Chapter 76
Charisma yawned and poured herself a cup of coffee, glancing up at the clock over Elizabeth’s kitchen table. It was almost ten, and so far neither Lucky nor Liz had come downstairs. She smiled, wondering if maybe Luke’s plan was working after all, then sat down at the table to read the paper.
A few minutes later, her cell phone rang, startling her.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, ‘Rizzy, how’s it going?” Rich asked. He had returned to New York after the wedding party to take care of some work back at the office. He had asked her to join him, but she wanted to stay in Port Charles to help Luke.
“Rich, what’s up?”
“Where are you? I tried your apartment all night, and you never answered.”
“I know, I’m not there anymore. I moved in with Spence and Liz temporarily. Told them my apartment got rented out from under me.”
He chuckled softly. “Sounds like Luke’s idea. You guys are nuts. Spence is going to kill you if he ever finds out what you’re doing.”
“Well, he won’t, so it’s a moot issue. So, are you just calling to shoot the breeze, or is there a reason?” she asked, starting to get annoyed.
“No, there’s a reason, although you probably won’t like it. It’s going to interfere with your matchmaking.”
“What is it?”
“David just booked Spence on a month-long tour of the East Coast..”
“What!” she shouted. “Is he crazy? Spence is on vacation, he’s not looking to tour right now. And as far as everyone else is concerned, he just got married!”
“I know, you’re preaching to the choir, babe. I tried telling him that, but you know Dave, it’s all about the bottom line, and it sounds like he’s been offered a lot of money to do this. Do you want to break the news to him, or should I give David the number there?”
Charisma sighed, tapping her fingers on the table as she debated what to do. It was in his contract that he had to do these tours, so she couldn’t get him out of it. This could cause a major problem for her and Luke, though. It’s kind of hard to convince two people that they’re in love if they’re not even in the same state!
“No, don’t worry about it, I’ll tell him. As much as I hate to say it, he’ll probably jump at the idea. I think they’re getting tired of their little charade already.”
“Well, it’s only a month. When the tour’s over, they’ll still be married, so I’m sure everything will work out.”
“I hope so. Thanks, Rich, I’ll call you later. Oh, when does he leave?”
“Thursday.”
“This Thursday! Oooh, David is so dead!” She sighed and stood up. “Bye, Rich.”
After hanging up, she hurried up the stairs, figuring she might as well wake them up and break the news to him right away. She knocked lightly on the door to Liz’s bedroom, then waited for an answer. When she heard nothing, she quietly opened the door and peered inside, covering her mouth to stifle a laugh.
Liz had moved over to Lucky’s side of the bed and was laying with her face pressed into his neck, her arm draped across his chest. Lucky had his arms wrapped around her, hugging her to him with his face buried in her hair. Deciding that the news could wait, Charisma quietly closed the door and hurried back down to the kitchen. She grabbed the phone and sat down, snickering softly to herself as she dialed.
~*~
Lucky took a deep breath as he woke up, inhaling the scent of Liz’s hair. He smiled and slowly opened his eyes, looking down at her in his arms.
“Not again,” he groaned. He started to let go of her, but she tightened her arm around his chest and nuzzled closer to him, murmuring contentedly in her sleep.
“So much for wanting her side of the bed back.” He sighed and gazed up at the ceiling, remembering a time when he had once dreamed of being able to wake up with her like this. But, that was a long time ago, and a lot had changed. They hated each other now...didn’t they?
Liz began to stir, waking up. She took a deep breath and smiled as she recognized Lucky’s cologne. She opened her eyes and lifted her head to look up at him. He chuckled, amused by the glazed look in her eyes, she was obviously still disoriented from being asleep.
“Good morning,” he greeted softly.
“Mm, yes it is,” she replied, reaching up and kissing him. The events of the previous night were all jumbled in her head, and she couldn’t distinguish what was a dream and what had really happened.
Instinctively, Lucky started to kiss her back, then realized what he was doing and pulled away. “Elizabeth, what are you doing?”
“Huh?” She looked at him strangely, wondering why he had reacted that way, then suddenly remembered. She covered her face and groaned.
“Oh my gosh, it was just a dream,” she lamented to herself, feeling like a fool.
“Dream? What are you talking about?” he asked, looking down at her in confusion, forgetting that he was still holding her.
“Um, nothing, it was nothing,” she mumbled.
“Obviously it wasn’t nothing, or else you wouldn’t have done that. Is this about that nightmare you had last night?”
“Nightmare? Oh, right, um, yeah, that. Sorry, I was just confused when I woke up, I’m fine now, really.” She started to back out of his embrace, but he held on, not wanting to let her get away until he knew what was going on.
“Elizabeth, you can’t fool me that easily. What is this dream you’re talking about? And why did you just kiss me?”
She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, wishing she could disappear. “It was just a dream, it didn’t mean anything....”
“Fine, what was it about?”
She covered her face again, too embarrassed to look at him. “Us.”
“Okay, that’s only a little bit vague.”
“Lucky, why do you have to know this? It’s my dream, I don’t have to tell you!”
“Well, if I was in it, I think I have a right to know,” he argued,
Becoming angry at his relentlessness, she turned to glare at him. “You really want to know? Fine, we had sex, Lucky. I dreamt that we made love. There, are you happy now?”
Lucky was stunned for a moment, not expecting that at all. “Oh. Well, maybe you were just remembering Vegas...“
She shook her head, still feeling completely foolish. “No, it wasn’t in Vegas. It was, um, here.”
“Here... you mean Port Charles?”
“No.” She pointed at the bed. “Here.”
“Oh.” Lucky was at a loss for words for a minute, not sure what to say. Finally, he decided to do what Spencers did best: joke about it.
“So... how was it?” he asked with a sly grin.
Liz blushed and looked away, causing him to laugh.
“That good, huh?”
She groaned and punched him in the shoulder, then burst out laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing. After all, it was just a dream.
“I can’t believe I dreamt that,” she said in between laughs, resting her forehead on his chest for a moment. When she realized what she was doing, she jerked her head up and turned red, then wriggled out of his arms.
Lucky laughed and sat up to look at her. “You were just thinking about it, weren’t you?”
“Oh, shut up!” she grumbled, glaring at him again. “Why did I even tell you?”
“Because I wasn’t going to let up until you did,” he answered, still laughing.
“Can we just forget about this?”
“Well, I might be able to, but I don’t know if you can. It sounds like it was pretty memorable...”
Liz grabbed her pillow and hit him over the head with it, sick of his jokes. “I swear, if you breathe one word of this to anyone, I’ll kill you!”
“Who am I going to tell? Everyone thinks we’re doing it for real anyway, except my dad, and there’s no way I’d tell him something like this, it’ll only give him a reason to keep going with his stupid schemes.”
“Good,” she said, sliding off the bed. “I’m going to get dressed, we should get downstairs before Charisma comes looking for us.”
Lucky watched her hurry into the bathroom and shook his head. Why would she have a dream like that about him? And why did the idea not totally disgust him anymore? Even more importantly, why did they wake up in each other’s arms every time they shared a bed? What was wrong with them?
~*~
“Luke! It’s Charisma. You’re not going to believe what I just saw!”
