Hooked on a Feeling

Annalise checked on her baked ziti. The large amount of mozzarella was melting perfectly. But if it didn’t finish soon, her salad would wilt.

The doorbell rang, and Annalise hurried out of the kitchen towards it. She threw open the door to find Lars on the other side, a dog bed filled with other supplies under one arm and a leash in his other hand.

“Hi Cass!” Annalise exclaimed as the dog jumped on her legs. “Hi!”

“Oh, I see how it is.” Lars said, amused. Annalise stepped aside to let him in. “I travel, everyone forgets me.”

Annalise closed the door and picked Cass up, who immediately started to lick her cheek. “But you’re gonna have all that fun traveling and playing and going to strip clubs and bars. Cass and I will have to make our own fun, huh?”

“No strip clubs for Cass. Or human food. Speaking of…” he sniffed the air. That was not the smell of canned sauce. “Dinner?”

“Almost ready.” She set Casanova down, who immediately started to run around the apartment, leash rattling along behind him as he explored. “Anything I need to know about Cass?”

“Do not let him kick you out of bed.”

Annalise laughed and led him further inside. She disappeared into the kitchen and Lars set Casanova’s things on the floor in the living room. Most of the room was taken up by a large sectional which looked a little worse for the wear. A cheep Ikea bookshelf was filled with novels, non-fiction, college text books, DVDs, and comic books. Another low table held a flat screen, cable box, and under that a beaten up laptop wired to the TV.

Lars examined the bookshelf. It really seemed like she had a little bit of everything.

“Sorry, dinner will be a little longer. I still don’t have that oven down to a science.” Annalise returned, holding out a beer.

“Don’t they all work the same?”

She sighed and shook her head. “You haven’t spent a lot of time in a kitchen, have you?”

They quickly set up Casanova’s things, by which time dinner was finally ready. Annalise, in her post-work rush to clean the house and make dinner, had forgotten to clean up the kitchen table. So she and Lars sat in the living room and ate while watching Castle re-runs, which it turned out they were both fans of. Casanova jumped on the couch, sniffed Lars, and curled up next to Annalise.

A few hours later, Olivia slipped off her shoes and hung her keys next to the door. Annalise’s keys were handing already, so she must be home. There was a pattering sound accompanied by a jingle, and a Jack Russell pranced up.

Olivia squealed and picked up the dog. This must be the dog Annalise had agreed to watch for her friend. It was a relief to know that her sister had friends who trusted her with more than just paying her bar tab.

Hearing the TV on, Olivia headed for the living room. It had been a long day. She was more than ready to flop on the couch with her sister and binge on crime dramas.

But when she got to the living room, someone was already in her spot on the huge sectional. That had always been her spot, even when the sectional had belonged to her parents when she was in high school. The support beam in that spot was broken so whoever sat in it sank in the most comfortable way imaginable. And some guy was sitting there.

Annalise heard her sister enter the room and tore her eyes away from the TV. Olivia was looking inquisitively at Lars, probably wondering how the hell her older sister managed to get such an attractive man in the apartment, or something equally insulting.

“Olivia, this is Lars.” Annalise smirked. “Lars, this is my sister Olivia.”

They eyed each other warily, shaking hands.

“Want to join us?” Annalise offered. “There’s food in the kitchen.”

“He’s in my spot.” Olivia finally said, admitting to what had bothered her.

“Just sit next to me.”

“It’s no problem.” Lars said, grabbing his beer and moving closer to Annalise. “Just keeping it warm for you.”

“What are we watching?” Olivia asked, flopping into the warm seat. A Cheerios commercial played. “Supernatural?”

Lars let out a bark of laughter and looked at Annalise. “You watch that?”

“What?” she asked defensively. “It’s basically a soap opera with angels, deamons and man candy. What’s not to love?”

“Wait till you hear who her favorite is.” Olivia grinned.

“Shut up, Athena.”

Olivia stuck her tongue out at her sister.

“Athena is her first name.” Annalise explained to Lars. “Our mom is into powerful names.”

“Athena Olivia Richards.” Olivia grumbled. “I swear to God, my children will have the most boring, normal names ever.”

After a while, Olivia got up and disappeared into the kitchen. Lars looked at Annalise for a moment, then asked, “So, you live with your sister?”

Annalise studied him for a moment, and nodded. “I moved up here for her.”

“Why?”

She hesitated. “It’s a bit of a story.”

He waited.

“She came up here for school. But right off the bat, she had a hard time. At first she studied too much. None of the friends she made wanted to go out. I was living in New Jersey, Mom and Dad had just moved to Florida. She started to call me all the time.

“I came to visit her over January, and things had drastically changed. She had found new friends who had fun, but it was about to take a bad turn. When I showed up she had been up for three days straight railing Adderall in order to both study and party, and her roommate was trying to hide a decent amount of cocaine.

“So I waited for her to crash and then for her to sleep it off, and by the time she was awake again I had decided I would move up here to help her out. Make sure she had fun but was safe. I told everyone I just had to get the hell out of Jersey, which wasn’t untrue, picked up and moved. So here I am, keeping an eye on her and keeping her secrets from out parents.”

Lars was silent for a moment. “You’re a good sister.”

She shrugged.

“Really.” He insisted. “Most people wouldn’t even think of doing all that.”

She gave him a funny smile and looked at her watch. “Wow, it’s late. You should probably go. Don’t you have practice in the morning?”

“Yeah.” He said quietly.

They both stood and she walked him to the door. She picked up Casanova as they went so he wouldn’t try to run out after Lars. As he pulled on his coat, he asked, “When will I see you?”

She shrugged. “Text me when you’re back.”

He fought a strong impulse to steal a kiss from those full pink lips. He settled instead for kissing her cheek. “Bye, Annalise.”

“Bye, Lars.”

Annalise shut the door behind him, and stood there for a minute. It had been such a comfortable night. As if they had been doing it for months. He even settled right in with Olivia.

She shook her head. It would never happen. He was a professional athlete who played for one of the oldest and most respected teams of the sport. She was a fucking biology nerd who rearranged her errands to play pool. There was no way it could work. No fucking way.

Annalise walked back into the living room to find her sister smirking at her over a plate of food.

“Ann’s got a boyfriend.”

Annalise rolled her eyes and set Casanova back on the floor. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“So, what is it? The muscles? Oh, no, is it the way he says your name?” Olivia made her voice deep and husky and imitated Lars’ slight accent. “Ahhnnahhleese.”

Annalise blushed and glared at her little sister. “First of all, Lars is my friend. That’s it. Friend. There’s no way in hell it would happen, so don’t get your hopes up. Second, fuck you.”