Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Let's Spend The Night Together
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.27.1999
Cut to Rick dialing the phone. He gets Lily's answering machine after one ring and hangs up without leaving a message.
The next day, we find Lily sitting at her desk in the back of the bookstore. She's resting her chin on her hands and staring blankly into the distance while some woman behind her prattles on about getting another degree. She describes her fears over taking on more debt and wonders how she'll ever pay it back on an assistant professor's salary. "Yeah, that's rough," Lily mutters distractedly. Because financial ruin is nothing compared to getting stiffed. The phone rings, and Lily lunges at it desperately. It's Rick, calling on his cell phone from the construction site. The connection is really poor, so the whole phone farce continues for a few more minutes as Lily misunderstands everything he says and then gets cut off abruptly. He calls back immediately, and they manage to sort out the previous day's misadventures. Their relief at not being stood up is palpable. He spontaneously invites her to join him for lunch in the next five minutes. She literally jumps at the offer, leaving her desk chair toppled in her wake, I'm sure.
Cut to Grace and a group of her friends in the hallway at school. Eli busts in to ask if he can talk to her alone for a minute. He pulls her aside and her friends are all, "Ooooo, Eli!" They giggle a lot. Grace watches him hopefully while blushing furiously. "You can't just...Look, I know you're in the ninth grade and all, but you can't just start saying things." Eli says. Grace wants to know what he's talking about. He asks her why she told people they got caught making out in her living room. Grace takes a second to digest it fully, repeating bits of it incredulously. When it's clear she heard him correctly, she barks out a laugh. She tells him that she told oneperson that she caught his father and her mother making out. "You caught them?" Eli repeats. Grace says she caught them "headed in that direction." Eli now needs a moment. "No kidding," he finally says, breaking into a huge grin. Trust me, kid, it's not the kind of thing one jokes about.
Cut to Lily and Rick laughing as if they're in on the gag, but they're actually sitting at an outdoor café. Lily tells him she has a free night after all, because the school event she was supposed to attend that night got cancelled and Jake's still taking the kids. Before they can get too obnoxiously giddy, a blonde woman approaches their table and Rick jumps up so quickly at the sight of her that he overturns his water glass. She tells him that David said he was having lunch alone. Ah, that David. He's so thoughtful. Laughing nervously he, heh heh, introduces, heh heh heh, Lindsey and Lily to one another. He then races to explain how he knows Lindsey; he claims it's strictly a business thing. If by "business" he means "sweaty, naked business," then I'm with him on that. Lily recognizes the name of the realty company for which Lindsey works, and they chit-chat briefly about Lily's neighborhood. Lindsey then excuses herself, saying, "Isn't he just the greatest?" as she departs. All the ladies seem to think so. After she's gone, Rick feels the need for more justifying and stammers, "Lindsey is a...good friend. She's an old friend." He's about to go on, but Lily stops him. She clenches her straw in her teeth and pretends to sip from her iced tea while keeping her eyes firmly fixed on anything that isn't Rick. She's trying to be cool and unaffected, but she's not really succeeding.