Along Came Awkward

Laura stared out the window of her house waiting for Tom's familiar car to drive up. Her husband had left for work so she thought it would be good to invite Tom over to actually hang out and get to know each other a little better.

Truth be told, Laura really wanted to tell Tom why she hasn't been so forward about divorcing her husband. Laura, however, was very convinced that Tom would leave her for good and though they haven't been having their 'fling' very long, she had grown fond of him and losing him scared her.

"Where are you?" She mumbled to herself before glancing at the watch on her wrist and then back in to the window. A moment later a car pulled into her driveway. She watched as Tom got out of her car, her lip twitching into a smile before going over to the door and opening it for him.

"'Ello," he smiled.

"You're late," she spoke causing his smile to falter momentarily.

"I'm sorry, I just... uhm... here," he mumbled pulling an envelope out of his pocket and handing it to her.

Laura looked skeptically at Tom before opening the envelope and pulling out two tickets inside. "What is..." her brows furrowed as she read the headlining act twice just to confirm what her mind wasn't processing. "Are these... what?"

Tom chuckled, "two Mumford and Sons tickets fo' the end of this week."

"I know but..." she stared astonished at the tickets before grinning and jumping into Tom's arms. "Thank you so much! How did you know I liked them?"

He wrapped his arms around her laughing. "I saw that yeh had their entire discography on yeh dressah the othah day. Are yeh surprised?"

"Yes! Thank you thank you thank you!" Laura kissed Tom's cheek before grabbing his hand and pulling him inside. "I can't believe you did that!" She said again staring at the tickets and walking into the living room. She placed them on the table before walking into the kitchen.

"Yeh owe me now," he joked following her into the kitchen. Tom's eyes flickered to the refrigerator that was decorated in drawings by a young child. "So what are we doin' today?"

"Hmm," she thought jumping up on the counter and sitting down.

"Don't tell me yeh made me drag my arse all the way to yeh house and yeh don't even know what we're doin' today."

She stuck her tongue out at him and swung her legs. "I don't know. I didn't have work to do so I figured we could hang out."

"Where do you work? I realized I don't know anyfing like that about yeh," he chuckled.

"It's cause I'm so mysterious, oooooh!" She giggled wiggling her fingers in front of his face.

He rolled his eyes and swatted them away. "Seriously!"

"I'm a preschool teacher," she smiled. "I finished making my lesson plans for when the school year starts so I have nothing to do until then."

"Ahhh! That would explain the drawings," Tom nodded towards the fridge.

Laura's eyes flashed to the fridge momentarily. Her eyes narrowed on the drawings, her heart rate quickened. She took a breath before turning back to Tom. "Yeah, my kids in my class draw me things all the time."

"Cute," he grinned.

"Well what do you do?"

"A few things," he shrugged, leaning on the counter. "I design and help manage my brothah's clothing line, film and take photography and I'm a drum tech for my brothah's drummah in his very successful band."

"So impressive," Laura giggled.

"I know. Yeh can just refer to me as 'the man.'"

"Uhh, no," she laughed, sticking her tongue out. "Just because you travel worldwide doesn't mean I'm supposed to be impressed."

Tom kept a very serious face and approached her sitting on the counter. He placed one hand on either side of her thighs and leaned in slowly so their noses were touching. He heard her breath get caught in her throat as they both stared into their eyes. "I make you nervous."

"No," Laura mumbled ripping her eyes from Tom's and looking at her knees.

"Yea I do. Yeh can't even look at me right now."

Her eyes flicked back up to his and narrowed, "so what if you do?"

His lip twitched into a smile, "that's fine," he whispered, "yeh make me nervous too."

Tom leaned in and hovered his lips over hers but before they could touch, Laura flinched and looked away. "Uhh.. I think that-"

The sound of the front door opening and hitting the way echoed through the house and Laura's eyes widened profusely. "Shit," she mumbled, pushing Tom off her and onto the ground behind the island in the kitchen.

"Laura!" The other Tom yelled. "Where are yeh?"

"In here!" She yelled back hopping off the counting and popping her head out of the kitchen. "You're home early."

"Why is there another car in the driveway?"

"Borrowing it from a friend. Why are you home?" She repeated.

"I forgo' somefin' in the room," he mumbled shaking his head. "I fink the bill fo' the camp should be comin' soon. Did yeh get it?"

Laura shook her head, "didn't check the mail."

"Ah," he nodded before heading up the stairs. As soon as his footsteps were out of hearing range, she quickly turned and grab Tom by his shirt collar and yanked him forward. He laughed and covered his mouth as she pushed him towards the front door. He grabbed his keys off the side table before running out.

"Going to the store!" Laura yelled up the stairs before running after Tom and hopping in the car. He revved the engine and sped out of the driveway and down the street. "Holy shit," she choked out a laugh before shaking his head.

"I want to hate him but he doesn't seem like such a bad lad," Tom sighed.

"He has his moments," Laura noted looking out the window. "Where are we going?"

"My house where we don't have to be so on guard. Maybe go swimming?"

"Sounds good. I'm hot as fuck."

Tom agreed. It was getting close to the end of Summer and the heat was still at an all time peak. All he wanted was Fall. It was his favorite season. Between the leaves changing and the temperature being cooler but not too cold, it just made him feel so much better than this dreadful heat.

It didn't take long before getting to the Sykes' residence. "'Ello," Tom nodded towards his brother when he entered the house.

"Hi," Laura waved, following Tom upstairs to his bedroom.

"Whoa hold on!" Oli yelled jumping off the couch and running to the base of the stairs.

Laura and Tom simultaneously turned to face him. "Yeah?" Tom asked.

Oli motioned to Laura, "yeh still hanging wiff her?" Tom nodded, looking at Oli with his eyebrows raised and a confused expression on his face. "Yeh fucked her, she's married, and yeh still hanging wiff her?"

"Yeah, and?" Tom asked.

Oli shook his head, "I'm so confused. Yeh two are weird."

Laura put her one hand on her hip and used the other to poke the older brother in the nose. "I'm a lovely lady, for your information."

"Spunky," Oli chuckled. "Don't get in too much trouble."

"Whatevah," Tom rolled his eyes before continuing to his room. "I'll be right back," he said walking past his room and into another. He reappeared a moment later with a girls bathing suit in his hand. "Olleh released the new Summah line a bit ago. We had some extra suits laying around."

"Thank you, sir," she grinned.

Tom nodded and grabbed his own suit before walking into the bathroom to change. Laura chuckled to herself at how self-conscious he was. He was a rather attractive person and they had already had sex. It's not like she hasn't seen his body. Needless to say he was still shy and Laura found that undeniably quirky in a good way.

She quickly changed just before Tom came out of the bathroom. His eyes went over her body once before he quickly looked away and headed out the door. She followed his tracks down the stairs and outside. Tom turned and looked at her, nervously stepping from foot to foot. "I don't know if yeh one of those lasses that don't like getting their hair wet but-"

Laura rolled her eyes and ran to him, gripping his forearms and pushing him backwards into the pool. She flipped over him laughing as she came up for air.

Tom laughed when he surfaced shaking the water off his head. "Wasn't expecting that to be honest."

"I usually keep you on your toes, do I not?" She leaned her back against the side of the pool with her arms resting on the pavement.

"Yeh do," he grinned swimming over to her, placing one arm on the pavement on either side of her.

She smiled at him and watched as his eyes momentarily looked down at her before looking back up. His pupils dilated slightly and cheeks got a like pink tinge to them. "You just checked me out," she giggled.

"Maybe," he shrugged, laughing at himself. Laura's eyes glanced down at Tom letting them admire his body for more than a second before looking back up and smiling. "Yeh just checked me out."

"I did," she laughed.

Tom's smile faded the longer he looked at her. His thoughts began consuming his mind and he built up the courage to ask a question that has been hanging on his mind for the past few hours. "Why didn't yeh let me kiss yeh earlier?" He whispered.

Laura's smile immediately disappeared and she turned her head to the side. It was slowly becoming obvious to Tom that she couldn't look at him when she lied or was embarrassed or shy or confused.

"Look at me," he kept his voice low.

She looked at him with a sadness in her eyes that nearly pained Tom just to look into. "We can't..." she trailed off.

Tom narrowed his eyes slightly annoyed. "So yeh can fuck me but we can't kiss? It's obvious it's not about Tom," he growled her husband's name. "If it were, yeh wouldn't have slept with me. So why?"

"It's not that simple!" She raised her voice at him echoing the words she had said to him the other day.

Tom took a deep breath and sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorreh. I just.... I realleh like yeh and...." he sighed again and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into a hug.

She nodded and hugged him back. She wanted to tell Tom why, she really did, but just like she has been saying, it really just wasn't that simple.