Chapter 17

After working in the animal shelter all day everyone was exhausted.

"Thanks again for your help today kids." Mackenzie's grandpa said as he locked the doors to the shelter for the day.

"Anytime Mr. Martin." Lainey and Eli said.

"Don't be strangers kids. It was nice seeing you two again, and it was nice meeting you Peyton."

"You too Mr. Martin." Peyton replied.

"You guys wanna catch an early dinner since we missed lunch?" Lainey asked her friends.

"I'm down." Mackenzie and Eli both said.

"Alyssa Jane?" Lainey asked.

"Nah, I..."

"Oh, come on you're never in town. Now that you are you aren't going to hang?"

"Yeah I.... I.... I need to-"

"Shut up and get in the fucking car Alyssa. Grandpa already left so you have to ride with me anyway so you're coming whether you like it or not." Mackenzie interrupted.

"Meet at Za's?" Eli shouted as he headed towards his car.

"Big bet! Last one there buys!" Mackenzie yelled as her and Alyssa ran to her car.

Lainey was already planning to buy everyone's meal so she didn't bother running like the others did.

"Isn't, Za's, that old pizza place?" Peyton asked once they were in the car.

"Yep, don't tell me you're too good for Za's. Sure it's a little greasy, but it's all about the experience and atmosphere."

"I've never been. Dad always said that place was the poor man's Dave and Busters."

"No, Chuck E. Cheese, is the poor man's Dave and Busters. Za's is like a blast from the past."

"And you like it?" Peyton asked with a sour look on her face.

"Just give it a chance please." Lainey begged.

"Fine, but if I don't like it I'm not eating it, and we're stopping on the way home."

"Deal!" Lainey exclaimed, surprised that Peyton was even willing to give the place a shot. "You know, if somebody would have told me in high school that you'd ever be caught dead in Za's I'd have laughed in their face." Lainey joked.

"Me too." Peyton sighed. "Hey before we go in can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what's up?" Lainey said turning towards her as much as she could in her seat.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean? Getting dinner? Because I'm hungry. If you're not hungry yet you don't have to eat."

"No, not the dinner part. Why are you inviting me places? Not that I don't appreciate it, because I do. I guess I just don't understand what you're getting out of dragging me out with you, when it's not like you don't already have friends. You very easily could have just left this morning and not told me where you were going. You also didn't have to bring me to dinner with you guys, but you did. So why, if it's just for the engagement you should really start telling more people or posting about it so that people actually know. Because from a media standpoint-"

"It's not for the stupid engagement, I couldn't care less about that, but we're together now. Did you not go do stuff with Scott when you two were together?"

"I mean I went to his games even if I wasn't cheering for some reason, and he came to the galas and dinner parties I had to attend for work."

"You two never went on dates, or did stuff that the two of you enjoyed?"

"We went to a club one time for his birthday. Does that count?"

"No. He never took you out to dinner, or to the movies or something?"

"I mean we went out with all of our friends sometimes, or he would come over to hangout sometimes when he needed help with homework and then we'd watch a movie and fuck or something."

"No offense, but you were in a really shitty relationship."

Peyton sighed, "Never mind." She reached for the door.

"Wait!" Lainey grabbed Peyton's hand to keep her form getting out. "Let's date."

"Huh? We're supposed to be engaged. Did you forget about that?"

"No, I know that, but I meant let's actually date. Let me take you out. Let me treat you like I would if this wasn't all forced on us."

"I don't know Lainey, I-"

"One month... 30 days.... that's all I ask, and if you don't want to be an actual couple after that I'll quit asking you to go places with me and this can all go back to being fake. Just give me one month to change your mind."

"What if I don't want to end it after a month?"

"We stay together for real. I'll give you till we leave Za's to decide if you want to try it or not." Lainey said before getting out and heading inside to her friends leaving Peyton in the car to contemplate her words for as long as she needed without the added pressure of her sitting there waiting for an answer.

Of course they were the last ones there, and everyone was waiting on them. "Damn, took you long enough, I was starting to think you'd stood us up. What'd you do, drop the misses off at home?" Alyssa asked as Lainey sat down in one of the two empty seats.

"No, we just left after you guys, and then we were talking in the car. Peyton should be in, in a minute."

"Ah man, did you guys have another fight?" Mackenzie sighed, shaking her head.

"No, we didn't have another fight we were just talking. Plus can you really blame her for spending extra time in the car? I mean you guys aren't really the most welcoming towards her. I'm surprised she even still says yes when I ask her to come places with me."

"Wait, you invite her? She doesn't invite herself?" Mack questioned.

"Yeah, why?"

"And she says yes? You don't have to like beg her or anything?"

"No, why?"

"Huh, Eli and I always figured she either invited herself to keep an eye on you, or you had to literally beg her to come with you."

"Beg who, to go where?" Peyton asked as she walked up and took her seat between Lainey and Eli.

"Uhh..." Mackenzie froze trying to think of a person on the spot.

"Megan!" Eli almost shouted, trying to help his friend cover for their earlier conversation.

"Yeah, her sister, sorry I couldn't think of her name."

"Oh, yeah. I could see how you would think that. She scares me." Peyton said.

The rest of the group sighed in relief that Peyton had bought the cover story.

"What took you so long in the car?" Alyssa asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking."

"About?" Alyssa pushed.

"About how she's never been here." Lainey stepped in trying to save Peyton from the nosy Alyssa.

"You've never been here?!" Eli exclaimed.

"Nope." Peyton said, reaching for Lainey's hand and squeezing it under the table in thanks for helping her out.

Lainey squeezed back, getting the message of a silent thank you from the girl. Eventually, after they had finally come to an agreement on what to order, their food came and they all ate and talked without another hiccup all night. After they were all done and the conversation had come to a lull, Lainey went up to the register and paid the bill before making her way back over to her table.

"Ok, I paid so ya'll can leave whenever." she said standing behind Peyton's chair and putting her hands on the girl's shoulders.

"I was just kidding earlier when I said the last one here had to pay, Lain. We could have split the bill with you." Mackenzie said.

"It's cool. I planned on paying for it anyway. You guys can leave the tip though if you want."

The four at the table each pulled out some cash and put it on the table. "Are you ready to go?" Lainey asked Peyton as she zipped her wallet.

"If you are."

Lainey held out her hand to help Peyton up. "Tell your grandpa I said thanks again for letting us come help at the shelter." Lainey said to Mackenzie. "Oh, and don't forget to hit me up again before you leave." She yelled back to Alyssa as they started towards the door.

Once they were in the car away from everyone else Peyton decided to tell Lainey she'd made her decision. "So, I've decided."

"And?"

"Yes"

"Yes, what, P?"

"Yes, I'm willing to give you a month to show me what a healthy relationship should look like."

Lainey smiled and internally cheered. She was ready to make the most of her chance, she knew that this was probably the closest she'd ever get to legitimately dating Peyton, and she wanted to show Peyton how a person should actually be treated in a relationship. "Good, I promise you won't regret this. If I ever take it too far or make you uncomfortable please tell me, I don't want to overstep any boundaries."

"Boundaries? Like what?"

Lainey chuckled. "I can't tell you what your boundaries are, P, only you know that, but if I ever cross one I want you to tell me and we will stop and go back to the way things were before tonight. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Is this next week at work going to be busy for you?" Lainey questioned.

"I need to follow up with my parents about the new applicants for our managing position at one of our locations. Other than that I don't think I have much going on, why?"

"We have an opening event in Miami this week, and my father wants me to go oversee it. I was hoping you'd come with me. I shouldn't have to work the entire week so we could go out and do stuff together if you want."

"Sure, I can always go in first thing Monday morning and do it, or email them depending on when you want to leave."

"I was hoping we could leave tomorrow. The hotel part opens Tuesday and then the club and casino parts both open Friday. Mom said that Dad was down there last week and everything is pretty much done. They just want me there because it's 'more my scene' and they think I'll relate more to the weekend crowd because I'm younger and have a reputation as a partier. If you don't want to go though that's fine too. Don't feel pressured to say yes, I mean-"

Peyton smiled and rolled her eyes at Lainey's nervous rambling. "Shut up already and get us home so that I can start packing. What time are we flying out?"

"Whenever you want. Dad said we can take the private jet. I just need like a two hour notice so that they can get it ready."

"If we leave at 9:00 we can get there in time for lunch."

"Ok, I'll text my dad when we get to the house to let him know."

"Are we going to be staying at this hotel or somewhere else?"

"We can stay there if you want. It's located just off the strip so it would put us right in the middle of everything, or we can stay in our beach house that is a little bit outside of Miami."

"Where do you want to stay?" Peyton asked as they pulled up to the gate just outside their house.

"The privacy of the beach house would be nice, but the convenience of the hotel would also be nice so I don't care. Where do you want to stay."

"From a business perspective it would be smarter for you to stay at the hotel so that you are right there and people can see you going in and out of it more. From a personal perspective I agree that the privacy of the beach house would be nice."

Lainey shut the car off and turned in her seat to look at Peyton as she thought. "Ok so how about we stay at the hotel through Wednesday. That'll make it to where I'm there for the opening and I'll still be right there for anything that needs done last minute for the club and stuff on Thursday. Thursday through Saturday we can stay at the beach house because that's when all of the partying will really start up and the extra peace and quiet would be nice. I can just drive in Friday for the opening of the club and casino, then drive back after making an appearance. Sunday, we can do whatever and flyout whenever you want."

"That sounds perfect. I'll just text my assistant tomorrow and tell her that I'll be out of the office until next week, and I'll email my parents Monday and leave out the part about me being gone all week unless they straight up ask."

The girls went inside and immediately started packing. After they were both done packing they went straight to bed since they would have an early morning.