Here there be a stranger

"So who's house will it be, for Thanksgiving?" Luc's smile was all impish as he went down the cereal isle with Dorian to look for breakfast food.

"You, are way ahead of me." Dorian shook his head. "I'm sorry I said anything to you about Eli."

"Aw, you know you like him." Luc nudged as if somebody was lucky.

Dorian shrugged as if he weren't going to make a big deal out of it. He pushed the cart onward before Luc could reach for Frosted Flakes.

"You should call her." Dorian said as if Luc would do it.

"Oh, Olivia." He was still treading lightly. "I did text. Didn't hear back from her." He finally admitted.

"A text? That's all you, did?" Dorian festered a frown as if that was not a good thing.

"I wish I knew what to say. I don't see married women. OK." Luc wanted the Olivia conversation to be over. It needed to stay mute.

"But she's not-"

"Don't go there. As far as I'm concerned. She is. I have to think of it..that way. I want to." Luc gritted as if this was very painful to digress. And he wouldn't. Not with Olivia.

"All right." Dorian sighed. Luc reached for the regular generic corn flakes. Nothing fancy.

Luc looked up to see someone he knew and he was with Gia, Leia's baby girl. Luc couldn't help but stop in his tracks.

"Hi, Tyson." Luc tried his best to smile. Just his luck Leia was right around the corner, and would be by Tyson's side. Instantly. It would be so freak'n awkward.

"Hello, Lucas." Tyson's words were like thunder. He was a big guy. Football size, but he was a trainer, down at the gym. He did have a body to gawk at.

"How ..ya..been?" Luc knew he was the worst actor in the world, but this was Leia's main squeeze. Obviously.

"I've had better days. But there have been worse." Tyson told him, as Gia looked Luc over. He doubted she would know him.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Leia split. For real." He kept his eye on Luc as if Luc might be keeping important information from him.

"I have no idea where she might be." Luc was serious. He knew to always be straight with Tyson.

"Yeah, well, she's a piece of work, you better be thankful...she ..never put you in jail." Tyson told him they'd had some squabbles again. He'd only pushed her off of him. He ended up in jail. "Then, she just decided to leave Gia home alone. My Momma found baby girl here, all by her lonesome. She was in foster care for a while. Momma took us both in, but I dunno for how much longer. Not like I can get very good credit with my record. I mean, I want a place of my own..but I don't know how."

Luc nodded. He reached in his pocket for the old apartment key. "Rents paid til the end of the month. You think you could keep it up?"

"You, for real?" Tyson scratched the back of his head as if he didn't know if he could really believe him.

"The place is still in Leia's name. Maybe she forgot about it." Luc shrugged. No one had ever come looking for her about the rent not being paid. He'd taken care of that.

"Cool." Tyson took the key.

"Her crib is still there." Luc said  looking at Gia who gave him  a big smile. "I moved out a couple of months ago. Every month I keep telling myself to stop paying the rent, but I did anyway. I won't be paying it anymore. You'll have to, if you want to stay."

"I can pay it. I can." Tyson told him.

"Good, seeing you." Luc guessed Tyson didn't hate him so much, after all.

"You, don't be a stranger now. All right? You two could come around some time. I bet I could make us something good for dinner. Its the least I could do." Tyson told him.

Luc looked at Dorian who only shrugged.

"See you two on Sunday night, then?" Tyson said, as if he meant to keep up his end of the deal if he was going to take Leia's place. Luc supposed they could do that.

"Six o'clock sharp." He told him Sunday was the only day he allowed himself to eat carbs.