Summary: Owen visits Allie in New York, and gets in a habit that proves very distracting for Allie in the meantime.
Note: Set after Something New.
It’s snowing when Allie gets back to New York. She’s glad it doesn’t hamper her travel plans this time, and that it’s the light, fluffy snow she loves. When she’s unpacked and curled up on the couch with a glass of wine, she takes a picture of the street outside her window, the streetlights hazy and glowing softly, the snow drifting lazily to the ground, and sends it to Owen.
See? Sometimes winter isn’t all bad. 🙂
Allie sips her wine, content to watch the snow, though her apartment feels oddly silent. Her phone interrupts the quiet, and Owen’s response of, It’s pretty to look at. Not so much to walk through and drive in, makes her laugh.
What are you doing? he sends a few seconds later.
Drinking wine. Watching the snow. You?
About to leave the gym and head home.
Allie is starting to think he lives at the gym. Not that she’s complaining. The thought pops into her head automatically, and makes her laugh a little.
I think you’re addicted to the gym, she sends back.
We all have our vices. You have to be 75% coffee. Are you sure you’re not drinking some now?
Haha. No.
She sends him a picture of her wine glass as proof. He sends her back one of himself at the gym, and it makes her set her wine down a little too hard on the end table, the deep red liquid sloshing against the sides of the glass. She almost texts him how unfair it is that he’s sending her pictures like that, but instead she teases him about having pictures of himself working out.
I don’t normally have any. Only for you, Al. 😉
Are you sure?, she sends back, but she can’t deny the faint fluttering in her stomach when she reads his message.
Although, she thinks as she gets up and gets ready for bed, she’s not sure if the fluttering was from the picture or his text. Probably both. She texts him again when she’s under the covers, and smiles when Owen FaceTimes her.
“Hi,” he says on the screen.
“Hi. How was the workout?”
“Good. How was the coffee?”
“I swear, I didn’t have coffee,” she protests with a laugh.
He grins and shifts on his couch. Allie wishes she was there with him. They’d watched a movie at his apartment one night before she flew home, curled up on that couch. For once, he’d fallen asleep instead of her, but his arms had been wrapped around her and his face had been pressed against the side of her neck and he’d kissed her sleepily when she’d turned around, and she hadn’t minded at all.
She’s tired from the flight back to New York, and his voice is low and warm and nearly lulls her to sleep as they talk.
“Allie,” he says, and she jumps a little.
“Mm. Sorry,” she yawns, and sees Owen struggle not to laugh.
“Don’t even say it,” Allie says, starting out laughing but ending up yawning again.
“Say what? How concerned I am that I bore you?” he teases her.
“Stop it. You definitely don’t.”
“If you say so,” he grins. “Hey. It’s late there. I’ll let you get to sleep.”
She’s a little reluctant to end their conversation, even though she’s falling asleep and knows they’ll talk again tomorrow.
“Okay,” she finally says, sighing quietly.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay? Night, Al. Sweet dreams,” he says.
“Good night.”
He texts her good morning like he usually does the next day, but this time sends another picture. He’s standing in his bathroom and making a goofy face.
See? I’m not always at the gym, his text says.
The picture is just as distracting as the one he sent last night, even if he’s making a funny face and not at the gym.
You will be later, she sends back.
Her phone rings, and Owen says, “But I’m not there right now,” when she answers.
Allie laughs. “What are you doing?”
“I was just sitting outside before I get ready for work. It’s nice here, unlike some places I can think of,” he teases her.
“Yeah, yeah.”
She hears his shower start, and nearly groans out loud at the images that puts in her head. It’s worse, where her brain sometimes goes when she thinks about him, now that she knows. Knows how his hands feel holding onto her, how his lips feel kissing down her neck, knows the quiet noises he makes when she buries her hands in his hair and presses her mouth to his.
“Allie?”
“Yeah?”
“I…” he pauses. “I know you just left, but I was thinking about taking a long weekend in a couple weeks to come out there. I want to see you.”
“Yes,” she says immediately, then, a little softer, “I want to see you too.”
He breathes out a quiet sigh of what sounds like relief. “I’m glad. I’ll call you after work, okay?”
“You mean after you go to the gym?”
Owen laughs. “Funny.”
When he calls her again later, Allie can hear the distant clang of gym equipment and the low murmur of conversation in the background.
“I knew it,” she says with a grin, propping her feet up on the couch.
“You know me too well,” he laughs. “But hey, it’s my stress relief. You drink gallons of coffee, and I work out.”
“I don’t drink gallons,” Allie protests.
“I swear I saw you do just that when you were here,” he says teasingly.
“You’re definitely mistaken. Although that reminds me…”
She makes her way to the kitchen. “You’re a lifesaver. I’m almost out of coffee and need more for the morning.”
“I’ve never seen Allison Keswick without coffee. Did I just avert a national disaster?” Owen asks with a gasp.
“Possibly,” she grins. “I’ve been told I can be kind of scary when I’m not caffeinated.”
She tells him she’ll call him before she goes to bed, then heads out to buy coffee grounds. Owen sends her another picture right as she walks in her door later, another one of him at the gym, and asks, You sure this isn’t better than coffee?
She pauses, just for a second, then rapidly types out her response and sends it.
That depends. The machines that look like torture devices? Or you?
She puts her groceries away while she waits for him to reply, then measures out coffee for the morning. She’s not as nervous and hesitant to be open and flirtatious with him since she got back from L.A. this time, though she still has moments of uncertainty. It’s not anything in particular that makes her feel that way. He’s been open and honest with how he feels, how much he likes her, and she believes him. Allie wishes she could get her brain to stop thinking so much sometimes.
“You could stop drinking an entire pot of coffee every day,” Mel had suggested when Allie had mentioned it to her.
“Not helpful, Mel,” Allie had groused. “I need coffee to function. You know this.”
I’m hoping I’m better than coffee, Owen replies after a few minutes.
You are, she sends back. One of very few people I’d say that about it.
That’s good to hear. I like you more than the torture devices. 🙂
Her lips quirk up in a smile at his message.
She’s nearly asleep later that night, buried under her blanket, when he FaceTimes her.
“Sorry it’s so late,” he says. “My mom called.”
“That’s okay,” Allie yawns.
He’s looking at her with a peculiar expression on his face.
“What?” she asks.
“Nothing,” Owen says. “Just…I love texting and talking and FaceTime, Al, but it’s not the same as actually seeing you.”
Allie sighs. “I know the feeling.”
“I’m looking at flights right now,” he tells her.
“I can’t wait,” she says softly.
“Me neither,” he replies, smiling at her warmly.
“And I’m taking you to my favorite coffee shop as soon as you get here,” she teases him.
Owen flies out on a Thursday morning two weeks later. He sends her a picture from the airport, along with, Mel took this. I may never live it down.
Mel texts her at almost the same time, saying, Ya know, I’d give you guys more shit, but I’m so damn happy to see you both so happy.
Allie surprises him at the airport, knowing he’d planned on checking into his hotel and then coming to her apartment. She’s too restless to sit and wait or to go do anything, and she’s too impatient to see him, if she’s being honest.
He seems stunned to hear her call his name and see her when he walks out towards the cabs, but he quickly lets go of his suitcase handle and wraps his arms around her. Allie lets out a quiet noise of surprise when he lifts her, then loops her arms around his neck and closes her eyes, breathing him in.
“I missed you,” she murmurs.
“I missed you too, Al,” he says, then sets her down.
Owen cups her face in his hands, thumbs running over her cheekbones, a smile spreading across his face. He glides his fingers up to bury them in her hair, tilting his head down to kiss her deeply.
“Mm,” she sighs, pressing closer to him.
“This is a really good surprise,” Owen says when they part.
“I didn’t want to wait any longer,” Allie confesses.
“I’m glad,” he says.
He leans down to kiss her again, and then again, until a blaring horn and a raucous group of people behind them startles them apart.
“I have never made out at an airport,” Owen laughs, his cheeks tinged pink.
“New York makes people do all sorts of things,” Allie teases him, smiling when he grabs his bag and links his other hand with hers.
“Oh, it’s not New York,” Owen answers, pulling her closer. “This is definitely all you.”
Somehow, she’s more than okay with taking the blame for this.