You feel like home to me

Lucas rubbed his jaw as he watched her from the doorframe, staring at her screen. He shrugged softly not knowing what more he could do. "sure, we could grab a drink after work, sort out some of the details? On me?" He suggested, wanting to at least try and make it up to her after seeing how panicked he had made her. He slowly left her office heading back towards his own as he finished off some of his work from the day.

He sighed gently as he saw his mother's number pop up on his phone. He answered, rolling his eyes as she blathered on about how much she wishes he would come home, trying to push him to give a definitive answer as to why he wouldn't be there. After several attempts of fobbingher off, Lucas sighed loudly, lowering his voice as he glanced toward his office door. "Look mom, I didn't want to say anything in case it upset you but I'm spending Christmas with Jessica" he said softly. Jess had been his girlfriend up until two months ago, and he still hadn't come around to telling his family that it was over.

@ BearGirl

@ Aoibhe

Bailey headed over to Lucas' office, but stopped just shy of the doorway. She could hear him speaking to someone on the phone. Though just as she was about to turn around, she could hear the lie that he told his family. And it was something she knew was a lie. First of all, Lucas was now spending Christmas with her, and secondly, Bailey knew that he had broken up with Jessica a while ago. She let out a silent sigh before bringing herself up again. Bailey didn't want him to know that she heard what he was saying.

She walked to the door of the office and knocked softly before peaking her head into the open area. "Are you ready?" Bailey said before looking at him and giving him a small awkward smile. "Sorry." She whispered. "Just let me know when you're done." With that, Bailey quickly headed back to her own office. Lucas could get her when he was ready.

Lucas glanced up a little startled when Bailey knocked on his door. He held up his hand, motioning that he would be with her in 1 minute, nodding as she said to come find her when he was ready. He sighed softly "look mom I need to get going, I shouldn't be taking personal phone calls at work" he said softly, eventually hanging up. He ran his hands through his hair, letting out an exacerbated sigh before picking up his notes and heading towards Bailey's office.

"Apologies about that, you good to go?" He asked her with a friendly smile.

@ BearGirl

@ Aoibhe

"Yes." Bailey said warmly as she stood up from her chair and started to grab her things. She pulled on her jacket and grabbed her purse before following Lucas out of her office and towards the entrance of the building. "Do you want to head to the usual place or somewhere else?" She asked. He was the one who asked to get drinks, so she wondered if there was something that he wanted to talk about. And in that case, Bailey thought it would be better if he picked the location.

Lucas watched her as she gathered up her things, checking a few quick things on his phone before they began to walk out of the building together. He pulled his jacket tighter around him against the cold air as they headed down the street, feeling his nose tickle from the cool wind. "There's this nice little place just a little farther than mcgettigans, quieter we can have an actual conversation" he said with a soft laugh, thinking of their usual spot. It was more like a college bar than anything else but the beer was cheap and the music was good so it was great for the usual after work drinks not so much this sort of thing.

Once they got to the bad, Lucas held the door for her following in behind. "I'll grab us some drinks if you find a table" he told her before heading to the bar and ordering them each a beer. He paid and picked them up looking around for her before making his way to the table. "Let's get down to it... I need to know more about you" he stated.

@ BearGirl

@ Aoibhe

Bailey nodded to Lucas and let out a bit of a shaky breath. He was right, they needed to do this. Though it was going to be a lot of information at once and she could only hope that Lucas remembered the important details. "Okay, I'll go first and then it is your turn." Bailey said before she started to speak. "My birthday is in April, my favorite color is purple. I was born and raised in Illinois. I have two older brothers and my parents are still together. I have a couple of aunts and uncles but we're not close. Luckily we work at the same place but you know all about that... I hate waking up in the morning but I'll stay up all night. I enjoy reading, tennis and painting. When I am feeling lazy, I binge watch tv. My best friends are Charlie and Lily. I have a cat" Bailey bit on her bottom lip for a moment, thinking things before before finishing, "I love Ice cream."

"Do you have any questions?" She asked, looking up at him.

Lucas stared at her for a minute before nodding slowly and taking a sip of his beer. "Okay, cool. Co cool cool" he said slowly, running his hand along his jaw "so uh, I'm sure your gonna have to repeat that all again but I think I got some of it... Charlie, boy or girl?" He asked with a small laugh, playing with the beer mat under his hand as she spoke. "And your cat, what's it's name?" He asked again beginning to put some of this in to the notes on his phone.

He listened to her repeat some of the earlier points jotting what seemed important and likely for a boyfriend to know in to his phone e nodding along with her as she spoke. "well me? I guess you don't need to know too much.. it's not like your parents will know it's wrong" he told her with a smile. "So I was born in Detroit, I have one brother his name is Mark. And I mean,do you need to know any more than that?" He asked, smirking across the table at her as he polished off his beer. While he looked nice and calm on the outside, he was screaming inside. There were so many ways this could fall apart.

@ BearGirl

@ Aoibhe

"Charlie is a girl." Bailey told him with a little nod. "My cat is Lucy." She was aware that he was going to have a hard time remembering everything and she really couldn't blame him for that. "I am sure that my family is not going to be asking questions about me though. And I will try to make sure that they don't really ask you many questions about my life. Though they will be asking a lot of questions about you and our relationship, which is not something I think I can stop." She let out a small sigh before shaking her head.

"And I mean, I guess we could make things up about your life but it would be better to be on the same page." Bailey ran a hand through her hair before letting out a small sigh and nodding. "I won't leave you alone during this trip so we shouldn't have to worry about contradicting stories then."

Lucas nodded slowly, motioning to the barman to bring him another drink as he soaked this all in. "Well okay... Our realtionship then. How long have we been together, how did we meet?" He asked her, thanking the barman for his drink and quickly taking a sip. He really hoped they could remember all of this well enough to pull it off.. at the end of the day his go to plan was to act like one of those ambiguous guys who never really seems to know what's going on around them. "Am I gonna get the when am I giving them grandkids talk?" He asked with a tipsy smirk. He felt so unbelievably awkward about all of it he could help but try and find some of the funnier parts.

@ BearGirl

@ Aoibhe

Bailey's eyes widen a bit at his last comment and she was quick to shake her head. "God, no, absolutely not." She said rather quickly. Oh she hoped no one was stupid enough to open their large mouths and say something like that. After all, her family literally just found out about her boyfriend, so surely none of them would start asking pushy questions like that. Bailey took a long drink from her cup before continuing on.

"I would say we have been together for 6 months." Bailey said, she figured that would be long enough to bring him home but maybe short enough to not get in trouble for having not said something sooner. "We met at work."

Lucas laughed softly when he saw her eyes widen with panic at the thought that her family could actually bring that kind of stuff up. He placed his beer down slowly, trying bot to show her he was laughing and reached out to give her shoulder a little squeeze. "Bailey, Bailey.... Chill" he said softly, looking in to her eyes trying to get her to focus on anything but the panic that was clearly setting in. "Bail, I was kidding jeez don't worry about it... If they do I'll laugh it off it's not a big deal okay? You gotta calm down though" he told shaking his head softly. He really couldn't have her freeze up anytime something like that cropped up in conversation. He had no doubt her brothers would try to embarrass her, it exactly what he would do if he had a younger sister. He really didn't want to have to calm her down in those situations as well as move past it himself.

He let go of her shoulder, nodding at her as he took another long swig of his beer. "6 months sounds good.. long enough to meet your folks but not long enough to know every intimate detail about each other" he said with a soft laugh. "Oooh badass Bailey breaking the no dating policy at work" he teased gently, hoping this joke might go down better than the last.

@ BearGirl

@ Aoibhe

A reassured smile moved over Bailey's face as Lucas calmed her down and made his joke. He was definitely the right choice for this bizarre situation. Someone who could think quick on his feet but also ensure she didn't lose her cool in the process. Though, Bailey knew that she really needed to pull it together while they were at her family's house. She needed to be the one to support Lucas, not the other way around. 

"Well, what can I say, I am a badass." Bailey joked lightly with a small laugh. She then glanced down at her drink for a moment, running her thumb over the glass. "It would also explain why I didn't tell my family before since technically we could get in trouble at work."  Her eyes lifted up and looked back into his. This was going to work out, she just had a good feeling about it. They will be able to figure it all out. "Thank you again, for doing all of this... I know it is a lot to ask of someone but this really is going to make life bearable for a while..."

Lucas smiled at her "it's my honour to be your fake boyfriend Bailey" he teased softly, taking a sip of his beer. He began to think about what his family would say if her were to show up with somebody like Bailey. He knew they would instantly like her. She was much different to the girl he usually went for- she was more of your typical daughter-in-law material than many of the "girlfriends" he had ever brought home. Not that Lucas had ever had a serious relationship before Jess, and he hadn't even gotten an opportunity to bring her home.

With a soft sigh he brought himself back to reality, pointing at Bailey's glass. "Another?" He asked, already standing up to head towards the bar.

@ BearGirl