Chapter 24

“We should really start working on that budget soon,” Elizabeth said as they were leaving class. They had barely spoken to each other ever since their dinner at Eli’s 2 days ago.

Lucky ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, we probably should. When do you want to do it?”

She shrugged. “Tonight’s good for me.”

“Okay, but we can’t work at my house this time. My mom’s having some people over.”

“Fine, then we’ll go to my place. It’s just me and Gram there, so we don’t have to worry about being bothered. I have a feeling this budget thing is going to be much harder then the other stuff we’ve had to do.”

~*~

Elizabeth unlocked the door and lead Lucky inside. “Do you want anything to drink first?”

“Nah, I’m fine. Where do you want to work?”

She looked around. “Well, Gram should be home soon, so why don’t we go to my room. That way she can’t bother us too much.”

“Sure, whatever,” he said, following her up the stairs. She opened her door and threw her stuff on the bed.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, and left the room. He wandered around, looking at her stuff. It was a typical girl’s room, much like Emily’s. There were “heartthrob” posters on the closet door, and stuffed animals on the bed. He stopped to glance through her CD collection, and was pleasantly surprised when he saw that she shared a lot of his taste in music.

“Nosy, aren’t you?” she asked sarcastically, coming back into the room.

“Didn’t you tell me before that you don’t listen to classical music?” he asked, ignoring her question.

She decided to play dumb. “I don’t know, did I?”

“Yeah, you did, which is why I found it strange that about half of your CDs here are classical.” He turned and smirked at her, waiting to see how she was going to worm her way out of this one.

She shrugged. “Okay, so I like classical music. I lied. Sue me.”

Not expecting that answer, he was speechless for a moment. “Why lie about it?”

“I didn’t know you, and I guess I didn’t know if you’d make fun of me or not. One of my friends in Boulder is a musician, so she sort of turned me on to it.”

“Oh,” he said, unable to think of a better response.

She laughed and sat down on the bed. “Come on, let’s get started. We only have about a week to finish.”

He sighed and sat down at the other end, digging his notes out of his bag. They started to work, and within minutes, were fighting already.

“Oh come on, we don’t need that much money every month for clothing!” he said, after seeing what she had suggested.

“Hey, you said yourself that you make enough money for both of us! Don’t you want your wife to have nice clothes?”

“That’s still too much. Cut it in half, and I’ll agree, but no more than that!” he said firmly.

She sighed and erased the figure. “Fine, I’ll cut it in half. But if I have to cut the clothing budget, we need to talk about your leisure expenses over there.” She pointed to the figure he had penciled in.

“What’s wrong with it? I’m a doctor, remember? Doctors play golf a lot and stuff. Anyway, I like to rent movies and go to concerts. That all adds up.”

She wasn’t buying it. She held out her pencil to him. “Cut it in half.”

They stared each other down for a moment before he gave in and took the pencil from her. “Okay, I’ll cut it. There, now we’re both unhappy. Are you satisfied?”

She smiled. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I’m extremely satisfied. It makes losing that clothes money almost worth it. Now, what about savings? Ms. Kraft keeps mentioning a family, so I assume she’s going to throw some kids at us later. Maybe we should start putting money aside for that.”

He smiled. That was actually a good idea. “Well, we could put $100 a week in a savings account. That won’t hurt us too much, and it’ll add up pretty quickly.”

She nodded. “Sounds good. Now, how much do we have left?” He showed her the figure. “Wow, we still have that much?“

“Well, $60,000 a year is a lot of money,” he said, grinning.

“You just had to slip that in there, didn’t you?” she growled. “Can we please go one day without you throwing that in my face!?”

He laughed. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it. Force of habit.” He checked his watch and was shocked at how late it had gotten. “Whoa, I better get going before my parents send out the hounds!”

She looked over at her alarm clock. “How did it get that late?” She got up and gathered her stuff together, then followed him downstairs. “See you tomorrow,” she said, locking the door behind him.

After getting a quick bite to eat from the kitchen, she went upstairs to get ready for bed. She walked into her room and groaned. He had left his English book on her floor. “It’s too late to call him, so I’ll just bring it with me tomorrow,” she said to herself, stuffing it in her bookbag. A few minutes later, she was in bed, huddled under the covers.

~*~

Lucky got up to his room and opened his backpack. He still had a little bit of homework to do before he could go to bed.

“Oh, no!” he said, realizing that the book he needed wasn’t in there. “I must have left it at Elizabeth’s.” He turned to check the clock, and sighed in frustration when he realized how late it was. He didn’t want to call her and take the chance of waking Audrey. Finally, he had an idea, and left the house.

A few minutes later, he was at her place. He couldn’t ring the doorbell, since that would also wake her grandmother, so he decided to climb up to her bedroom window. He peeked inside and for a moment, he didn’t see her. He chuckled when he realized that she was completely buried under her blankets. Not even the top of her head was poking out. He took a deep breath and prayed that he wouldn’t scare her to death, then knocked lightly on the glass. When she didn’t move, he knocked a little harder.

Liz was about to fall asleep when she heard a faint knocking sound. Assuming it was just night noises, she ignored it at first, but a moment later, the sound came again, but much louder. She was paralyzed with fear, and couldn’t bring herself to leave the safety of her blankets to look.

Figuring that she was probably too afraid to look at the window, he cupped his hands against the glass, and said her name.

“Elizabeth!” she heard, and bolted up in bed, startled. She looked at the window and saw Lucky, sheepishly waving at her. Her earlier fear suddenly replaced with rage, she got up and stormed over to the window.

“What on earth are you doing out there!” she whispered fiercely, opening it so that he could come in.

“I’m sorry if I scared you, but I left my English book here, and I have homework in it tonight.” He chuckled, remembering how she had been sleeping. “How do you breathe under there, anyway?” he asked, pointing at her bed.

She rolled her eyes. “Just fine, thank you. Did you come here for your book, or to criticize how I sleep?”

He shrugged. “For the book, but since I was here, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

She stomped over to her bag and dug around for his book. He watched her, noticing for the first time that she slept in nothing but a short t-shirt and boxers, and suddenly felt uncomfortable.

Elizabeth, however, was still too angry to remember that she was barely dressed, and she stomped back over to him, holding out the book. “Here. I think you know your way out.”

He took the book, looking away from her, and she suddenly realized that she was wearing next to nothing. She gasped and grabbed for her robe, tying it quickly. He looked back at her and chuckled. “No wonder you sleep buried under your sheets. You must be cold all the time if that’s what you wear to bed.”

She glared at him. “No, that’s not why I sleep like that. It’s just a habit from when I was younger.” She sat on the end of the bed and looked down at her lap.

Afraid that he had hurt her feelings again, he squatted down in front of her. “Hey, forget I said anything, okay? We all have strange habits.”

She looked up into his eyes, and saw for the first time that they were full of concern. He really did care about her feelings. She sighed. “When I was little, I used to sleep with the covers over my head, because the tree outside my window made all these weird shadows on my walls. That way, I wouldn’t see them, and I could sleep. Now, whenever I’m alone, I have to cover my head like that, or I can’t fall asleep, even in the summre when it’s really hot. I know it sounds weird, but I can’t help it.”

He smiled. “It’s not weird. You know, since we moved around so much when I was a kid, I was never comfortable with whatever room I slept in, so I always had to have a nightlight on. Even when I was 10.”

“Really?” she asked, smiling again. “That’s pretty embarrassing, too.”

He laughed and got up to go back to the window. “Yeah, it is. If you tell anyone about it, I’m telling them yours, so let’s just say we’re even and agree to keep our mouths shut, okay?”

She nodded as he opened the window and started to step out onto the roof. She went over to him. “Okay. And Lucky?”

He turned around and looked at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks,” she said and smiled before closing the window behind him. He smiled back and waved, then made his way back down to the ground.

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