far away before turning to put the leftovers in the fridge.

That done, Lee pulled her phone out to send Tarin a text to let him know that Kevin, and as such also Josh, was gone and it was clear for him to come home.

Lee hit send as she walked back into the living room, and a couple moments later she thought she heard a sound that didn’t seem like it should have come from the baseball game on TV. But it was quiet, muffled.

Shrugging it off, figuring that it had to be the TV, Lee sat on the couch.

The game was close to wrapping up now, and Tarin checked his watch for the hundredth time, scowling at the little rectangle with a slash through it that indicated that his phone wasn’t connected. Of course it wasn’t, he’d left it at the apartment.

The question that begged an answer was how long Josh and Kevin would stay at the apartment after they had finished their meal. Tarin knew that Lee was going to miss Kevin when he was gone, so it was hard to tell just how fast the whole dinner and visiting thing would last.

Tarin absolutely did not want to end up home too early, so he just sat there, watching the game and continuing to check his watch every few minutes.

Surely another half hour would be long enough, right? By that point, Josh would be gone and Tarin wouldn’t have to keep thinking about how maybe he should have stayed for a little bit. About how maybe things would have been amiable after the initial shock of the whole situation wore off.

No, he thought, shaking his head at himself. There was absolutely no way that things would have been any kind of good if he’d hung around. How could they have been? The logical side of Tarin’s mind knew that the mere thought of it was ridiculous.

The Mets scored a run and pulled ahead in the game by one and Tarin turned his attention to the next batter. That was way better to think about.

Lee glanced at her phone. Five minutes had passed since she had sent Tarin the all clear message and still nothing. Not that he had to answer her text.

But he always did. And generally a lot faster than this, unless he was in the middle of a session.

Lee had expected to get some kind of a response, such as ‘on my way’, or to say that he was going to watch the end of the game before heading home. Even just a ‘k’ to acknowledge that he’d seen her text.

Frowning, Lee looked at her phone again. Six minutes.

Maybe he just didn’t hear or see the notification, Lee thought. So she quickly tapped out another message, asking if he was on his way or watching the end of the game first.

And a couple of moments later she heard another unexpected sound. But this time Lee knew that it hadn’t come from the TV. No, it had come from…beside her?

Lee’s eyes drifted to where she thought the sound had come from. And then she sighed. He couldn’t have, could he?

To check if she was right or not, Lee actually dialled Tarin’s number this time. Sure enough, she heard his ring tone.

Coming from inside the couch. Great.

---

It had taken a good five minutes of digging for Lee to find Tarin’s phone in the couch, but finally she had it and had walked she short distance between the apartment and the shop. Pulling her keys out, she unlocked the door and stepped inside.

”You know, you should really keep better track of your phone,” she called toward the back of the shop as she closed and locked the door behind her, her tone slightly teasing.

Tarin was still watching the game, the Mets had even pulled ahead by 2 and that made it a little easier to pay attention. It also made Tarin realize just how dependent he’d become on his phone for entertainment and connection. He wondered if Lee had texted him, worse, if she thought he was ignoring here. Where had he left his phone? The last time Tarin remembered having it he’d had it on the arm of the couch…surely she’d seen it by now.

A sound from the front of the shop pulled Tarin’s attention from the TV screen and he slowly got to his feet, walking slowly towards the front of the shop as he heard the door open and close. Was someone actually breaking in? Tonight of all nights, that was a terrible idea.

As he made his way through the little doorway between the front and the back of the shop a voice rang out and Tarin’s whole body relaxed as he recognized it as Lee.

”Hey…” he said, a bit sheepishly from where he’d stopped just inside the front part of the shop. ”I guess I got in a hurry…I was going to chance heading home in…about twenty minutes.” he added, checking his watch.

”Sorry you had to come out.”

Lee shook her head slightly as she walked over to Tarin. ”Well, twenty minutes is much better than I was fearing,” Lee teased. ”I was worried you might not come home tonight because you wouldn't have gotten the all clear.”

Stopping right in front of Tarin, Lee grinned as she held his phone up between them. ”So,” she continued, her eyes and voice becoming much more mischievous. ”What’s my reward for returning your phone?”

”I mean, there was a non-zero chance that I kept adding on twenty minutes at a time until dawn...” Tarin said with a little bit of a shrug. When Lee had arrived, Tarin had already been trying to convince himself that twenty minutes was long enough to ensure that his counterpart’s brother had left.

Lee crossed the space between them and Tarin smiled a bit wanly as she held out the phone between them. Taking the phone, Tarin turned it in his hands as he stood there for a few moments, looking down at Lee. ”You could watch the Mets win for a change with me…” he said by way of deflection, ”Sorry I left like that.”

Lee shook her head again when Tarin mentioned that he might have kept adding time until he left for home until it was tomorrow.

Unfortunately, with how Tarin had run when Robert had found out he was living with her and Kevin, as well as a few times when the conversation had gotten very uncomfortable, Lee thought that the chance of him still being here until dawn was fast higher than simply ‘non-zero’.

But then Tarin made his suggestion for her reward, and Lee shook her head as she reached for his phone again. ”Oh no no,” she said, tone still playful. “I could have done that at home. Think of something else, mister.”

“You weren't even supposed to be there,” Lee said, her tone softer yet more serious now. ”And I wanted to ease into the news, so it's not like I was expecting a goodbye kiss.”

Lee took his phone back and Tarin had to smile a bit more as she pointed out that the game had been on at home. They’d kept it on after he left? That had to have been a good sign at least on a couple of fronts, right? They hadn’t turned it off as soon as he’d left in favor of something else or nothing at all.

Lee also pointed out that Tarin hadn’t even been expected to be there when Josh showed up. That was an understatement, he hadn’t even planned on coming home until the whole thing was done and over with. Not sure he wanted to talk about it just yet, and trying to kick the somewhat strange melancholy he’d found himself in he sighed a bit.

Reaching out again, this time ignoring the phone and instead wrapping his arms around Lee’s waist to pull her close, Tarin looked down. ”Maybe since you’re the one who had to walk all the way here you get to choose your reward. he said.

Tarin actually let her take his phone back. Lee grinned as she held it up, tapping a finger against it as she looked up at him.

He didn't say anything at the moment, though. Tarin simply stood there looking down at her as she looked up at him in the dim front room of the shop.

Then his arms were teaching or again. But instead of grabbing his phone, he grabbed her; his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close against him.

Suggesting that she should get to choose her own reward.

How could such a small thing cause such a large reaction, Lee wondered. But the fact was that as she felt Tarin pulling her against him, both Lee's heart rate and breathing had sped up a bit.

”I might be able to come up with something,” Lee murmured as she looked up at Tarin.

It was dim in the front of the shop owing to the fact that Tarin hadn’t turned the lights on when he’d gotten there. It was dim, but he could still see Lee clearly as he looked down.

Just having Lee here was making him feel better, and the fact that she was teasing him and playing showed him that she wasn’t upset over the way he’d left.

Now…the way Lee was looking up at him and the way she’d said that she might be able to come up with something sent an altogether different message and a little shiver through Tarin as his arms tightened more. Still, he stood there looking down at Lee and waiting to see what she wanted.

”I’m all ears…anything you want.” he said.

Lee was close enough to Tarin that she definitely felt the shiver as his arms tightened around her even more. Causing her heart to beat faster yet. ”Well, you know,” Lee murmured as she wrapped an arm around Tarin, slipping his phone into his pocket. ”It’s not your ears I’m interested in…”

That said, Lee’s other arm rose and wrapped around Tarin’s neck, stretching up to kiss Tarin softly. ”How about the entire weekend,” Lee continued between kisses. ”With just me…and you?”

Lee’s arm slid around him and Tarin barely noticed his phone dropping into his pocket because when Lee spoke, it broke a little bit of something in his brain…in the best way.

All night, Tarin had been sitting in the shop, trying to focus on the game, but his mind had continued to drift back to the fact that the reason he was there was because his very existence was going to be hurtful to people that Lee cared about. People who were, and always would be, a large part of her life. It had eaten at him the whole night as had the thought of going back to the apartment and trying to talk through what he felt.

Tarin hadn’t meant to leave his phone, and he hadn’t expected Lee to bring it to him, he absolutely hadn’t expected this by way of greeting.

Lee stretched up to kiss him and he kissed her back, trying to focus on her words between the kisses.

A whole weekend? Just the two of them?

”I thought you were the one who is supposed to be getting a reward” he whispered against her lips, deepening the kiss as they stood there while one hand slid up her arm and shoulder so he could cup her cheek.

Lee smiled as she felt Tarin kiss her back and her arms tightened around him.

Did she care that they were technically still in the front of the shop? No, not really. There were blinds over the window and it was dark, after all.

Plus, Lee would have had to remember that there were other people in the world beyond herself and Tarin at that moment in order for her to care about whether they were able to see her or not.

Then Lee felt Tarin’s hand sliding up her arm, across her shoulder, and it was her turn to shiver. And another, slightly stronger shiver ran through Lee’s body as she felt Tarin’s lips moving against hers as he spoke. ”Then I guess we’re both getting a reward, aren’t we?” Lee asked as her hand moved to the back of Tarin’s head, pulling him down for a longer, deeper kiss.

Both of them indeed, Tarin thought as Lee’s hand moved to the back of his head to pull him down and he obliged, deepening the kiss readily for a few moments before breaking a way with a smile.

”See…it’s funny.” he said, breaking the kiss to speak softly against Lee’s ear, ”Because I’m very interested in your ears.” he said, nipping gently at her earlobe before kissing his way down her neck, ”And your neck…” he said before pushing the strap of her tank top out of the way to kiss her shoulder, ”And whatever this is…”

All of her. Tarin was interested in pretty much all of Lee, all the time, and as he made his way back up her neck to kiss her again, Tarin started walking backwards, pulling Lee with him for a few feet before stopping for more kissing because it was too difficult to do both.