2019-09-27 - I Sleep Better Here

[Last Night]

After a particularly late night closing up the bar Easton made his way home to check in on Bennie and take the dog out for a walk. The cool night air felt good enough that he somehow tricked himself into thinking that he could easily fall asleep when he got home. But sadly sleep was nowhere to be found for Easton, not a terribly uncommon occurrence. So instead he spent a few hours wasting time, rewatching movies he's seen before, playing a few rounds of Call of Duty or any military themed fps he owns. But eventually dawn breaks and he forces himself to start the day.

[Now]
It's early afternoon, probably too early for Geoff to be off work but Easton's still restless and needs to get out of the apartment, not the least of which because he can do little to help Bennie shake off her fever and it's causing him to feel even more restless. He pulls up to Geoff's on his Harley, grabs the beer from the saddlebag and makes his way up to the trailer. There's no one in but he doesn't mind letting himself in with the spare key and making himself at home. The beer is put in the fridge and Easton take a seat on the couch. After a good amount of channel flipping he decides he might be able to actually get some sleep. Since he and Bennie aren't sharing a bed right now he's crashed at Geoff's a few times just to get some sleep. He just sleeps better here for some reason. Finding a blanket he shucks off his shirt, pants and even undoes his prosthetic leg to curl up on the couch. Which leaves a motorcycle in the driveway and a vaguely Geoff shaped man sleeping on the sofa.

Geoff's trailer is quickly gaining speed to become a new Gray Harbor hub at this rate. Harper gets off work at 4pm and drives over to Geoff's place after changing into a warm-weather skirt and top. The sunshine is still warm today. It's a great day to pop over and surprise Geoff with some dinner. Carrying a grocery bag in one arm, Harper finds that the door is not locked. She admits herself and sees what she thinks is a familiar form over on the sofa and quietly sets the grocery bag down in the kitchen. If it strikes her funny that he's asleep on the sofa, she rationalizes it well enough. Maybe he fell asleep watching something on television.

She moves over to the sofa and drops to her knees beside the blanketed form she assumes is Geoff and trails light fingertips along his shoulder and back. "Hey, handsome. I thought you were working this afternoon. Is everything alright?" Her smile is inherent in her warm words and she lightly pets the man's back. "I brought over some burger fixings. Do you have a barbeque?" Did she remember Geoff's hair being quite that light? Perhaps the dimness inside the trailer makes the difference less remarkable.

Thankfully Easton hasn't entered the depths of 'veil flu' yet so his sleep is not marred with feverish dreams or Dreams. At least nothing that's far outside his usual darkly tinted sleepy time revelries. He has his face turned to the back of the couch but opens one eye when he hears the door shut. He still expects to be roused from sleep by bad news. But he lets himself try to drift back to sleep, figuring that Geoff must be home. His eyes reopen, both of them, when someone drops down and starts trailing fingers along his back and calling him handsome. Geoff's usually more a 'full body snuggle' type than a 'trail your fingers lightly' one.

Slowly he rolls over and raises his eyebrows at Harper and manages to stifle a laugh long enough to greet her.

"Hi."

He lets out a chuckle and says, "Uh, Geoff's not here?" Because who knows, maybe Geoff is there, he was out afterall. But then he finally catches on and realizes that they've met. "Harper. Right?" He slowly sits up and gives a big stretch and yawn before settling back against the couch, now sitting up, shirtless with the blanket across his lap. His torso a mix of scars, hair, muscle and very random tattoos including a zombie bear on his shoulder-blade, a pineapple on his side and a stack of flying money right above his waistline.

Harper's fingers continue their trailing until the man rolls over and she realizes with a jolt that she's petting a different man than she thought. With perhaps comical dismay, Harper drops backward from her knees to thump to her bum on the carpet when this information registers. "Oh!"

She lifts that offending hand to cover her jaw drop, then accuses just as quickly, "You're not Geoff!" A flush of color rises over Harper's skin and she drops her hand to her lap. "Hi ... Marshall, I mean Easton, wasn't it?" A slow shake of her head as if the denial was still drifting through her. "I'm so sorry. I just assumed you were Geoff." Easton sits up and Harper suddenly studies her hands atop her white-skirt clad lap. Not looking at the potentially naked man. Not looking! There were tattoos. Tattoos and skin. Nope. Still not looking! The librarian gets ahold of herself and tries to scoot back, shoving her back up against the coffee table. But it becomes awkward to not look at the man. Just his face. She lifts brown eyes and offers an abashed smile. "I was going to make some dinner. Are you, um, hungry?" Because it would look odd now to leave a bag of groceries and run. Her gaze slides down to shoulders and snaps back upward again.

"Nope" Easton readily agrees with a big grin that he is not in fact Geoff. He manages not to laugh too much as she falls over and blushes at the completely understandable assumption. "Easton. Easy." He offers as she comes up with both his names. "Don't worry about it. I .." And it's about here that Easton puts together some simple math between Geoff's text messages and Harper showing up with food to cook. He stops talking and gives her a knowing smile for just a second too long before continuing, "I sometimes crash out here." Not quite as often since Bennie moved in with him, but still every now and then he couch surfs.

If there is any awkwardness at his state of undress it is entirely on Harper's side. He throws off the blanket to start putting on his prosthesis again, a task he's done literally hundreds of times and yet still takes a good amount of time. He looks up at the offer and shakes his head, "Nah, thank you. If you and Geoff had a dinner plans, I don't need to interrupt that." He's just in his boxer briefs while he puts on the leg, but probably to her relief he's not managed to slip back on a shirt and then his jeans. "But thanks for the offer."

He rises from the couch and heads to the fridge to get a beer. Because while he's not planning to stay for dinner, there's always time for a drink.

Easton's laughter, then that shit-eating grin somehow settles Harper. She smiles back with an inimitable smile of her own, remaining where she sits for the time being. His smile shifts again and she arches a brow at him. "That's good to know. Next time I show up unannounced I'll make sure to check who it is, first." She lifts a fingertip to her lips in order to try to quell her own curving grin.

The work with the prosthesis does draw her attention, and it's a welcome focus for Harper as her blush fades. "You don't need to go. I was trying to surprise Geoff with some dinner when he got off work. There's enough for three. There weren't any plans, really." Dinner was all she was planning, after all. "You could help me find Geoff's barbeque things. I know he'd like it if you stayed." She rolls back to her knees and then pushes to her feet to move back into the kitchen area while he takes care of dressing. From the grocery bag, she pulls out a package of ground beef, some buns, lettuce, tomatoes, and an onion. "I'm really sorry I woke you up, Easton. But you really should stay. I don't know if Geoff would forgive me for running you off." A flickered, sparkling smile is cast Easton's way.

"Yea, well at least you're not quite as friendly as Bennie, a hand on the back ain't nothin." The thought of how Bennie might choose to wake a man she thought was Easton causes him to cough as he covers another laugh, shaking his head. "But probably a good policy, none the less."

With beer in hand, some canned beer that is far, far too cheap to be considered any good, he shrugs and says, "Sure, I can help you get setup. And I'll check in on Bennie, she's got some terrible flu thing. If she's alright, I'll hang out." He starts poking around for charcoal and a lighter and all the other grilling things. He knows the place well by this point, especially the grilling stuff. When she mentions running him off he looks up from a squatting position and says with a grin, "Oh honey, you don't have to worry about running me off. Our marriage may not be legal but Geoff and I aren't splitting up anytime soon." He takes great joy in telling her that yes he did in fact marry Geoff Turner, before going back to the cabinets.

"You're with Bennie Oakes?" Harper asks with surprise lighting her brown eyes. "We went to high school together." If Easton decides that she's not as friendly as Bennie, Harper is okay with that. More than okay. After getting over her initial startlement, Harper seems to roll with things well enough.

The librarian flickers a glance to the retrieved beer. "I bought a microbrew to go with the burgers if you'd rather have something that actually, I don't know, tastes like real beer." Not that there's anything wrong with cheap beer. It serves a purpose. She gestures toward the grocery bag that still contains a six-pack and a half flat of strawberries. "Sorry to hear she's sick." If she weren't, Harper would be stretching the meat to four people. "Great," Harper answers with a smile. He might stay. Distaster averted. "Thanks. I'm terrible with barbeques." Which begs the question of how she thought she'd prepare burgers if Easton hadn't been there.

Easton leads into the Vegas marriage and Harper looks up with a startled expression, "Pardon me?" She hasn't been brought in on the relationship between the two men, or the trip for that matter. She only knows what she saw at the charity paintball event. Which was definitely something. "The two of you got -- Well, that's an interesting turn, isn't it?" Harper looks the now-dressed Easton over thoughtfully. She thinks she knows Geoff pretty well, and has since they were freshmen in high school. "So, it sounds like I need to pull out the paintgun and shoot you over who gets the right to kiss him when he gets home. I don't think I'd win at arm wrestling." She preps the lettuce, slices the tomatoes and the red onion. "Though he did kiss the Thai delivery boy the other night. Maybe you have the advantage. Hmm, maybe I'd like to see that." Harper pulls out a beer for herself and uses the edge of the counter to pop of the lid. "Definitely need to drink to that."

"Yeah. She's... a little more touchy feely than most." This understatement from Easton is accompanied by a warm smile, he makes it sound both like a compliment and somehow a warning? They are both a bit overwhelming in their own ways.

"Are you disparaging my water beer? I'll have you k ow this is the.." he checks the can to confirm the slogan "beer of champions. And the official beer of the US bowling league apparently." Easton doesn't seem bothered by either the lack of quality in his beverage nor her open judging of it. It does indeed serve a purpose.

Pardon me?

Easton stands up from the cabinet and takes a big gulp of his beer before explaining. "Wild Vegas shenanigans, nothing to worry about from a romantic competition stand point I assure you." He finishes off the beer, far too quickly for a casual drinker and goes for another. "And while I'd gladly shoot ya or arm wrestle, I'm glad .." he trails off for a second to find the words. "You're here." That's a safe lack of a label. "Geoff's good people."

"He did?" Easton tries to imagine a scenario in which Geoff would kiss the delivery boy and decides "I do get inordinately happy when they're on time." Laughing as she admits that she would like to see Some Eastoff action he says, "I hear that a lot actually."

Harper listens to Easton's description of the woman Harper went to high school with, her brown eyes bright with interest. "Is she? I'm happy for you, Easton." And Harper appears to be sincere in that sentiment.

"I don't know if I'd say disparaging, but since I brought some over, I thought I'd offer. It's pretty hard to argue with the official beer of the US bowling league. That's certainly an achievement." Of some caliber. Harper sets the beer down and leaves the ground beef be for the time being. Hefting herself up with the palms of her hands on the countertop, she perches there with her legs dangling, then lifts the more expensive beer for a long drink, given as Easton is sticking with his own for now. He'd gladly shoot her. Or arm wrestle. She tips a look at the Marine. "We'll see about that." Harper smiles at Easton's approximation of Geoff. "I couldn't agree more, Easton. But you're the one who married him. You've got to tell me some good secrets about your so-called husband. He's just begging to be hassled."

She lifts up her beer bottle in a half-hands-up, "That's what he told me. The guy beat me by three minutes tops. But I suppose he won, fair and square. I mean, really. Who expects a delivery person to also be named 'Harper'?" Amusement sparkles behind Harper's brown eyes. "A girl can't get every kiss." He hears that a lot. "I'll bet you do. Fortunes of war and marriage, I suppose."

Geoff pulls up on his bike, idling there for a moment as he takes in the vehicles there...Easton's bike? Check. Harper's car? Check. This is a situation that while perhaps unavoidable was definitely one that he'd been hoping to have under more controlled circumstances. Climbing off his bike he tucks his helmet in the saddle bag and ambles on up to the trailer.

Throwing open the door he strides right on in with a large grin and calls out the safest thing in this instance "Honey, I'm home." after all that is perhaps the safest most neutral greeting that could be applied to the two conspiring there within his trailer. His clothing today a pair of jeans, a black tee and leather jacket, and a pair of heavy boots.

At least Easton is fully dressed at this point. He has the usual gray tee shirt over jeans, though he's still barefoot. Opening his second cheap can of beer he agrees with Harper, "The US Bowling league has never steered me wrong" granted he had never heard of such an organization until he read it off this can, but it's still true. The fact that Harper went to school with Bennie doesn't surprise him but based on Bennies self described bitchy persona back then he leaves off any comment about what their relationship of any was like.

"Ooh secrets about Geoff? Hmm" he makes a big show of thinking about this, perhaps because he can tell by the sound alone that Geoff's bike is arriving. So he is sure to start in with, "Well he will probably never admit it but he secretly loves it when you.." he is sure to draw out the words long enough for Geoff to make his entrance.

Honey, I'm home

Easton laughs and says "You better be talking to her." He asides to Harper, "All our pet names are way dirtier and vaguely insulting."

"Came over to hang and ended up crashing on the couch. Sadly didn't get a wake up kiss from Harper here."

Yes. At least Easton is dressed at this point. Harper takes a long swallow of the bottled beer she's holding while Easton delays. She hears the bike, too, and is watching Easton with an expectant look when he goes down that particular dead-end avenue.

Geoff walks in the door and she flickers a brown-eyed look over to him from where she's perched on the countertop. There is a plate holding sliced tomatoes and onions, and washed lettuce leaves. On the counter is a grocery bag holding a six-pack of designer beer and a package of fresh strawberries; next to it rests an as-yet unopened pack of ground beef and a bag of hamburger buns. Harper smiles at the tattoo artist. "It's the happy bridegroom. Hi, you. Your husband and I were just having the most interesting conversation. Welcome home." Harper gestures with her bottle toward the still cold six-pack (minus one bottle). "Have a beer." She pauses. "Easton has some bowling beer, too, I think." Oh the things these two could have discussed.

Geoff dips his head amiably "Oh definitely talking to her, you know I'd never talk to you like that ass muffin." the man says with a grin towards Easton as he closes the door behind him "I mean honestly man I just expect you to be crashing on my couch whenever I come in." And with that he heads towards the counter and Harper, aiming to steal a kiss from the counter percher before telling her "Oh I'm sure you've learned all sorts of dirt about me like I love it when---Oh beer." and he's turning to take the beer, popping the cap with a bottle opener on his keychain "So what were you two talking about?"

Harper uptips her brows at Geoff. Perhaps the information might have been helpful before she nearly molested Geoff's husband. But she's not withholding kisses. He steps close and receives a brush of her lips to his in a hopsy kiss of greeting. She didn't even have to arm-wrestle Easton for it! Amusement sparkles in Harper's brown eyes as Geoff echoes the same line Easton just used. Harper brushes her fingers against the back of Geoff's knuckles and answers, "Easton was just in the middle of that when you walked in. If he gets the barbeque going, we'll have burgers for dinner. But I think that depends on how Bennie is feeling. I guess she's sick."

"Damn straight prick dick." Easton salutes Geoff with his beer before taking another might swig of it. He shrugs at the comment about Geoff expecting him on the couch, which is fair. "And normally I'd say you're welcome to crash at my place whenever, but yea Bennie is like plague sick and I wouldn't recommend that just now." He nods at Harper, "Yea that's right I was going to tell her all about the special request at the strip club.." But then he's being tasked with starting the barbeque and so he takes the charcoal and lighter outside, leaving the door open in attempt to keep the conversation going somewhat. He at least as the good grace to start the grill first and then step away to light his cigarette. He takes up one of the lawn chairs, content to sit and smoke while it warms up.

"Sorry to interrupt on that, I'm sure you would have found it very enlightening." Geoff says as if he isn't at all sorry, in fact that broad grin pulling at his lips rather suggests he isn't. At the mention of the strip club he laughs "You're not pulling punches at all are you? Going straight for /that/ request." with a roguish grin towards Harper he begins to move towards the cupboards and starts to unpack everything they'll need to make the most out of that ground beef and turn it into burgers

"I can tell how sorry you are," Harper replies mildly. "But I think you'll be telling me all sorts of stories this evening. With Easton's help, of course." She's not quietening her voice. He's included in this exchange. "Isn't that right, Easton?"

Harper's a sucker for that grin, and they both know it. If Geoff wants to prepare the ground beef, Harper won't get in the way. She'll just perch there on the counter and look cute for awhile. Sure the strawberries need to be cleaned but she doesn't want distractions just yet. "No rings? That's hardly a real marriage. How long ago did this blessed event take place?" She takes another drink of the beer she's nursing. Apropos of nothing, "You're fortunate I didn't molest your husband when I got here. I thought he was you." A Look. "So go ahead and start from the beginning. When did you go and who popped the question?"

Taking a breath outside, Easton frowns a little at the fact that he feels a little more ill than he did when he first came over. "Pulling punches is for people you don't know." Easton answers Geoff's question, though in truth he doesn't know Harper really at all. But he totally follows the rules of induction and if Geoff knows Harper really well, then close enough.

"Yup. We're laying it all bare Geoff." He smirks at the pun and then makes it a little clearer, "Especially the stripping."

For a while though he's content to drink outside and smoke a cigarette, having finally gotten something approaching a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Geoff hums quietly to himself as he prepares those patties, mixing pats of cold butter, egg and a myriad of seasonings to bring about the perfect burgers , or at least passably good ones "Oh we had rings, we just gambled them away to cover the cost of the kilos. You know how it goes." he goes about patting another burger into its plump shape "It wasn't that long ago, it was during that trip we took to vegas, and if anything I think the fact that Elvis married us makes it super religiously binding. Though the fact that we haven't consummated it means that that rock and roll Jesus doesn't acknowledge it as active yet." The burgers are being stacked on a plate nearby so they can be brought out to grill master Easton "You know I'd never deprive you of a chance to molest. After Easton leaves I'll just have to bare my cross and take the molestation."

Raising his voice he calls out towards the punch "That's true, and if you were pulling punches I'd have to wonder just who you were, because you wouldn't be the man I married." Now that it's just out in the open, he's going to ride that cart as long as he can "The stripping was a pretty good, if bizarre and surreal time. You never know what people will be willing to do until you ask." Aside to Harper he mentions "It was like a Joderowsky movie."

Harper worries at the label on her bottle with a thumbnail as she watches and listens. "The kilos," she echoes. "Of course I know how that goes. Drugs always take precedence over jewelry. That's just a given." Her matter-of-fact voice doesn't cover how her brows skate upward. Now and again she looks from Geoff to the window outside to measure any reactions from Easton to what Geoff is saying. "You know what wise men say." Only fools rush in. No consummation. Well, that's something. Just what it is when taken with the better part of what's been shared so far is hard to say. Harper's along for the ride. "Not yet, no. At least not according to Rock 'n Roll Jesus." Harper glances outside again, "You feeling alright, Easton?" Harper actually frowns a real frown about that. Back to Geoff after a head tip toward the man outside, "Next time I'll have to destroy all of Easton's high moral boundaries." She lifts her beer and takes another swallow. "If you insist."

"Well, if it was like a Joderowsky movie, then I want the details. Way past the first thirty minutes. Were you two stripping or being stripped for? And what made it any different than any other strip show? The drugs?" Easton's comment about Harper being someone you don't pull punches for earns him a little grin. "I like your choice in men, Turner."

"Damn straight!" Easton calls back about being the 'man he married', which yes still makes him laugh. He adds, "Yea, after that strip tease I'm pretty sure we no longer qualify for amateur night at Platinum. We're what semi-pro now?" At the sight of the burgers he puts his smoke down carefully on a plate used for ashes so that he can attend to his grilling duties. Any talk of kilos gets no reaction out of Easton. He wasn't about divulge anything about that trip beyond the marriage, because that cat is already out of the bag with Bennie but he's also not going to stop Geoff from sharing.

You feeling alirght, Easton?

"Yea, I think so. Just a little loopy from a weird sleep schedule." And the third beer is probably not helping him at all. Or maybe it is? Hard to tell. "Also, saying I have high moral boundaries is basically fighting words ... Harper I Don't Know Your Last Name Unless It's Harper." He gets that out awkwardly before getting the burgers on the grill and going back to his lawn chair, to consider if it's actually the lack of sleep that has him feeling like this.

Geoff gives no further information or reaction to the matter of their wedding rings or the kilos of whatever they were gathering "Oh I definitely insist." tilting the beer back he takes several long gulping drinks from it before polishing it off and tossing the bottle into the trash, after all he is a bad boy and bad boys don't recycle.

Raising his voice he calls back out towards the patio "Oh her name is Harper Harper, I should have introduced you guys formally but I'd assumed you taken care of that when you got the club meeting going without me earlier." leaning back against the counter near her he says "And you really got to be careful with what you say about him, the last guy who said he had standards or moral standing ended up watching him drink a trash beer." What's trash beer, that should be the real focus there.

Harper tilts a look to Geoff in the kitchen when Easton speaks to their semi-pro status. "I'll mark that down under the skills-I-didn't-know-you-had category. I definitely got a different dance than that." Easton answers her query about how he's feeling. "Do you want a real beer? Or are you still sticking with your bowling buddy?" Because she'll bring one out to him. "It's Price." Her last name.

"If you want to fight, Marshall, I'll go right now." Harper knows less than nothing about fighting. But Easton said her words were fighting words. Geoff leans in to advise her to watch what she says and receives an 'Oh-Really-THAT's-The-Line' bit of a look. "You're a real sonovabitch, Easton. I'm just saying." A how's-that look to Geoff. Trash beer??

"So there was a wedding, there were drugs, there was a strip tease of epic proportions. We're missing sex and violence. Don't tell me you two left sex and violence out of the mix. Not in Las Vegas." Harper reaches her bottle up and taps Geoff on the chin with the mouth of it. "I don't want the rest. Finish it off?"

"No we skipped the introductions and went straight into the molesting and gossiping portions of the meeting. Club bylaws state that if one member is absent, you immediately get naked, fuck and then divulge all the other persons secrets. Which, brings me to my next point. This is a really fucked up club." He rattles this off just before Geoff makes his point about Easton being willing to drink trash beer to prove a point. He admits "That's true" without giving any more details on what exactly is trash beer.

"Bowling buddy all the way, Price." He tries out calling her by her last name and doesn't look convinced that it's going to stick. "I would need a lot more beers in me to consider punching you Harps. Mostly because then I'd have to punch Geoff. A lot. And that sounds tiring." He does however appreciate being called a sonovabitch and gives her a thumbs up and grin.

"I actually did manage to leave out sex." Easton says, quite proud of himself. There is however no mention of the violence. Which was not in anyway left out.

Geoff winks to Harper "Maybe I'll show you some of the other skills I had sometime. Though to be fair if I told you a week ago I could strip you'd have given me your non sexy librarian look and called me 'Geoffery' before telling me that was something that you did not need to know. Or maybe that I should have told you sooner so you could add it onto my selling points when you were looking for a girlfriend for me."

With a laugh he tells Easton "Right? Just calling her Price doesn't really stick. Personally I'm kind of taken with Harper Harper now. Might even slip a fake id with it into her purse." with a cough and a clearing of his throat he says "I've been meaning to bring the club up. I'm thinking we might want to change things, now that you've got a pretty steady girlfriend I'm not going to allow you to fuck things up with we should probably get rid of the molesting part. You know she gets jealous when we molest each other without her there."

Harper is doing fine up until Easton starts in on absent members and rules of order in such cases. That right there? That would be Harper turning bright pink. Thankfully trash beer re-asserts its ugly, if bewildering, head and she's saved further embarassment.

Geoff makes salient points about her reaction a week ago to any statements about his stripping ability. In fact, "Hell, Geoffrey, I might even tell you tonight that you should have told me sooner as well as seriously considering resuming my matchmaking activities." Geoff harps on Harper Harper and the librarian just shakes her head with slow, rueful smile. Bennie gets jealous when she's not there? Harper doesn't have any experience of Bennie since high school. "I feel I should stand up for Bennie on principal here. But I'm not sure quite how."

If bowling buddy means toss-Easton-another-cheap-beer-from-the-fridge, Harper stirs and hops off the counter with a thump to open the refrigerator for another can of Easton's hoity-toity beer and walks it around to the front door to toss to him. "Heads up." She walks over to the grill to check out the progress on the burgers then glances sidelong at him to consider his meat grilling face. "Okay. We'll wait until you're a lot drunker, then." She smiles back at him brightly at the thumbs up and grin. "And less tired."

Sex was left out. This may or may not be startling to Harper. She doesn't indicate one way or the other. She's waiting for further details from which to judge. "I feel like I'm missing some crucial pieces to this story. Cough 'em up, boys."

"Harper H. Harper Harper at law." Easton tries it on for size, with the additional flourish of a title. He makes a face as if accepting it and says, "Yea, that's way better than Price." He doesn't take any notice of Harper blushing about the rules. But then Geoff wants to change said rules and Easton 'clarifies' for Harper, "Bennie's not jealous per say, as much as sad that we aren't letting her watch. Preferrably with a glass of champagne. She's actually a little more invested in the idea of Geoff and me and her and I sometimes." That's not particularly true but it's funny to say and Easton never lets the truth get in the way of a joke.

The beer from Harper is caught easily with an overly loud, "Thank you!" called back. Most all that Easton says is overly loud though.

"There was giant turtle? That I'm pretty sure Geoff fed most of our snacks to?" Easton offers by way of critical information about their road trip, before adding and actually pertinent "But the no sex thing was on account of Bennie. I was good!" And something in the tone is very telling in that it might be the first time he can say that?

"Hey as long as you match me to you Harper Harper I don't care if you resume those matchmaker activities." Geoff says with a small dismissive gesture of his hand as if to blow off that threat "Besides all you ever need to do is ask and I'll tell you. You just never asked if I was able to strip like a pro to a song other then 'pony'."

"Look Sir Turquoise of the Tortoise order was obviously very hungry and in need of beef jerky and gummy worms. The saddest fact about turtles is that they are prolific devourers of meat, they are just too slow to ever get anything good so they have to go with produce which isn't quite able to run away." The way in which Geoff explains this makes it sound as if this is well hashed out argument "And he is learning to be monogamous for Bennie. He's been passably good."

Harper's Harpers start multiplying exponentionally and she just shakes her head. "I suppose I'll stand in solidarity with Bennie, then, if I don't find Geoff a more suitable girlfriend to squeal at his stripping prowess in the meantime. With the stipulation that somebody gets me drunk for the occasion." Champagne may suffice.

Harper folds her arms across her chest and shakes her head slowly at the giant turtle addition. "You can do better than that, Easton." A glance inside to Geoff, who quite clearly jumps on the reptile bandwagon. "I'll work on improving my questions, Geoffrey." Harper's amusement as the best friends play off of one another spins to the next level. "You two are well-matched. I can see why you're together." She picks up the plate in preparation to gather the burgers when Easton deems them ready to come off the grill. After Geoff spins out about turtles, Harper resigns herself to perhaps having heard all she is going to hear about the epic trip. "Don't think you're fooling me. But I'll eat a burger now and stop asking questions for at least as long as it takes to chew my food." Her brilliance is manifest. She brought over dinner and then got the two men to do the preparation and cooking of it. "Should I send home some soup with you for Bennie, Easton?"

Easton actually chokes on his beer a little at 'Sir Turquoise' because he didn't realize said giant turtle had a name and that Geoff didn't ever catch on that it would be physically impossible for them to pass the same giant turtle in a desert multiple times. There were drugs involved, but not space and time travel. Mention of the stripping prowess however gets him to tell her, "Harper you really missed out on this by the way, I highly recommend asking for a private dance later."

Pulling off the burgers, Easton manages to shoot a look at Geoff that doesn't require any mental glimmer to communicate however much he wants to disclose is solely up to him. It's a surprisingly effective communication for a single look but the two men are far, far closer than most.

"Soup? I should swing by Gina's place and get her something. Honestly though she's in the rugged phase of struggling to keep anything down." He frowns realizing he's been gone for a bit longer than he meant to be. "And I hate to eat and run but I should probably down this and head back that way. But seriously Turner, only passably good? I thought that was solid B+ monogamy work there. At least"

And true to form Easton manages to consume a hamburger at a speed that defies good manners and nearly comprehension. He still eats like he's in the Marines if he's not thinking about it which means the idea of savoring or really tasting even is out the window for sheer speed.

Geoff waltzes over to prepare himself a burger with all the dressin's available telling Harper with a faux solemnity "Oh we're definitely well match, he completes me." Though he isn't quite able to hide the smile from his eyes at that "I'll be looking forward to seeing just how much your question game improves after this. Though maybe I need to get you drunk for the stripping to further expand your horizons of inquiries."

Catching Easton's look he gives a faint dip of his head before saying "Man I hope you manage to avoid whatever it is that Bennie managed to catch. It sounds like it's running her ragged." with a laugh and a gesture with his burger he says confidently "At least it isn't me, I'm as healthy as a mule. If you can survive prison conditions, you no longer get sick. It's one of the things you get for doing time."

Harper regards Easton's advice about private dancing experiences with a faint throwaway nod, "Of course. I'll keep that in mind." She takes the plate of burgers inside and arranges for everyone to have all the toppings and condiments they choose. There are five more beers from the six pack she brought over, not counting whatever cheap beers remain. There are even chips, should anyone choose to have them.

She eats, as promised, and lets the boys play, watching with the interest of a woman whose decade plus friend has just revealed an entirely new side to her, laughing now and again, asking a question here or there, but never with her mouth full. The nuances between the boys are fascinating to behold.

"Clearly my question game needs work. But I don't know that drinking will help. You just like me impressionable." Harper looks from Geoff to Easton as the topic of getting sick comes up. "Famous last words," she waves a finger and tsks. "That was a foolhardy move, Geoff: laughing in the face of fate. You'll get sick next week and I'll laugh with Easton about it."