Previously on Just Friends...

    “Hugh, what are u doing?” Lisa asked, her voice shaky.
    There was still half a foot of space between them, but he still had her hand and was rubbing the soft skin of her palm hypnotically, his eyes boring into hers.
    “Nothing,” he zei lamely.
    “Hugh…” Lisa’s stomach dropped to her feet as he began to lean forward, excruciatingly slowly. “Hugh please, u can’t keep doing this to me! You’re married.”
    Hugh stopped, their faces just inches apart. “No,” he said. Lisa looked at him. “I’m not.”


~*~*~
    “Ok…” Lisa summoned up all of her strength and took her hand back from him, ducking under his arm and retreating to another corner of the living room. “I know it feels that way, Hugh, because u never see—I mean because you’re here, so far away from—ugh!” She threw up her hands in disgust.
    “You’re cute when you’re frustrated,” Hugh said, leaning back against the uithangbord Lisa had just vacated and crossing his arms.
    “You’re dangerous when you’re sexy,” Lisa shot back, sitting heavily on the divan, bank and hugging a hoofdkussen, kussen against her stomach. “I’m going to have to ask u to stay right where u are.”
    “As u wish,” Hugh zei cryptically. “Don’t u even want to know—”
    “Why u came? I know why u came, Hugh.” Lisa snorted derisively. “What I don’t know is why I haven’t kicked u out yet.”
    “I have a few theories about that…” Hugh started to push himself off the uithangbord and Lisa fixed him with her own personal Death Glare. “Fine. I’ll stay here. Would u please unclench?”
    “I’m playing defense.”
    “You don’t want me to score?” Hugh wagged his eyebrows at her and Lisa couldn’t help it—she burst out laughing.
    “I hate you,” she zei when the giggling finally tapered off.
    “No u don’t,” zei Hugh seriously, and that was it. No meer joking around.
    “No,” Lisa finally agreed. “I don’t.”
    “We’ve had this conversation once already,” Hugh started, and saw Lisa’s look of disbelief. “Ok, meer than once. Fine. Aren’t u getting tired of it?”
    “You started it.” Lisa stared directly at the uithangbord to the right of Hugh’s head. “I was doing just fine until u came along.”
    “You were doing just fine?”
    “I was going to Spain.”
    “Your flight doesn’t leave for a few days yet.”
    “I was trying to verplaats it up.”
    “Why?” Hugh’s voice was hard. Lisa shrugged.
    “Cute Spanish guys?”
    In the other room, Kapow growled before letting out one short, accusatory bark. Hugh pointed.
    “I always liked that dog.”
    “Why are u here, Hugh?” Lisa asked tiredly.
    “I thought u zei u knew why I came,” Hugh zei petulantly.
    “I do,” Lisa snapped, throwing the hoofdkussen, kussen aside and launching herself to her feet. Three long strides later she was standing in front of him, pointing an irate finger and poking him in the chest with every statement. “And I want to hear u say it! Go on. Say the words.”
    “What words are those?” Hugh asked softly, his hands at his sides, not moving to defend himself from Lisa’s rage.
    “I want u to say it,” she hissed. “That u want me, fine. That you’re going to do something that u know will crush your children and destroy your family. You’re willing to take this chance on me, who will most likely get bored with u in a few weeks’ time because that’s what I do. Tell me that you’re going to betray your wife because of a passing fancy,” Lisa’s voice cracked. “And tell me… after what happened the last time u were in this situation… tell me that you’re not suddenly going to come to your senses and leave me alone, holding the blame and fully deserving it, while u go crawling back to London.” Lisa blinked quickly, flattening her palm against his chest and staring at it, unable to meet his eyes. “Tell me,” she whispered.
    Hugh didn’t speak. Lisa didn’t move. Finally, he raised a hand to cover hers over his heart, and spoke with a voice weighted with emotion. “Lisa. Look at me.”
    She did not. Sighing slightly, Hugh reached with his other hand to tilt her chin up and meet her gaze. Satisfied that she wasn’t going to avoid his eyes anymore, he released her chin and laced the fingers of both his hands over hers, feeling his hart-, hart pound even through her palm. He wondered if Lisa even realized that her free hand had drifted up to rest on his hip.
    And then he spoke.
    “I want you,” he zei roughly, and watched Lisa’s eyes darken slightly—with pain of desire, he wasn’t sure. “And for u to even bring up the vraag of my last—indiscretion…” Hugh shook his head sharply. “This is not—I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”
    Lisa closed her eyes. That had been a cheap shot, and she regretted it. Gripping the fabric of his overhemd, shirt in her fingers, she found herself moving forward, resting the side of her head against their joined hands, raising her other hand from his waist up his back. Hugh rested the side of his face against her temple and took a deep breath before continuing.
    “Lisa, I will always have my family. Just, perhaps… reorganized a bit?”
    “Not if you—”
    “Shut up,” Hugh suggested, and felt Lisa smile against his fingers. “My children are grown, and they are not idiots. The risk…” he sighed again. “This is not taking a chance. And whatever else it might be, this is not a ‘passing’ anything—infatuation, fancy, character-driven crush… So this is what I have to promise you. I will keep u on your toes; I won’t even give u a chance to get bored of me.” Lisa was starting to shake her head against his chest, but Hugh pressed on. “You’re worried that I’m going to leave u alone, for whatever reason…” he turned his head slightly and breathed in the scent of her hair as she pulled away, meeting his gaze again. “Lisa… don’t u know door now that I can’t leave u alone? Even when u tell me to I can’t leave u alone. And u are not going to be blamed for this, because we’re going to do it properly.”
    “Oh, yeah,” she scoffed, taking her hand back away from his suddenly and stepping back, hands on her hips. “And a fine fucking job we’ve been doing of that so far.”
    Hugh leaned against the uithangbord again, crossing his arms and affecting a casual stance. “If u don’t mind, I have one meer small point to make, which is that as of approximately 3:45 this morning, I have no wife.”
    “I beg your pardon?” Lisa raised a very skeptical eyebrow and sat herself in the nearest armchair. Hugh stayed where he was.     
    “I know u know that Jo was here.”
    “How do u know what I know?”
    “You know I’m right about what I know u know, and Robert—”    
    “I should’ve known.”
    “Yes. Wait.” Hugh shook his head quickly. “We were talking about—”
    “Your wife,” Lisa reminded him bitterly.
    “My ex-wife,” Hugh corrected her. “Have u not been paying attention?”
    Lisa’s mouth opened just slightly as she stared at Hugh in surprise. “What?”
    “Jo was here because—well, long story short, things weren’t working out for either of us the last few years…” Hugh saw Lisa’s gaze drop to his hand and he lifted it, looking at the band around his ring finger with clinical detachment. “I suppose I should give this back to her.”
    “Give back… I—”
    “Well.” Hugh twisted the ring around his finger a few times before sliding it off gently and putting it in his pocket. “These things happen, I guess.”
    “Oh, Hugh.” Lisa rose swiftly from her chair and crossed the room reaching up to inpakken, wrap her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug. “I’m so sorry,” she zei quietly, closing her eyes and resting one of her hands on the back of his neck while the other gripped his shoulder.
    Hugh spread his fingers on Lisa’s back, holding her close. “Thanks, Lis.”
    Lisa wet her lips, still unwilling to open her eyes and break this fragile moment that had formed around them. Hugh’s fingers were tracing the barest of patterns between her shoulder blades, and she could feel the tension slowly seeping out of him as he squeezed her just that little bit tighter. Taking a deep breath, Lisa swallowed hard and opened her eyes, taking half a step back and moving her hands to her friend’s biceps, waiting for him to look at her.
    There it was.
    Neither of them knew who moved first; Lisa’s hands were both suddenly on his face, curving around into his hair, holding his head firmly in place as she rose onto her toes and brushed her lips against his—at the same time, Hugh took her shoulder in one hand and her waist in the other, bring her flush against his body again and receiving her kiss eagerly for just one seconde before she stopped and turned her face to the side, scared out of her mind.
    “Lisa…” he whispered into her hair. “It’s ok.”
    “It’s too soon,” she murmured back. “I don’t want u to—”
    “Too soon?” Hugh nudged at her head with his nose until she turned back to look at him again, their lips only the barest half an inch apart. “No. It’s been too long door far.”
    Lisa’s eyes floated almost all the way closed as she waited for him to lean vooruit, voorwaarts and kiss her again; but Hugh was not about to let her off that easily. Just slightly his lips whispered against hers, the contact so fleeting she thought surely she’d imagined it; there was his breath drifting lightly against her cheek; there was his hand combing through her hair before resting at the back of her head; there were his lips again, dancing against the skin of her jaw as he worked his way back down to her mouth… she gasped as he finally gave in and kissed her again, his tongue darting out just to glance off her bottom lip before pulling back—not enough for their lips to separate, but enough for him to speak into her mouth as she pulled him inexorably into her embrace.
    “God, Lisa…” he whispered, and she gasped slightly at the feeling of his mouth on hers when he spoke. “Tell me to stay…”