What Comes Next: Thinking Over

Summary: Owen leaves a gift for Allie, and she and Mel have a heart-to-heart.

Note: Set after In It Together (PG-13).

Allie finds a note tucked under the pillow Owen was using an hour after he leaves for the airport. It’s grown cold and started raining again, disrupting her plans to head to the coffee shop down the street and sit outside. Instead, she brews a pot in her apartment and curls up in her bed with a book.

She’s piling the pillows up behind her when she spots it, a nondescript white piece of paper with Owen’s messy scrawl on it. Allie smiles, picking it up. She stops when she sees something else where the note was sitting. For long seconds, she just stares, then picks the object up. As she reads the note Owen left her, she absentmindedly runs her fingers over the smooth metallic edges.

This might seem silly. But I wanted you to have this. In case you ever get in late or decide to come out on a whim. I love you, Al.

Owen.

Allie glances down at the small object in her hand. A key. No. His key. It makes her want to get on a plane right that second, even though he just left, to surprise him and kiss him senseless and tell him how much she loves him.

She settles for texting him, since he’s somewhere over the middle of the country at the moment.

I found the key. Is this a ploy to get me to come see you more often? Because it’s definitely working.

She’s engrossed in a book when he calls her later to tell her he’s home.

“So it’s working, huh?” Owen asks. “Am I going to wake up tomorrow to find you’ve hopped on a plane and snuck into my bed?”

Allie grins. “I thought about it, trust me. Thank you. This is…I love it.”

“I’m glad. Hey. I’ll call you a little later, okay? I had an idea for the next time you come out.”

“It’s okay. You can admit you’re going to the gym,” Allie teases him.

“You know me too well,” he laughs. “But in my defense this time, you fed me baked goods all week.”

“That’s your fault. You said that coffee shop had the best scones you’d ever had. I had to prove you wrong.”

“You definitely did,” he says.

His voice has gone low, and Allie is certain he’s thinking about the morning he’d wandered into her kitchen to find her wearing his shirt and pulling scones out of the oven, and promptly carried her back to bed.

“Maybe I’ll have to prove you wrong again sometime,” she says casually.

Owen groans quietly. “Allie.”

“What?” she asks innocently, grinning even though he can’t see her.

Owen laughs. “You know what. I’ll call you later, okay? I love you.”

Those words still make her stomach flutter, the soft, sincere way he says them.

“I love you too,” she murmurs.

When he calls her later, it’s still raining. Allie is curled up with another cup of coffee, deciding if she wants to cook or order in that night.

“So I was thinking,” Owen says. “When you come out next, we could rent a boat for the day. Go out on the water.”

“Mm,” Allie hums. “I love that idea.”

She glances out the window. “Especially now, when it’s cold and dumping rain.”

“It’s nice and warm here,” Owen says, and she can almost hear him smirking. “You’re missing out.”

She really doesn’t mind the rain too much, but she’s definitely missing Owen right now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Allie flies out to L.A. two weeks later. Her flight gets in early in the afternoon, though Owen will be out of town for a work meeting until late that night.

“You have my key,” he reminds her when she calls him that morning before she heads to the airport.

“You sure?” Allie asks, unable to resist teasing him. “What if I snoop through your kitchen?”

“As long as you’re in my bed when I get home, I don’t even care,” he says, his voice husky.

Allie groans. “I will be.”

“I can’t wait,” he murmurs.

Neither can she. Mel picks her up from the airport, and they head to her favorite local coffee and tea shop.

“So,” Mel says pointedly as they sit down, Allie with her coffee and Mel with a tea that Allie doesn’t even attempt to pronounce the name of.

“So?”

“Allison. You have the biggest smile on your face. It’s blinding. Things must be going well.”

Allie can feel the smile creeping back on to her face. “They are.”

“When are you moving here?” Mel asks, and Allie nearly chokes on her coffee.

“I’m not moving,” she answers.

“Yet,” Mel says with a shrug.

Allie huffs out a breath. “Owen and I have talked about the distance thing. You know that. But we just talked about it. I’m not going to up and move right this second.”

Mel looks at her thoughtfully. “You don’t want to move just for him.”

“Partly,” Allie admits. “I…why do you always manage to figure out exactly what I’m thinking?”

“Because I’m a genius. And I lived with you for almost four years.”

Allie sighs. “I’m happy with him. I love being with him. But what if I move and it falls apart? Or we can’t stand being in the same city?”

Mel snorts, shaking her head. “Please. I’ve seen you two together. I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Allie takes another sip of her coffee. “But what if it is?”

“And what if it’s not?” Mel counters. “Look. I haven’t seen you this happy in a long, long time. That’s all. And if you’re worried about moving just for him, then find other reasons to move.”

“Like what?”

Mel points at herself. “Me. Duh. Umm…L.A. is amazing. And it’s far away from your mother.”

Allie chokes back a laugh.

“You can volunteer. There are a million places here looking for volunteers. Oh! You could learn to surf.”

This time, Allie does laugh. “Right.”

“Fine. At least think about it,” Mel says.

“L.A., or surfing?” Allie asks.

“Both. Mostly L.A.”

Mel glances at her phone. “Damn. I have a client calling soon. I’ll drop you off.”

It’s not as strange as Allie had thought it might be, being in Owen’s apartment without him. She’s been here enough times now that she’s familiar with it, where he keeps things and the view from his balcony. Allie pulls the blinds open, then sets her bag in his bedroom. Her phone pings with an incoming text.

Did you raid the kitchen yet? Owen’s message reads.

Allie smirks. No. Not yet. Just got here. Give me a few minutes.

I have to get to my next meeting, he sends back after a little while. I’ll be home around midnight. Love you.

Love you too.

She doesn’t raid his kitchen, though she’s tempted. She figures she’ll wait until the morning and make him breakfast. Instead, she heads out to buy wine and lounges on his couch with a book. Owen texts her when he’s heading back, and she finds herself even more impatient for him to get home. She tries to wait up, but she keeps falling asleep on his couch, so eventually she heads to his bed.

It smells like him, the familiar scent of his cologne and his detergent. Allie burrows under his sheets and slowly drifts off. A gentle brush of lips over her forehead wakes her from a deep sleep.

“Mmm,” she mumbles sleepily, rolling to her back and tilting her head up.

Owen kisses her slowly. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

He sits on the bed next to her, smiling against her mouth when she tugs him down to lay next to her. “Let me get changed,” he says.

He kisses her once more, then disappears into his bathroom, returning a few minutes later. Allie sighs when he climbs in behind her, his bare chest warm against her back. His fingers drift across her hip and her stomach before he wraps his arm around her waist and presses a kiss to her shoulder.

“How were your meetings?” Allie asks through a yawn.

“They were alright. Nothing exciting.”

His lips trail up her neck, and she cranes her head back, their lips meeting softly.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Owen murmurs.

Turning in his arms, she curls closer to him, brushing slow kisses over his mouth.

“I am too,” she says.

“And I really love coming home to find you in my bed,” he says.

Allie grins. She slowly nudges him to his back and slides her legs on either side of his. Owen groans, his hands resting on her hips, then pushing her hair back when she leans down to kiss him.

“Well, now that I know how comfortable your bed is, I might have to be in it more often,” Allie murmurs.

She feels his lips spread into a smirk. “Just here for the bed, huh?”

“Mmm,” she sighs, his teeth gently teasing her lower lip. “No. Not just the bed. I’d prefer if you were in it.”

He rolls her to her back, threading his hand into her hair and kissing her deeply. “I’d prefer that too.”