Rachel
Rachel wasn’t sure why she had never tried shower sex before, but after what she and Brad had accomplished in his bathtub she decided that it was her new favorite thing. Brad was strong, much stronger than she had realized. She had never seen herself as an overweight or large woman, but still, the fact that Brad could pick her up and pin her against a wall as they made love was something that was she was in awe of. Because she was five- nine, and wasn’t used to feeling small and precious. She loved that Brad did that for her. In fact, she loved a lot of things Brad did for her.
“So, you like to cook?” Brad asked. After their shower they had made it down into the kitchen, but not before round three on the table, which she was now spraying down with disinfectant while he whipped them up some banana nut pancakes.
“I like to cook what I know,” she told him, throwing the dirty paper towels into the waste bin. “My parents taught me all the tradition Jewish dishes, and I’ve been told I make them quite well. But I’m not very good at just getting into a kitchen and winging it, you know?”
She sat down in a chair, the oversized shirt once again draped around. Brad came to give her cup of coffee and a kiss, and he was back at the stove again to flip the pancakes.
“Do you like to cook?”
Brad shrugged. “I don’t hate it. I’d much rather go out to eat when I’m patient enough for it.”
Rachel smiled, and peered at him over her coffee cup. “So you’re too impatient this morning?” She asked.
Brad nodded his head seriously. “Yep. This hot chick snuck into my bed last night, gave me a wild morning, and now I’m just too famished to go out and wait for my breakfast.”
Rachel giggled. She liked Brad’s humor, and that she could be playful with him. It was a whole other side to him that wasn’t always made apparent at the office.
“What is it?” Brad asked her, catching her expression. He pulled the final pancake out of the pan and sat the stack in the center of the table.
Rachel shrugged. She felt giddy, like she was in high school again. In fact, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever liked a guy as much as she liked Brad. For as much as she had started out disliking Brad, she was really starting to fall for him.
“I just didn’t expect this I guess,” she said slowly. “Us, I mean. Getting involved. We were hostile to one another for so long, you know? I guess I had figured that it was always going to be that way.” She cut off a slice of pancake and popped it into her mouth. It was both crispy and fluffy, with the sweet taste of banana and cinnamon all the way through. “Mmm. These are delicious.” She scooped two more bites into her mouth, and washed them down with the rich, dark coffee.
“What about you?” She asked. “Did you ever expect this from us?”
A grin formed at the side of Brad’s mouth, making him look boyishly young. “Yes,” he said at last.
Rachel’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Really?”
He laughed, and nodded his head. “Yeah. The night of Tristan’s birthday party was kind of an eye opener for me. I found you annoying at first. You know, like I always had. But then, almost like instantly, the annoyance was gone. Everything you were doing was dammed adorable. I couldn’t stop thinking about how cute you were. The beer, the Ewoks argument. It was a side of you I had never seen before I remember thinking ‘that side’. That side is the side of Rachel that I wanted to see everyday. So I started finding ways to pull it out.”
Rachel stared at him speechless. It was nearly two months ago that they had celebrated Tristan’s birthday. He had remembered all of that? A wave of emotion swept over Rachel, and she fought the urge to let a few tears fall.
“Are you okay?” Brad asked, immediately concerned. He got up and came around the table to pull her into his arms. “Did I say something wrong?”
Rachel laughed lightly, and shook her head. “No. No not at all. It was the perfect thing to say actually.” She buried her head into Brad’s chest. It was her new favorite place to be, she realized.
“What are you thinking?” Brad whispered, holding her close. She sighed, and kissed his naked chest lovingly.
“I’m thinking…I’m thinking that I am so happy that you and I argued in the beginning. Because it led us to this.”
Brad chuckled, and nodded his head before leaning down to tilt her head up for a kiss. It was slow and warm, and so much more than just a random kiss.
“Me too,” he agreed.
~
It was past four before they finally made it out of Brad’s house; and only because Rachel was in sore need of clean clothes and her phone charger. If not for those things, she was quite certain that she could have spent the entire day with him doing nothing but making love and eating without a single stitch on.
To her surprise, it had been Brad’s idea that they go out for an early dinner and catch a movie afterwards. She could feel the beginnings of becoming spoiled, and she had to admit, she liked it. At her building Brad walked her to her door and told her that he would be back in an hour to pick her up. As soon as she walked through the door she was bombarded by Bella’s, wanting to know everything that happened.
“Well look what the cat dragged in!” Bella exclaimed, not able to keep a grin off of her face. “How was last night?”
Isabella popped the cork of a cheap wine bottle and poured three glasses nearly to the brim. “Tell us all the juicy details,” she insisted, handed Rachel a glass.
Rachel laughed, and made no effort to kick the Bella’s out of her room as she readied for her date. She loved having friends like them in her life. Even if they were a tad overly nosy at times.
“It was amazing,” she sighed. As she recounted the details of the night, she picked out a dress and shoes for the evening, did her makeup, and packed her overnight bag. By the time she was done she was ready to go and admittedly a little tipsy from the very full glass of wine.
“He sounds so sweet!” Isabella pined, reclining into Rachel’s pillows. “I wish I had a guy who would spend Friday night cuddling and watching Netflix. What did you watch?”
Rachel giggled and told them.
“No way! You mean he sat there with you and binged watch Broad City?” Bella gasped. “He’s a keeper Rachel, don’t let him go. If a man can put up with that, he can put up with anything.”
“Right?” Rachel agreed. “And the cool part was, he didn’t even complain! Like at all. He watched it all through. Then when we were done he asked very serious questions about it. He took it seriously, and I know it’s a comedy and all, but I really liked that he did that. Well, that and the cuddling. The cuddling was my favorite part.”
Bella raised a brazen eyebrow. “Really, Rachel? That was your favorite part?”
“Yeah come on,” Isabella agreed. “Tell us the good stuff. It’s been so long since any of us have had some yummy man time. Pleassseeeee.”
Rachel chuckled, but shook her head. “Sorry ladies. That part stays between me and him.”
The Bella’s grumbled, but didn’t push the topic of sex any further. They knew Rachel well enough to know that she wouldn’t give up any details she didn’t want to. The intimate parts of her sex life was very much one of them.
“So what’s going to happen to work now?” Bella asked. She had finished glass number one, and was on her way to finishing number two.
“What do you mean?” Rachel asked. She gave a final look in the mirror, decided she was satisfied with her look, and sat down on her bed with the Bella’s. If Brad was on time, she only had fifteen minutes left before he was back to pick her up.
“I mean, are you still going to work there?”
“Of course I am!” Rachel exclaimed. “There’s no rule about fraternization in the office. And we can keep it professional- enough. We’re adults after all. I don’t see why we can’t work and play together.”
“You’re so lucky,” Isabella sighed. “I wish my office crush would talk to me.”
Rachel and Bella turned to Isabella, surprised.
“You have an office crush?” Bella asked.
“Yeah,” Isabella shrugged. “I mean, doesn’t everybody? There’s always someone that you work with that you get to know pretty well right, and then one day you kind of look at them and think; yeah. I could totally go home with them. Right?”
Rachel opened her mouth to say no, but she closed it after she thought about it. That wasn’t exactly what happened between her and Brad, but it was pretty close. And yes, Rachel had had an office crush before, back when she was finishing up college. He had been a tenured literature professor. For an older man he was extremely well put together, and pulled off gray hair better than anyone she’d ever seen. She and the other office assistants at the Bursar’s office had nicknamed him the silver fox. Alas, the silver fox had been married, and very faithful to his lovely wife that they later found out was actually all of their bosses. Now that she was thinking about it, she did have a faint memory of her friend Erica trying to flirt with him. If memory served, it hadn’t ended well.
“I guess you’re right,” Rachel admitted at last. Then she realized something else. “Wait. Who are you crushing on?”
Isabella’s eyes rolled up to the ceiling, as if she suddenly found something very interesting there. “Nobody,” she said whimsically.
“Oh come on!” Rachel retorted. “I told you about Brad!”
“No you didn’t,” Bella corrected her. “We told you about Brad actually. You just didn’t deny it. There’s a difference.” Then she turned her attention to Isabella. “But seriously. Who is it? Is it me? If so I’m flattered.”
The three girls erupted into laughter, almost spilling their wine.
“And here I thought I was hiding my feeling so well!” Isabella sighed, feigning anguish.
A knock on the door announced Brad’s return, and Rachel got up to take a final look in the mirror.
“We’ll get it out of you,” she warned, giving Isabella a wink. Her two friends got up, and hugged her goodbye.
“Have a great night,” said Bella.