Chapter Fifty-Three

**

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

Three am, and everyone but the team had finally left. We were gathering in front of the tv in the back room, just like we always seemed to end up doing after a party, ready to just relax.

“So…what movie we gonna watch?” Letty asked, sitting down next to me with a huge bowl of popcorn and handing me a Corona.

“What about The Crow?” Leon asked, looking through the movies.

We all just looked at him for a second.

“Leon, we just watched that yesterday…” Amber started.

“What’s that about?” Jamie asked.

“Don’t ask…you don’t wanna know…” Mia said quickly. “And if you get him started on it…forget about him ever shutting up…”

“If I have to watch that fucking movie one more fucking time, I’m moving out, I swear,” Letty complained.

“Okay, The Crow it is, then…” Leon laughed, just barely ducking the shoe Letty threw at him.

“Hey now,” Vince said, looking over at her. “Careful with the tv, huh?”

Letty just rolled her eyes, threw her other shoe at Vince. I had to laugh when it hit him square in the chest.

“Thelma and Louise,” Mia said. “That’d be perfect. I’ve been craving some Brad Pitt lately…”

“Oh yeah,” Amber agreed. “Brad looks good in that movie!”

“Sayin!” Letty added in.

“Nuh-uh,” Vince said, shaking his head. “We’re not gonna watch some movie with two old chicks just ‘cause some guy you think is hot is in it for like five minutes. Not gonna happen.”

“Yeah, save it for a slumber party or something,” Leon laughed.

“How ‘bout Days of Thunder?” Vince suggested, going over to look through the movies with Leon.

“God, V!” Mia groaned. “Does everything have to be about cars?”

“Well…Tom Cruise is in it…” Vince said slowly. “Don’t you like him?”

“Uhm…no!” Mia retorted, rolling her eyes. “He’s too short.”

“Okay then…” Leon said. “What about Pulp Fiction?”

“No. Nuh-uh,” Vince immediately said. “That movie is hard enough to follow when we’re sober.”

“You have a point there, coyote,” Leon laughed.

“Okay, enough of this shit,” I finally said, walking over to the bookshelf the movies were stacked on and pulling out the first thing I saw. “Die Hard 3. That work for everybody?”

Nobody had any complaints, so I put the movie in, walked back over to the couch and sat down, wrapping my arm around Letty’s shoulder. She tensed up for a second, glared at me before looking over towards Jamie. The girl was already knocked out, not even halfway through the promos. Letty relaxed then, leaned her head on my chest, curled her feet up underneath her and pulled the blanket off of the back of the couch to cover us with.

Letty ended up falling asleep not much later. She’d stretched out on the couch, laid down with her head resting on my stomach. She purred a little, rubbed her cheek against me as her left arm moved so it covered my crotch . I groaned lowly, ran my hand through her hair before reaching down and dragging my thumb across her mouth. Letty sighed, turned towards me a little and stretched, her right arm moving out from underneath her body to wrap around my waist. I ran my fingers through her hair one more time before moving my hand down to her neck, rubbing her shoulder lightly before slipping my hand under her shirt to rest against her tit. Letty sighed again, her head slipping down a few inches so that her face was right at the waist of my pants and I could feel her breath against my skin. Between that and her body moving under my hand, I had to fight the urge to wake her up and carry her upstairs.

I loved those late nights with Letty…still do. I love watching her as she falls asleep, her body curled against mine… And, cheesy as it sounds, I love that she reaches out for me…like I’m her security blanket or something.

As the credits rolled, I looked around the room, wondering if I should bother waking everyone up. Leon and Amber were curled up in the big chair, with her in his lap. Mia was stretched out on the floor in front of the tv. And Vince and Jamie… Well, they were laying on the floor next to the couch. Jamie was on her side, using Vince’s arm as a pillow. He was pressed up against her back, his other arm laying across her hips, keeping her close to him.

“Now that’s interesting,” I thought, laughing to myself. I almost wanted to wake Vince up, just to see what his reaction would be.

But just then, the tape shut itself off. I started fumbling around for the remote, trying not to wake Letty up. Didn’t work, though. She opened her eyes slowly, reached a hand up and rubbed the side of my face, yawning.

“What time is it?” she asked, rolling onto her back and stretching.

“Nearly five, I think,” I said slowly, finally finding the remote and switching off the tv as Letty sat up.

“Damn…” she laughed, her voice low and a little scratchy. “I must’ve slept good. Feels like it should be noon or something…”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, smirking at her. “That’s too bad…’cause I was just thinking it was time to go to bed… But you wouldn’t want to come with me, since you‘re so awake now…”

“I know you’re not thinking about going upstairs without me,” she laughed again, lightly hitting my arm before standing up. “Watch, I’ll keep you awake for a few more hours now, just for that…”

“That a promise?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Letty licked her lips slowly before changing the subject. “You think we should wake the rest of them up?”

“Well…” I said slowly, “I was tryin’ to decide that before you woke up… You know Mia’d kill us if we left her sleeping on the floor. Wasn’t sure ‘bout the rest of them, though.”

“Eh, Leon and Amber should be fine there,” she said. “They’re always saying how comfortable that chair is…”

“And I don’t know if we should interrupt Vince and Jamie,” I laughed. “Did you see them?”

“Where’s Ja… Oh…” Letty said, grinning as she walked over to them. “Well…we should prolly get a blanket for them at least…you know how cold the floors get in this place.”

“Okay…you wanna get the blanket, then, and I’ll get Mia to bed?”

“Sounds good,” Letty answered as she headed towards the hall closet.

“Mia…” I said, walking over and kneeling down next to her. “Wake up.”

She didn’t even move.

“Mia!” I said a little louder, lightly shaking her shoulder.

She moved that time…but all she did was turn her face away from me.

I looked at her for a few seconds before just picking her up and carrying her out of the room. She finally woke up just as I was setting her down on her bed.

“Dom?” she asked, sounding confused. “What are you doing?”

“Putting your ass to bed,” I laughed. “You know, so I don’t have to listen to you bitch about how much your back hurts tomorrow…”

“Oh,” Mia said, yawning. She turned her face towards the wall, yawned again, and closed her eyes.

“Don’t even get a thanks, huh?” I muttered to myself as I pulled the blankets over her.

Letty was just standing there looking at Vince and Jamie, still holding the blanket, when I got back downstairs. I walked up behind her, wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against me.

“They look…comfortable, don’t they?” she asked, softly. “Almost like they belong together.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “They do.”

Letty stepped away from me then, kneeled down and spread the blanket over the two of them. Jamie’s eyelids fluttered, and I thought she might wake up, but she just murmured a little and rolled over, snuggling closer against Vince.

“Cute,” I said, grinning.

“Too cute,” Letty echoed, standing up. “Almost disgusting, seeing Vince like that.”

“Wonder what they’ll think when they wake up…” I added as Letty moved over to the chair where Leon and Amber were sleeping.

“Look at this…” she said, sighing as she pulled their blanket over Amber. “Leon even hogs the covers when they’re not in a bed! It’s a miracle Amber gets any sleep at all, with him. You know he actually bruises her sometimes, with all the thrashing around he does? I don‘t know how she stands it.”

“She loves him…that’s how she stands it,” I said, laughing at her. “’Sides, you’re one to talk, as much as you move around in your sleep… Must be genetic or something…”

“I do not!” she protested, smacking me lightly across the stomach.

“Do so…” I shot back. “I’ve seen you sleep, remember…blankets thrown to the floor, all tangled up in each other…you sprawled out across the whole bed…”

“At least I don’t kick you,” she muttered, turning to lean against me.

“Yeah…not when you’re sleeping anyways,” I teased, resting my chin on the top of her head. I could almost feel Letty rolling her eyes, even though I couldn’t see her face.

“So I don’t like sleeping alone…” she said after a minute. “It just feels like…something’s missing. I never sleep good unless I’m with you…”

“I know…me too,” I answered before leaning down a little so I could pick her up. “So…you ready to go upstairs so we can go to sleep now?”

“Sleep?” she asked, smiling and wrapping her arms around my neck as she thrust her hips against me. “You really want to sleep?”

“Well…maybe not just yet,” I said, walking towards the stairs.