Pride and Prejudice

Cal & Libby

by B and Layne

It was a bench ad that set him off. One for Alex Ross' rag paper. Although it was no competition for the Glen Times, Cal was still a bit bent out of shape over it. Taking a look around to make sure no one caught what he was about to do, Cal dumped his entire double venti skimmed latte on the ad. Chuckling to himself he noticed he did have a witness. A small terrier was looking at him with a cocked head.

"What's your problem mutt?" he asked then he followed it with a cough that snuck up on him. The little dog wagged his tail then proceeded to the leg of the bench, lifting his furry little hind appendage to piss heartily on it.

Cal chuckled "Good boy!"

Of course he was slightly disappointed that he wasted his four dollar coffee on a vengeful moment. Crumpling the cup up he turned to look back at the coffee shop which was now a block and a half away. Was the hike worth it? A familiar body passing set his mind right.

"Hey, Cub. Is that you? Buy you a coffee?" He held up his crushed cup with a grin.

Libby returned his grin, noting the latte all over the bench and the 'Glen Tattler' ad. "Looks like you need one, Boss. Make it a diet coke for me, though. I'm no coffee drinker, especially that stuff you've got!"

"And I'm not a cub any more," she reminded him. "I've graduated to lioness."

Cal stood up straight, squared his shoulders and then he bowed his head slightly. "Props to the queen of the jungle, even if it is the concrete jungle." He chuckled. "Diet coke, on me, one latte on the Tattler. I could use something a little less sweet like a nice tall black coffee."

Offering her his arm he shuttled her toward the coffee shop. "So tell me, Libby, how are things working out for your right now. Are you happy?"

She grinned at the bow he'd given her. Cal was always fun. Almost not like a boss at all. At his question, though, her face grew serious. Was she happy? She thought immediately of Richie. That's what it would take to make her happy. All the crap with Barth went through her mind too.

"With work, yeah, I'm happy," she answered him.

He read right through her statement. "That's half the battle," he stated as he opened the shop door for her. In an awkward kind of move he held it in such a way that she had to duck under his arm to get in and he got a good whiff of whatever she washed her hair with as she passed.

Waiting until they sat down, Cal set his trap. "What about the other half? C'mon Libby, we're close enough friends to talk about the personal stuff. I'll give you a quid pro quo if you want. I'll spill the beans on my shit if you do the same."

"Well-" Libby was hesitant. In spite of how much she liked Cal and felt friendly with him, she had always had trouble talking about personal stuff. Especially with somebody like Mr. Jessup around, always gossiping about her.

Finally, she said, "The personal stuff could be going a lot better, but I guess that's just life."

The waitress took their order and Cal waited for her to be out of earshot before he tried to pry more. "Libby, I miss you around the office. I have to admit that but there is something I've noticed since you cut your hours with us back. I noticed you're not smiling as much as you used to. Here we are, in each others company for nearly a half hour and I've not heard one of your sweet little laughs. Who pissed in your Captain Crunch?"

She actually giggled, something Libby rarely did. "Boss, you've got such a way with words!"

She was still reluctant to name names. "Life's just turning out to be a lot more complicated that I thought it would be when I came here."

He let out a breath and smiled, "I see you're going to dance around the mulberry bush. How bout if I offer the first tidbit then. Yeah, life is as complicated as you make it but if you close your eyes and say to yourself 'what the hell do I really want?' then it'll come to you. If you end up on the Yellow Brick Road you can always click your heels together three times and say...There's no place like home."

Eying the waitress as she sat the hot cup of coffee in front of him, Cal looked back at Libby and added, "Three times. If you only say it twice you'll end up in Peoria. God knows where you'll land if you say it once. Bumfuckt, maybe." Maybe a little humor would loosen those gears up. Libby seemed to be on the edge of her seat to blurt something out but her mouth was detached from the drive shaft.

"Colleen has her um, well, you know. It's that time of the month. I'm out walking around because I'm bored shitless. I'm going to buy a half dozen chocolate éclairs and stuff them with Midol. She pissed and moaned at me this morning because I added an old friend to my Facebook account. Just because the old friend is named Bambi and she is a pole dancing instructor. Girl's gotta make a living."

Libby couldn't stop herself from giggling again. "Well, I'm from Kansas you know. So, Peoria...Bumfuckt...Maybe they'd be a bit more exciting." It felt good just to joke around with someone. Then she felt a little pang. This was the kind of thing she always did with Richie...

Glancing down at her diet coke, she said. "Don't know why Colleen should be jealous. If I had a great guy like you right there at home, I wouldn't care how many women he had on Facebook." Or even if he had other women period, she thought to herself. God, if only Richie was okay with still being her friend and lover, she wouldn't care how many other women he had!

"Colleen's a good woman but she is a woman and most of you have some strange ideas when it comes to affairs of the heart."

If there was one quality a good reporter had it was reading people and Cal had Libby on his Kindle right now. He leaned forward then reached to lift her chin with his bent index finger. "So, Lioness, speaking of affairs, who has your heart in his teeth right now? Lucky son of a bitch he is whoever he is."

She should have known better than to think she could hide something from a reporter like Cal. Dropping her eyes, she said, "He doesn't seem to think he's so lucky. Or, at least, he wouldn't if he knew."

Cal smiled a little as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm detecting several things here. First off you have no self esteem or you wouldn't say that he doesn't think he's lucky...before he even knows!" He waggled a finger at her. "Libby, let me ask you something. Do you want to go through the rest of your life regretting the things you didn't do or would you rather take the chance of regretting something you did?"

She grinned. "You trying to tell me I should let him know how I feel, Boss?"

"Yes, yes of course. Unless it's me, then you better keep it to yourself. I don't know how I'd deal with it." He winked at her teasingly. Thinking for a moment about who she'd been around lately, he couldn't put his finger on who this man may be but it was more than likely either Grant or Roberts. But then again, hmm.

"Is the object of your pending affection married?"

"No, but-" Again Libby hesitated. "But we're friends. At least, I think we still are. Although we've been, uh-kinda 'physical' friends, if you know what I mean. But he said from the beginning he didn't want anything else."

"And besides, he has someone right now." She thought of Richie and Nonnie Scott, and it made her wince a little.

He tried to compose his anger at hearing this. Someone was just using her for sex? What kind of man would do that? Then his mind drifted to things past and he realized he lived in a glass house.

"Humph. All I can tell you is if you are happy being FWF's, friends who fuck then so be it. If you are looking for a permanent relationship then maybe you should rethink what you are doing, Libby. You're a beautiful, intelligent woman. What man wouldn't take a deal like that but is it doing you any good or are you setting yourself and whoever he is involved with up for some major hurt?"

It startled Libby a little to hear it put so bluntly, but then that was exactly what it was, she realized to herself. Besides, she'd always appreciated the truth. "Well, the physical side of things is over, or at least, it's on hold, now that he has somebody else."

She was curious at the anger she could hear in his voice. "Well, Boss, the truth is that I wasn't looking for any permanent relationship when he and I started out. That's really how we got started. He wasn't looking for a relationship and neither was I. We'd both had some bad times. We were just looking for friendship. With benefits, we called it. But then, after awhile, I realized I'd fallen in love with him."

Libby was hoping Cal could understand how she felt. It was so good to talk to someone about all this. But part of what he had said was starting to make her feel defensive of Richie too. "And why is it, anyway, that people always assume that, if it's a sexual relationship, the man's the only one who's getting any good out of it? People are so quick to blame Richie!"

In her heated defense of him, Libby let his name slip out without realizing she had done it. "I knew what I was getting into! That's why I haven't told him how I feel! Because it wouldn't do any good! It would just destroy the friendship and I don't want to do that!" She ran down, starting to feel herself on the verge of tears.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't get so defensive, Libby."

Damn, he hated seeing her so messed up and there was no actual surprise that it was Roberts mixed up in this. "Sounds to me like you're both re-bounders, kid. There's no sin to it but there are risks and one of the them is falling in love with a one way ticket. Everyone has needs, " he shrugged "I'm not condemning either of you."

The last thing he wanted to do right now was alienate her with a lecture. "I could speak ad nauseam about the times I've 'fallen in love' with a friend then one day it happened with the right friend."

He nearly blushed. Cal had known Colleen for some time before he gave her a second look and he oft wondered about all of the time they wasted.

"I would bet you that he knows how you feel. I would bet you dollars to donuts that he feels the way you feel when you are together. It's hard to miss it when someone gives you a certain look. Are you afraid if losing him if you tell him the truth?"

Libby just looked at him, those unshed tears still in her eyes. "I'm just afraid that, if I tell him, it'll make it impossible for us to be friends any more. That I'll never see him at all."

Reaching across the table to touch her hands, Cal let out a sigh. "Lib, Richie is a smart man. If he put any credence whatsoever in your friendship then I believe he'll either accept how you feel or he won't but I doubt he would throw away a friendship over it. I sure as hell wouldn't. Good friends are few and far between."

Was he making any sense? Richie may close the bedroom door on her if she made him uncomfortable but Cal didn't think he'd kick her out of the house completely. He sure hoped he wasn't wrong.

"He is smart, Cal. It's one of the things I love about him. But-" She was unsure whether to go on, but what the hell--she'd told him this much.

"Richie is- He's a man who likes women. Period. Lots of women. He can't ever seem to settle on just one." Libby felt uncomfortable talking about him like this, but she had to say it to get around to how she, herself, felt.

"Most women have a problem with that Cal, and I'm not saying I wouldn't either. If it were anyone else. The thing is, Cal, I'm hoping that--if he's the Richie I've come to know--this relationship he's in won't keep him away from me forever." Libby didn't mention Nonnie's name. She didn't like gossiping about other people and she didn't see any point in dragging the other woman's name into all this.

"Richie will want someone else sooner or later, and I'm hoping that that someone else will be me. Or that I'll be one of the 'someone else's' at any rate." She supposed Cal would think she was an idiot for wanting that. Or that he would pity her, and she didn't want that.

It took him a moment to digest what she'd just said but when he finally managed to line it all up his brow knitted. "Libby, we all have our priorities. If you're happy being the peas in a big ass pot of vegetable soup then so be it. I'm not in a position to tell you how god damned insecure it all sounds to me but if a man doesn't have the decency to love you without being a glutton, well, he just ain't worth a pinch of shit to me. That's like telling me you're not worth someone's undivided attention. Fuck's sake I disagree."

He picked up the check, stood and reached into his pocket and slammed it back down on the table with a few bills. "I tipped the waitress. She was worth every penny of it."

Turning to leave he stopped short. Without turning back to look at her, Cal said "Please tell me you are going to be okay. I can't bear the thought of you hurting and I feel so helpless right now."

Libby sighed. She felt helpless too. She should have known he wouldn't understand. She wasn't feeling insecure. It wasn't that at all, but she didn't think now was the time to try and explain it to him. It was just...

"I'll be fine, Cal. I've been living with this for awhile now. It's not like it's anything new."

Giving in to his better judgment he turned and moved toward her. Lifting her out of the chair, he pulled her close and hugged her tight. "You let me know if there is anything I can do for you, Cub and if I can't help you maybe Colleen could. She's put up with me for the better part of a decade. She knows about dealing with bastards."

Libby hugged him back, liking the contact and the sympathy, and not even minding his calling her 'Cub'. She didn't think anyone could do anything, but at least it was nice knowing that Cal cared.