xp_logs | Angelo and Doug - Amanda's apartment

With Doug's help, Angelo carries out the first part of his revenge. One down...

Angelo was keeping a watch on the corridor - not that it was likely they'd need it, at this time of day, but better safe than sorry - as Doug unlocked the door to Amanda's apartment for one long-overdue pranking.

"So we can just stash her real clothes in your apartment, right?"

"Yes, Angelo, that's the plan," Doug replied a touch exasperatedly as he pocketed the spare key to Amanda's apartment. "And try not to look so furtive. The key to making this work is looking like nothing is out of the ordinary. We're just fetching some books for Amanda and Wanda," he repeated their cover story. However, he quickly bypassed the tidy shelves of books in favor of letting them into Amanda's much less tidy bedroom. He carefully avoided looking at the rumpled bed. "You've got the duffel bags, right?"

"Right here", Angelo confirmed, hefting the two full duffel bags in his hands (there was another on his shoulder). "Dresses an' other frilly stuff all ready to go."

Doug grabbed one of the duffels and nodded. "You get the dresser, I'll start in on the closet," he said, getting straight to work. "And don't forget the laundry pile," he said, pointing at where a few scraps of clothing lay strewn haphazardly around a hamper.

"Next on the list after the dresser", Angelo said with a nod in return, moving purposefully towards it.

Doug busied himself in the closet. He had chosen that job for himself so that he wouldn't have to rifle through Amanda's underwear drawer. He still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about things, especially with Amanda's upset over...

"So what's with you and Sarah, anyway?" escaped his mouth before he could think better of it.

Angelo blinked, a little blindsided by the question... but then, it wasn't like either of them had ever really made a big secret of it. He shrugged. "Me an' Sarah? Nothin' serious."

It had sure seemed serious enough to put Amanda in a mopey mood, which Doug had done his best to blunt by taking her out to lunch for good old-fashioned English pub food. Doug idly wondered why he felt so suddenly protective of Amanda. But that was easily answered. She was his friend, and easily susceptible to disappointment of that particular fashion. Still, it wasn't like Angelo was obligated to return Amanda's feelings, so Doug shrugged and turned back to his work, rather than say something even more abrupt.

Angelo glanced over his shoulder, confused by the sudden silence - Amanda already knew about him and Sarah and had seemed fine, so it never occurred to him she might be upset by it now. And the only other obvious explanation involved Doug having a thing for Sarah himself, which seemed... unlikely, somehow.

"We're pretty much just friends", he ventured after a moment. "With benefits."

Doug noted that it would be entirely hypocritical of him to object to such an arrangement, given events between him and Amanda. But he'd seen how crushed and hurt Amanda had looked, also. He was really entirely too nosy and meddlesome for his own good, he told himself, still not quite trusting himself to say anything.

"Is... there a problem?" Angelo asked carefully, turning away again to continue emptying out the dresser.

As much as he wanted to shake the other man and blurt it out, it wasn't Doug's place to say. So he tried misdirection instead. "Why would there be a problem?" he replied casually.

Angelo shrugged slightly. "You tell me, man. It's not like everybody doesn't already know... I kind of figured if there was one, I'd know about it by now."

"It's not really any of my business, anyway," Doug said dismissively and waved a hand, when what he really wanted to be doing was screaming "You're retarded for each other!" like Jason Lee's character in Mallrats. But Amanda would probably kill him if he did.

"...okay, then", was the still-confused response, as Angelo shot another look over his shoulder at his friend then got on with what he was doing. "What time was she due back, again?"

"She's supposed to be out all afternoon," Doug replied, fishing several emphatically pink dresses out of the other duffel and hanging them in a now-bare closet. "Leaving us with plenty of time. How's the dresser coming?"

"Almost done", Angelo told him, moving up to the top drawer and determinedly not looking - obviously - at its contents as he dragged them out by handfuls and stuffed them into the empty bag. Paying too much attention to his best female friend's underwear would just be weird, after all.

It was a good thing that Angelo was emphatically trying not to pay attention, because if he was looking, he would have seen a dark blush steal across Doug's face at the sight of a particular black lace bra and panty set. The memory of how Amanda had filled said lingerie caused Doug to shake his head sharply and hoist a filled duffel to his shoulder. "I'm going to take this one down and hide it in my apartment. Bring the other when you're done, and then we'll make a last sweep to see if we missed anything," he instructed.

"You got it", was the relaxed answer, as all seemed to be going to plan so far. "I'll get the laundry, while I'm at it, bring it all down together."

"And I've got what she's wearing right now covered," Doug replied from the doorway. Off of Angelo's slightly confused look, Doug jingled the keys in his pocket. "She has to take a shower sometime..."