2019-09-13 - Don't You Forget About Me

Sometime mid-afternoon, Harper made her way, several hours early, to Geoff's trailer, fully expecting him to be at work. She hasn't taken advantage of having a key aside from dropping off various food items in the past. But this time she does. Dressed in a pair of yoga pants, a white tank and a long, loose cardigan sweater she knocks, then unlocks the door. "Geoff?" With no answer, she simply heads inside and sets down a container of newly baked Devil's Food cupcakes with vanilla frosting on the kitchen counter. With tired eyes, she spies the main room of the trailer and drops a small duffel and her purse in an inconspicuous spot before checking her watch, kicking off her sneakers, and rummaging around for a blanket.

Once she finds said blanket, she heads over to the sofa and wraps the blanket around her shoulders and drops to the sofa. Without any further ado, she settles down across the sofa and lays her head on a cushion, closing her eyes and quite quickly falling into a fitful slumber, her loose dark hair falling across her face as she burrows in Geoff's blanket and chases after lost sleep. Sleep isn't a friend to Harper on good days; there's something comforting about being at Geoff's place, as if it were a haven from recent turmoils. It's why she presumed to come to his place hours before she was supposed to. Leave it to Harper to unwittingly step in some plans Geoff may have had or company that might stop by.

Geoff 's apartment is all in all rather clean and needy, everything in its place and nicely stacked away, the only exception being the bedroom where his bed is covered in soft blankets and completely unmade. Geoff 's existence is a rather solitary one, so no one is coming over to disturb Harper's sleep on that couch. Her car outside his house does not go unnoticed, so he enters quietly intent on surprising the librarian only to find her sleeping on his couch. Setting down the fresh bottles of booze he'd acquired and the still warm box he'd picked up from the bakery on the counter, he then makes his way to clean up in the bathroom, taking a post work shower.

After a quick shower, he emerges from the bathroom dressed in a pair of shorts and and a soft black shirt and makes his way over to perch on the couch near Harper's head. Muting the tv, he throws on captions and leans back to relax and watch a little tv till his guest wakes up, his fingers gently stroking through and lightly toying with her hair in that gentle and familiar way that's become unique to them.

So it is that sketchy, superficial sleep deepened over a few hours and Harper regains some of the three previous nights worth of sleep. Therefore, Geoff getting home and going through the steps of taking a shower doesn't wake the librarian. The dipping of the cushions as Geoff sits however touches at something. Harper stirs, though whether her eyes open behind that spill of dark hair is debatable. One hand lifts and blindly finds Geoff's nearer thigh and she utters an incoherent murmur and scoots up a bit so she can use it as a pillow, wrapping that hand around it from beneath. "...better."

Her hair is soft and clean, given that she washed it right before coming over and let it air dry. When she shifts her head to use his leg as a pillow, that dark hair slips down and forward past her fair skinned-face and falls beyond it, leaving only a thin veil of hair still over her cheek and forehead. In slumber she looks younger and worn, the dark circles under her eyes more pronounced from the past handful of days.

Geoff sinks back, getting comfortable when Harper stirs and starts to use his thigh as a pillow. Thumb trailing fondly along the curve of her jaw, a warm smile pulls at his features as he looks down at her, studying her for several long moments before looking back to the tv. The tv is playing an old episode of seinfeld sans the sound which in all honesty does cut back on some of the humor. Geoff seems entirely comfortable in this arrangement, finding no need to wake his friend, after all if she could get someone even resembling a night's sleep he could count that as a win.

Something tips the scales. Harper stills just a bit more than when she was languidly sleeping and her eyes drift open, blinking a couple times to focus on a muted television and George Castanza. The logic of that doesn't fit. Secondarily the light touch of Geoff's thumb or the sense memory of it settles into her consciousness and she lifts a hand free of the blanket she pilfered to touch grazing fingertips to the back of his hand. That does it. She's awake, not in Dream. This is Geoff's trailer. The hand must belong to him.

Waking logic is slow. Harper rolls to her back while lifting her hand to push her hair out of her face and capture his forearm as she gazes sleepily up at Geoff. "How did you do that?" She offers a sleepy almost-smile. "Go from being somewhere not-here to being my pillow? Is it still Monday?" She wets her lips then allows them to curve to a smile. "Did I miss all the drinking? Because that would be disappointing."

Geoff winks to Harper as she asks that question "It's one of the many skills I've learned, how to go from being somewhere to being your pillow. Just didn't seem like the right time before." with a click of his tongue he says in a faux solemnity "You've already missed some of the drinking, but there's still a lot more. We'll just have to catch you up." breaking out in the smiles that come so easy when they hang out he says "Sorry I didn't wake you up sooner, figured napping a little bit longer wouldn't hurt you too badly."

Oh, Harper may just be thinking how delightful it is to wake up to that smile right about now. She's certainly charmed and relaxed, the haunted look not yet back behind her eyes. "Nice skill. I'm glad you saved it." She frowns faintly when Geoff says she's missed some of the drinking, but it dissolves away when he promises more. "Is it late?" She uses the hand not holding his arm close to toss the blanket down her legs. the tank top is twisted at her waist from the roll over but otherwise she's fine. "I would apologize for sleeping, but I was so tired and I couldn't sleep at home. It's just not ..." She flickers a glance away and back to Geoff. "... comfortable yet. And something about your home feels safe." Maybe it was the spirit he poured into her the last time. Maybe it's just Geoff.

Those brown eyes gaze upward at him for a long handful of moments, then Harper pulls at her stomach muscles to heave herself upward, ducking under his arm and past. "Of course, now I'm overheated." She folds the blanket up and rests it over the arm of the sofa and pulls her cardigan off to rest atop the blanket.

One more pass of her fingers through her dark hair and she pushes to her bare feet. Thirsty! She moves over to the cabinet she learned holds glasses on her last visit and pulls one out and half fills it with water at the sink. She leans back against the counter as she drinks deeply, then folds one arm across her waist, the other elbow perching on the back of that hand as she swirls the remaining water in the glass and regards Geoff. "How was work?"

"Hey mi casa es su casa, you can come here any time you want. If I wasn't comfortable with that you wouldn't have a key." Geoff's words coming as he watches her rouse from her sleepiness, "Even if you apologized for sleeping I wouldn't accept it because there is nothing to apologize for." With her becoming over heated he bumps his shoulder into hers laughing as he teases "Of course you're overheated, it's still summer."

Standing he stretches with a yawn, the sleepiness having been at least a tad contagious "So I was thinking I'd order in tonight if we decide we want real food. Or if not I have chips, trail mix and the chick food I said I'd pick up." his hand gesturing towards the paper bag containing the fresh chocolate croissants, their warm smell wafting through the air. Walking over to the cabinet he grabs a glass and decides to start the party a little early, pouring himself two fingers of whiskey "Work was pretty good, I covered up a tattoo of a penis on a guy's forearm." winking to Harper he shares "I have no idea if that is what he wanted when he walked there. It might have been the badly inked angel with a beard and breasts, but I just kind of suggested the penis when he said he wanted a coverup and he went with it."

Harper's brown eyes warm with the Spanish. "You're an eligible bachelor, Turner. I'm not going to make a habit of letting myself in unannounced." She considers the words and quickly amends, her voice still warm with sleep, "Except to deliver foods." She finishes the water in her glass. "This afternoon felt like a pause from life, being here. Your place just feels good to me. Your fault." She pauses and smiles. "I took today and tomorrow off work. Melinda said she didn't mind." That would be the 52-year-old full time Assistant Librarian. "She seems to love it when I take personal days." Because Harper never takes personal or sick days. As for being overheated, she exclaims, "I was cold when I got here. I don't know why." She knows why. She's felt cold since the previous week. Very cold.

"I think I like it when you're heavy-handed." Like not accepting any apologies. "I'm not that hungry," she begins, but then he points out the croissants and her eyes widen. "Chick-food croissants? Chocolate chick-food croissants? You are the best friend a girl could have, Geoffrey!" She flings her arms around him while he tries to pour his whiskey, then releases him and sets down her glass near his so she can dive into the bag for a buttery treat. "Does whiskey go with chocolate?" She smells like clean. Her warmth plus the shower she took before she came over tangle together in not unpleasant ways.

She starts laughing when she hears about the tattoo he covered and, tearing off a piece of croissant, she tucks it into her mouth and watches him tell the story with avid interest. "What did you cover it up with? A grain silo?" She drops back and leans against the counter once more, brown eyes dancing with mirth.

Geoff eyes dance with mischief at the mention of Melinda "What do you bet Melinda rules over the library like a dark and terrible queen when she's in charge. Enforcing outdated rules and concepts and cackling in her corner." His lips pulling up in a cocky smile at that summation of what happens to the Library when Harper is away. Geoff's own scent is that of the warmth of just having climbed out of the shower not twenty minutes prior, and the faint notes of a masculine body wash. The question of chocolate and whiskey prompts a shake from his head "I'm afraid it probably wouldn't be the best, but I too prepared for this question." head dipping towards the fridge, wherein Harper would find a chilled bottle of chocowine. Geoff had obviously taken his duties of hosting post breakup drinking seriously.

Turning around to lean back against the counter he takes a sip from his glass and uses it to gesture to Harper "Close, I covered it up with a tree, a super gnarly tree with faces and hidden details in it. I think it turned out pretty good." There seems to be a happiness that settles on him when he watches Harper's animated self enjoy the treat, unable to hide the small yet entirely genuine smile that pulls at his lips "Tonight's about you Harps." And with that he sets about to gather the snacks and drinks and set them about the coffee table that rests in front of the couch.

And Geoff would be so utterly correct. Melinda runs a tight, strict ship when she's at the helm. She's been known to be scandalized by some of Harper's more progressive stances on things like noise and play in the library. Harper can't quell her amusement as he puts that to words so adroitely. "Melinda does have her moments, but she is a good woman underneath her traditional approaches." Harper's smile tips to laughter and she punches Geoff's arm playfully. Then he's turning and pulling the chocowine out of the fridge and Harper's eyes widen. "Geoff Turner. What did you do?" She actually giggles. "Did you have to abandon piece of your manhood card to purchase this?" She reaches for the bottle and starts undoing the foil. "I must try it right away." Does she need a cork screw? If so she'll look askance at Geoff.

The artistic and unsettling tree. "That sounds fantastic," she replies. "I wish I could have seen it. The after product, at least. I'll bet it turned out great. Your artistic ability is astonishing." Harper finally is able to pour some of the chocolate wine into her glass. She lifts it tentatively and smells at it, then takes a sip. "Well, that's not nearly as bad as I expected. Not as sweet, but definitely chocolate-y. Do you want to try some?" She's following Geoff out toward the sofa after grabbing her half eaten croissant.

She crawls up onto the sofa on her knees and waits for him to settle before dropping in and up against the side of his torso, presumptively. "You haven't said anything judgmental, Geoff. And I did the same thing that you had done to you. Almost exactly the same thing." Her words are quiet, and once she's spoken them she turns a sidelong glance over and up at the tattoo artist, measuring his green-eyed expression thoughtfully.

Geoff digs through the utensil drawer and pulls out a corkscrew to hand it to Harper "Yeah, they checked my manhood card at the door and then just wouldn't give it back." with a sigh and a shake of his head he laughingly laments "The things I do for you Harper." Which despite the words is spoken as anything but a a lamentation. "I think I'll be good on the chocowine though, you enjoy it."

Settling back down onto the couch once everything is laid out, he extends an arm along the back to give Harper ample room to snuggle in if she wants, arm curling around her shoulder once she does "I haven't said anything judgmental because I'm not judging you. I know at least in my case with Erin, I'm glad it ended like that rather then getting drawn out where we were both too comfortable to move but not being fully happy there." Glancing down at Harper, he bumps his brow to the side of her head lightly in a fond manner "It doesn't matter to me why you did it, because I know you wouldn't have done it unless couldn't see it panning out." Pulling his head back he says "I wouldn't want to see you just settling into a relationship you weren't comfortable in because you were afraid pulling out would hurt someone."

Harper regards Geoff as he speaks to the loss of his man card. "The things you do," she agrees with laughter lingering behind those brown eyes. "I hardly deserve you. I think it's an acquired taste," she adds in regard to the beverage. She didn't refill her glass when she followed him from the kitchen.

Now sitting in the curve of Geoff's arm, she takes one of perhaps only two more drinks of the wine. He responds to her more serious statements and she looks up at him as he does so. She's silent for all of it, waiting until he stops speaking before she replies softly, "You're right. That's exactly what I did." Her tone is bewildered and warm. "You understand me sometimes more than is comfortable, Geoff." Almost a whisper now. "Even Jessica thought I'd made a mistake. But not you. You're always in my corner. That song might have been cheesy, but it fits you in any number of ways. Thank you." Harper tips her head when his brow presses against her head, and she follows him back when he moves it to brush a smile against his ear and whispers, "I'm so lucky." She lowers her head so her nose follows the curve of that same ear before drawing back and settling her back slightly against his chest. "Is there a Seinfeld movie?" She tries for lighthearted, but her mood doesn't shift topics as quickly as she does.

Geoff 's arm curls more around Harper's shoulder, the gesture now more of a warm accepting embrace then anything else. Searching her eyes he confirms "Always Harper, I'm in your corner and that's not going to change." Once she settles against his chest he lightly brushes his nose through her hair before looking back to the television screen "You know, I don't think they ever made a Seinfeld movie...Or at least not one that I know of." Grabbing the remote with his free hand he brings it up to change the channel as the episode is ending, flipping over to the movie in the bluray player. Soon enough nineteen ninety four's hit classic Speed is playing, the sound low enough to provide decent background noise and be able to be focused on but still quiet enough to eclipse conversation.

A bit out of nowhere Geoff says "You know, I've been feeling kind of selfish recently. Since prison I've been trying not to weigh you down with my bad choices or make you worry....But recently us hanging out, spending time together, drinking and just talking, I've been loving it." Rubbing at her shoulder he admits "I don't think I could give up us chilling like this again."

Harper murmurs a soft sound as Geoff's arm curls her closer, but she doesn't drags her gaze from Geoff's green eyes while he meets it. "No, I don't think it will." Being in her corner changing. A sigh as she feels his nose stir against her dark hair. "A Seinfeld movie would have been too much, I think. The whole premise of the show was it being about nothing. Two hours of nothing would have been it making fun of itself. At its own expense. They were smart. Though really, they should have stopped before the finale. They would have been better off without it." She watches the TV switch to bluray and flickers a glance up to Geoff and back to the tv. "You chose a movie. Marvelous." The opening rolls and the 20th Century Fox opening plays. Harper smiles a little in anticipation. The opening shot shows an elevator shaft. When Keanu Reeves' name flashes up, Harper's face breaks into a grin. "You chose Speed!" She reaches over and pats her palm against Geoff's stomach in approval and watches, lifting up the sweetened red wine to finish off her glass.

He starts to speak out of nowhere and Harper drags her gaze from the screen to look at him, looking over her shoulder and up at him. Not make her worry, not wear her down? "I'm glad," she starts. Then he rubs at her shoulder and adds that last. "Why do you say that? Do you think I'm going to give up coming over just because one or the other of us isn't breaking up?" The words are soft, tentative.

"Yeah I thought it'd be a fun movie, been a while since we saw it huh?" Geoff replies with a grin "I thought with Keanu Reeves being popular again it'd be perfect, not to mention everyone loves Sandra Bullock." Once again the woman beside him is so thoroughly stealing his attention, her soft words and looking up at him drawing his own gaze "You know, I was thinking that maybe we could make this sort of a weekly thing. Get together, watch a movie and just take a night to forget the world and enjoy each other's company." With a boyish sort of grin he muses "I don't think it's the worst thing I've suggested."

Harper's brown eyes sparkle as she drags her attention from the television back to Geoff, her bare shoulder and arm pressed lightly against the front of his chest given the way that she's sitting. "Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock were a perfect combination, I have to agree." Her gaze is faintly searching, a silent query hidden behind her eyes. "Every week? How could I say no to that? It's just --" She purses her lips and tips her gaze to the side then back up at him, then stretches out to blindly put her empty glass on the coffee table turning a bit around toward him. That hand now free, she lifts it up to trace fingertips teasingly against the side of Geoff's beard. "I mean, that's prime dating real estate right there. And I wouldn't want to cramp your style, Geoffrey."

Geoff 's hand comes up to find Harper's that plays in his beard, brushing his fingertips along the back of it as he says "Definitely prime dating real estate right there, but I know that I certainly don't mind." His eyes searching hers for something undefined "Your in the same boat too though, so as long as we're both okay with it I don't see the trouble, do you?

With a chuckle he reaches out to lightly tap Harper's brow "And you're going to have to stop this talk of cramping my style. If anything I look so much better when I have you by my side. Not to mention I make better choices too." winking he says "From where I'm sitting over here it seems like there are only positives here."

Harper searches Geoff's green eyes as she watches him, listens, as his fingertips graze the back of her hand. There's more that he's saying but she's not sure how to read it. Newly vulnerable brown eyes blink once or twice. "You don't mind," the librarian echoes softly, her breath from that whisper teasing at his lips. So long as we're both okay. "If we play it by ear, I think. If you have other things come up, you'll tell me and not feel bad." She's trying to apply reason to words that settle closer to her heart than she's accustomed.

She startles when Geoff lifts his fingers to tap at her brow. "I don't make you better, Geoff Turner. You have that the wrong way around." Oh, the warmth in those words. She laughs low and on the edge of that teasing breath, stunned and charmed by the roguish guile of her high school friend. From where he's sitting? "I -- I honestly don't understand how you don't have women falling at your feet, day in and day out. Or do you, and I simply have missed the show?" Those fingertips drop and she rests her palm on the front center of Geoff's chest, atop his shirt. Movie? What movie? Shoot the hostage! Surely they're not missing that scene.

Bringing his hand to Harper's cheek, he keeps gazing into her eyes, there's warmth in that touch both figurative and literal as well as the tactile sensation of skin against skin. "Do I though?" is asked in regards to her saying he has it the wrong way around "You sparked my curiosity in reading, it's because of you every day I can fight the temptation of giving in to my wilder impulses." his thumb gently swipes over her cheek "I could never see you sad because of me again like when you used to come and visit, never again." His attention consumed totally by his companion he continues, a smile pulling at his lips as he says "And when we hang out it's like all the cares and worries melt away, and it's just this weird kind of happy." leaning in he kisses her brow lightly then matches his gaze back to hers "Tell me you don't make me better again." That tone warm and playful as if daring her to disagree with all he'd just shared about how she figures into his life.

Harper shifts her weight: it's all Harper can do not to climb atop Geoff's nearer leg. She hovers there, turning her body more to look him head on in the eyes, her hand heavy against the front of his chest. He speaks those teasing-affectionate words and they're like their own form of liquor to get drunk on. "Those temptations and impulses," she replies slowly. "Are they frequent?" She blinks slowly and tips her cheek into Geoff's brushing thumb. Her skin is very soft. Her breaths are warm and teasing, and her smile lifts to match them. Then Harper's smile settles once more as her brow is kissed. "You happen to be very persuasive." Weirdly happy. He couldn't have said it better. The hand against his chest slides upward and she traces two fingertips along the place where his tee shirt collar meets his neck. "I think 'weirdly happy' feels a bit like nirvana, right now."

"Nirvana is right, that's why even if we did this every evening I can't imagine how I'd ever have any sort of regret." Geoff's words are soft and earnest, spoken with the weight of truth behind them. His breath warm and cascading over her skin with every exhale, the fresh scent of mint faintly in its wake. Arm tightening he gently urges her closer, with his gaze seeming all too happy to linger on hers. Speed plays in the background, the colors from the tv projected towards the couch and illuminating it and the wall behind them in its soft glow.

Harper's lips tip upward to accompany his response. "I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be." She leans in closer and it would be easy to translate that motion as an impending brush of her lips to his, but just a breath away, Harper dips her head to the side and lowers it to Geoff's shoulder. He can feel her speak against the side of his neck. "Why are you different? Because you are. You're like coming home, Geoff. My own personal home."

Home for Harper was her father who died a gory death in the shower at her home on the day of her eighteenth birthday. Her best friend in third grade who was impaled by glass in front of her on their way to a birthday party on their bikes. Her mother's horrible death by car accident when Harper was five, pinned by the steering wheel and not found until after she'd died slowly, in pain. Home is a word that she speaks when she can't say other words.

The movie flickers on. The sound of it is so faraway. Harper presses a soft kiss to Geoff's throat and then murmurs low, "I think I need tequila now. Lots and lots of tequila." She makes no move to push away just yet.

Geoff remains there in that close embrace, drinking in Harper's nearness as if unable to get enough. Words soft and in a whisper that can barely be heard above the soft ambient noise he murmurs "Because my home is with you." Those words followed by a soft kiss to her cheek. Home for Geoff had been an abusive father who hit the bottle always a little bit too hard. A mother who despite saying she loved him, the words never quite reached her eyes as he looked a bit too much like his old man. Home was never a place Geoff spoke of if he could avoid it...But in this case the home he speaks of sounds as if there was no place in the world he'd rather be then there.

Time seems to tick by slowly in their cuddled state before Geoff is taking the initiative to draw back. Luckily he'd brought the drinks to the table before them along with snacks and an extra glass or two (you can never be too prepared), so all it takes is for him to lean forward to start pouring that tequila, giving them each a healthy amount.

Harper breathes in the intimacy of the moment, the words Geoff speaks like a rare and exotic gift. She's definitely warm now, warm from when she woke up, from the chocolate red wine, perhaps a bit from the exchange between them. She stirs after he kisses her cheek to draw out of his space so he can pour them both some much needed -- tequila. Yep. Tequila. Because that's the answer. Not the close scent of her or the way they're spinning toward each other. Definitely not that.

She reaches for her filled glass and turns her body back toward the television, turning enough to resettle with her back against the line of Geoff's strong body, twisting the glass around in the air and holding it up for him to tap his against. "Weirdly happy nights with friends." She reaches for Geoff's free arm and drags it around her so she can lace her fingers with his against the front of her trim abdomen, atop the material of her white tank top. "So they're to the bus already? Seems like the beginning was longer than that the last time I saw this movie." Which would be back in high school. It's why Geoff chose this one. "He shot the hostage. And now Dennis Hopper is getting his fiendish revenge. Poor Sandy. She's just a cute, young bus commuter who knows Ortiz by name. And can drive a city bus."

Geoff taps his glass to Harper's "Cheers." and with that he's taking a sip, settling back in against her with his arm easily being maneuvered down around her waist "You know if they made a sequel to this somehow but it was a crossover with saw, I'd watch it. I mean all these bombs are just a hideous painful or disfiguring test away from being in that franchise already." Her words on the state of the Hostage and Sandy brings about a bout of laughter from Geoff, "I'm pretty sure being able to drive a city bus is all but a super power. If I tried I'd be crashing into everything....Maybe on purpose."

Harper growls in her throat a bit after swallowing some tequila. "That's.. mmm-powerful stuff. Yes." But at Geoff's comment, Harper cranes her neck around to give Geoff an odd look. "I just watched 'Saw' for the first time last night at Jessica's. That night was vodka. And I'm pretty sure it's part of why I decided to nap on your comfy sofa here." She listens to his reasoning. Her laughter is quiet but no less delightful for the volume, perhaps a bit more intoxicating, in fact. "Wasn't the point to be able to suffer the ordeal afterward if you lived, remembering what you'd been through? Saw off your leg and live to see another day, but always remember the trauma? But then, I suppose you're right. Others didn't have it so easy, did they? Maybe Dennis Hopper is Jigsaw's uncle. It's all the same universe. Just without Keanu, you don't get to enjoy it as much. Unless he shoots you." Geoff's laughter drags a slow, warm smile to Harper's lips. "Definitely on purpose. That would be the ultimate bumper car experience. You know, I think we should go bumper carring together. I don't think shooting you with paint will be enough damage for me."

"Yeah something like that, and then he started picking people who didn't appreciate life enough and if they couldn't prove they wanted to live despite the cost they'd die in horrible ways." Geoff confirms as if he was an authoritative source on the films "Pretty sure the speed version would just be forcing them to ride around on public transport for hours and hours and if they got off /then/ they'd die....Which to be honest would probably be a mercy after that." He seems skeptical of this information that she just now saw the movie for the first time only a few days prior "We are going to actually have to watch more movies at this rate. If you're just now seeing that, I can't even imagine what you haven't seen."

Taking a sip from the tequila, he wrinkles his nose at the series of life choices that have lead him to this point to be drinking tequila straight "Well then, next movie night we have the following day we'll follow it up with a trip to the amusement park to see if we can't find some bumper cars for you to assault me in. I'll get to looking for them tomorrow. Or we can just start going to amusement parks till we find one that does the trick."

The more Geoff follows his line of thought on torture-by-public-transit, the more Harper's laughter rises. "Honestly. I know I'd pray for death to come quickly if I was forced to live a life on mass transit. That just sounds smelly and invasive and all around unpleasant. With nothing to look forward to afterward. Like the middle seat on airplanes. All. The. Time." She shudders a little roll of shivers against Geoff. "Sure, I'll watch more movies. Just remember that horror movies get a bit overwhelming sometimes. If you're okay with pauses and play breaks, I can probably buckle down and get through." Harper takes the remainder of tequila in her glass all in one go with a gasp at the end after she swallows. "Gah! That's so wrong! Liquid-Wrongness."

"You can host my cinematic education. Though if you choose movies that were first books, you'll have to listen to me complain about all they had to leave out or change in the movie. That's my warning and I'm sticking to it." Harper's fingertips trace over and over the back of Geoff's hand against her stomach, a light, pleasant touch that continues to move. "Absolutely! Amusement park fun sounds excellent. And you won't complain about my desire for junk food, will you?" She pauses and looks faintly guilty, but then laughs. "I don't think I realized how much that bothered me until now." She clears her throat and releases her hold on Geoff's hand to stretch over and across his lap for the bottle on the floor, refilling her glass liberally, then tipping the neck of the bottle toward his glass in offer, should he lift it to be topped off. "I think I shouldn't relish the thought of assaulting you as much as I am. It's got to be wrong in some way. Speaking of which, what color paint am I shooting at your fine body tomorrow?"

Geoff gestures towards Harper with a big grin "See you get it. Public transport and having to be stuck with the unwashed masses on a moving platform that can get stuck in traffic is definitely hell and probably liable to give you ptsd." Pressing his fingertips lightly to her stomach he gives it a soft pat "I think I can handle the pauses and play breaks if you can stand me laughing at inappropriate times during them." Certainly not one to be out done by Harper in drinking he downs his glass when she does without even a moment of hesitation, letting out a faint his between his teeth "I think we might hate ourselves to have gone with tequila."

"We'll have to intersperse the book movies with things you haven't read first so every movie night isn't just literary criticism....Though I'd love to see you experience Joderowsky's holy mountain, I haven't even been able to give through the first half hour it's just..." he trails off as words completely fail him. Levying a /look/ at Harper he tells her "I am buying you a corndog at the first stand we come across, followed shortly by a funnel cake. When we're together we won't be bound by the tyranny of healthy eating." With her bending over his lap he lets out a chortle and teases "I could have gotten that for you, you know." Being but a man who has been drinking all night, his eyes can't help but fall to check out Harper's yoga pant clad rear, though when she rises back up with that offer to top off his glass (which he gladly accepts) there is no sign to be found that he'd even remotely checked her out.

"Of course I get it!" she volleys back, mock indignant. She drags her lower lip with her teeth when those fingertips drag over her tank-top clad stomach. "Mmhmm." He was saying something about laughing. She works to regain her focus. "Should we change beverages, or is it too late?" Because Harper will be equally destroyed by whatever they drink.

Interspersal. "I'll leave you in charge of the choices, then. I'm quite certain that whatever we watch, I'll enjoy myself if you're there. Though the worse they are, the more I promise to complain." And make bad jokes. But Geoff may still have yet to learn the extent of Harper's enjoyment of said pasttime. "It would be my first experience of Joderwosky's work in full. It's surrealist, correct? Or am I confusing it with something else?" She turns her face to smile up at him. "If it gives you so much trouble, we could turn it into a contest of some sort." A challenge glimmers behind Harper's brown eyes. And that's when he levies that look. She goes serious only to start laughing. "Promise! Promise me all the junk food. I want to get sick to my stomach. Then we can ride a roller coaster and see who vomits first." She must be joking; the librarian is certainly grinning. "No tyranny!" Harper absolutely has an ass worth checking out, neither skinny nor ungainly. A Goldilocks 'just right'. And she's utterly oblivious of being checked out, intent on pouring them both refills, having extricated her free hand from Geoff's. Back over she stretches. "You don't have to get it. I can handle it." The bottle is set on the floor on the other side of Geoff's legs and then she pulls back to resettle against Geoff. She utters a little sound of dizziness. "We've definitely hit the spinning stage." She lifts that free hand and pushes her hair out of her face. "Your toast this time." She lifts her glass and arches a brow challengingly. "And you get to take your drink from my glass."

"Oh it is absolutely too late for us to change our beverages now, we're locked in to the tequila." Geoff informs somberly, though he can't quite hide that smile that pulls at his lips and dances in his eyes "I'll make sure that we always have at least something fun to watch, it's about watching it together, yeah?" Arm slipping back around her once more, seeming quite comfortable there with his palm settling once more against her stomach. Still grinning he says "I promise you we'll get all the junk food then ride the biggest coaster we can find. I'll even wait in line extra long so we can grab a seat in the front."

Holding up his glass to Harper he says "To junk food, coasters, and us following happiness where ever it might lead." Once she clinks her glass he'd readily accept as much tequila from her as she seemed fit to give. That downed and with a faint heated blush of a buzz across his cheeks he clears his throat and says with a bit more confidence then he is feeling "So I was thinking Harper, with us...That time when you asked me to the dance junior year after I got broken up with. Well." he clears his throat and offers his hand to her, that nervousness giving way to a warm smile "Would you dance with me?"

"Too late, indeed!" Harper replies, extending the second syllable whilst incredibly tipsy. "Locked down. That's us, Geoff." She can't quite get away from that smile of his enough to watch any of the movie, and it's the big jump-the-unfinished-freeway-curve scene. She doesn't care. When Geoff is grinning like that what else should you be looking at? "You always will make sure of that, I have no doubts on the matter. Looking out for my viewing pleasure is your number one edict." He slides his hand around her waist and Harper murmurs a little, helpless sound in reaction. It's probably wise to expect Geoff won't notice. "You promise, but it could be years between now and then. No, I won't get my hopes up." She shakes her head vehemently, then immediately regrets the combination of the head shaking and the spinning, groaning a little. "Are you a fan of roller coasters?" This suddenly feels essential to know.

Harper repeats his toast for the most part and then feeds him her glass to drink the whole thing, laughing a little until or unless he does the same thing back with his glass. She coughs a bit as she chokes it down, then lifts a hand as she's laughing and wipes some she spilled from Geoff's lower lip with her thumb. "Ooops." More laughter. Harper is starry eyed at this point. It takes her a moment to translate the 'So I was thinking, Harper'. But eventually she does and settles down, dropping her hand away, holding her empty glass in the other. She seems a bit lost for a moment, putting her free hand in his reflexively before she realizes what he's asking. "Wait. What? Do you mean right now? Dance ... here?" She licks her lips then grins. "Sure! Are we dancing to the movie soundtrack?" She has to take a moment to figure out how to untangle her hands and body from Geoff, then there's some effort needed to actually muster the ability to get up off the sofa.

"Oh I love roller coasters, especially the wooden ones. We're gonna have to find a shiny metal one that takes us upside down for this though. Have to get all sorts of shook up." This too is said as if it were a promise "Just because it might take years to finish doesn't mean I won't be working towards it, you know?" Of course she knows, she's Harper.

That laughter at him drowning in her healthy glass of tequila is met with him of course giving her a decent amount of his glass in turn. As that thumb wipes over his lip to brush off the spilt drink he nips at the pad of it playfully "And of course I mean here /and/ now." grabbing the remote he fumbles with it for a few seconds to mute the tv rather then actually pause it. Standing on slightly shaky legs he walks over towards the entertainment system and hooks his phone up, scrolling through his apps to pull up spotify "There's like one song I remember from the dance, because it's when we finally got up the nerve to actually dance, and I was thinking that you had pretty eyes."

With that said the opening strains of Don't You (Forget About Me) comes from the speakers with a 'Hey hey hey' Turning back to Harper, Geoff watches her with a grin, the dance floor apparently having to be the middle of his living room rather then a sweaty gymnasium.

"Then promise me we'll ride at least once before Winter," Harper demands. The librarian jumps with a startled sound at the nipping at her finger, then starts laughing again. She's definitely nearing the drunk stage. Geoff makes standing up look so easy. It takes Harper a few efforts before she makes it to her feet and then she rises slowly. She smooths the front of her yoga pants as if they might be wrinkled and then moves out and around the coffee table, only reaching for it once to steady herself. Geoff is seriously focused on his phone so she pads barefoot over to look at what he's doing. "You remember the songs from the dance we went to?" Harper thought she was the only one with a clear memory for that night. And she certainly didn't think Geoff remembered their one dance. He thought she had pretty eyes. Those words filter in and she lifts a hand to her mouth while watching him, hiding her smile for a moment. "You never told me that." She remembers to pull her hand away when she speaks. He earns himself a charmed smile, though it's probably her umpteenth one of the evening.

The song starts and Harper just stares at Geoff for a moment before she chimes in with a 'Hey hey hey hey!'. She lifts a hand at him and points, reveling in the opening strains, her expression delighted. "Simple Minds definitely brings back that night. But I'm not wearing a hideous dress. And all the girls aren't watching me like I killed the cat. Whatever will we do?" He'll have to grab her if he wants her to dance.

Geoff makes his second promise of the night "I promise we'll ride one before winter. I swear on my ink!" he's even throwing solemn swears into the mix so she knows how serious he is. "How could I forget the dance, I had a blast." looking back to her he says "Well then I'll just have to tell you again to make up for it. For the record your dress wasn't /that/ bad, it was just a bold fashion statement."

Taking those few steps to close the distance between he pulls her in close, his brow tilting down with his nose tucking in against hers, voice low "You have absolutely gorgeous eyes, Harper." Hands falling to rest on her hips, he demonstrates that while he might have grown and gained a myriad of life skills, dancing wasn't one of them, so he reverts to the highschool slow dance.

The promise earns Geoff a fleeting smile of delight from Harper. The swear widens her eyes. "Okay, okay. I believe you." But then he's delighting her in an entirely different way with his memories. "Everyone loved you. At least all the girls, did," she replies. "I tended to be another story. It's alright. I didn't mind. I was pretty proud to be there with you. And my teenaged heart was reveling in a one-night fantasy crush." More perhaps than Geoff realized. The statement about her dress receives a laugh. "You're being kind."

With a caught breath, Harper slides up against Geoff. In her bare feet he's a good four inches taller than she is, so her hands slide up over his chest and around his neck and she looks up at him with a different kind of awareness for the first time beneath her starry demeanor from the alcohol. She whispers a stunned, "Oh." She's all soft curves where he is hard planes. Her breath teases his mouth as he drifts his face against hers. And her eyes flutter closed as he murmurs the compliment low. "Yours are better," is her drunken reply. "All dreamy green and full of promises that you don't speak." Did she say that out loud, murmuring in that entranced voice that she keeps to herself? She sways to the draw and gentle press of his hands at her hips, her lips parted as awareness bolts through her body. "Rain keeps fallin', rain keeps fallin', down down down down..." Her voice is lovely when she sings along, her cheek sliding against his, never quite still, evocative of the moment and so much potential. "Geoff.."

There is a quiet laugh and Geoff admits with the aid of alcohol and for the first time ever "I got up the courage to ask you out about four times, and each time I was finally ready. You'd give me the 'I think you should branch out' talk. You had a sixth sense for that." There is no hiding the warmth in his tone as if even her rejections had somehow been endearing to him.

He sways there with her slowly to the song, entranced by just how undeniably lovely her voice is in this moment. With her cheek brushing against his comes the light scrape of his beard against her soft skin. "Harper...." her name uttered carefully as if saying it for the first time and careful not to let the alcohol cause it to be slurred. Her whispered name accompanied by the electric sensation of his lips brushing against her ear with those two syllables. His hands lightly cupping her hips, brushing against them with the swaying of their bodies to the music.

There's a fifty-fifty chance that Harper won't remember these wonderful revelations. Isn't that a travesty? "Did I?" she draws back enough to find his charming green eyes with her own. "And you were going to ask me out? How awful of me. How much I would have punished myself if I'd known." She settles close again, enjoying the rough drag of his beard against her soft skin. "You didn't have a beard then, so this is a new sensation." A new sensation after a decade plus. It's highly unlikey that they danced together quite like this. And her teenaged body would have been far more trembly. "I do have a sixth sense for the oddest things. Just, I think, I didn't realize that you were even remotely interested in going out with me." And she wasn't. Aside from her well-hidden crush, she was the model of a good friend.

She can't help the breathless moan that escapes her lips as they sway from foot to foot, bodies shifting against each other, angles stirring. With his hands at her hips, he feels the shiver that rolls down her spine when he speaks her name. She tips her ear into that grazing feel of lips. "Oh." The sound of the word drifts past her lips. "God."

Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out

Harper slides one of her hands from Geoff's nape down over his neck and to the shirt over his chest, then she grasps the fabric in her fist and clenches it tightly.

Love's strange so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on

Nose brushing against the ridge of her ear he murmurs "For all your sixth sense, you've never been able to detect when I have a crush. Just preempt it." With a light graze of his teeth against her earlobe, he gives it a soft nip "That's okay, we're here now...I wouldn't trade our years of friendship for anything."

It's my feeling we'll win in the end
I won't harm you or touch your defenses

Trying to catch a glimpse of her eyes once more within that intimate distance they're in he says a bit simplistically "You're my favorite." his lips inadvertently brushing to hers with that statement. Though the words in themselves are oh so simple, the way he says them has them packed with emotion and meaning that can only be brought after well over a decade of friendship.

Going to take you apart
I'll put us back together at heart, baby

It's almost too much, the breath of his warm words against the sensitive curve of her ear. Geoff's words there spur another smile to rise upon Harper's pink lips. "I'm pre-emptive," she replies softly. He feels the nip to her ear ricochet through her soft, slender body. "Neither would I," she breathes. Being here now.

The music rolls over her, through her and Harper tries to pull him closer with that grip on his shirtfront, nails grazing his skin through the fabric of his tee shirt. Even as she does so she lifts her chin when he pulls back from her ear and locks eyes with him. He knows her too well. He doesn't use words that will shut her down like a bolt of cold water. He uses a Geoff-ism. He uses her own words. Their words. "And you're my favorite, Geoffrey. Always have been." Such a heart-breaking smile. His lips nudge hers and Harper grazes his in return with her own, a breathy almost-kiss. Electric yet fleeting. Without alcohol? It's likely she would be stammering or apologizing or shutting this shit down. But intoxicated and warm, safe and drawn in close, Harper sways to the slowly ending song with Geoff, her lips sliding against whiskers. Her hair sifts around her face and teases against his. She murmurs one of those delicious, closed-lipped sounds that mean everything and nothing all at once.

Geoff gets pulls so close, no room between their bodies as they rock and slide against each other. Sliding one hand from her hip he presses it to the small of her back as if afraid she might vanish into the ether of the night. As the song crescendos into La la la la he raises the hand from her hip and with a light touch gently brushes back the hair from her face, gazing at her features for several long heartbeats before he leans in to press his lips to hers. The gestures is tender, unmistakably purposeful, and speaking the wealth of things he hadn't said, couldn't say, hadn't realized but had known into that one, altogether brief kiss. It lasts no longer then a second or two before his lips part from hers, resting a scant few centimeters away.

It's a new awareness that sparks like electricity as their bodies meet in an entirely new way. Alcohol-numbed inhibitions fall away and Harper tips her head into the hand caressing her hair back from her face. She opens her eyes to find his locked on her and she smiles just this side of perceptibly into his eyes, at once vulnerable and inviting. So small a kiss, so brief, it impacts like a meteor and she returns it, equally fleeting, a breathless caress, a teasing contact of lips to lips. He draws back incrementally and she drags in a breath, trembling now. "Geoff." No longer a question. Something more substantial. A statement in his name. The fingers behind his neck trail up and into his hair. The grip at his shirtfront loosens and slides upward to press the apex of finger and thumb against the front of his throat, not threatening air, but feeling the draw and release of it. "I think ..." More breathing. "I might like to kiss you more. And I'm not sure that's the right thing to do. I can't think at all when all I can breathe and taste is you."

Geoff 's breath comes in slightly quickened draws with his pulse dancing beneath her inquisitive and probing touch. He shows no such intellectual inhibition against enjoying her kiss or the intoxication the taste of her lips on his or her warm scent brings him. No. No, he goes for it, his lips meeting hers in kiss after desirous kiss, words woven between them "I like kissing you." his teeth gently catching her lower lip, giving it a soft tug, and a lathe of his tongue across it before releasing it and following it with another soft kiss "Your kisses are the best."

Overwhelmed, Harper simply sinks into those kisses, her lips soft and warm, grazing, plucking back at his, her tongue sneaking small tastes of him between each new press from him. His taste is dizzying, more than the tequila is. His scent just makes her hungry for more. His gently aggressive response to her hesitation bowls over her lingering questions. When he drags his teeth over her lower lip she groans audibly and arches up against the hard line of his body, the fingers tangled in his hair tightening. He speaks the last and she laughs softly against his mouth. "The best."