Manage Me

It was ridiculous how excited Jack was the next morning when I showed up bright and early with an armful of boxes. His grin stretched all the way across his face. It almost looked painful. But I returned it, mainly because seeing Jack smile always made me smile as well.

“I told you I wouldn’t change my mind.” I teased as Jack stood to the side, allowing me to enter. He grabbed the boxes I was holding and set them down.

“How many more boxes do you have? Do you need help?” I opened my mouth, but a voice from outside cut me off.

“Holy Hell, Katie, did you put piles of bricks in these boxes?!” Jack peered around me as I let out a giggle. Lily flounced up his front steps and through his door. She gave him a stunning smile.

“Jack, this is Lily.” She set her boxes down and held out her hand.

“Well, hello, Mr. Barakat. Nice to meet you.” My cheeks burned.

Oh sweet baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

“Well, hello, Miss Lily.” He said as he took her hand and gave a mock bow. “Such a pleasure to meet you as well. Our lovely Kathrine has told me so much about you.”

“Wonderful! Nice to know you’ve heard about me, considering how much I’ve heard about you.” My face burned even bright as Jack looked over at me and waggled his eyebrows.

“I knew all along you secretly loved me, Katie.” He said as he moved from Lily to sling his arm around my shoulder.

If only you really knew. I thought as I inhaled his scent.

“In your dreams, Mr. Barakat.” I teased, playfully shoving him.

“Harsh, Katie.” He frowned, tightening his grip around me. “And here I was about to declare my undying love for you.” I laughed awkwardly and moved away to pick my boxes back up.

Lily gave me a look, but I ignored her. Jack grabbed one of the boxes away from me, giving me a cheeky grin when I tried to take it back. I opened my mouth to protest, but he simply walked away, slipping out the back door.

“He liiiiiiiiikes yooooooooou.” Lily sang out as she picked her own boxes back up.

“Shut up.” I muttered as my cheeks flamed red. She giggled and moved around me to follow after Jack. I sighed and went to follow when someone spoke from the doorway.

“Knock, knock!” Alex sang. I turned around and saw him casually leaning against the frame. Matt stood just slightly behind him. I smiled at them both.

“Hey, uhm, Jack’s out back.” I shrugged my shoulder towards the open glass door.

“We know.” Matt grinned. “We’re here to help you move in.”

“Oh.” My eyes widened in slight shock. “Well the rest of the boxes are in my car…” I trailed off. “Look, you really don’t need to be here if you don’t want. I’ve got Lily with me.” She suddenly burst through the back door.

Speak of the devil.

“Kaaaaaaaaaatiekins!” She cried, skipping to my side.

“What did you do with Jack?” I questioned skeptically.

“Oh, he’s back there.” She waved the question away. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Anyway!” She exclaimed brightly. “Who are these fine looking men?” I blushed yet again.

Both of them stared at her in awe. I caught Alex checking her out, but Matt just looked a little stunned. I shook my head at them. Lily tended to have that effect on men.

“This is Alex and Matt. Apparently Jack called them over to help move me in.” Her eyes lit up when I said Alex and she looked at me pointedly. I rolled my eyes at her.

“Well why don’t you go take that box out back and I’ll find some heavy boxes for these too strapping gentlemen to carry.”

Lily swatted my butt and I glared at her teasingly. I mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ to the two boys before turning around. I heard her chattering at them and laughed quietly to myself. She was ridiculous really, but I loved her all the same. I made my way to the pool house, but was stopped midway by Jack. He smiled at me and moved to take the box from my hands. I quickly moved out of his way and continued towards the pool house.

“Heeeeey.” He whined, walking next to me. “I was gonna carry that.”

“I’m a big girl, Jack. I think I can handle carrying a box. I carried all of these down from my apartment after all.”

He followed me into the pool house and I set the box down. He gave me a funny look when I straightened up and I immediately did a mental check of my appearance. My shirt and shorts were covering everything they needed to, my teeth felt clean. I quirked an eyebrow.

“What?”

“You’re not wearing your apron.” I quickly averted my gaze to the floor. This time my blush was so light it probably wasn’t even visible.

Thank God.

“Yeah, well, I kinda, quit the agency yesterday?” It came out as a question even though it wasn’t. I hesitantly looked up to meet Jack’s eyes. They were positively glowing.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” I smiled softly.

I wasn’t at all prepared to be swept into a bone crushing hug by Jack, but that’s exactly what he did. I squeaked in surprise as he lifted me off of the ground. A small cough sounded from behind us and Jack turned around, still holding me. Lily, Matt and Alex all stood staring at us. Jack set me down and I adjusted my shirt. Lily’s face was split into a smug smile and I rolled my eyes.

“Is that the last of the boxes?” I asked to break the silence.

“Yeah.” Lily replied.

“Okay, I’ll just unpack then. Thanks for helping carry stuff.”

“We’ll help you.” Jack said quickly.

“Oh, uhm, you really don’t have to…”

“It’s no problem.” He grinned.

“Okay.” I said, shrugging.

So, for the next two hours Lily, Jack, Alex and Matt helped me organize everything in the boxes. I couldn’t believe I had this much shit. Actually, I couldn’t believe I had managed to fit this much shit in my apartment. Lucky for me, Jack’s pool house was a lot larger than my previous home and everything fit easily. Alex left as soon as everything was finished, claiming he had someone to meet with. I felt like that should bother me, but it didn’t. Matt opted to stay, as did Lily. I had caught her ‘accidentally’ brushing up against his arms or bumping into him as we had been unpacking and I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t help but smile though, Lily could be a major flirt, but when she actually liked a guy, it was serious. And I could tell Matt had potential to be more than just a flirtationship. I just hoped he didn’t screw her over the way my Matt had.

We ended up sitting around the kitchen with cartons of Chinese food when noon rolled around. Lily playfully bumped Matt’s arm as he went to take a bite of noodles, which resulted in the carton toppling all over his shirt. Lily burst out laughing as Matt’s face morphed into a pout. He looked over at her before grabbing some of the noodles off of his shirt and throwing them at her face. That resulted in Lily turning silent while I laughed. Which eventually resulted in a full on food fight.

I slipped on a piece of food on the floor as I ducked to avoid whatever it was Jack was throwing in my direction and went toppling into Lily. She attempted to steady us but instead slipped as well and we ended up in a giggling heap on the food covered floor. When we finally quieted Lily looked over at the clock on the oven and frowned.

“I’ve gotta get going, Kates. I have work in an hour and I definitely can’t go in looking like this.” I sighed and nodded before crawling off of her and helping her stand.

“As fun as this was, boys, I have to leave.” She said, hands on her messy hips.

“I’ve gotta take her home, so I’ll be right back.” I said.

“I’ll take her.” Matt offered. I caught Lily trying to hold in a smile and didn’t even bother to hide mine.

“Alright.” I stretched up on my toes to kiss Lily’s cheek. It was smeared with orange chicken sauce and I licked my lips afterwards, grinning.

“Gross, Katie.” She scoffed. Her smile ruined the affect though and she pulled me into a proper hug.

“Call me after you get off of work.” I ordered.

“Will do, Captain.” She saluted and then floated out the front door behind Matt.

“I’m gonna get started on this mess.” I said to Jack.

“Shit, I didn’t even think of that. I’ll help.” I giggled.

“What’s the point of being your maid if I’m not going to clean up after your messes.”

“At least let me help. Please?” His brown eyes pleaded with mine and I couldn’t help but cave into his request.

“Alright.”

His eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas and I chuckled before passing him a trash bag. While he busied himself picking all of the food up, I started wiping down the counters and anywhere else that had gotten messy during our war. Pretty soon the area was clean and I left Jack inside to go shower.

As I stood under the spray, that was so deliciously consistent, I couldn’t help but think this was right where I was supposed to be. By the end of the month I knew I would be getting Kade back. Nothing was going to stop me this time.