INSTALLMENT NINE

INSTALLMENT TEN

The girls shared a very enjoyable meal and talked about the goings on in their lives. They hardly ever had the chance to sit down and shoot the breeze.

"So what are your plans today?" Lauren turned to her sister.

"I don't know. I wasn't expecting Tori to come back until next week so I really didn't have any plans." Brett looked over at her lover. "Honey is there anything you wanted to do?" Brett lifted a piece of bacon and bit into it.

Taking a sip of orange juice, Tori thought about the possibilities.

"Well, I'd like to go home and unpack my things, check my messages, and see if there's anything pressing that needs my attention. Once that's through, I'm all yours." Tori picked up a slice of cantaloupe and bit into it. She held up her fork offering the rest to Brett. Brett leaned over and took the offered fruit. Tori watched as some juice glistened on Brett's lips, leaned over, and kissed her. The two were at it again and the other girls rolled their eyes.

"Excuse me?" Lauren had never seen two people go at it as often as these two did. She was happy for them but it did nothing for her libido or her love life or lack there of.

"Uh…um.. sorry." Tori sneaked in another quick kiss and pointed at Brett's lips.

"Brett had a bit of fruit juice on her lip and I was helping to clean it up." Brett smiled and they gave each other another sickeningly sweet look.

"Right." Lauren looked to Adrian and Alexi and they all rolled their eyes. "So, do you think you'd like to go shopping with us? We're thinking of going into New Jersey and going mall hopping. There's Garden State Mall, Riverside, Paramus Park, Willow Brook, Jersey Gardens, and a whole bunch of others. On the other hand, we could go to Harriman's Woodbury Commons, Palisades Centre, or Short Hills. What do you say? We haven't hung out together in ages." The girls had lived together for the last four years and since Tori's reappearance, they hadn't seen much of Brett. They all loved Tori and wanted to spend some time with her as well.

"Well I'm cool with that if you are honey." Tori took Brett's hand and brought it to her lips. "If you want to come over to my place and hang out until I finish what I have to do then I can go. If you want to get started right a way then you and Brett can go without me. I'm sure I can come up with something to keep me occupied." Tori kissed Brett's hand again, telling her she would understand either way.

Brett looked at the other girls. "I'd love to go shopping but it's up to you. You haven't seen Tori's place. You'd just love it. There's a ton of things to keep us busy while Tori's doing her errands. But it's entirely up to you." Brett blushed when she felt Tori nipping at each of her knuckles. She's trying to kill me. Please give me strength…

"Ooh, I'd love to see Tori's place!! I heard it's amazing." Adrian hopped up and down in her chair and looked at Alexi. "Mommy, can we go? Please? Please, can we go?" Adrian gave Alexi a pleading look.

"You are hopeless. What's gotten you so wound up today?" Alexi reached over and patted Adrian on the head. "I'm cool with going over there. How 'bout you Lauren?"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's clean this up and get started." They all got up, helped clear up the dishes, and put away the food.

As they say, "many hands make light work", within 20 minutes everything was cleaned up, and they were out the door.

*******

They took a cab over to the Penthouse and the girls watched in wonder as they took in the very exclusive building.

They took the Penthouse elevator up and Adrian, of course, hit every floor making the thirty-eight flight ride very tedious.

"What's your problem today?" Alexi was just about ready to give it to Adrian.

"I've always wanted to do that. I'm sorry." As the doors opened on to every floor, everyone waited patiently and shook their heads.

"It's not like anyone else is waiting to use this elevator. It's just for the penthouse. Right?" Adrian looked at Tori and Tori just nodded and chuckled. Tori wasn't upset. It had been years since she was able to hang out with her childhood friends and found it was very comforting to be home, surrounded by people she trusted.

"Yeah it's just for my place. I'm glad you can get it out of your system." She reached out and pulled Brett back against her as she leaned against the back of the elevator. Thirty-five… Thirty-six…Thirty-seven… finally…

"Hey.. I thought there were Thirty-eight floors? Why'd we get off on Thirty- seven?" Adrian questioned. She was thinking so hard, she didn't even notice the Penthouse that lay before her.

She stepped off and immediately walked into Alexi. Alexi was standing there stunned as well as Lauren. Adrian on the other hand was perturbed at Alexi for blocking her way.

"Sweetie…. why are you just standing there? You know if those doors had closed I would have been right between them."

Alexi put her hand over Adrian's mouth and stepped aside, allowing Adrian to see Tori's home.

"Holy smokes." Adrian's jaw fell open and she looked around stunned.

"You live here?" Adrian walked forward and looked out the big windows, down one hallway to the right and then the hall to the left. She turned around and saw the balcony then realized why they stopped on the thirty-seventh floor. Tori's penthouse occupied both the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth floors. Once the elevator doors closed, they could hear the elevator proceed up to the final floor and open above them.

"Yes, I do. Come on in. Make yourselves comfortable." Tori held out a hand and motioned them in. "Brett, honey, you know where everything is. Why don't you give everyone the grand tour and I'll get all my stuff put away."

"Okay sweetie. You sure you don't need any help with your luggage?" Brett wrapped her arms around Tori's waist and twinkled her eyes.

"Uh… I think I can manage…. although the offer is very tempting." Tori wrapped her arms tighter around Brett's shoulders and kissed her tenderly.

"I yi, yi. Can you two please give it a break? I swear you two are going to morph into one body soon." Lauren pulled at her sister's arm. "Come on, show us the rest of this place. It looks like it's going to take an hour at least." Brett shrugged her shoulders and blew Tori another kiss.

Tori stood there with a smile on her face as she watched her lover lead the group in the direction of the kitchen.

Tori called for the elevator again, stepped back into it and pushed P2. The elevator opened to the second floor and she grabbed her rolling luggage and carry on. She went down the balcony towards the master bedroom.