Ed meets someone on the ride home.

Ed and Cory finally made it to the shower, mostly focusing on cleaning themselves off but neither could entirely keep their hands off the other. Ed started to stiffen again but Cory was worried that if she was missing much longer then her boss might start looking for her. With a final kiss -and a promise to do this again later- Cory left Ed to towel off before sneaking to the men's changing room and leaving as the busty blonde gave him a knowing smile.

Satisfied for now, Ed plopped down in the buss and stretched out as best he could. Taking out his phone, he noticed a message from his mom checking to see how his chores went. He told her the truth. He'd dropped off the plates as promised, he and Nyomai came to an agreement and then he went to the gym where Cory worked to get some exercise. If he left out a few details, well his mom didn't need to know everything. She answered back that she was glad that everything worked out and that she'd hold off making dinner until he got home.

Leaning back in his seat Ed thought about catching a nap when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a girl staring at him. Turning to get a look at her, Ed laid eyes on a redhead girl who looked maybe a couple years older than him. Her shoulder length hair framed a diamond shaped face that was spotted with freckles. She was dressed in a sleeveless black shirt with the logo of some band he'd never heard of which fit tightly enough to give a good look at what he guessed was a C cup chest. A pair of jean shorts showed off a long, shapely pair of legs. When he looked into her light blue eyes her response was to smile and simply say "Hey."

"Hi" Ed answered back "I'm Ed."

"Alexa. Nice to meet you." She seemed to sit up a bit straighter and moved a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"Same" Ed noticed that she was sitting alone with a purse next to her. "Mind if i join you?" She answered by pulling her bag into her lap and sliding over before tapping the now vacant seat. Thankfully, they'd come to a stop sign allowing him to quickly take the spot beside the lovely stranger.

"So, headed somewhere fun?" he offered as an opener.

"Not really" she said "I was just out with some friends but mom said to come home for dinner. You?"

"Just finished up at the gym."

She gave him an appreciative look "Really? You spend a lot of time there?"

"Well i got into shape while travelling and i wanted to keep it up ya know?" Ed replied with a shrug "You into working out?"

"Not really" she said her eyes still travelling his body "but i've never been afraid to get physical."

"Well maybe we could go together sometime? I'm recently grown to enjoy working up a good sweat."

"I'll bet you have." Alexa started chewing on her lower lip "wanna trade numbers?"

They did just that before spending the rest of the ride talking about nothing really before Ed had to get off but not before promising to give her a call. Ed made it home where his mom greeted him before starting dinner while Ed decided to take a nap on the couch. It wasn't easy as the couch was so short his feet ended up hanging off the side. Still he managed to dooze off until his mom gently nudged him awake to let hi know the food was ready. Idris sat down grumbling how it was "about time" to which Ed barely resisted rolling his eyes.His mom ignored his grumbling as she set everyone a plate and remarked how nice it was for everyone to be together. The four of them talked amongst themselves before the topic of Ed's trip to the gym came up.

"Oh that reminds me" Holly said with a snap of her fingers "I'll be leaving early tomorrow. Cory needs me to take over her 7am yoga class."

"Did she say why?" Ed asked.

"She said she overdid it at the gym today, she's pretty sure she pulled a muscle." Holly looked at Ed and asked "Did you notice anything while you were there dear?"

Ed could certainly remember Cory working hard but he had a feeling his mom wouldn't approve of how she'd been working out. "Must've happened after i left because last i saw her she was looking great." Ed said finally.

"Well she has been known to overdo it." Holly said implying this was a recurring thing "anyway, she asked if you could take a few things over to her place tomorrow? She said she'd text me a list to give you."

Seeing an opportunity Ed said"Tell you what, give me her number and i'll get it from her myself."

"Okay." Holly said cheerfully before handing over her phone, Ed copied Cory's number and, seeing his mom talking with Idris, copied all her friends numbers while he was at it. He slid the phone back to her and they spent the rest of dinner talking about whatever came up. When they were done Idris left the table immediately leaving him to offer to help Holly clean up. He was somewhat surprised when Shauna offered to help too. They were working on the dishes when Shauna spoke up.

"Hey Ed, i just realized since we're going to be spending time together, we should exchange numbers too." She said it so casually Ed almost agreed without thinking but he noticed a mischievous glint in her eye that made him hesitate. Before he could say anything, Holly agreed and offered to add her own number as well which Shauna gladly accepted. Not wanting to be rude, Ed agreed as well.

After they finished, Ed sat back on the couch and thought about how he was spending his night. The couch really was not meant for sleeping and the thought of an entire night on it really didn't appeal to Ed in the slightest. The thought came to him of texting one of the neighborhood MIF's to see if one of them was willing to let him spend the night as it were but Ed was admittedly rather tired from his various hookups throughout the day. Was it worth angling for another?