Johnny's trip to Shanghai took four days, including the flights, because that is how efficient he is at his job. Peter wasn't too thrilled to get the phone call from him saying he'd be gone for so long considering they had just gotten together but when he heard the reason, he didn't say another word.
Fortunately, Johnny had the wherewithal to tell Peter ahead of time that he would not be able to take calls or texts the entire time he was away until he returned, otherwise there would have been hell to pay as soon as he landed back in town. Peter tended to be the kind of person in a relationship that needed attention from a significant other. This had to do with his early childhood and being neglected by his mother because of her addiction.
Even though Johnny texted him as soon as he landed back in Los Angeles, Peter was still a little annoyed that the first person on the list to be seen was Ben (and Max) instead of himself. He didn't want to be petty given the sensitive issues involved but he couldn't help it. Johnny promised to take him out on a date that night to make it up to him so that helped relieve some of the restlessness for both of them.
Since it was already nearly 5pm on Saturday night by the time Johnny hit the road from the airport and Ben was at home, he suggested that they all meet at Johnny's place to debrief. Max arrived early because he knew that both Peter and Lucy were already over at Ben's place on one of Lucy's rare night's off. They hadn't seen each other since the incident with Kyle, but they had texted and called every day.
Lucy had been working shift after shift, trying to pull in as many favors as she could because she had asked for three weeks off for vacation. They couldn't give her a full month, but they promised she could take another week off a few months later.
When Max arrived at Ben's, he was led to the living room where everyone had gathered for tea and coffee. Everyone stood up to greet him, but his eyes were all set on Lucy. "She looks beautiful," is what he thought but what he said was "Hi everyone!" as he managed to look at Peter and Selene in turn.
After greetings were exchanged, there was an awkward air despite the frequent phone communication between the two. The others sensed it and decided to give them some time to catch up. Selene asked Ben for help getting Max some coffee and then Peter not-so-subtly indicated he had a phone call to make. Once they were alone, Max turned to Lucy and gave her the compliment he'd been wanting to say earlier, "You look great. Beautiful, I mean."
Lucy blushed and tucked some non-existent hair behind her ear. The top half of her hair was piled into a bun that nary a hair had escaped from yet. "Stop teasing," she replied.
"I mean it," he insisted. She was wearing a pink top with short sleeves that tied into bows and a pattern of tiny white fleur-de-lis all over. The medium shade of pink went well with dark blue jeans she was wearing that showed off her small waist. Since it had been her day off she had managed to get a pedicure so her toenail color matched her pink top. She was showing them off by wearing mid-heal black sandals. Max thought she looked perfect and wanted her to believe it. He knew her self-confidence had taken a hit with Kyle's cheating, but he was determined to help her overcome that so she could get her spunk back.
"You have to say that because you're my friend," Lucy countered with a laugh, but Max was having none of that.
"I wouldn't lie to you," he said seriously. "I wish you could believe how beautiful you are. And I'm not just saying that because I'm interested in you."
That made her blush again, but she played it off as a joke to lighten the air by laughing, "Okay, okay. I believe you, Mr. Savio, connoisseur of beautiful women."
He laughed, "I don't know about all that. At least one anyway."
To change the subject, Lucy exclaimed, "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. I've decided to go to Italy after all!"
"That's great! What made you finally decide?," he asked.
"I was just telling everyone about it before you got here," she answered. "There was this boy I went to elementary school with and in 6th grade his family moved back to their home in India. We were pretty close. Actually, there were four of us friends that were close at the time. Rajat, that's the boy who moved, Christopher, Emily and me. We called ourselves the Three Musketeers Plus One except nobody would ever say who was the Plus one."
She paused to laugh at the memory, which gave Max time to comment, "Cute" and chuckle. He wasn't sure where this was going, but he had a bad feeling about it.
"Anyway," she continued, "when he moved, we all decided to become pen pals. Ms. Rubenstein had given us an assignment where we wrote letters to kids in other parts of the world as part of a lesson so that's what gave us the idea. Of course, when we started using email and social media, that took over the actual letter-writing. But still, the point is that we kept in touch for quite awhile after. Longer than you'd think."
"How long?," he asked, naturally.
"Up through part of college!," Lucy answered. "Crazy huh? We lost track because we both got very busy. And now we're mostly just friends on social media, although I haven't seen him post much in recent years. But when I was thinking about my trip, I thought it might be fun to go visit him there. The others and I had always told him we'd come for a visit but never did. Well, we were kids, you know?"
Max nodded but then interrupted with, "But what does India have to do with Italy?"
"I'm getting there!," Lucy said shaking her head in mock-exasperation at his impatience. "When I contacted Rajat, he said he was actually living in Italy, Rome to be precise. Apparently, his family's business has a branch out there and he's been there for about a year. That's when I decided it was fate so I told him I was coming there on vacation and the rest is history."
"I see," Max said warily. "Um, so, are you going to spend the whole time with him there?"
Lucy looked at him with confusion, not knowing what the tone he was using meant. "I doubt that," she answered. "I mean, he will be working and all. Plus, I'll only be in Italy for two weeks. I think I'm going to just stay home for the third week."
"Oh," was all Max said.
"I talked a big game," she said with a laugh, "But I can't really afford to spend three weeks in another country. If I could, I'd probably use the other week for Greece or something nearby like that. But alas, my condo mortgage won't pay for itself while I'm having fun on the beaches of the Mediterranean." She laughed.
Max smiled. "That's too bad, but understandable. Still, Italy for two weeks will be amazing."
"What will be amazing?," Peter asked as he came back into the living room from his "phone call," which somehow involved hanging out with Ben and Selene in the kitchen.
"Lucy was just telling me about her trip," Max responded.
"Our little adventurer," Peter said as he went over to sit next to Lucy and put his arm around her for a squeeze.
"Quite," Max said, with something akin to pride in his tone.
Lucy waved them off with a laugh, "Oh please. It's just a typical vacation."
Ben and Selene entered, with Ben handing Max his coffee cup.
"Thanks," Max said.
They all sat down and started chit-chatting about Lucy's trip and then other topics. After about half an hour, Johnny texted that he had just gotten home and would be available in about 15 minutes. He just wanted to take a quick shower to get the travel grime off of him.
When Ben and Max left to go over to his place, Peter turned to Lucy and said, "Soooo, spill. How did it go when you had a few moments alone with maybe-Mr. Right?"
"Don't call him that," she answered and gave him a slight slap on his knee. "He's really been there for me as you know. And it went fine. You guys were really subtle there by the way? I appreciate the time alone, but you didn't need to leave all at the same time. Kind of obvious, you know?"
Selene and Peter were both smiling. Selene said, "We know, but we had to do it. I mean, after all those calls and texts, this is the first time you've seen each other in a while!"
"True," Lucy said, "And it was nice seeing him."
"That's it?," Peter said as he cocked his head to one side. "A little anti-climactic if you ask me."
Lucy slapped his thigh and said, "Give me a break. What do you want me to do? Jump on him?"
"Yes!," Peter exclaimed and then laughed. Selene joined the laughter but Lucy rolled her eyes.
"This, coming from you?," Lucy teased.
Peter continued laughing, "Hey, it's your love life. Not mine. So it's okay."
"That makes no sense," Selene said, shaking her head.
"I'm joking, sheesh," Peter responded. "Seriously though, you guys have some great chemistry. I've thought so from day one."
Selene nodded. Lucy scooted back and raised her knees, so she was hugging her legs as she said, "I know, but it just feels too soon still."
Selene nodded again and said, "Then just take your time."
Lucy buried her head to her chest as she groaned, "Ugh, I hate that word."